Bree nodded. It sounded like something she’d say.
“She told me to look inside myself, maybe I’d find I had been the best husband I knew how to be.”
“Did you?”
“In some ways, I suppose I did.”
“Is there a lesson for me in what you’re saying? I feel that way whenever I’m with you.”
“There is.”
“But you aren’t going to tell me what it is.”
“Nope.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
19
“He needs a break,” Jace overheard Billy say to Ben and Tucker. “And we’re gonna give it to him.”
“Of course we are,” answered Ben. “We’ll all have a break until the beginning of January. Unless we try to get into the New Year’s Eve Extreme Bull Bucking up north.”
“We’re not, and we’re also givin’ Jace the whole month of January off. As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t negotiable.”
Jace couldn’t decide whether to let them know he was within earshot, or turn around and walk away. Evidently, Billy hadn’t taken his resignation seriously.
“Guess you heard all that,” Billy said, walking up behind him.
“Yeah, I did. Taking a month off might not change my mind about leaving the partnership.”
“I hear ya. Let’s address it again after the holidays. But I’ll tell you this, ain’t none of us gonna be worth a damn if we keep runnin’ ourselves ragged. We don’t have to do it all the first year, ya know.”
“What are you thinkin’?”
“I’m thinkin’ you should head home early. Now, in fact. Then, we talk again after Christmas and figure out where we’ve bit off more than we can chew, and where we can scale back.”
“Fair enough.”
“After I heard you bought the Beiman place, first thing I thought was ol’ Jace and I are gonna partner in buckin’ bulls and horses. It wasn’t this three ranch circus. Originally, I saw it as you and me partnerin’ up. Nobody else.”
“I don’t get it.”
“What’s to get?”
“Why me?”
“We already had this conversation,” Billy chewed on a piece of straw. “Ain’t gonna have it again.”
“Come January, what happens if I still want to bow out?”
Billy motioned for Jace to follow him over to the bar. “Let’s get you back on track before we talk about any of it.”
He held up two fingers, and the bartender brought over two shot glasses and a bottle of bourbon.
“Get things settled with Bree before anything else. It’s either gonna happen or it ain’t. But you can’t keep goin’ like this. If you don’t think you can make a life with her and be a partner in the Flying R, then we’ll move forward without you.”
Jace threw his shot back and motioned to the bartender for another. “Sometimes I think you were captured by aliens, and they left mister sensitive behind when they went back into the galaxy.”