by Kate Morris
“Whoa, hardcore treachery,” Cory teases.
Simon scowls at him. “Unlike you, I’m not as practiced at it.”
“Touché, bro,” he jokes. “Hey, I was wondering if I could show you something.”
“I’ve seen it, and it’s not that impressive,” Simon razzes.
Cory laughs loudly. “Oh, man, there are so many legit burns I could smack you with right now, but I’ll restrain myself.”
“Good idea,” Simon warns, not wanting to hear anything about Paige if that’s where he was going with that. “What do you want to show me? Your six pack again? You know, we do have a plethora of t-shirts in the laundry room for anyone to use.”
“Nah, I don’t want to make you jealous,” Cory says. Then he adds as he looks around to make sure he isn’t overheard, “Come with me.”
They walk out of the barnyard and through the pasture to the west field. Then Cory climbs the fence and takes the path out into the woods.
“Where are we going? I’m rather busy today,” Simon informs him.
“Whatever you’re doing, it can wait,” Cory says over his shoulder. “This can’t.”
They walk for probably less than a half mile and come to a stop in a short ravine. It’s further west than they normally run on patrols, but still on Herb’s property.
“Bringing me out here to murder me?” Simon asks.
Cory faces him and says, “The exact opposite, actually.”
Simon shoots him a puzzled look.
“You know I’m in love with Paige,” he starts.
This does nothing to make him feel better, so he frowns.
“You’re my best friend, man,” Cory says and looks directly at Simon. “I don’t want you to hate me forever. What happened with Paige wasn’t planned. Hell, Si, after Emma, I didn’t think I’d ever let myself even care about anyone that deeply again. I love Kelly and Hannah and little Mary, but I left. Remember?”
Simon nods, recalling how terrible that had made him feel when his best friend left. Remembering Em also hurts. She was like a little sister to him.
“It didn’t bother me, leaving,” he says. “I just did it. I really didn’t even think it through. I just split. I had to work out some of that shit I was feeling.”
“Did it work?” he asks, wondering if he should do the same where Samantha is concerned. With his luck, he’d return, and she’d be married to Henry and have three kids. Leaving now is probably not a wise decision.
Cory nods with a hard frown and swallows, “Yeah. Yeah, man, it did. I had to do that. There was no way I could be around anyone for a while. I was…unhinged. I just wanted to kill people and make them hurt. I took out my anger on every asshole I came across. Back then, if I would’ve come across the highwaymen, they’d already be dead. Most of what I did- now that I can look back on it and reflect with more responsibility- was really stupid and probably too reckless. But I just wanted to inflict some pain on creeps who hurt people.”
Simon scowls but not with disapproval. If something happened to Paige like that, he’d want to hurt people, too. If something like that happened to Sam, he’d want to kill himself instead.
“Leaving the family, Kelly, and even you wasn’t hard for me, though. I knew I had to. I couldn’t stay, not in the messed up state I was in. I would’ve just resented everyone and starting blaming everyone for something that was nobody’s fault but my own.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Cor,” Simon puts in quickly only to get a sad, lopsided expression that almost resembles a smile. It certainly doesn’t reach his eyes, though. Simon can tell his friend still carries the weight of his sister’s death on his conscience, which is unfair to him.
“When I came back, I felt a small bit of relief, but I was definitely not all the way back yet. Hell, I probably still have a long way to go, truth be told.”
“That’s completely understandable.”
He feels a lot of sympathy for what Cory has been through. He lost his parents just like Simon, but he also lost his baby sister. She literally died a violent death in his arms. Simon still blames himself for her death to this day because of his inadequate medical training at the time. He probably always will.
“What I’m saying is that it wasn’t hard to leave the family,” Cory says.
This is confusing him as to Cory’s intent. He narrows his eyes trying to figure him out.
“I could never leave Paige,” Cory finally says after a long pause. “Never.”
