One Last Sunset (The Long Ranch Series Book 1)

by Prince, Michel

  Running his hand through his hair, he rolled from the bed and sat on the edge. He reached for his shirt, pulled it over his head, and tried to take a deep breath, only to get stabbed in the side. Every time he thought the ribs were just a slight ache—little more than a deep bruise—he got a sharp pain from moving and lost his breath. At least he didn’t have to wear that damn wrapping anymore. It was more of a safety precaution to avoid jostling.

  Reaching for his pain pills he dry swallowed two and hoped it would help with his stiffness. Living on an ibuprofen diet regularly, the upgrade to narcotics was the only upside of the damn injury.

  “Mornin’ mama,” he said as he kissed her cheek before flopping into a kitchen chair.

  With a snort, cough, and flush of a toilet, Sunny’s father made his way to the kitchen. “What the fuck are you doin’ here?”

  “Love you too, dad.” Retrieving a plate from the cabinet, he set it down for his mother to add a helping of scrambled eggs. Then he dug in the silverware drawer to get a butter knife to tighten the screws on the cabinet.

  His father glared at him for making the repair, but he lived here and hadn’t noticed the door was about to come off.

  Sunny wasn’t in the mood to apologize because his dad wasn’t willing to take the five seconds needed to fix it.

  His father’s hair had gotten thin at the top to add to its graying. Weather beaten skin showed his age as deep crevices outlining his lips and eyes. A hard cowboy that never had so much as a horse in his own name had made the man bitter before his time. “How long you stayin’ for?”

  “Probably five, six weeks,” Sunny replied as he leaned against the counter, not wanting to take one of the chairs at the table.

  “He’s got some bones that need to heal,” his mother said as she spooned eggs on his two plates.

  “Fight or animal?” his father grunted while taking his place at the table.

  “Animal,” Sunny explained. “Horse’s hoof got caught in the gate, knocked me cockeyed and I couldn’t recover in time.”

  “Couldn’t you of found a use for yourself with the rodeo?” his dad growled while scrambled eggs dropped from his mouth. “We aren’t a damn recovery spot for you to drop in and not contribute.”

  “JT said he’d let his brothers know I’m around and could do some light labor. I’m sure they’ll find me something.”

  “Yeah, the great and powerful Longs.” He sneered and poked his fork toward Sunny. “You know they think they’re so damn high and mighty with their damn college education. I never needed a professor to tell me how to rustle cattle into their pen or when it was knocked up. A real man works with his hands, not his head.”

  Sunny bit back his retort. He could already see his mother sitting up straighter and he was sure her stomach was doing flips in fear of another fight. Worse yet, although he didn’t want to admit it, he needed his parents right now.

  “You got any money?” his dad asked.

  “A bit I’ve saved. Why, how much do you need?”

  “I need a winning lottery ticket. But food isn’t free and last I remember you tend to eat people out of house and home.”

  “I’ll take mom shopping later and we’ll get groceries.”

  His father’s fist came down on the table, causing the plates to jump. “Goddamn it, boy, did I say I needed your charity?”

  “How about I make my self scarce? I’ll head to the ranch. You don’t work there anymore, so that should get me out of your hair.”

  “Are you sassing me, boy?” He reached to his waist as if he were wearing pants and a belt, instead of a pair of ratty boxers and a t-shirt.

  Sunshine stood straight up and locked his eyes on his father’s. Testosterone overflowed from both men as Sunshine tried to remember to respect his elders. Only the man who’d beat him for his entire childhood wasn’t the biggest man in the room anymore. The fitness centers at hotels, mixed with years of rodeoing had given Sunny a strong firm frame and arms twice the size of his father’s.

  Maybe his father sensed the difference because he turned, striking his mother across the face and sending the last of the eggs against the wall.

  Instantly, Sunny grabbed his father by the shoulders and tossed him across the small kitchen area into a tattered recliner.

