The Last to Know

by Michel Prince

  “Cattle mom. There’s a difference.”

  “And yet, you abandoned the hard work involved with cattle.”

  “What can I say, I’m your son. Abandoning responsibilities is genetic.”

  Grandma Dorothy pursed her lips.

  Instantly, Savannah felt the chill she always had when she somehow got caught in the middle of personal issues.

  “Why don’t I help you pack up your father’s things?” Grandma Dorothy offered. “It’s overdue and we need to clean out and move on.” Her hand went up to silence dear old Uncle Patty.

  Once in the room, Savannah looked around at what were her father’s things. Having no attachment to any of it, tossing in the trash seemed the best option. What was she supposed to gleam from an old concert T with the sleeves cut off? That her father once saw the Ramones in Dallas? Flipping the shirt over, she wondered if a date was on it. That could be where he met her mother. Now, the investigative side of her she never utilized came alive. It wasn’t that she didn’t love a good mystery now and then, but in books or movies, not real life. The few times she’d been curious as a child it ended in disappointment. Her mother would shut down completely when it came to talk of her father or anything family really. The locked box in her mother’s closet had always proved tricky. Savannah wondered if her mother even had the key anymore.

  “Ugh,” Grandma Dorothy said as she reached for the shirt. “I’m surprised that didn’t walk out of the room by itself. I swear washing it was a sin to him.” Taking the shirt, she lovingly folded it before placing it on the corner of the bed. “Funny, now I don’t want to get rid of it.” Tears crested the edge of Grandma Dorothy’s eyes before spilling over her cheeks. She wiped feverously before heading to the closet. “When I left, it was always fine because Connie was here. Being the one taking care of the home and kids. It wasn’t fair, I know, but still he was so responsible.” Her face blanched as she looked over at Savannah.

  She shrugged. “He didn’t know about me. The last thing I would do is blame him for my mom not contacting him.”

  “You sure that’s what happened?”

  “Seems that way. My mom said she just told him a few months ago.”

  “Just in time to add you the will,” Uncle Patty sneered making both women turn. “Strange, how my brother was murdered by one of his hands and now you show up. Who do you work for?”

  “No one right now,” Savannah confessed as a jolt of rage tore through her body. “I never knew the sperm donor who lived here—”

  “And still you’re ready to take his home and do what?”

  Uncle Patty’s cold glare ate at Savannah as her defenses went into overdrive.

  “Sell it off to the company that probably had him killed?” He continued to glare at her.

  “Was he killed by a farm hand or some corporation set on obtaining land through out the world, starting with Butt Fuck, New Mexico?” Savannah shook her head. “I heard he’d been killed, not the details. Why he set up a trust for me I’ll never know. But according to Dean this is my farm now.”

  “I have my own lawyer little girl,” Uncle Patty leaned close to her. “I can get that shit thrown out and this will be for me and mine.”

  “Yours being who?” Aunt Teddy asked as she walked in with a baby on her hip.

  “You know what I mean!”

  “Not really, and it’s not like Connie had terminal brain cancer when he set up the trust. In his mind, she was his and it’s not for you to question that.” Aunt Teddy passed the baby to Savannah.

  She remembered briefly from last night but couldn’t place the baby’s name. She wished she could just make all these new family members wear ID badges.

  “Take Mindy for me will you.” Teddy went to the closet and started to pull out the clothes on the hangers. “Let’s make three piles, donate, toss and keep.”

  Savannah held the baby at arm’s length.

  Mindy was a cutie with wisps of blonde hair and bow lips. Her cheeks were round enough to have her mistaken for a marshmallow man. Today, she was wearing a cute light blue dress with daisies on it. Her legs kicked as they hung in the air.

  Savannah knew she was supposed to do something. Had these people not figured out family was a foreign concept to her yet?

  Mindy wasn’t scared of her at least. Instead of squirming and flipping out, she blew bubbles and giggled.

