Downpour: Chapter 5

My stomach churned as I drove under the timber gate of the Griffith Brothers Cattle Ranch. Ray’s mom, Claire, was on her porch as I passed. She beamed from ear to ear and waved.

I rounded the bend, passing the two other houses—Christian and Cassandra’s, and Nate and Becks’s—Ray’s two brothers and their families.

I had yet to meet his youngest brother, and part of me wondered if I ever would. Maybe I’d meet him when they hauled me off the land for trespassing.

The squat metal building that housed the ranch office came into view, and I spotted Cassandra walking inside. She looked over her shoulder and watched with an unsettling gaze as I passed.

I continued driving, soaking up the last of the peace as Ray’s grove of trees appeared in the distance. The truck was under its usual tarp, and the blinds were closed as always. Everything was familiar, except for the two teenagers knocking on the front door.

They turned and stared when I pulled into the driveway.

“Who are you?” the younger one asked when I got out and closed the door.

“Brooke. Who are you?”

“Gracie,” she said.

The older one knocked again, but there was no answer.

“Is Ray not home?” I asked. He was supposed to be, according to his digital calendar.

The older one shrugged with teenage indifference. “I dunno. He won’t let us see him.” Her dejected sigh broke my heart.

“Which grown-up do you belong to?” I asked.

“Christian is our dad,” the older one said.

“And Cassandra is our evil stepmother-to-be,” the younger one added.

I laughed. “So Ray is your uncle?”

The younger one nodded. “I’m Gracie. And this is my sister, Bree.”

I smiled weakly. “Well, it’s nice to meet you.”

“What are you doing here?” Bree asked. If I had to guess, she was around fourteen or fifteen.

I checked the time on my phone. “I’m here to hang out with your uncle.”

Gracie’s eyebrows lifted. “Will you ask him if we can hang out with him too? Maybe he’ll say yes to you.”

“I’ll ask.”

“Thank you!” Gracie flung her arms around me in a tight hug.

The girls raced down the ramp and cut through the trees. They had almost disappeared among the leaves when I saw the blinds crack.

I waited a moment, then knocked. When he didn’t answer, I tried the handle. To my surprise, it was unlocked.

The lights were off, but sunshine streamed in from the window by the door. Ray was in the recliner today, with the TV on but muted.

“What are you doing here?” he hissed.

I swallowed my pride and closed the door behind me. “I’m here to work.”

“I told you not to come back.”

“I know.”

He cocked a brow. “And yet you’re standing in my house.”

“I really need this job,” I croaked out.

Ray remained silent.

“Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Maybe we just need to sit down and talk and get to know each other so I know what you want from me.”

Still nothing.

“I can’t get fired,” I admitted. “If I lose another client, they won’t give me anymore. And I’m already behind on my bills as it is, and I just…” I squared my shoulders. “I swear I’ll try harder.”

He studied me from a distance, jaw flexing as he worked my plea over in his mind. “You can start by being on time for once.”

I nodded as I hurried in and dropped my bags on the floor. “I’ll try. I usually have a stop before you and sometimes it’s hard to get away, and I⁠—”

“Stop talking,” he clipped.

I froze on the spot. “Yes, sir.”

“Don’t fucking call me that.”

“Mr. Griffith?”

He closed his eyes and huffed. “Ray’s fine.”

“Your nieces were here.”

“I know,” he snapped.

“Do you… want me to go find them and let them in?”

“No.”

“Okay…” I sighed. Work with me here, man.

Ray flicked his eyes to the deck. “Let’s go sit out there.”

I hurried to help him out of the recliner, but my foot caught the handle of my bag. I squealed as I tumbled forward and smacked the floor.

Ray huffed. “Jesus Christ.”

I scrambled up, wiggled my foot free from the fabric strap, and hurried over.

Ray sat up and I pulled his wheelchair over.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” he snapped as I reached for him. The anger in his voice was palpable.

I jolted back.

“Go wait outside.”

“But I’m supposed to⁠—“

“Are you going to wait outside or are you going to get fired?”

