The Loves of Ruby Dee Read Free Page A

Oklahoma City on a fool’s errand. There’s a ranch to run, and the old man to see to.”
    “Meanin’ I can’t do either, right?” Lonnie said, peeved.
    “No. Mostly what it is, is that you don’t want to do either.”
    That truth sat there a loud second.
    “You just don’t like to leave this ranch anymore, is what it is,” Lonnie said, pointing at Will. “You’ve gotten to be like an old woman that won’t let go.”
    They stared at each other, the barbs they had slung echoing in the angry silence that followed.
    “I guess we’re both doin’ the best we can,” Will said flatly, and turned on his heel.
    He went to the back porch, where the shirts he’d brought home from the laundry still hung from the ceiling hook. He tore off the plastic wrapping and jerked a shirt off the hanger, then slipped into it. The damn cuff was ragged. He rolled it up.
    Lonnie leaned against the counter, sipping his beer. “The old man has run off four housekeepers in the past five months.” His gaze said he held Will to account for it.
    Will said, “He run off three. I ran off the last one.” The last one had been the male housekeeper, the great idea that had turned bad. The man had liked to sleep half the day and smoke smelly cigars the other half, and when Will had caught him stealing from the kitchen money to play poker with old buddies who suddenly started dropping by, he had sent him on his way.
    Lonnie sighed heavily. “Look, Will, if you’re upset by the way I was playin’ with the gal, you got the wrong idea. I’m just like that with women. It doesn’t mean anything, and you ought to know that by now. Let her stay until the old man runs her off, so we can at least get one or two good meals. It wouldn’t hurt to come in here and see a face prettier than yours, either, and I don’t think I need to feel ashamed of that.”
    Will shook his head as he buttoned his shirt. “I know, Lon. I’m damn tired of cold food and dirty laundry and tryin’ to keep the old man from killing himself, just as much as you are. But look at her. She’s...” He gestured toward the office, unable to find words for what he wanted to say. “It’s a cinch the old man would chew her up and spit her out in all of five seconds, Lon.”
    That familiar stubborn look came over his brother’s face. “Maybe she looks tender, but that sure is a refreshing change from those you’ve been gettin’ in here. She’s a woman who happens to look and act like one.”
    Will clamped his mouth shut at that.
    “Aw, Will, face it. Nobody you get in here is gonna change the facts. The old man is mean as a junkyard dog, and always has been. Mama left because of it. And now he’s eighty-five, has diabetes and is off the beam from his stroke. He ain’t likely to get better, and he’ll have us all sick and crazy before he’s through. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have to live this way. He keeps the hands run off and us tied here, same as if we had a rope around our necks.”
    “Mama left because she got a boyfriend,” Will said, jerking up his zipper and fastening his belt. “And I hadn’t noticed you keepin’ yourself from going off to your rodeos and women. When did that happen?”
    Lonnie said, “I’m here now, and it sure ain’t because I couldn’t be off workin’ somewhere else.” He poked his finger at Will. “I work this ranch, same as you. I’ve given half my life to it, and I’m damn tired of being treated like nothin’ but a no-account hand that the old man can’t even stomach lookin’ at. I’ve had it, Will.”
    Looking at Lonnie’s flushed and furious face, Will swallowed and clenched and unclenched his hands. He wanted to take off right then, head out and never look back. But Lonnie was his brother and the old man was his dad, and somehow Will had to keep them all together. That had been his responsibility for twenty-five years, to keep them together. God, he was damned tired of the load.
    He breathed deeply and