This hits Simon hard. He hadn’t expected this turn in the conversation. He thought perhaps his friend had found new evidence in the woods regarding Shorty’s murder or had some twelve-point buck he’d spotted and wanted to show him. This is not what he figured Cory wanted to talk about.
He shrugs and shakes his head, “Sorry, man. I know that’s not what you want to hear from me, but it’s my truth. You have a right to know. Paige is…she’s just everything to me.”
Simon gives a short nod and looks at his shoes trying to decide how he should feel about this.
“I’ll never betray her,” he tells him. “I won’t. You have my word on that. I’d look after her the rest of our lives.”
Simon looks up to find Cory’s direct gaze on him.
“If…if something happens tomorrow, if one of us is killed, you in this instance, I’d like your permission to marry her. I don’t have anyone else to ask. I kind of look at you as Paige’s father-figure since your dad’s gone. I know you feel the same way about her. I know you feel obligated to protect her and take care of her, and I respect that. But if you’re killed tomorrow, I don’t think I could ever be with her without having your permission. I need that. I need to know I’ve got your consent.”
The weight of his request is like ten-ton stone boulders on his shoulders.
“I love her, brother,” Cory confesses in a softer tone. “Come with me.”
He turns to go again, surprising Simon. It felt like Cory wanted some sort of answer from him right then and there. He follows as Cory climbs a path that seems well-trodden and descends down the other side. What Simon sees could not be more shocking if a unicorn was standing there.
Cory turns and hits him with a roguish, brilliant smile and leads the way.
“What do you think?” his friend asks.
“What is this?” Simon asks of the small white cottage in the clearing of forest. It is nestled at the bottom of the hill, backdropped by woods and hills on all four sides with a bubbling brook behind it.
“A while back, months actually, I saw your sister’s architectural sketchpad lying open, and I took a peek. She’s always drawing stuff for the town, so I thought I’d see what she was working on. It was this, though. Well, sort of.”
Simon looks at him confusedly.
Cory gives a one-shoulder shrug and explains, “She’d drawn a white cottage by the ocean on the sand.” He chuckles nervously. “She said it was her dream home. I figured I couldn’t give her the ocean, but I found this stream. I thought it might be nice to sit on the porch and listen to it while she reads or sketches.”
Simon shoves his hands into the pockets of his khakis.
“Come on. You wanna’ see the inside?”
“Sure,” he returns and follows his friend, who is excited to show him.
He steps up onto the porch, notes the two white-washed rockers sitting there, and goes through the door. It is small, probably around six-hundred square feet in size total, and obviously doesn’t have electricity. There is still enough daylight to see around, though.
A small dining table and two chairs sit near a window to his right. Kitchen cabinets cover the back and side walls beyond the dining area. A narrow stone fireplace is on the opposite one.
“Plumbing?” Simon asks, noting the farmhouse porcelain sink.
“Still working on that,” he says sheepishly. “Looted a lot of the plumbing and whatnot from the home improvement stores on runs.”
“I wondered why you wanted cabinet pulls and doorknobs,” Simon conf
esses.
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to keep this a secret.”
“Does anyone else know?”
“Kel,” he answers. “He’s been helping when he can. We measured the spaces where we wanted windows and removed them from one of the houses over in Jay’s old part of town. The houses over there were brand new, so I figured they would be energy-efficient.”
“Yes, I’m sure they are,” he admits, looking around at his friend’s ingenuity. “Nice floors.”
“Yeah, got the hardwoods from a house in Sam’s old neighborhood. There were a few that hadn’t flooded.”
“Light fixtures?” Simon asks, looking at the small crystal chandelier hanging in the middle of the room.
“Haven’t finished the solar panels on the roof yet, but I think we could have electric here, at least most of the day,” he explains.
Instead of drywall, Cory has hung aged barnwood siding, some of which he has painted. Simon runs a hand over the smooth wall closest to him.
“Got some of that from the pile of wood in the equipment shed and some from a barn down the street.”
“Looks good. Rustic.”
“Thanks. Pulling all the old nails was the thing that took the longest,” Cory says.