I slipped outside with my tail between my legs and waited. The sun was high in the sky, and not a cloud was in sight. His deck had a breathtaking view, but curiosity got the better of me.

Through the open sliding door, I watched as Ray leaned forward in the recliner. He turned his chest to the side and slowly shuffled backward into his wheelchair. He lifted his legs onto the footrests before unlocking the brake and pushing himself out to meet me.

“Let’s make one thing clear,” Ray said as he rolled up to the edge of the deck, staring at the horizon. “I don’t want you here.”

“Okay.” I swallowed my hurt and embarrassment. “I promise I’ll stay out of your way. I can clean and do whatever you want. I just… I can’t get fired again.”

“You can drive me into town,” he said.

“Yeah. Of course. I’d love to. I really do want to help any way I can.”

He stared at me for a long moment. “Aren’t you supposed to be wearing a uniform or something?”

I laughed and looked down at my shorts and tank top. “Yeah. But Mr. Wilson—the man I check on in the mornings—doesn’t always know who I am, and he gets mad and throws things at me. This morning it was grits. I figured you wouldn’t want me covered in it. It gets crusty after a while. So I changed in my car.”

Something flashed across his face, but he didn’t say a word.

“Do you… want me to⁠—“

“It’s fine,” he groused.

I looked down at my hands, wishing I could melt into the ground.

Ray hadn’t stopped staring at me. It was unnerving. There was so much I didn’t know about him. But instead of sitting in the presence of a stranger, I was in the presence of a lion who hadn’t eaten in days.

“Why can’t you get fired?” he asked.

I lifted my chin. “Why don’t you want me here?”

“You first.”

“Living is expensive,” I said.

That made him crack a smile, but it quickly disappeared. “Go find another job.”

I huffed. “I’ve been fired from every job I’ve ever had. I don’t have family, and I’m already behind on things as it is. I just need to hold on to this one a little longer until I can figure things out.”

“Figure what out?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. What I’m doing with my life?”

“How much is a little longer?” Ray hedged. He was negotiating, and I was more than willing to play ball.

“Two years.”

He scoffed.

“I’m serious. I just need to hold onto a steady job until I turn twenty-five, and then I get access to my trust fund.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a length of rope. I watched as he started tying it in knots, over and over again. “So, you’re going to wait two years to figure out what you’re doing with your life?”

“What about you?”

He didn’t look up from the rope as he tried to feed the tail through the loop with his left hand, but he couldn’t quite get it. “What about me?”

“What do you do?”

Ray didn’t answer.

“Will you tell me anything about you? It’s fine if you don’t want to. I’ll just make up little stories in my head and speculate wildly while I clean your house and run your errands.”

Ray’s head snapped toward me. “Don’t get it twisted. I just want my family to leave me alone. I don’t want you here.”

I couldn’t help the way my lip quivered. “You’ve made that very clear.”

His exacting gaze lifted from the rope. Ray stared at me for a beat before licking his lips. “I was a bull rider.”

“Really? That’s so cool!”

He let a caustic laugh slip. “Is everything cool to you?”

“Well, yeah. People are cool. I like getting to know whoever the universe sees fit to put me near.”

“People suck.”

“So…” I stared at the wooden planks of the deck. “You’ll let me stay?”

He used his left hand to slide the tail of the rope through a loop and pulled it tight. “What’s your backup plan if I fire you?”

I laughed. “I ran out of backup plans like ten backup plans ago.”

It felt like the tension between us began to loosen. Maybe we wouldn’t be friends, but we could coexist.

“What was your backup plan?” I asked. “You know, after bull riding. I can’t imagine that being something you could do forever.”

Ray continued to fiddle with the rope, not even bothering to glance up at me. “I never had one.”

“Jesus Christ,” Ray shouted as he pushed his wheelchair through the kitchen and opened the front door. “What the hell are you doing?”

Three days into our truce, and he was still yelling at me.

Rule number one of trying to not get fired: don’t piss off the grumpy bull rider.

