by Ward Maia
“Aren’t these documents already here? Since you’re the one managing the will?”
“Some of them are. And some of them aren’t.” He fidgeted, sitting up straighter on his chair and shifting a pile of paper from one side of the desk to the other.
Ellis just sat there and waited, ignoring the sweat trickling down his back and the stale air in the room.
“Since the property was built in 1890, some of the deeds to the land aren’t online and have to be brought over from São Paulo, since the family that owned the land the Blue Feathers Coffee Farm sits on also owned a number of lands back in São Paulo. So I have to petition the town to send me the deeds, and then we can carry on with the process from here.”
Ellis rubbed his chin and stared unblinkingly at the lawyer. Francisco had managed his aunt’s estate for ten years, long before she passed away. So the odds of him not having the documents were close to zero. Also, he didn’t see why documents pertaining to a different property were necessary.
He let the man sweat for a few more seconds and watched him wipe his brow two more times before breaking the silence.
“Mr. Francisco”—Ellis leaned forward on his chair and rested his forearms on the table—“I’m going to be honest. I do not intend to keep the farm. In fact, I fully intend on selling it as quickly as possible and returning to my life in Rio.”
The silence stretched between them as Ellis let the lawyer digest the information. After a few heartbeats, the man seemed to deflate. He looked down at his hands, clasped on his lap, and then up at Ellis.
“Even so, Mr. Campos,” he said, offering him a sad smile Ellis didn’t return, “it will take a few days to gather the necessary documents.”
“And in the meantime?”
“I suggest you enjoy this impromptu vacation.” Francisco tried to smile at him, but it fell flat.
“Vacation?” Ellis asked, a little incredulous. “My aunt just died.”
Francisco’s smile vanished immediately and his eyes darkened. “Yes, I’m well aware, Mr. Campos. Meredith was a dear friend and a valuable member of our town. You don’t need to remind me of her passing.”
There was a hint of ire in his voice, and Ellis felt a pang of shame. He hadn’t known his aunt. Not like the people in this town and on the farm. The thought made his stomach clench and his annoyance deflate a little.
“Eight days?” Ellis asked, after another long silence.
“Eight to ten days,” Francisco said, visibly relieved that Ellis had accepted his obvious lie.
“Fine.” Ellis got up. “I will come see you in a few days.”
“Oh, here’s my card with my personal number. Call before you plan on coming and I’ll clear my schedule.” Francisco handed him a white business card. Ellis took it and pocketed it. Francisco extended his hand for Ellis to shake.
Liar or not, Ellis needed his cooperation to get everything in order so he could sell the farm.
“Do you need a ride back to the farm? I have some more meetings, but I should be free in a couple of hours.”
“Not necessary. I rented a car.”
Francisco nodded and smiled thinly at him. “Have a good day, Mr. Campos.”
Ellis waved and left his office without looking back. The building the office was in was old. Actually, there were a lot of old buildings in town, with a few more modern-looking ones sprinkled in between. Most of the older buildings looked like they’d gone through some form of renovation. But some looked like they hadn’t seen the business end of a paintbrush in over a hundred years.
The town of Three Hearts was named after alleged heart-shaped river bends.
Ellis knew that because Rudá had gone on and on about the town and people all the way from the farm to Francisco’s office. For forty-five minutes. That’s how long it took. Ellis was shallow and honest enough to admit that if the man didn’t look and sound like a wet dream, he would’ve jumped out of the moving car and found his own way into town.
Finding the car rental place proved to be a bit more challenging than anticipated, but after thirty minutes and asking for directions, he managed to find it. And the huge-ass pickup truck his assistant rented for him. Ellis cursed and resisted the urge to fall to his knees and pound his fists on the ground. It wasn’t even lunchtime, and he already wanted the day to end.
The overly nice clerk at the rental company smiled as he handed him the keys and said a handful of words Ellis didn’t pay attention to, nodding toward the car. Ellis just nodded back, signed the papers, and took the keys.