“Running water?”
“Gonna harvest from the creek out front,” he says. “I’ve got a pump that will run off the solar and a tankless heater, too. Surprising what you can find when you’re doing a reno project now. Guess other people are too busy just surviving.”
Simon inclines his head at his friend’s joke but doesn’t laugh.
“Here, come on,” Cory says with childlike enthusiasm. “Let me show you the bedrooms.”
He follows him and discovers a master bedroom with the same hardwood floors and another crystal chandelier. There is even a bed with a mattress in the room and a blue and gray quilt. A nightstand rests on either side of the spacious bed.
“I made the headboard and the furniture in the dining room. Haven’t got around to much else. Found the bedding at a store. Evie sewed the quilted patches on it. She said it’s a pattern called the wedding rings quilt.”
“I think I’d leave that part out,” Simon tells him. “About Evie Johnson.”
Cory smiles nervously and shows him the next bedroom, which is much smaller, obviously meant for a child.
“I want this to be Tessa’s room,” he confesses of the room that is decorated in pinks and yellows and has pretty bedding a young girl might like. Somewhere Cory has even picked up a few toys for her and must have made her a few out of wood, as well.
“Tessa? The little girl in town?”
“Yeah, I’m going to adopt her. I’ve already discussed it with Herb. I feel like she’d do better here with us.”
This blows Simon’s mind. He hadn’t expected any of this. First, the love confession about Paige, hitting him with the bad memory bombs of Emma, and now adoption?
“Wow,” Simon says softly.
“The bathroom’s down here,” he says and squeezes past Simon out of the room again and leads him to the end of the hall.
There is, indeed, a bathroom. A clawfoot tub, a sink, and toilet. A small round window with leaded glass is above the tub and lets in a substantial amount of late afternoon sunlight.
“Salvaged it from an old mansion in Coopertown,” he admits about the tub.
“Looks heavy,” Simon says.
“Yeah, Jett wasn’t too happy about having to haul it out here for me.”
“You put it on the back of your horse?”
“No!” Cory says with an outraged laugh. “I used him to drag it on a tarp and skid.”
Simon nods, “That makes more sense.”
“Yeah, that was no picnic,” he confesses with a smile.
“Where’d you get white paint?”
Cory just smiles. “Little here. Little there.”
He leads him back to the porch and sits in one of the rockers and encourages Simon to do the same.
“Smooth motion,” Simon praises the rocker.
“Thanks,” Cory returns.
They sit a moment listening to the water gurgling down the stream as the sun trickles through the trees.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Simon finally asks.
Cory shrugs and says, “I wanted you to know how I feel about her, and I didn’t think I could just tell you and have you believe me.”
Simon nods thoughtfully. “You built my sister a house?”
Cory looks at and says, “Yeah, I guess I did. I want her to be happy.”
“She said she doesn’t want to be with you.”
He chuckles before saying, “I know. I’m hoping this changes her mind.”
“It might not,” Simon tells him quietly as Damn Dog trots up to the porch from wherever she must’ve been.
Cory pets her head and replies, “I know. It’s a chance I’m willing to take. If she still doesn’t want me, she can have the house.”
Simon resumes rocking, thinking about what his friend has lain at his feet.
“I don’t want this without your blessing, brother,” Cory says. “I would’ve asked her father if he were still alive.”
“If he was still alive, we wouldn’t even be here.”
“True, but I want to do this the right way.”
Simon nods and stands. He walks over to a post holding up the porch roof. Cory joins him.
“Fine,” Simon says and looks at his friend. “I’ll give you my blessing, Cory.”
“Really?” he exclaims as if he was nervous about the answer Simon might give.
“Yes, you can ask her,” Simon offers and extends his hand.
Cory immediately takes his hand and shakes it firmly. Then he laughs loudly with joy and pulls Simon in for a tight hug. It’s hard because he wants to stay mad at Cory for what he did, but he has more than repented for the wrong he’s done. His sister and Cory both deserve to be happy, and if they can find it together, then Simon will, in turn, be happy for them. They were best friends. It has been difficult not hanging out with him and instead carrying around with him anger toward his best friend.
