I'm Done Being the Family Joke novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Cash

Cal's POV

I woke up alone, and the coat was on the floor, and the pocket was empty.

Della had left a note on the pillow in her blocky handwriting.

Gone to Peg. Don't do anything until I'm back.

I read it standing at the loft window, in the grey before sunrise, with the notice gone and the whole thing plain.

She knew.

She had found it, and she had not woken me to shout, and she had gone to the one person in that family who had ever told her the truth.

I should have been grateful.

What I felt was worse, because I had watched her carry that family for eight years, and now they were coming for my land too, and she was going to carry that.

It took me until Monday to finish what I started that morning.

The Montana breeding outfit had called twice about the black.

They wanted his stud rights for five years, and I had said no both times, because he was the best thing I'd ever raised.

I said yes on Sunday night.

They wired the money in the morning.

I drove to Casper and sold the truck to a dealer who looked at the odometer, and then at me, and said, "You sure about this, buddy?"

"Write the check," I said.

I rode home in the old rancher's pickup.

He had heard me on the phone at the feed store and followed me to town without being asked.

He drove with one wrist over the wheel and said nothing for sixty miles.

Then, as we came into Elk Fork, he said, "I'll come in with you."

"You don't have to."

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