by Mia Ford
“Ah . . . Isaac needs someone to help him back on the right track.”
I tilt my head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“He needs a friend. I don’t think he has a friend in the city. I know that he has no one. He doesn’t even drive to work because he drinks too much in the morning. I was surprised that he made it this far without having a drink.”
“Wow, it’s that bad Neil?”
He nods, “That bad. But I think that you can help him.”
“Neil,” I smile. “Is that some hint?
Neil chuckles, “Well, you know that old saying, ‘if the shoe fits, wear it.’ He’s going to move back to the ranch for a while. I was hoping you would help me keep him busy when he’s here so he doesn’t feel the need to drink so much.”
“Neil!”
“No, no I don’t mean anything improper. Just go riding with him. Get him using the swimming pool again. Maybe get him to teach you to shoot pool.”
“Of course, Neil I’ll love to do that. The truth is I get sort of lonely here on the ranch. I always end up doing everything alone when you’re out with your friends.”
“I noticed that. Are they still treating you as if we’re an item?”
I nod my head.
Neil starts to slowly eat his chicken and says, “Well maybe it’s better if you move to the cottage at the back of the house. I just hated coming home to an empty home before, but since I’ve started being a bit sociable. I don’t mind it so much. Especially if Neil moves in.”
“Why should we make changes so that people don’t talk?”
He sighs, “Because we live in a small town. As much as we can say that they should mind their own business. I don’t want you to be lonely and unhappy anymore. I want you to have a social life and friends other than Autumn and me.”
“And Isaac?” I chime in.
“Yes, that’s all I ask. Just be his friend, he could do with one.”
I nod and change the subject, “Isaac doesn’t know what a great meal he’s missing especially the chicken sauce.”
It’s as though Neil has become my surrogate father. I enjoy meals with him. He’s always so calm and pleasant. The memories of my father at the dinner table are not so pleasant.
“Oh, I forgot to ask how Autumn is doing?”
“Neil, she is the love of my life since you gave her to me. I love riding her around the ranch.”
“When Isaac comes back then maybe you guys could go out for rides. He loves riding Buckskin.’
“Sounds good, I can’t wait for him to move in.”
He abruptly stops eating and says “Sorry, I can’t eat another bite, Olivia. I’ve had an emotional day. I’m going to head up for a bit and read, then take a nap. Thanks for keeping an old man company at lunch.”
“You don’t have to thank me. It’s my pleasure.”
Isaac’s a hottie. I bet he doesn’t have problems attracting beautiful women in Houston. I look forward to spending some time with him.
“Expect nothing, and you’ll never get hurt,” Mom used to say to me. I’ll take her words to heart when it comes to Neil. I’ll try to keep him distracted if that’s what Neil wants and besides it’s the least I can do for him. He’s given me a home and a job. Besides I could do with some company, even if it just happens to be a hottie like Isaac.
Chapter 3
Isaac
I wake up with a killer hangover. I must have got up at least three times during the night to pee. Every time I kept thinking about the old man and what he wanted me to do. Fucking, marry some girl that I don’t even know. What?
So, that she’ll either kill herself or even worse just end up dying of some disease. That’s the trait in our family, which is why it’s only granddad and I left. The rest are all gone and buried, which is why I drowned myself in work. That was the only way to get rid of the pain. Not thinking or feeling anything, just working until that day. The time that nothing could take away that pain, that’s when I found my relief. The one thing that helped me make it through the day and that was to get drunk.
There’s a knock on my bedroom door. I’m in my room in darkness. Just the way I like it, because I just need to be alone.
“What?”
I blurt out thinking that it can’t be my cleaner or my maid. I told both of them to take the week off. I thought that somehow the old man would see things my way and I’ll be at the office all week. The last thing I expected him to do was move me in for three months with some girl that he has working on the ranch.
“It’s Trevor. I’ve been sent to pick you up.”
Shit, if he sent you to wipe my butt, would you do that too?
“Go away, Trevor.”
He doesn’t shout back, but he opens the door. “I can’t do that. I’ve been with this family before you were born. I’ve never seen you behave this way and I’ve never seen Neil so worried. You may not give a shit about it.”
Then he enters and starts drawing the curtains. Something that my mom would do if she was alive. Then again, if she was then maybe I wouldn’t be in this state.
“Now, get showered. Dressed and then we’re heading up to the ranch.”
I’m about to tell him that I don’t appreciate a driver telling me what to do. But I know that Trevor’s more than just any driver. He’s the one that saved me from finding my dad hanging himself from school. Why else would he tell me to wait outside that day? Every single day from school had been the same, apart from that one.
Granddad practically raised me, but when he had to go and work for the company again. He waited until I could take over. Trevor was the one that was picking me from college with granddad at times, most of the time with grandma. She died of cancer too. Just like the rest of them, one at a time, just dying of one thing or another.
“I’m fucking not going, not yet.”
Trevor shakes his head, “You misunderstood Isaac. I wasn’t asking you. I was fucking telling you. Now get up, go and shower. Then get in the car.”
“Who do you think you are?”