“Thanks, man,” Cory says as he pulls back.
“I still don’t think you should get your hopes up, Cor,” Simon tells him with a slight frown. “Paige doesn’t want to get married. She’s said it many times.”
“I know, brother,” Cory says. “But I’m not gonna give up.”
“When are you going to do it?”
Cory sighs. “Well, I’m hoping I make it through this fight to do it. I just wanted your approval. I’m not sure, so don’t tell her, ok?”
“I wouldn’t.”
Cory nods, “I know you wouldn’t. Soon. I’ll do it soon. Let’s just get through these next few days.”
“Try not to get yourself killed,” Simon tells him as they begin the trek back to the house. “That’ll be a good first step.”
“Yeah, I’ll try,” Cory says with a smirk.
His dog, ever the idiot, starts yipping at Cory’s heels. She even runs around him twice in a tight circle.
“What’s her deal?” Simon asks.
“Probably wants to run. I haven’t been running with her lately.”
“You’re gonna get fat before you even get married,” Simon warns.
Cory sends him a sly look, entreating him to a race back to the farm. Simon beats him to the punch and takes off, following Damn Dog.
Cory laughs loud enough to raise the dead and passes him going up a steeper hill when Simon slips. He easily catches back up.
“Dog!” Cory yells sharply and skids to a stop going down the other side.
His German shepherd takes off to the left through some weeds and thick brush. She keeps barking spastically.
“Damn dog,” Cory curses under his breath.
“Aptly named apparently,” Simon teases.
Cory looks at him and says, “She never does this.”
“Come on. We’ll find her before we
head back. We’re gonna need to get going soon,” Simon informs him. “Besides, her not listening is getting you ready for fatherhood.”
“Right,” Cory says with a chuff.
They both call out to her as they jog. Simon can hear her off in the distance yipping and barking. He speeds up, wanting to be back in time to help out with chores before he gets his rifle ready for tonight.
Finally catching up to her, Simon spots her first near a thick oak tree barking and whining. She paws at the ground and barks.
“Idiot,” Cory reprimands as they draw near. “Probably got a coon cornered or something.”
When they round the tree, Simon instantly knows the dog does not have a raccoon cornered.
“Jesus!” Cory says, as startled as him. “What the hell? Is that…”
“Yes, it’s Raj,” Simon answers about Robert’s soldier who went back to the base with Parker.
The dead man has a single bullet wound to the skull and has been out here at least a few days by the appearance of decay and the stench. Simon actually has to hold down bile.
“We need to get back,” Cory tells him.
“Yes, the others need to know,” Simon agrees with a nod.
“Damn Dog, come!” Cory says firmly, to which his dog finally complies with a whine of distress.
“Cory,” Simon says to catch his attention as the farm comes into view again. His friend looks at him. “I don’t think we should tell everyone. Maybe just a few.”
“Who are you trying to eliminate from being told?”
He shakes his head, “Not sure. Just a hunch. Something strange is going on. I don’t think things are as good in Robert’s clan as they claimed.”
“Or was this the highwaymen?”
“No, I don’t think this is from them. I don’t think they had anything to do with this.”
“Yeah, probably not,” Cory agrees, bobbing his head. “We tell only the adults in the immediate family. That’s it. The less who know, the better. Derek can make the call after that.”
“And not anyone else. Especially not Robert’s men. If one of them is picking the others off for some reason, we don’t want them to know we found the other body.”
“Agreed,” Cory says as they climb the fence again and jog toward the house.
Assembling everyone without Robert’s men, especially Parker, will be difficult. However, Simon is afraid it could be imperative. If someone on or near the McClane farm is killing people, they need to keep the information of their discovery from getting around to too many people. Now he’s more concerned to leave the farm than over the impending battle tonight.