  Rage filled the older Parker’s face as he lunged at Sunny. His mother screamed for them to stop, but the bipolar nature and quick temper of his father would not be squelched. There wasn’t a rhyme or reason to his attacks. They’d sent him to the hospital more than once in his youth. He wondered if his absence had started the abuse against his mother or had it always been there and he’d missed it.

  “Get the hell out of my house,” he bellowed as he rose his hand.

  Sunny caught his hand it and slam it, and his father, against the wall with a crash so hard the pictures fell.

  Without pausing to absorb the impact, his father spat out, “No one said you could come back.”

  “Please Race,” his mother cried. “He’s our boy.”

  “He ain’t never been my boy.” He strained against Sunny’s hold to no avail. “Lazy and useless since the day he was born. Staying out for days at a time.”

  “I wonder why that was,” Sunny growled. While he kept his father pinned to the wall his mother was pawing at his back.

  “Sunny, please,” she cried. “For me? Let him go.”

  The one thing Sunny hated more than anything about his father was they shared the same cool blue eyes. Focused most times, they could become dead when they wanted to hide feelings, almost gray. The blue pools of rage were dissipating and he knew his dad was tamping down his anger, even though his breathing was still labored and his face flush.

  Neither Parker could deny Sunny’s mom.

  “I’m not your punching bag anymore,” Sunny warned. “If you hit mom one more time, in my sight or not, and I’ll be more than happy to take a charge for killing you.”

  “Kill your own father? You are a Long, eating your own.”

  Sunny felt his jaw ache from the pressure of gritting his teeth. He’d been used to being his father’s favorite punching bag, but as the two men stared at each other there was a moment of vulnerability and his father turned his eyes away.

  “I need a cigarette,” he grumbled.

  Sunny released him and slammed his hand on the counter to retrieve the pack.

  “It’s almost empty,” he snarled, passing him the cigarettes. “Maybe you need to take a walk.”

  “Later,” he spat and shoved the screen door so hard it slammed against the front of the trailer before closing. His father wasn’t one to live with only one pack in the house, let alone one with only a few cancer sticks left.

  When his father stepped out, Sunny ran a rag under cold water and placed it on his mother’s face. “How long?”

  “Your father has never hit me before today,” she lied. Her reaction to the slap wasn’t one of surprise. “He’s just been so upset about losing his job.”

  “Why did he lose it?”

  “I told you, the boys are grown now.” His mom shook her head. “He’s worked there for almost twenty years and they just cut him. Walter’s been taking over and there have been a lot of changes.”

  There was no love lost between his dad and Walter, but he couldn’t imagine he fired him without cause. If nothing else Walter was a lawyer, or at least he graduated law school and wasn’t about to open himself up to a lawsuit.

  Maybe he should just avoid the ranch all together. The Longs, in their own, way ran the town. Respect and all that. If something was going on it might be best to meet them on neutral territory before approaching them. “Can the truck be fixed?”

  “Ask…” His mother took a sharp inhale of breath and used the rag to start cleaning up the eggs.

  “Stop, I’ll clean this up. What time do you go into the Hard Root?”

  “Ten,” she replied and placed her hand over her cheek. “Gotta set up and help the cook prep.”

&n
bsp; “I’ll walk you. Why don’t you go get ready?”

  His mother took his face in her hands and brought him down to kiss his forehead. “I’m glad you’re back. Your dad loves you, he really does. He’s just ashamed he didn’t become more. You know how that is. Isn’t that why you left?”

  He nodded, even though he’d of been happy staying on the ranch and working it. Sunny had been a member of the Long clan for years. When Luce had gotten sick, he spent as much time by her side nursing her as any of her sons. They accepted him without question or reservation. Come to think of it, he might have been the reason his father kept his job for all those years.

  Sunny didn’t know what to do with his day. He’d planned on going to the ranch and speaking face to face with Walt, but walking fifteen miles wasn’t on his to do list, even if shady stuff wasn’t going down on the ranch. Worse yet, he didn’t think he’d make it. Not with the heat of July in New Mexico beating down on him. Sitting all day at the Root probably wasn’t the best idea either. Then again, he did owe Carolyn an apology and maybe he could bar back for her.