He blurts out as he practically carries me from my bed with just one hand, “I’m someone who cares. Don’t even try and start any shit with me. Get up. Shower. Get dressed and let’s go.”
“You seem to forget one thing. I have a company to run. I can’t do that if I’m on the ranch for three months.”
He nods, “So you can do that if you’re stuck in bed for days?”
I don’t know how to reply to that; he has a point. It’s not as if I’ve even called into the office to find out how things are going or anything. Shit, I don’t even know if one day has passed or two? At times, I forget to care.
“Besides Neil has someone to step in temporarily while you’re at the ranch.”
Fuck, the old man’s got it all planned, and I feel even more resentment towards him.
“Isaac, you need help. That’s all Neil wants to do. Just let us help you,” Trevor sighs, and he no longer looks frightening or as if he’s trying to overpower me. He’s trying to act as a friend.
I feel as if I’m the same teenager boy that didn’t want to do anything after dad died, as I move around him because I don’t want to look at him. Besides the daylight is hurting my eyes, my room was so much better when it was dark.
As I enter the shower and the hot water beats on my body, it makes me feel new for a few minutes. I cleanse away the sickness and addiction of my habit. The one that I’ve become accustomed to doing later just for a few moments. Trevor’s not in my room. I can see that he’s taken a couple of cases, damn he even packed.
Neil’s not the only one that’s serious about me moving to the ranch; it seems that Trevor’s taken a hand in this idea too.
As I put on my jeans and a shirt. I don’t feel like wearing a suit. I would normally to hide the man that I’ve become and puts a mask, so everyone thinks that I’m the man that I used to be. The CEO who loved his family’s company. The one that started to work at a company that had been in his fa
mily for three generations. A dream that he’d held on to for so long. Compared to the one that he’d become. The one that was a drunk all the time and couldn’t even pack his bag to go and stay at the ranch.
I nodded, to Trevor who was standing at the door ready for us to leave. I looked around my apartment, the one that the bank most likely will take in the next few weeks. I’ve defaulted on the loan for so long that I was sure that there was probably a letter of notification in the mail arriving any day now.
Fuck I needed a drink!
A stiff one, and as I entered the limo I started to raid, the bar at the back and there was nothing. I had a feeling that they would do that. Trevor would make sure that I’ll get there sober, but if he wanted to do that, then he should have checked the bag that I was carrying. The one that will make me arrive in one piece, not having withdrawn symptoms because I had my bottle in the backpack that I was carrying. This would get me to the ranch in one piece and not feel the need to rip the back of the limo to bits because I wouldn’t be desperate for a drink?
Chapter 4
Olivia
Isaac’s been here three days, and he’s still acting like a pig. I glance around the bedroom at his clothes scattered on the floor, bed, and nightstand. God, he’s lazy. He never bothers to pick them up by himself. It’s my job to clean, but his room looks like a teenager’s and not one belonging to a grown man who runs a multi-millionaire dollar empire. If he’s this unorganized at home, no wonder the company is in trouble.
Things started out so good between us! I enjoy spending time with Isaac when we go riding around the ranch with me on Autumn and him on Buckskin. On horseback, he seems like a different person, laughing and carefree. He makes me feel good. But once he’s back at the ranch, he becomes moody and finds fault in everything I do. Nothing is good enough for him. Nothing!
“Daydreaming again?” Isaac says as he walks into his bedroom. I’m picking up after him again; I do it more for Neil. I just feel bad for him, because for sure one of the cleaners will complain about Isaac’s room. I know that I would if I was paid to clean up after him.
“Yeah, I’m dreaming that you’ll learn to pick up after yourself for once!”
“You do work here, right?”
He’s deadly serious as he folds his arms and stares at me. I don’t know what planet this man comes from? When does ranch hand involve cleaning up to the owners' grandson?
“Neil pays me a good wage to look after the ranch. Not clean up after you!”
Sometimes he makes it unbearable to be around him, I’ve been biting my tongue, but if he carries on this way, then I’ll have to forget to try to be nice to him. We can keep our distance especially because I don’t live in the main house anymore.
“I want to go riding this morning,” Isaac says offhandedly.
“You aren’t going to the office today?”
That’s what he said to me yesterday when I suggested that we ride today. I wonder what changed his mind?
“Maybe this afternoon. Now, I feel like riding!”
“Sorry, I’ve got laundry to do this morning,” I’m shaking my head. I’m not going to jump every time he wants to do something. If he wants to spend the morning riding around the ranch instead of taking care of the company, that’s his business.
“Have it your way,” Isaac says stalking out of the room like a little boy that’s been told that he’s not going to be taken out for ice-cream.
What did I see in him? I think shaking my head as he walks out of the bedroom. Okay, he is handsome and has a decent body, but that isn’t enough to build a friendship on and certainly not enough to building a relationship.
I fantasized about having sex with him when he first moved back to the ranch, but my initial attraction to him is slowly and surely fading. It’s a shame too because I enjoy the time we spent together riding and swimming. I’ve even come to enjoy him giving me pool lessons, but I still can’t make a decent shot to save my life.
