Harvest of Ambition: A CEO's Odyssey novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Barn

Locked out of the house, Mason eats supper in the barn with Joanna, the one person who believes him, and sees his wife kiss her lover on the porch.

The barn still smelled like hay, diesel and my mother's old barn cat.

I sat on an upturned feed bucket by the tack room with my duffel between my boots.

Across the yard, the farmhouse lights were on.

I could hear music from the kitchen and my brother's big laugh.

Nobody had come out to ask if I was hungry.

The barn door creaked.

"You look like a man who skipped supper," Joanna said.

She stood in the doorway with a covered dish in one hand and a thermos in the other.

I hadn't seen her in five years.

She had grown into her shoulders, and her auburn braid was longer.

Her canvas apron had a stain across the front from the day's tomatoes.

"Joanna," I said. "You're still on the next farm over."

"I'm in your barn, Kerr. That counts as trespassing."

She crossed the floor and shoved the dish into my hands.

It was meatloaf, still warm, with a corner of cornbread on the side.

I had not realized how hungry I was until I smelled it.

"You didn't have to," I said.

"I know." She sat down on a hay bale across from me. "Eat."

I ate.

She watched me with her chin on her fist, saying nothing.

When I finished, she said, "Now tell me who you called."

"What?"

"On the square. You didn't just say four million dollars. You said it like a man who signs for it."

I wiped my hands and took out my phone.

I opened my email and handed it across.

She read the top message twice.

It was from the Brightwater board, three days old, with my name in the first line.

Congratulations, Mr. Kerr, on your election as Chief Executive Officer.

Joanna's lips moved as she read the title.

"Chief executive," she said.

"As of Friday."

"Of the company that just bought all our crops."

"Of the company that will be buying all your crops, yes. The announcement goes public Friday."

She handed the phone back slowly.

She didn't say congratulations, and she didn't laugh.

"I knew it," she said instead. "The second you said Brightwater, you stopped looking at your feet."

"Dale thinks I stack boxes."

"Dale thinks a lot of things. He thinks the Harlan contract was his idea, too."

I smiled for the first time all day.

"Why would Jarrett take credit for my order?" I asked.

Her face went tight.

"Because Jarrett takes credit for everything. He's been in and out of the co-op since spring, with that vest and that smile."

"Doing what?"

"Handing out business cards. Telling the growers he is Brightwater." She shrugged one shoulder. "Everybody likes him. He brings donuts."

"And Delaney?"

Joanna looked down at her hands.

"She's been riding with him for a long time, Mason."

The barn went quiet.

A pigeon shifted in the rafters.

"How long?" I asked.

"I'm not going to guess." She looked up. "But I saw them at the lake in March, and she wasn't wearing her ring."

I nodded once.

I did not feel anything for a second.

Then I felt all of it.

"Okay," I said.

"Okay?"

"I'll be gone by the weekend. I'll have a hotel. I'll have a car."

"And until then you're sleeping in a barn." She stood up and took the empty dish. "Mason, that's how they want it. They want you to look small."

"I know."

"Then don't be small."

She said it flat.

Then she walked to the door and stopped.

"I'm glad you're home," she said, without turning around.

She left.

I sat there until the lights across the yard changed.

The kitchen light went off, and the porch light came on.

I stood and went to the barn door, where I could see the front steps.

My wife came out of the house in her cream coat.

Jarrett was waiting at the bottom of the steps.

She went down to him like she had done it a hundred times.

He took her face in both hands, and he kissed her.

It was not a quick kiss, and it was not a first one.

I held very still in the dark.

The front door opened again, and my father stood in the light with his hand raised.

He was smiling.

"You two come on in," Bert called. "I've got the coffee on."

Jarrett lifted one hand in answer.

Delaney laughed and took his arm.

They walked up the steps together, and my father held the door for them.

Then he shut it, and the porch light went out.

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