  His mother had done a good job of covering up the redness surrounding her eye. The swelling couldn’t be concealed without a Hollywood special effects team. As they walked to the Hard Root, she told him about the changes in the town. The high school had made it to the quarterfinals in football, while Mr. Jenkins finally closed the five and dime shop after Wal-Mart came to town.

  “Maybe you could get a job there,” she suggested, then second guessed herself. “I guess not. Your father said cowboys don’t work there.”

  “Mom, I didn’t say it was a bad idea, but I doubt they’d hire me for six weeks.” He sighed as he held the door open for her. There was nothing in the cowboy code banning an honest day’s work after all. “It was a good suggestion. I just don’t want to stay here.”

  “Your dad tries, he really does. His dream is to be the Long’s. Have a ranch you’d work with him on.”

  “Huh,” he said and looked at the cabinets, only to see another door was hanging from the edge. “Dreams only last until you wake up.”

  * * * *

  “Melody,” Velma said as she poked her head in the lab. “There’s a woman here to see you.”

  Velma seemed visibly shaken.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “She’s—I’m assuming…” Velma wrung her hands as she tried to settle herself. “I don’t think she’s a local.”

  Mel put the semen sample back in the fridge and washed her hands before proceeding to the lobby.

  A scream greeted her as her best friend from college rushed her and caught her in a patent hug that had Mel praying for release. “Kendra,” she gasped. “Release me.”

  The larger than life in everyway friend had gotten Mel through every struggle in her college life. Although they were on similar paths Kendra was taking the long drawn out way, unlike Mel who stayed summers and had over a years worth of credits when she started college. With long braids, mahogany skin, and eyes the color of night, Kendra had always had more than enough attention to keep her distracted. “Girl, you said you came from BFE, but damn, I thought I was about to find myself on the way to a lynching or something.”

  “What are you doing here?” Mel laughed at her friend and finally took in the outfit that had Velma about to pass out.

  Hot pink halter top that exposed her belly button piercing, black shorts that held on to an ass she wasn’t sure fit into a seat, and hot pink cowboy boots with rhinestones. The hat was the kicker. Who knew glitter was the way to go. Yeah, a far cry from what usually walked through the door.

  “I needed to get my cowboy on…or at least figure out what this redneck is talking about at school.” Mel put her hand on Kendra’s back and ushered her to the lab, not that it would silence her. “So I figured who better than the queen of the ranch herself to teach me.”

  “First rule, those boots…Wow, no.”

  “These?” Kendra twirled her foot in circles while extending her leg. “These were a steal at one of the boot places in El Paso.”

  “Steal…yeah, they stole something.” Mel retrieved her sample from the fridge and started to deal with that mess instead. “Your self respect.”

  “What? This isn’t what all the fashionable cowgirls wear these days?”

  “Not outside of Branson and even then it’s questionable. Can you tell me something?” Mel asked.

  “What?” Kendra sat on the stool next to Mel.

  “Exactly how many rubber snakes needed to die for that outfit?”

  Kendra removed her hat and ran her fingers around the band. “You know me, I’m a sparkly girl.”

  “Yes, you’re blinding me like a vampire I’d like to stake.”

  “Ouch.” Kendra placed her hand on her chest. “Well, you weren’t there to guide me. Why are you here instead of interning closer to school?”

  “Because the rent is free and Dr. Carlisle helped me a lot through high school and college.”

  “Ugh, the great Dr. Carlisle. Tell me truthfully, is he some hot ass cowboy with a crooked smile and abs formed in the Greek god section of heaven?”

  “Not for at least thirty years,” Doc said as he entered the room.

  Kendra’s face blanched before turning around in her chair to see the slightly pot bellied vet close to retirement.

  “Although in my day I made more than one woman swoon.”

  “Doc, this is my friend Kendra Brown, a cheap western store in El Paso threw up on her.”

  “I see that. I’m assuming you’re a college buddy?” he asked as he shook her hand.