Rule number two? When you do get fired, keep your chin up. The grumpy bull rider was hot.

“It’s fine!” I said as I grabbed a dish towel and waved the smoke away from the pan.

Ray coughed in the haze. “You are a fucking disaster. You know that?”

I dropped the towel and shoved the window above the sink open to let the breeze in.

“There,” I said as I stepped back and wiped my hands on my shorts. “The smoke will be out in no time. No harm, no foul.”

Something crackled behind me. I turned and shrieked. “Oh my god!”

Ray swore loudly. “You didn’t turn the burner off, and you put a fucking towel on top of it?”

“I forgot!” I squealed as flames licked up the cotton cloth.

“It happened five seconds ago!”

“I was trying to get the smoke out!”

“Jesus! What the hell is going on in here?” Cassandra stood in the doorway with her hand clasped over her nose and mouth.

She stomped over in her high heels and pantsuit, turned the burner off, yanked the towel away, dropped it onto the floor, and stomped on it until the fire was out.

“I was just trying to fry an egg,” I said as I scrambled to clean up the charred tea towel.

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Whatever. You’re Ray’s problem.”

“Gee, thanks,” Ray grumbled.

Cassandra stabbed a finger at him. “You, however, are my problem.”

“What crawled up your ass?” he sneered. “Trouble in paradise with your Griffith brother?”

“Nope,” she snapped. “You were an ass to my girls the other day. That means I get to be an ass to you. Get the picture?”

Ray scoffed and pushed on the wheel to turn his chair away from her. “I didn’t do jack shit.”

“You locked them out.”

“The door wasn’t locked.”

“Yeah? Well they were raised to be respectful, unlike you. Now get your head out of your ass or you’ll have hell to pay.”

I stared, wide-eyed, as Cassandra stormed out in a tornado of blonde hair and expensive perfume.

“I think I’m in love with her,” I whispered.

He didn’t say a word.

“Why won’t you see your nieces?” I asked, tossing the corpse of a towel into the trash and used a paper towel to wipe the black streaks off the floor.

Still no answer.

“Are you close to them?”

He flinched. It was barely noticeable, but it looked a lot like guilt. “Used to be.”

“What happened?”

Ray arched an eyebrow. “Do you really think that’s any of your business?”

I laughed. “Come on. We need to get to know each other.”

“We don’t.” He grabbed the handle of the frying pan and dumped the charred remains of the egg into the garbage.

“I’m great at keeping secrets. This one time, my roommate told me that she worked her way up to being the general manager of the restaurant she’s at and has never changed the paper towels because she doesn’t know how to unlock the machine and put the new roll in. So, she just tells the new staff to do it and pretends to be busy. And I never told anyone.”

Ray tipped his chin back and huffed. “Brooke.”

“What?”

“You just told me.”

“Come on,” I begged. “You don’t talk to me at all when I’m here. It’s been days, and I’m going crazy.”

“You talk enough for the both of us.”

“If I promise to stop talking, will you tell me?”

Ray stared at me. I smiled at him. He didn’t smile back.

“Please?” I begged.

Ray pushed his wheelchair over to the fridge and pawed around for a snack. “Their mother—my sister-in-law—died when the girls were little.” He slammed the fridge door, making the condiment bottles rattle. “I was living in Colorado. Came back to the ranch for a few months. Christian was grieving and dealing with the ranch. Nate was deployed. CJ was a kid. So, I stayed at the house with the girls. Eventually, I went back to my life and they grew up. I used to surprise them when I’d come into town. I’d kidnap them from school, take them to lunch, and hang out like we used to. That’s all.”

Dear God. He couldn’t be hot and good with kids. That combination was irresistible.

I grabbed an egg from the fridge to start the frying process again. Ray had mentioned a fried egg sandwich sounded good, and dammit—I was going to make him one.

“You should have them over. Order a pizza or something. Oh! We could have a game night! That’d be so much fun! They still want to hang out with you even though they’ve grown up.”

“I don’t want to hang out with them.” And with that, he left the room.