38. Remi

Chapter 38

Remi

I closed the door and took the time to remove my boots. Before Blake called me in an absolute panic, I’d been working on a broken irrigation pipe that had flooded the road. Stars had covered the jet-black sky before I’d managed to fix the damage. My body was exhausted.

As the adrenaline from Blake’s call left me, a sick, shaky feeling replaced it.

“Have you eaten, Remi?” Nora asked from the family room by the kitchen. “Come get a warm slice of bread.”

Ever since Tony’s illness took a turn for the worse, Nora’s baking had increased. The freezer at the model home was stuffed full of loaves of bread, muffins, and cookies. Myles and I couldn’t keep up.

I made my way to Nora. She left the kitchen with a heavily buttered slice of homemade wheat bread. If I ever had to leave and Angie turned me down, I sure was going to miss this.

“I’m certain Angie will make sure those babies are okay. She’s very good at her job.” Nora patted my shoulder.

“She’s good at everything she does.” Except scaling rock walls, or riding dirt bikes, or jumping from the top of a telephone pole. Even then, I had no doubt, with her stubbornness, she’d gain expertise in anything she desired to do. Taking the plate from Nora, I moved to sit on the sofa.

“Remi? Nora? That you?” Tony’s weak voice came from the cracked open door.

I tightened my grip on the dish in my hand. My heartrate picked up tenfold. I’d been waiting for this moment—for a time when I could talk to Tony and Nora alone. Over the past couple of weeks, Angie hadn’t left Tony’s side, and I couldn’t blame her.

“Yes,” Nora answered him.

We both walked into the room. I sat in the bombin’ vintage green chair, and Nora leaned onto the end of the bed. My sore body eased into the chair.

Bliss.

Pure bliss.

After working an entire day and pushing my muscles to the limit, the moment they got to relax was sweeter than stolen honey. I took a bite of the bread and couldn’t help but think this is what heaven would be like. If only death weren’t staring me in the face. If only I’d known Tony for more than one growing season. How many treasures of knowledge would he have passed on to me?

Closing my eyes, reveling in the quiet, I let out an audible sigh. “This chair is the most comfortable thing on Earth.”

“Remi …” The hesitancy in Tony’s haggard voice had me sitting up and looking at him.

“What is it? Do you need your pillows fixed?” I set down my plate on the nightstand, which was packed full of pills and papers.

Lifting Tony’s skeletal body, I adjusted the pillow beneath his neck. Nora picked up the controls for their bed and raised him to a sitting position.

Fiddling with the remote at his side, Tony pressed a button, and the TV went dark. “I think it’s time we told him, hun.” He spoke to Nora even though he’d just said my name.

Told me what? Did Angie and Smoot get back together? Impossible.

“You sure?” Nora creased her eyebrows together, studying Tony’s face.

Tony met her eyes and gave her one slow, deliberate nod. Each of his calculated movements took up his much-needed energy stores. I’d looked at Tony’s battle against cancer from all different angles, but there just wasn’t a solution to this problem.

“Okay.” Nora placed her husband’s other hand in hers and gave it a slight squeeze. “I’m with you. Always.”

“Tell me what?” I voiced the question, spinning circles in my head.

“We know.” Nora’s gaze bored into me.

“What do you mean, you know?”

Tony ducked his head. “We know you’re with Cockrell Development, and you’re here to buy the farm.”

I fell back into the velvet chair. They’d known this whole time, and still they’d hired me? Tony’s breaths rattled in the quiet until I found my voice. “W-why didn’t you say anything? Why did you give me the job?”

The smell of the buttered bread covered the hospital scent that had taken root in this room. I picked the slice up and took another bite. Before I came here, I’d never known the joy of homemade anything. My mother was always watching her carb intake and made sure the chefs followed her various fad diets. As a result, I’d been raised on mostly vegetables, some fruit, and a little dash of protein.

I couldn’t imagine what my mother would say about my Idaho diet, which incorporated meat with every meal—including breakfast—carbs galore, and potatoes—glorious, giant potatoes.

Dammit. I didn’t want to leave.

“We hired you because we liked you—had a good feeling about you.” Tony’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he paused to swallow.

“And,” Nora took over, “Angie took a shine to you at the airport. Who do you think told Wendy to send you our way when you came sniffing around?” She winked at me.

“Keep your enemies closer.” Tony’s breathy words were so soft I almost missed them.

Were they at the same airport as me? Angie’s shine was about as bright as an oxidized penny. I shoved the last of the bread into my mouth and dusted my hands off over my plate. This was the strangest negotiation I’d ever been a part of, almost like I was the pawn in Tony and Nora’s plans, not the other way around.

“Okay. Start from the beginning.”

Tony flinched, whether from pain or the conversation, I couldn’t tell.

Tony cleared his throat. “We—”

“You,” Nora interrupted. “You looked.”

“I …” Tony shot his wife a crooked grin. “… took a gander in your briefcase when you went to the bathroom on the plane.”

“What?” My briefcase. I usually wasn’t so careless. But at that point, I hadn’t known Tony and Nora were my targets.

“Okay. I may have encouraged him.” Nora patted the back of Tony’s hand. “You’re so kind, handsome, and appeared to be quite wealthy with that Italian leather bag. You were perfect for our baby girl. I just had to know a bit more about you …” She let her voice trail off.