  Savannah tried to copy her aunt’s action and brought her to her hip. The baby sat there with a leg on either side of her as if she weren’t petrified of being dropped. “You’re crazy kid,” she whispered and Mindy let out an excited squeal.

  “She likes you,” Grandma Dorothy noted. “Not used to babies are you?”

  “Glad one of you figured it out,” Savannah said as she tried to pass Mindy off to her.

  Grandma Dorothy held her hands up in refusal. “She’s a good one to practice on. Her temperament is like Patty’s before he hit puberty.”

  “That’s right,” Aunt Teddy called as she poked her head out of the closet. “He was human once.”

  “You all are fools, when’s Bobbie coming? She’ll side with me.” Patty fumed.

  “Bobbie and Kelly called me last night,” Teddy said. “They couldn’t get away from work.”

  “Great, so I’ll be the only voice of reason.”

  “If that’s what you call it,” Teddy called. “Why don’t you get out of here, we have work to do and you’re not known for that.”

  “I have to talk to my lawyer anyway.” Uncle Patty stormed out of the room.

  “Ignore him,” Grandma Dorothy said. “This is your ranch now. Do with it what you want.”

  “This doesn’t feel right.” Savannah hiked Mindy up higher on her hip. “If I’m going to be any help I’ll need to put her down.”

  “If my husband doesn’t come get the dang kids soon, they’ll end up being raised by wolves I swear.” Teddy came out of the closet and took Mindy before leaving the room. “Marshall come get your sister.”

  “This isn’t on you,” Grandma Dorothy calmly stated as she stood by her daughter passing off her youngest to her oldest. “And you’re not alone.”

  “We should’ve stayed and helped him,” Teddy sniffed. “It wasn’t right, him getting us through school only to abandon him.”

  “Then it’s on me.” Grandma Dorothy held her hand to her chest. “And I’m here to clean up.”

  Savannah’s shoulders shifted in and she tried to not feel like she was invading. She should leave, that she knew. This was a family. A real one, not one from TV. No matter what her DNA said, she wasn’t part of it. A loud noise made her turn.

  A box fell in the closet and pictures spilled all over the floor. From the middle of the pile, she saw her mother staring up at her. Two pictures with a tear on the bottom as if there had been four like from a photo booth. Kneeling down, she picked up the picture of her mother from high school with Connie. He was kissing her cheek and she had the biggest smile Savannah had ever seen on her face. The next picture had the two of them kissing. Flipping it over, there were three words in smeared blue ink. Katia, my heart.

  * * * *

  “Hey Clay,” a familiar voice called.

  Clay was leaving church with his arm locked around his MeMaw’s. It was a respect more than need thing. His grandma was far from one to need help.

  Hope approached the two of them with her normal beautiful smile. “Hello Mrs. Long, good to see you on this most holiest of days.”

  “Blessings to you Hope,” MeMaw said as she sighed a bit while they stopped in the parking lot. “How are those wild children in the schoolhouse?”

  “No worse than your grandsons.” Hope Matthews was the type of girl Clay was expected to bring home, well minus the white factor. With blonde hair smoothed back into a perfect bun, lilac sweater set and khaki color skirt, all of which hid a body created for sin. “Do you think you could spare this one for a few minutes?” She motioned to Clay.

  “Only a few minutes.” MeM
aw let out a light chuckle. “You kids aren’t doing things right.” Her wrinkled hand patted Clay’s forearm before heading off to where Tina had the kids running in circles with their friends.

  The church parking lot was a very public place for Hope to speak to Clay. She tended to have their encounters in private.

  Shit, maybe Sunny was right, she might just be wanting more than to taste what she considered a bad boy before settling down. “How can I help you Ms. Matthews?” Clay asked, still unsure of her intentions.

  “Why so formal?” she replied as her dark brown eyes turned to the parking lot and her cheeks blushed an adorable shade of pink. “I think we know each other well enough to use our Christian names.”

  “Your daddy is giving me the same look he did when we were in high school.”

  The slightly obese Turner Matthews was attempting to not be rude to a person shaking his hand and talking him up while shooting Clay the look of the overprotective deacon.