He followed the GPS’s directions through town on his way to the highway that would take him back to the farm, too angry and frustrated to pay attention to much.
It wasn’t until he was on the highway that the GPS started to tell him repeatedly to take a left. Into a cornfield. Ellis checked and saw that, wherever he was, there was no satellite signal. He decided to keep on going. It couldn’t be that hard to find a big farm, could it?
Three hours and an empty gas tank later, Ellis found himself sitting by the side of the road, watching a huge cow eat its weight in grass.
He was sweaty and hungry. He raked his hands over his hair, then his face, cringing at the sound his palms made against the stubble he forgot to shave. He’d been gone from his office life for two lousy days and already he’d let himself go.
Ellis snorted and shook his head. Yeah, sitting on the side of a highway with no idea where he was, watching a cow mow the grass was pretty rough. Stubble or no stubble.
“Don’t suppose you know how to get back to the farm.” He squinted against the sun so he could see the cow. Predictably, it just kept grazing, ignoring his presence completely. “That makes two of us.”
He swatted at a mosquito that was trying to chew his face off and winced as he imagined the red mark left by his own hand on his cheek. Well, he was already red and sweaty. How much worse could one self-inflicted slap make him look?
Ellis pulled out his phone and covered the screen with his hand. Yep, still no bars. He couldn’t call or even use the phone’s GPS. Not that it would do him much good, with the car out of gas and all. At this point, all his phone was good for was playing generic games. And writing his last will and testament on his note app, in case the recently deceased mosquito that gnawed on his face was the carrier of some previously unknown disease capable of bringing on the zombie apocalypse.
The relentless sun made the air around him hot and muggy. That was the tropics for you. Too much heat and too much humidity made for a stifling atmosphere that had him sweating his soul through his pores.
Ellis pocketed his phone and flopped down on the grass next to the truck’s tire. He let his head fall back and bang on the car. The sound reverberated through the silence of the countryside and momentarily distracted him from his impossibly ridiculous situation. So he did it again. Not strong enough to hurt but loud enough for the cow to lift its head and momentarily look at him with a disapproving frown. Or what he imagined a cow’s disapproving frown looked like.
Just to think that five days ago he’d been sitting on his overly priced comfortable couch, watching the world scurry about its business through his floor-to-ceiling windows.
He was still banging his head against the car under the cow’s glare, when he heard a car pull up on the side of the road next to his. The sound of a door opening and closing and then footsteps on the grass reached his ears. Ellis turned his head without bothering to get up.
Rudá
RUDÁ CROUCHED next to Ellis and looked him over. He was a mess. His clothes were rumpled, and his white skin was flushed from the heat. Sweat trickled down his brow, and his steely gray eyes were unfocused. He looked tired. And annoyed.
“Tough morning?” Rudá tried not to smile at Ellis’s pitiful condition.
Ellis snorted and shook his head. “No satellite signal out here. Or telephone signal. Oh, and no gas.”
“We’re only twenty minutes from town.” Rudá frowned and looked at the ca
r. “How did you run out of gas?”
“Didn’t check to see if the tank was full before I decided to try and find my own way back to the farm. Guess it wasn’t.” Ellis banged his head back on the car and sighed.
“How long were you driving around trying to find your way?”
Rudá watched his handsome face squint in concentration, then his shoulders rise and fall on a shrug “Maybe three hours. Possibly more.”
Ellis banged his head back, the sound echoing in the stillness around them. He brought his head forward to bang it back again, but Rudá placed the back of his hand against the car so that Ellis’s head collided with his palm instead. Ellis’s head snapped to him when he felt his head cushioned by his palm. Rudá smiled at him in an attempt to lift his spirits.
“You could have gone back into town,” Rudá said.
“Obviously orientation isn’t in my skill set. Back home I’d just get into a taxi and rattle off the address.” Ellis waved his hand around, probably trying to swat at the elusive mosquitoes that inhabited these parts.
