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“Because you are everything Seamus wasn’t, and you also sign my checks. Two very huge reasons to stay in my lane and out of yours.” Josiah shook himself all over, not liking the slightly floaty feeling from that single stupid beer, and scooted a bit closer to the wheel well. Away from Michael, with his sweet smile and appealing scents of cologne and sweat. “If you did inherit this place, what would you do with it?”
Michael quirked an eyebrow at him but seemed to take the hint that they were done talking about Josiah for now. “I’ve been thinking a lot about that today, believe it or not.”
It both did and did not surprise Josiah, and he wanted—no, needed to know more. If there was an actual chance Michael wasn’t going to become another person who left him behind. “And?”
“I think if I was going to do something to change this property I wouldn’t wait until after Dad passed, because I think I’d miss an opportunity to make up for lost time with him.” The bald emotion in Michael’s voice snared Josiah’s attention and didn’t let go. “We both made some huge mistakes, and we both threw a lot of blame around years ago. But I don’t want to leave in six months and not come back again until he has another crisis.”
“So what do you want?”
“To make a difference again.” Michael finished the rest of his second beer, then released an amusing belch. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Josiah latched on to Michael’s words. “You don’t think you make a difference?”
“Right now? Here? Not the same difference I made a month ago when I was wiping my grown father’s ass. Now all I really do is cook his meals and make sure he can get from his bed to his wheelchair to the can without face-planting.”
He was definitely selling himself short in his contributions to Elmer’s recovery, and it hurt Josiah’s heart to hear Michael so down on himself. It was such a far cry from the confident, if slightly heartbroken, man he’d first met. “So how did you make a difference back in Austin?”
“In my personal life? I’m not sure I did.” Josiah didn’t object when Michael popped the cap off a third beer, but he did make a mental note to confiscate the truck keys soon. They weren’t too far away from the house to walk back. “But my app made a difference in people’s lives. They made connections, sometimes romances, sometimes disasters, but I helped people reach each other. All I do here is rustle cattle and try hard not to flirt with you.”
Josiah’s chest warmed pleasantly at that blunt admission. “You brought personal interactions to others with your app.”
“Yep.”
“You don’t think you do that just by being here? Your dad enjoys your company. I enjoy your company. Your coworkers seem to love you. You made a huge difference for me when Seamus kicked me out.”
“Dad would have taken you in even if I hadn’t been here.”
“What about getting my stuff from Seamus?”
“Dad made that call to Wayne. Would’ve happened either way.”
Josiah frowned, frustrated by this grumpy, semidrunk version of Michael who seemed intent on putting himself down. Maybe it was time to redirect the conversation again. “So what would you do to change this ranch? You got off topic.”
“I’m not really sure. Small-time ranching is pretty impossible to get into nowadays with the way the big corporations own most of the livestock and land, so no sense in revisiting that old dream. But I think I’d like to see animals out here again. Maybe be a place where city kids can learn about farm life. Learn to milk a cow, eat a freshly laid egg, ride a horse. Small stuff we take for granted because it’s all around us. Maybe even work in tandem with the Grove Point CSA.”
For someone who said he’d only been toying with ideas, Michael sounded like someone with very real thoughts on what he wanted to do with his family’s property. “So an educational center?”
“Sort of but interactive and not stuffy. But we’re so far from most places, and Amarillo isn’t exactly a megacity like Austin.”
“True, but not all rural communities have farms with livestock for kids to experience. A lot of the times they’re just trying to get by with what they have, never mind go explore new things.”
“But again, that kind of shit requires money to get started, and I wouldn’t want to charge anything. Not really.” Michael tapped one finger against the neck of his bottle. “It’s all just a bunch of pipe dreams anyway. Can’t see Dad going for a bunch of tourists and teenagers wandering around the property. Too many strangers, too much danger.”
“Your dad enjoyed himself today surrounded by people.”
“They weren’t on this land, though.” That mysterious pain flashed in Michael’s expressive eyes again, and Josiah couldn’t help wondering what had happened here for both men to lock the gate. For father and son to spend years keeping the world out.
It had something to do with Michael’s mother—he was sure of it.
He hated that sad look on Michael’s face and found another conversational redirect. “Is it weird that I’m surprised Seamus didn’t say a word to me today?”
“No, because I’m a little surprised, too. But also glad, because I’d have hated to punch him in the face and get arrested for assaulting a law officer.”
Josiah chuckled. “I’m glad about that, too. That guy with him gave me the creeps, though.”
“Same. Fortunately, his personal life is no longer your business, and yours is no longer his. As long as he remembers that and keeps his distance, I won’t have to hand him his ass for hurting you.”
“I doubt you’ll ever need to bother. I’ve known men like Seamus McBride before. He took what he wanted, and when he was done, he tossed me aside. I didn’t leave him, so he has no reason to come at me again.”