  Clay shook his head. “He’s been pissed off since sophomore year at me.”

  “You’re lucky there isn’t cowboy hunting season, or your head would hold a place between those two bucks on the wall.”

  “If there was cowboy hunting, something tells me you’d of caught me first,” he retorted and he wasn’t kidding.

  “I think you should take me to lunch.”

  “Do you now?” Clay replied with a raised eyebrow. “And what exactly would that entail?”

  “A proper lunch Clay Long,” Hope explained as she locked her arm through his and began walking toward his truck.

  Melody nudged Sunshine who gave then a knowing look.

  It’s not that Clay didn’t enjoy Hope and the whole whiter the lace, darker the leather theory had yet to be proven with her. But her coming to him in front of God and everyone was a declaration, not an attempt to piss off her daddy, even though it appears she was.

  Clay was an heir and she’d hinted more than once her daddy’s issue with him was more about him standing her up for the homecoming dance and not because of his reputation. Hell, no matter what a Prince of England did while sowing his wild oats, no father would deny his daughter the right to be a princess. “I’ve decided that we have come to an age where we need to stop this sneaking off for a few stolen kisses. It is time for us to date properly.”

  “Have you now?” Clay tried to stifle his laughter as he opened the driver’s side door to his truck and uncurled Hope’s arm from his. Sure, he’d kissed her a few times, but they were were far from star-crossed lovers. “Any other monumental decision about you and I…I should know about?”

  “I heard tell, your brother was getting married.”

  “The rumor has floated on down from his new property in Minnesota.”

  “Well, you’re the only Long unhitched. Doesn’t that worry you?”

  “That’s not entirely true. Miles and Monty aren’t even dating anyone and Melody is a long way from truly saddling Sunshine Parker.”

  “I’m not one to gossip and I’d hate to speak out of turn, but we both know Melody and Sunshine will be married not long after JT.” Hope had wedged herself between the truck door and where Clay had sat on the driver’s seat. Standing between his legs, so he just had to place a hand on each hip and wasn’t that just her plan. “I’m teaching, you’re ranching. Why not finally move this forward?”

  “Hope—”

  She placed a finger over his lips. “Let’s talk about it over lunch.”

  “Clay,” Walt barked after loading everyone into the SUV he’d been forced to buy since he bred like a damn rabbit. “Family meeting.”

  “I get to come?” Clay asked like a ten-year-old being asked to sit at the grown up table. “Sorry Hope, duty calls.”

  “How ‘bout dinner then? You can take me to the supper club, then maybe a movie if you get lucky.”

  “These meetings go long.”

  “I won’t take no for an answer,” she stated plainly, and damned if he didn’t know that to be a fact.

  Chapter Four

  Savannah woke to an empty house. How that had happened she would never know. Maybe they all went out to work in the barns. Whatever the reason, she was happy to have a moment to wander the home and take in what was hers now.

  Teddy had tossed the garbage from her dad’s room and loaded her car up with stuff to be donated.

  Savannah did remember her saying something about a church. Could be, she just ran into town for a few hours to dump it. The picture of Savannah’s mother and father was now prominent, under Teddy’s insistence, in the room. Tucked between the wood and glass mirror of the dresser to hold it in place. Very few pictures survived from when her mother was young.

  Coming over as an exchange student from Italy, her parents disowned her when she got pregnant and her host family wasn’t sure what to do with her either. Although, they helped her get citizenship when Savannah arrived, Katia was on her own.

  Grandma Dorothy pieced together what had happened the best she could. “I bet that’s when Connie went to college for a bit. Oh dear Lord, it’s my fault. I couldn’t stay in this house a second longer and I called him home for a weekend at fall break. When I took off, he stayed to help raise the kids. I bet he was so overwhelmed, he just didn’t know which way was up.”

  Her mother never acted as if her father had abandoned her. Instead, she said he was a passing thing that never stuck. It wasn’t like her mom had a cell phone or way for him to reach her. Even if he had tried to contact her, she’d been on her own and her host family lost track of her the moment their required time expired.

