Page 116 of Then You Happened
JACK
“You’re avoiding me.”
“Lauren. Hello.” All the tension of the day seizes up at the sound of her voice.
“I take it that means you’ve fallen for her?”
I snort and wonder how many times she’s going to ask me before she realizes I’m not going to dignify the question with a response. “Evan said things are good there,” I deflect.
“Have you told her the truth?”
“Not your business, Sis.” I roll my shoulders and dig in for the long haul in this conversation. “He said that the heifers are healthy and doing well so we should expect a good lot of calves this year. It’s always good news when business is good, right?”
“What’s your end game, huh, Jack-Jack? Are you getting off on being the hired help? Is it a turn on to fuck the boss?”
“Have you be
en drinking?” I ask, her belligerence at an all-new level.
“Nope. This talk is coming to you sober, and sober Lauren isn’t bothered if she hurts your feelings like drunk Lauren is.”
I sigh at her lie but don’t refute it. “Did something happen?”
“Did something happen?” She laughs. “Let’s see. You aren’t here doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Dingo was bucked off a horse when it spooked while riding the fence line and was hurt.”
“But he’s okay.” I know our wrangler is because I already talked to Evan about it.
“The weather’s relentless. It has been raining for days on end, and I don’t care how big this house is, it isn’t big enough with kids and no escape.”
“It’s supposed to let up tomorrow,” I tell her, my phone app still alerting me daily of the weather back home. “And?”
“And this is a lot to do on my own, Jack.”
“What is? Being a mom to your kids? Watching out the window as Evan runs the ranch for me while I’m gone? Last I checked you’ve never really had a hand in the day-to-day there other than having the Sutton name . . . so am I missing something here?” I ask with a frustrated sigh, not caring that I’m going to hit a nerve with the comment. “You reap all of the benefits and don’t have to do any of the work. Do you want to explain to me why any of that gives you the right to be the raging bitch you’re being right now?”
She’s silent, and a silent Lauren is almost worse than a drunk Lauren. “You have no right to judge me.”
“Ditto.”
A tense silence weighs across the connection, and I roll my shoulders in exasperation.
“Look,” she starts followed by a shaky inhale. “I get you’re out there supposedly keeping your promise to Dad, but that promise died the minute he died. That promise has already been fulfilled. So, yeah, I get you need to find yourself or make amends for the shitty things you did in your past business life, but at what point is it too much? He was a bastard, Jack. It isn’t your job to find his redemption.”
“I can’t just walk away. I signed a contract.”
She snorts. “So what? She’ll get over it.”
“That’s enough, Lauren.”
“You fucked her over the moment you slept with her, you know that, right? Women can’t separate this shit like men can. You’re going to make her fall for you and then you’re going to break her heart. How exactly are you making things better for her by doing that, huh?
“I’ve got to go.”
“The best thing you can do is come home.”
“I said I’d be there in time.”
“Even better, you can distance yourself from her now so you hurt her less then.”
