Chapter 16

A week later, Jimmy stood staring at his field full of…goats. He watched more run from across the field. Eli stood on the fence beside him. He stared down at his youngest child.

"There are more."

"Nope same amount."

"Elijah, you are telling one hell of a lie."

"The fuck I am."

"Eli, please. Stop with that word. Just, I don't know, erase it from your mind."

"It's my favorite word."

"It's an ugly word. You know what I mean?"

"Of course, I do. I ain't stupid. You should see the look on my teacher's face when I use my favorite word in class."

Jimmy groaned and put his head on the fence. He dropped the conversation and looked at the goats again.

"There are more goats."

"Nope."

"How can you say that? I can see there are more."

"Yeah, but they all the same color so Grandpa says you would never know. Whoops."

"Uh huh."

Eli jumped down and ran off to the barn. Tate walked over.

"More goats, huh?"

Tate didn't say a word. He just walked away. Jimmy couldn't help but laugh. He gave the boy hell. He knew there was no stopping Teaspoon if he was in the middle of one of his grand plans. Buck made his way over.

"Goat rancher now?"

"One of Teaspoon's wonderful ideas to help."

Buck laughed.

"I've missed everyone."

"Something happen at home, Buck? I mean we love having you here, but I get the feeling that this just ain't a quick visit."

"Yeah, never could fool you, Jimmy." Buck said losing his smile.

"What's going on?"

"We have been having a run of bad luck last few years. Lost livestock to animals then a few months ago, we had a bad storm. It caused a fire. We lost everything. Our house, clothes. We barely got out alive."

"Lord, Buck. Why didn't you write or come sooner?"

"We didn't want to burden you with our problems. We stayed at the boarding house until I sold the land to a neighbor. We came here then. What you see us with is all we have."

"Fuck."

"I try to look on the bright side of things. It brought us back here."

"Damn right. You are welcome here as long as you want to stay. Hell, we got enough land. We can build you a house. I could use the help around here."

"You are just saying that. Looks like you got plenty of help."

"You seen my help? I need help with my help."

Buck laughed.

"I mean it, Buck. Stay."

"I will consider it only if I can pull my own weight."

"I don't think that will be a problem. I got a broken wrist and Luke has some busted ribs from our last adventure. Also, I got a dumbass married to my head strong daughter that seems to keep getting locked up along with my wife. Oh yeah, I also got an old man adding to my problems daily. Grandkid here and one on the way and shit, I can't even keep it all straight."

Buck laughed harder.

"You might need help after all."

"Need it, can some of them live with you?"

Buck laughed again.

"God, I have missed this. Family."

"Then it's settled." Jimmy said quieting down. He watched the horizon.

"Jimmy, that is not all that I have to tell you. And I'm not sure how to say it."

Jimmy looked to Buck expectantly. Buck looked out at the pasture. He finally spoke quietly.

"I know where Hunter is."

The End for now…