  “Yes Sir, I’m at the medical school there. Just moved to El Paso to start actual medical training.”

  “Oh, a wimp only focusing on one animal, well, we won’t hold it against you. Those boots on the other hand…” Doc shook his head, then peered into the microscope where Mel had prepared the slide. “It’s not the bull.”

  “Nope. His number are high.”

  “Damn, that would have been easier.” He sighed. “I’ve been impregnating their cattle for a decade with no problem.”

  “Maybe they just need a little mood music or a different position…you know us girls get tired of missionary.” Kendra’s joke went over like a lead balloon.

  “Let me talk to Winston’s and see if we can slaughter her and get a better idea of the problem.”

  “You’re killing a cow because she can’t get pregnant?”

  “Kendra,” Mel warned.

  “What?” Kendra asked. “Look what’s going on, we’re all mammals right?”

  Mel looked over at Doc who shrugged his shoulders.

  “We’ve just had a batch of cattle that can’t get pregnant. One or two after insemination sure, but forty?”

  “Before you slaughter the poor girl why not test the hair? In humans depending on the length it can hold a year’s worth of environmental factors.”

  “She does have a brain,” Doc said.

  “All my friends do,” Melody said with a smile. “Just no fashion sense.”

  “Please Bitch, I’m fabulous.” Kendra tossed her braids back. “Now that I’ve saved a cow, how about I save a horse?” Her eyebrow arched.

  Melody got the reference immediately. Thankfully, Doc didn’t listen to popular country music. Mel looked at the clock and was glad to see it was close enough to lunch that she could take off. “How about I take Kendra to lunch and I’ll run a gas spectrometer test on hair when I get back?”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Doc said, then scanned Kendra one more time. “You might want to stop by the store before lunch. Last thing you need to do is blind people who are trying to eat.”

  “I really went too far, huh?” Kendra asked.

  “Look, I get we’re not steeple chasing debutants like you, but we’re not cartoon characters.”

  “You mean she can ride a horse?” Doc asked.

  “She’s quite skilled actually,” Mel replied. “She’s used to riding boots and a
helmet.”

  “A wimp and a snob.”

  “Yep, what can I say, she’s the sister I never knew I had.”

  A quick trip to Randall’s Boot and Hat Emporium down graded the sparkle factor by nine, but a girl still needed a bit of bling. Now Kendra sported cowboy boots with a stitched fleur de lis on the side. “How do you handle being in jeans all the time?” Kendra asked as she fanned herself while they entered the Hard Root. “Seriously, it’s hotter than Satan’s Jacuzzi in this town. No wonder you cut your hair down.”

  “I’m in scrubs right now, but when I’m on the ranch I’d rather be a smidge warm than bit by some random animal or cut by equipment.”

  “Well, I’m just glad you let the girls breathe,” Kendra said while dabbing her breasts with a tissue. “Now what dark hell are you dragging me to?”

  The lights did stay low, even in the daytime since there was no natural light, but the food was off the chain. Normally, Mel got her lunch to go. Today may not be any different if Kendra was staying over night.

  “So, how long are you planning to grace me with your presence?” she asked as they sat on stools at the end of the bar.

  “About that…”

  “Oh, Lord.” Melody rested her chin on her hand.

  “I was hoping you’d be willing to take me in for the night.”

  “Something I should know?”

  “The roommate I picked didn’t work out. She’s moving out and I’d rather avoid the bullshit of it all.” She groaned a bit. “El Paso isn’t a terrible drive.”

  “I’m sorry, did your black card get declined? Why did you even get a roommate?”

  “It’s all because of you. I’m used to one now, plus I needed someone to help with Cuddles.”

  “Are you serious? Get a dog walker or something.”

  “I’m going to be at the hospital for days at a time.”

  Mel had to admit she did miss the bratty spoiled puppy with his diamond color and yap that was as threatening as a ladybug.

  “Hey Melody, you want your usual?” Darla Parker asked as she came up to the women from behind the bar. There was something off about her face today and it was hard for Mel not to stare.