Isaac storms out of the room, and I do the same. I’m going to let Gloria, the cleaner or Harriet the maid see his room. Let them sort it out. Neil said to keep Isaac company, not be his slave.
***
I head to the laundry room, wondering if maybe I was too harsh on Isaac? He’s a grown man, but he has the tendency to act like a big kid. I can’t get over the way he switches when we’re on the ranch and then it dawns on me.
When we’re not on the ranch, he’s not drinking. That’s the real Isaac and then as soon as we get back he hits the bottle like a duck to water, and that’s when the horrible side. The part that I hate starts to reveal like an onion, the more layers you peel, the more it makes you cry. He says nasty things and even at one time demanded that I fucking clean his boots because he thought that Ron, the other hand who cleans the boots had stolen his last pair. He insisted on me cleaning them and then we discovered that Isaac had taken them up to his room. God, he gets paranoid when he drinks.
I didn’t even notice that Neil’s poking his head into the laundry room.
“Hey, Olivia, I see Isaac’s not going to work this morning?”
“No, he said he didn’t have any appointments until this afternoon, and he felt like taking Buckskin out for a ride,” I explain, but I have a feeling that Neil already knows the answer to his question.
Neil slowly shakes his head. “That’s his problems. He does only what he has to do! He doesn’t put enough of himself into running the business. Not like before. He hasn’t even asked me who I put in his place while he’s here. It’s as if he’s not interested in it anymore. Maybe I should just think about putting him in rehab and forget about him going back to the office.”
Neil takes a deep breath, “Sorry to unload on you like this; I don’t know what’s got into him. I’ve hidden all the drink in the ranch. And I think that he’s got someone buying him some, because sometimes at night it’s clear that he’s drunk.”
“At least we’re on the same page about that.”
“You’ve noticed it too?”
I nod my head because I feel as if I should have spoken to Neil sooner, but Isaac’s only been here three days. It’s not as if he was going to change over night.
“An old saying comes to mind, and it seems to apply to him.”
“What saying is that?” I ask thinking that maybe I can be of more use to Neil and try and get Isaac away from his bad habit or disease as they call it.
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”
We both smile and laugh, just at the irony of him thinking of an old saying about Isaac drinking.
“I haven’t seen you smiling much lately. How is it going between you and Isaac? If I may ask?”
“It’s not going,” I admit. “I try, but if I get too close, he seems to lash out at me.” I shrug. “I’m not sure if he even likes me or thinks of me as a human being or just some servant?”
“Oh, I believe he does,” Neil says. “Maybe he won’t admit it. But I think he does. When he comes back from riding, he’s briefly his old self. Then he starts drinking and goes into the new Isaac, the one that I’ve become accustomed to hating lately,” he crosses his arms and leans back on the machine. Luckily, I never started one of them. I was too busy thinking about Isaac and maybe allowing him to take advantage of my kind nature.
“Neil, I’ve tried. I have tried, but I don’t know if I want to bother with him anymore. I’ve been more than fair to him. But I give, and he just takes,” I need to tell him the truth. That enough is enough. I know that Neil’s my boss, but I have to draw the line somewhere.
“Olivia, there’s something that I haven’t told you,” he sighs and takes my hand, and now he’s scaring me.
“What?”
My heart is racing out of control like the old dryer, the one that Neil refuses to replace because he said that his wife loved that dryer. It was her first one, and it makes so much noise at times I think that the whole ranch is going to collapse. That’s how I feel right n
ow, as if the room’s making so much noise, but the only sound is my heart beat racing out of control.
I beg him, “Please. Tell me.”
Oh God! No!
I move away from him; I can’t breathe. The room feels so hot, and it’s as if I’m suffocating so I need to get out. I can’t lose someone else I love. I can’t take it.
“It might look like I’m in good health, but I’m not.” He pauses and takes a deep breath. “I don’t have long to live!” He says the words fast as though if he speaks generally, he won’t be able to tell me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask feeling a wave of panic swell up from the pit of my stomach.
He holds up his hands. “Olivia, I hate telling you this. You lost your parents not long ago, and I took you in. But I didn’t want to burden you with my family issues.” He starts to walk away, “I shouldn’t have told you. I’m sorry.”
I shake my head, “No Neil. I shouldn’t have asked. Maybe they’ll find a cure; maybe it’s not too late. You’re a rich man. They’re always bending over to help the rich.”
“You don’t have to worry you’ll be taken care of.”
“Neil, you think that’s bothering me? My family didn’t even bother helping me. They thought that we had money, and then they were interested, but when they learned that dad had drank it all away. They slowly took me in one-by-one. Please don’t tell me that this is the end. Neil, you mean so much to me. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t given me a job on the ranch. I owe you. And I pay my debts. Please tell me what it is I can do?”
“Help Isaac! I need to see him happy again before I go. I can’t let go knowing he’s lost his way. I need to see him in a better place. And only someone as kind and good-natured as you can help him. Olivia, do this for me.”
I feel like crying as I hug Neil, he gently strokes my hair and says, “Save your tears. It’s not over yet. As you said, there might be some hope. I just need you to help Isaac. I think that he likes you. He’s just not good at showing his feelings.”