  Blame wasn’t in Savannah’s nature, it required too much effort and energy. She tended to move on and if something hurt her…run away.

  Digging through the duffle bag of clothes, she’d brought in the house she pulled out a fresh outfit and headed to the shower. At least that she had all to herself. The master bathroom was enough for her to wash away the strangeness of this new place before setting forth on her day.

  After her shower, she found herself wandering through the house, finally locating some tea bags and made herself a cup of mint tea. The bags were in a tin on the counter and she wondered if her father drank it. Seemed strange discovering things about a man she’d never really been interested in, but that was on her mother, who didn’t want to dig up the past.

  With a warm mug in hand, she found herself out on the porch and soon, walking through the barn. A horse snorted, startling her and she gripped the mug tighter. He was pretty, at least she assumed it was male. No reason to get personal with the chestnut horse with a white nose. It whinnied and she approached, as he stuck his head out of his stall. She ran her hand down his nose from between his ears to right before the wet open holes were. “You’re not so scary are you? You gonna be nice to me?” she asked.

  “Don’t get attached.” Uncle Patty’s voice ruined her peaceful morning as he came in with a fresh bale of hay and plopped it outside the horses stall.

  “Because he’s not mine.”

  “She’s,” he corrected. “Probably gonna be put down soon.”

  “Why?” Savannah balked. She didn’t look sick.

  “The cattle are being taken off to be killed in the morning because of the contamination. Maggie here is probably going to follow.” Patty actually looked upset as he scratched her between the ears and she nuzzled against his chest. “Not saying she should be, she’s been a good horse, but there’s no way she’s not full of that shit they used when they fracked. Oh well, one more thing to add to the lawsuit.”

  “Is that the one against me or that gas company?”

  “That depends. You sure you don’t work for them.”

  “Yes, why do you think I would? I don’t even know who or what they are.”

  “The fucker that killed my brother worked for them. They had him pose as a worker here. Even convinced one of our best hands, someone we grew up with to vouch for him. So, my trust level for strangers are hovering in the negatives r
ight now. You got that?”

  Savannah nodded and walked to the back end of the barn. There was a line of coffee mugs on a shelf, so she added hers to the line. A few had a tea bag hanging over the lip.

  “Savannah, can you grab all those mugs,” Aunt Teddy said as she walked into the barn. “I’ve been meaning to bring those all in to wash them. I wonder if your dad just bought new ones all the time.”

  Uncle Patty had gone into Maggie’s stall and was spreading out the fresh bedding.

  There had to be over a dozen, but Savannah gathered them all since they were empty around her locked fingers. More cleaning out and getting rid of the memory of her father. This one stung a bit, since they both seemed to like mint tea. Then again, so did millions of others and she wouldn’t be rebuffed in any way to not have them in her life.

  “When you leaving Patty?” Teddy asked as she rested her arms on the door to the stall.

  “I’m heading out in about an hour.”

  Savannah hoped it would be for good, but her luck couldn’t have suddenly changed that way. Nope, not in the least.

  Walking out of the barn, she saw a police car pulling up and she stopped in her tracks. A natural reaction for her, although it’d been years since she’d gotten more than a speeding ticket from a cop. Misspent youth and all had her trusting the police as much as good old Uncle Patty trusted strangers. Gathering herself, she resumed walking and found her way to the house as an officer got out of the car. No lights, no sirens, no reason to be on edge.

  “Hey there,” the cop called. “You must be the long lost Winston.”

  “Savannah Georgio, not quite ready for the whole name change thing.”

  “I’m Bertrum Rust, Sherriff around these parts,” he said as he rested his hands on his duty belt. He was taller, at least six feet tall and appeared to only be in his thirties with a square jaw and smooth shaven face.

  “Sherriff Rust,” Savannah said. “I’d shake your hand, but as you can see.” She held up the handful of mugs “Aren’t you a bit young to be a Sherriff?”