It was pointless, really. The tiny buggers were impossible to see let alone kill.
“Come on, I’ll drive you back to the house and send someone for the car.” Rudá got up, slipping his hand from the back of Ellis’s head, noticing how soft his hair felt against his callused fingers.
He offered his hand to Ellis, who took it after only a moment’s hesitation. Rudá pulled his hand back once they were both on their feet and turned to walk to the car.
The rasps of their shoes on the grass were the only sounds surrounding them, but Rudá swore he heard Ellis say something along the lines of lovely to meet you. But other than the cow munching away at the grass, there was no one else around. He ignored it and climbed into the car, turning on the AC at full blast once Ellis’s door was closed.
Ellis groaned and slumped on the seat. Rudá smiled at him, the sound making Rudá think of other, more pleasant, situations that would leave Ellis flushed, sweaty, and groaning like that.
The silence stretched on uncomfortably between them as Rudá pulled onto the highway and turned toward the farm.
He listened as Ellis’s breathing settled after a few minutes and he was no longer panting from the heat.
“How was the meeting?” Rudá asked, flicking his eyes briefly toward Ellis.
“Disappointing yet predictable.”
“How come?”
“Lawyers don’t make anyone’s life easier. My aunt’s lawyer was no exception. It seems the assholery transcends state borders.” Ellis grimaced as he pulled at the sweaty fabric clinging to his torso.
His scent of grass, dirt, and sweat permeated the interior of the car, and Rudá found he wasn’t put off by it. It was actually a little amusing watching the city boy having to step out of his comfort zone and waddle in the dirt with the rest of humanity.
“Francisco is a good person, and he’s managed the farm for almost a decade,” Rudá said.
“So I’ve been told. Which is why he shouldn’t make my life more fucking difficult,” Ellis muttered, rubbing his temple.
“Was there something wrong with the documents?” The sliver of apprehension that coiled inside Rudá’s gut couldn’t be helped.
Francisco knew all the reasons why Meredith hadn’t considered selling the farm, even after her fragile heart started to give out. There was no way he would’ve told Ellis, especially after the first meeting. Right?
The seconds ticked by in silence, and Rudá shifted his gaze briefly from the road toward Ellis. The man had turned a little sideways and was studying him, his face a blank mask. Rudá was usually a calm and collected person, but he resisted the urge to fidget under the scrutiny of those steel-gray eyes.
“What?” he asked, not being able to hold the silence any longer.
“Why would there be something wrong with the documents?” Ellis asked, his voice deceptively casual.
“You said your meeting was disappointing.” Rudá shrugged, focusing on the road again. “And that he wasn’t making your life easy.”
“I said he shouldn’t make it difficult. Not that he wasn’t making it easy.”
“There’s a difference?” Rudá smiled and tried to be charming while also trying to glean information from Ellis.
“Maybe,” Ellis said after a brief pause, still looking at Rudá.
“Well, whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll both work it out for however long you’re here for.” Rudá smiled more broadly, hoping his usually charming self could clear the mistrust lurking in Ellis’s eyes, but the other man didn’t say anything, simply turning to look out the window.
The rest of the drive was in a semitense silence.
The crunch of the gravel underneath the tires as Rudá pulled up to the path to the farm was a welcome balm to the silence. He’d lived at the farm since he was fifteen, and the sounds of the day-to-day activities, which he could perform with his eyes closed, were as familiar to him as his own skin.
Driving the old truck up the path that led to the house was something he did as much as three or four times a week. Every week.
Unlike most coffee farms in the region, the fields where the coffee stalks stood were at the back of the property and not at the front. It made for a longer commute for the delivery trucks and the ones that carried the roasted beans to be packaged and sold, but it had been that way for as long as the property had stood there.
The sound of the door closing brought Rudá out of his reverie. Ellis was walking up to the house, rolling up his sleeves, and Rudá sighed before following him.
