"Chasing after You"
Chapter 8
Beth's new office might not have had sprawling views of downtown, but there was something to be said for the Bozeman location of Schwartz and Meyer. Not only would she now be able to get away from the ranch as needed, she would also have access to more protective measures for it. She thought back to a conversation she'd had with Bob; when asked what she got out of it, aside from her fee, Beth had commented that she was building a 200 mile moat around her father's property. Truth be told, she didn't give a fuck about the Yellowstone. She was protecting him and when he was gone, she would be, too. It was a beautiful place and it was her home, but she was beginning to think Walker was right in saying there was something evil about it. Maybe the sins of her father and the generations of Dutton's before him had seeped into the land itself, forever cursing them. She sighed and pushed her philosophical thinking aside; it was time to be a banker.
At 9:04, real estate agent Mike Keller strolled into the office, grinning from ear to ear. He extended a slightly orange, manicured hand but Beth ignored it. "You're late," she said instead.
Mr. Spray Tan, as she mentally dubbed him, stared at her blankly for a moment before saying, "Well, I guess we'll just dive right in, then."
Mike showed Beth and Bob a number of properties over the next hour, a few of which were acceptable investments. He also mentioned the ridiculously named Pelican Ranch, which was not on the market. After banishing Mike from her office and telling him to email her the proposals so she didn't have to see his face again, she grabbed her purse and Bob's hand. "Got your checkbook handy, Bobby? We're taking this show on the road." Everything was for sale, given the right price, and screwing Mike out of his commission was just an added bonus.
Now that Kayce was back, Rip's world had been turned upside down. He was staying in the bunkhouse again, just like when he'd first come to the Yellowstone all of those years earlier. When he was a boy, the older wranglers had teased him mercilessly, but things were different now. While he might not have been in charge anymore, at least he had the men's respect- most of them anyways. When Lee was foreman, he'd lived in the cabin down the way, but Rip knew Kayce's situation was different. He needed to be separate, yet present; he needed to distinguish himself from the others, but also be available to them if necessary. The foreman's cabin just made sense, regardless of who was currently residing in it.
Mr. Dutton was grooming Kayce to take over the ranch one day and, despite Rip's reservations about the youngest Dutton son, he would stand by John's decisions. Who am I to argue? he thought somewhat bitterly. As Rip came out of the barn, wheelbarrow of hay in hand, he noticed Beth standing nearby.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
He chuckled. "I'm feeding horses," he replied, dropping a handful of hay.
Beth rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I know what you're doing. Why are you doing it?"
"It's my job," he answered, still unloading hay, never taking his eyes off of her.
"I wish you hadn't let Kayce win," Beth said.
"Who says I did?" Rip asked. "What would I have won, Beth?"
"I wish you'd beaten his ass so badly-" she came inside the corral and stopped directly in front of him so that he had to look down at her, "-that he'd leave and never come back. It would have been the best thing for him… and you."
"Do you think it bothers me?" he asked. "It's the highlight of my day. I'm glad I've got this chore back."
Beth wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic, so she changed the subject slightly. "This is exactly what you were doing the first time I saw you. Right here, too."
"Well, lot's changed since then. And it'll continue to change if Kayce's in charge." His voice carried a slightly bitter tone, though Beth knew that he'd never admit it.
"There's other ranches, Rip," she said, putting her hands on her hips in a way that Rip couldn't ignore.
"Not for me, there ain't," he said finally, pushing the wheelbarrow past her and going to the next corral. Beth sighed and watched him continue with his work. He can be so damn stubborn, she thought, shaking her head, then she turned to head back to the house.
The following morning, Beth awoke early and dressed quickly, selecting a flowing red dress and hat before heading out the door. Something had been nagging at her since the day before, and she hoped to find Rip still at the barns.
She leaned against the fence watching the wranglers and smoking a cigarette for a few minutes before Rip noticed her. He was on horseback and looked pleased to see her.
"What're you doing?" he asked, smiling.
"Just watching," she said.
"Why the scowl?" he inquired.
"No scowl," she replied and Rip noticed her eyes flick towards Walker who was working nearby. "I do things sometimes… How do I explain? I see things in people and I feel like if I can touch it, even if the rest of the person is rotten, I can take that good thing and make it part of me." She motioned to her heart in a gesture of passion.
"There's plenty of good in you, Beth, and none in that son of a bitch," Rip told her.
She looked at Walker again, then down at her feet, nodding again slightly. "I'm sorry, Rip. I'm sorry I did that to you."
"You didn't do it to me. But woman, you sure can. Anytime you want." Beth smiled and felt her cheeks redden slightly. "And 'I'm sorry,'" he continued, "is two words you never have to say to me."
Beth nodded again, understanding his sentiment completely. Rip glanced over his shoulder and noticed the wranglers were getting ready to leave. "I'm gonna ride off into the sunset now," he said, turning his horse around to join the others.
"That's the sunrise!" she called after him.
"Shit, you know what I mean!" he hollered back.
Beth smiled, feeling relieved that everything between them was fine. Why did I ever doubt it? she asked herself as she finished her cigarette and went back inside.
When Beth got home from work that evening, her father and Kayce were already eating dinner. She sat opposite Kayce and couldn't help but notice he'd had the shit beat out of him. "Rough day at the office?" she asked. "What happened?"