They’d known since the beginning, and yet … “Why didn’t you chase me off like you did the other representatives we’ve sent?” I pressed my hands against my thighs, not quite comfortable being outplayed at my own game.

“I’d already been toying with the idea of selling. Nora isn’t too happy about it, but she’s come around. We didn’t know what company would give me the best offer.”

Nora gestured to me with her outstretched hand. “And we figured if you could handle the workload Angie shelled out, your company might be worth a second chance.”

“We both thought you wouldn’t last a week.” A raspy chuckle escaped Tony’s parched lips.

“But I stayed … and suffered.” I almost laughed.

“Payback’s a bitch.” Tony’s soft voice cracked.

I couldn’t help but laugh. The conversation I’d overheard, the one I’d fretted over for weeks, came to mind … They weren’t talking about Smoot. They’d been talking about accepting CDC’s offer to buy the land. All those days picking rock, taking on the devil rooster, hoeing beets, fearing for my life feeding the pigs … had all been part of their game. I’d met my match.

“Watching that horse take a chunk out of your ass was the most we’d laughed in years,” Nora said through her own laughter.

“You saw that?” I cringed. Mae and I were on better terms now, but I still didn’t trust the beast enough to turn my back on her.

“Yep. I thought you’d leave when you saw how hard it is to work this land. Instead, you stayed and became a pretty good farmer. I don’t know what we’d do without you right now. Muffin, and my sweet Nora.” Tony regarded Nora with nothing short of true love.

How could I be envious of a dying man?

Tears shuddered down his cheeks. “They’ll both need you to help them through this.”

“Don’t you worry, none.” Nora wiped at her own shining cheeks. “As long as you find us a nice spot in heaven and wait for me there. We’ll meet again. Someday.”

My heart ached like it was bruised. If I had the power, I’d give up all the money in the world to save this man. They communicated without words, then Tony angled his head back to me.

“We want you to buy the farm. First thing tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” I leaned away from Tony and rubbed the back of my neck. This was what I wanted. What I’d been planning for. Then why did it feel like someone had dropped an anvil down my gullet?

“Yes. This ticker of mine won’t last much longer.”

“Does Angie know?”

“I’ve tried, but she changes the subject and won’t listen. I was going to today, but Lili and her babies …” Tony jerked his head toward the pile on his nightstand. “I don’t want her drowning in all my debt. I won’t let this place sink her. You saw what she was like a few months ago. This place will kill her, even if she can’t see it.”

“But I want to marry her,” I blurted.

“I knew it!” Nora pumped her fist in the air. “Told you, Tony. We didn’t have to worry none about the Smoot boy. Remi loves her.”

Tony’s eyes widened, and his lips curved upward. He looked straight at me. “ Do you love her?”

“Yes, sir.” Warmth, emanating from my center, trickled to my fingertips and into my toes. Heat burned my cheeks. I’d never been more sure of anything in my life. “I promise I will do my damnedest to make her happier than a hog at an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

“Good. I couldn’t stand Daniel.” Tony let go of Nora’s hand and eased higher onto his pillows. “Nice enough kid, just—”

“Not for our Angie,” Nora finished for him.

Ha! They liked me more than Smoot. I’d feel even more triumphant if it weren’t for Tony’s hollowed-out cheeks, made even more apparent in the dim lamplight.

“Does Angie feel the same?” Tony asked.

“She hasn’t given me her answer yet. But she sure does love kissing me.” I smirked.

Tony lifted his hands at his wrists. “I don’t need the details—”

“Speak for yourself.” Nora cut in.

Tony went on with a sense of urgency in his voice. “And I know she doesn’t need my permission, but …” He shifted his hand closer to me. I took it in a firm grip, careful not to bruise him. “… I’ll give you my blessing to marry my daughter if—” Deep-rooted coughs overtook him. Each hacking sound jolted through him, making my body ache while listening to it.

I swallowed past the sudden tightness in my throat. How had I come to care for this man so much? I respected him far more than I ever would my own father. The coughing fit passed, and Nora held his water straw to his mouth.

He took a couple of sips then continued. “If you promise to buy our farm,” he finished.

In a rare show of strength, Tony knocked his forearm against the stack of papers. My plate clattered to the ground, foreclosure notices and medical bills scattering on top of it. “Make this all go away.”

He rested back on the bed. The sleeve of his red flannel jacket brushed against my forearm. I would never forget this image, the picture of an old, withered, stubborn farmer in John Deere pajamas and his red flannel.

Nora gently held onto Tony’s shoulder. The fingers of her free hand shook against her mouth while tears silently escaped her eyes.

The warmth I’d felt at declaring my love for Angie fled, replaced by an ice-cold brick. “I promised Angie I wouldn’t buy her land.”

“We’re out of time, and she won’t listen.” He coughed. “Angie’s true calling is being a baby nurse, not running this place. Between the two she hardly finds time to sleep. And Nora only moved here because she loves me. She’s never taken to farm life, not like me.” He rested more fully into his pillows. “No. It’s time to let it go.”

I rubbed my chin, my soft beard brushing against my fingertips.

Tony took hold of my wrist, squeezing it without much strength. “Promise me.” He locked eyes with me. “Promise me.”

I couldn’t ignore his desperation. Not in his last moments on this Earth. “I promise. I’ll get the paperwork ready.”

“Have it ready with a notary in the morning.”

“Tomorrow morning. I’ll be here.”

And Angie would never forgive me.