It was obvious Ellis didn’t trust him. Or probably anyone on the farm. Rudá didn’t blame him. He’d be wary of a strange man from a foreign city trying to tell him about his own family and land.
Except, was this Ellis’s land?
Sure, the deed to the farm was in his name, but it didn’t make it his, not really. And by all accounts, he didn’t really see it as his.
“Lunch won’t be ready for half an hour. Maybe after I could show you around?” Rudá smiled, nodding toward the blue double doors they’d just walked through.
“I look forward to it,” Ellis said dryly and turned on his heels toward his bedroom.
Rudá stayed rooted to the spot, watching his retreating back. Ellis stuffed his hands in his pockets, making the fabric of his dress pants stretch tight over his ass. It was a nice ass, even if the man attached to it had something of a bitter and sarcastic nature.
“Are you going to tell him the truth?” a familiar voice asked from behind Rudá.
He turned around to find his grandmother staring at him with her hands on her waist. She was maybe five foot two but was still a force to be reckoned with when angry. Especially if she wielded one of her many wooden spoons.
“Lunch about ready?” Rudá gave his grandmother his biggest and brightest smile, hoping to steer the conversation away from Ellis and the farm.
She narrowed her eyes, wrinkles popping at the corners, and pointed one callused finger at him.
“Yes, but don’t try to fool me. I’m too old to be an idiot.”
“There’s no such thing as too old.” Rudá tried to sidestep her and sneak into the kitchen.
“You have to tell him,” she said, not letting him go and poking his chest.
“I will,” Rudá relented.
She reached up and grabbed his chin, forcing his eyes to stay glued to hers while she searched his face. Rudá was still smiling, but it had diminished. She released him after a few heartbeats and nodded, having apparently found her answer on his face. She tapped his cheek fondly and smiled.
“Go shower. You stink.”
Rudá chuckled and sneaked a kiss to her cheek. She batted him away, spewing Borun expletives in his direction.
Instead of going to his room and showering, Rudá veered off the main hall and descended the steps toward Meredith’s office. He paused for a minute outside the closed door. It was a sure sign she was no longer there. Meredit
h’s door had always been open. She’d been a complicated and hard woman but never unapproachable.
He opened the door and just stood there for a moment. Fondness, longing, and dread washed over him at the sight of the unoccupied and worn leather chair. This room held so many memories for him. He’d stood in the doorway hundreds of times and watched Meredith work. Knowing that he would never do that again made his heart hurt.
Dust particles danced around him as he lingered in the doorway. He was almost sorry to disturb them and the tomb-like silence that now permeated the room. From where he stood, he could hear very little of the outside world.
Rudá didn’t fully understand all the reasons why Meredith had wanted to keep everything a secret. Some not so small part of him resented her for giving the farm to a complete stranger. Even if they did share blood. But she was gone now. There was no point in lingering over these thoughts.
With a final glance at the office, Rudá closed the door carefully, turned on his heels, and went up the steps, taking them two at a time.
Chapter 5
ELLIS STOOD underneath the cold spray and shivered as the water made its way down his spine. After sitting on the dirt and baking underneath the scalding sun, he was ready to spend the rest of the day in an ice bath. Regrettably, the day was far from over. Unlike his good mood, which was very close to depletion.
Just the thought of having to go back out into the heat to walk around a farm he had little to no interest in made him close his eyes and rest his forehead against the cream-colored tiles.
He allowed himself a few more minutes to wallow in his self-pity before he turned the shower off and stepped out. He dried himself quickly and padded barefoot back to his room.
His phone screen blinked at him from the nightstand, and he picked it up to find Pedro’s smiling face looking up at him.
“You’re fired,” Ellis said as a greeting.
“Ooh, does this mean your status has been upgraded to sugar daddy?” Pedro drawled, not fazed in the least.
“Really? There wasn’t a bigger car you could rent?”