Before Kayce could reply, John spoke. "Let's not talk about work at the dinner table."
"Well, what would you like to talk about, Daddy? What would you like to share? If we don't talk about work, we have nothing to talk about. Would you like to just sit here in silence?" John held up a finger at her, but Beth kept going. "Are you shushing me, Daddy? I am a 35 year old woman. I will talk about whatever I fucking want at the dinner table." She threw her napkin before getting up and marching out of the dining room.
She was almost out the front door when she heard her younger brother chuckle. "I see nothing's changed," he'd said, referring to Beth's inability to sit through an entire meal.
Once on the porch, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, a figure in the distance caught her eye. It was Rip.
As she walked down the hill to join him, she slipped off her heels and then tossed them in the grass beside him. Dropping to her knees, she said "Things are becoming a little clearer to me. Quite the sacrifice."
"Yeah well, it's what your father wants," he replied.
"I remember the first time I saw you," she said, settling into the grass beside him. "So wild. So angry… God you were beautiful. I remember the way you looked at him. I was so jealous. And the way he looked at you. I always worried he'd love you more someday."
She shifted to get a better look at Rip's face; it wasn't quite as bad as Kayce's, but at least she'd figured out what had happened earlier in the day. She examined a split on his right cheek and combed her fingers through his beard affectionately. "Don't leave," she said, almost inaudibly.
"This is my family," he murmured after a moment. "Whether y'all think of me that way or not." He stood and Beth noticed a wince of pain.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Home," he replied simply before heading towards the bunkhouse.
Beth sat for a few minutes longer, enjoying the quiet, absently fiddling with a long blade of grass; the changes at the Yellowstone made her feel somewhat reminiscent. It was summer when she'd first met Rip; she was fifteen and he was sixteen. Her father had been called out to a neighboring ranch about a vagrant boy the farmer had found hiding in one of his barns. After running away from a terrible home situation, Rip had found his way to the Yellowstone and they'd been chasing after each other ever since.
It was no surprise to teenage Beth that John had brought the boy back home with him. What had been unexpected, however, was the immediate magnetic attraction that she had to him. The pain of failing his family was something that Beth could easily relate to, especially considering her own mother had died only a few months prior, a tragedy for which Beth regularly blamed herself.
"Rip?!" she'd asked. "What kinda name is that?" Beth had one hand on her hip, subtly sucking her tummy in, while poking her chest out.
"I dunno," the curly haired, dark eyed boy shrugged. "It's Irish, I guess," he said.
"I'm Beth. Bethany Ann Dutton. He's my dad." She glanced towards John.
Rip held out his hand to shake hers, "Pleasure to meet you," he murmured, looking at his boots.
Beth felt her cheeks flush as their hands touched. "Yea, me too," she said after a second. She turned to leave but paused, saying, "See ya 'round."
Her coy smile made Rip's stomach do a somersault. "Shit…" he murmured under his breath when she'd gone.
That evening, Beth stood in front of her bathroom mirror, examining the woman reflected back at her. Her hair was damp from the shower she'd just taken and she was carefully smoothing face cream down her neck. "I can hear you breathing," she said suddenly. Jamie peeked around the corner and Beth noticed his reflection looked a little more disheveled than usual.
"Um… I… I have a really big problem and I could use some advice," he finally said.
Beth turned to face her brother. "Oh, my God, you're pregnant."
"This is fucking serious!" Jamie said. "I'm in… I… I've painted myself into a corner here, and I can't get out. I can't get us out of it."
"What corner, Jamie?" Beth asked, pointing her finger in his face. "What did you do?" Her voice was calm and even, but her eyes were intense.
Jamie began to babble about how he was mad and felt abandoned, as if that might possibly justify what he was about to tell her, but what really caught Beth's attention was when he said reporter.
"What the fuck did you do, Jamie?" she demanded.
"I… I gave an interview."
"About what?" she pressed.
"Not what… who," he said.
Beth stared back at him, the reality of his statement sinking in. "You selfish piece of shit!" she finally spat, pushing past him.
"Wait!" he called, following her down the hall. "Wait, Beth!" He pushed her against the wall, trying to stop her, but she swiftly kneed him in the crotch and pulled away. Now that he was somewhat vulnerable, she grabbed him by the ear and dragged him down the hall to their father's room.
"You tell him!" she shouted, tossing him down on the floor. "Tell him what you fucking did! Tell him!"
John came up to where they stood; Beth had Jamie by the hair, pulling his head backwards while he whimpered in desperation. "I think I can take it from here, Beth." John shifted his gaze to his son who was attempting to get up. "What did you do? Jamie, what did you do to me?"
Jamie's silence was infuriating to Beth. "Tell him, you motherfucking mutt!" She slapped at him as he cowered, sobbing.
"I said I can take it from here, Beth," John repeated. "Go wait outside." John helped Jamie up and onto the couch.
"Don't let him Jamie his way out of this. Okay, Dad? And when he's done, come find me so I can make sure he told you the truth."
As Beth left, already forming a plan on how to handle Jamie, she overheard her father: "For a woman who has mastered the art of mad," he said, "I can't say I've ever seen her that angry. So tell me, Jamie. What did you do to me to scare the only person I know who doesn't get scared?"