“It’s for the best to be apart from each other, knowin’ how we feel? Don’t make much sense to me.”
Leo propped up on his bent arm and didn’t hide his eyes from him, letting Mac see the tears there, so he’d have a clue as to how hard this was for him. “I don’t want to go, baby, but I want to know that it’s not me that has you ready for all this. Shit, that’s not even true. I need you to know it. I’m afraid that you’ll never know how much you’ve done yourself.”
Mac surprised him, agreeing, “It ain’t like I didn’t think o’ that.”
The line was growing deeper between Mac’s eyes. “What’s worrying you?”
“Somethin’ I can’t give ya.”
Leo thought he knew, but it was important Mac said it. So, he went about it a different way. “You know, when Jeb first heard about the Alamo falling, he gathered all his horses and his guns, riding off with a couple of other locals to meet up with Houston. After Santa Anna killed all those people and kept on killing, your great-great, however many great-grandfather went on ahead instead running. That blood is in you.”
“He was pretty brave, and kind, and all the good parts o’ me that I didn’t get from my mama.”
“Then be brave enough to tell me what’s going on in that handsome head.”
Like he’d thought, Mac had worry and insecurity, but unlike he thought, it wasn’t about his own ability to take care of the ranch and deal with the problems that came with it.
Mac swallowed so hard, it was loud in the small space. “I…I guess I can’t he’p thinkin’ that, what if you go and don’t come back. Ya fixed me, so you move on ta fix someone else.”
Leo’s tears fell before he knew they were coming, and when his emotions caught up to them, he sobbed. Mac sat up, surprised at his reaction, but not more surprised than him. Mac pulled him into his arms and asked, “Was I right? Is that why yer cryin’?”
“No, no, but I don’t know why I’m crying. I guess…I just felt the same but didn’t know it until you said it. But you, that I helped you, so you’d figure out you don’t need me around anymore.”
“I don’t want to need ya, Leo. I jus’ want ya.”
They held on like they were holding onto life itself. Leo let his tears fall, and Mac’s joined them. To say goodbye to Mac would be the hardest thing he’d ever done, but it had to happen. They both knew it.
“After, right? That gives us a couple days.”
“Yeah, baby. A couple days. I love you, McCully. I love you.”
“I love ya too, Leo.”
Chapter Seventeen
Shan swept the corners as Leo fixed new locks onto the thick wood filing cabinets. He wasn’t exactly mechanical, but his time on the ranch had shown him he could be handy if he needed to be. “Help me move this desk.”
“Give me one sec.” He got the last screw in place and set the lock in, testing it quickly. It worked. “Hey, I did it.”
“Good for you,” she laughed, and he set the tools aside and went to the desk, trying to lift it, but having no luck. “This thing must weigh a ton.”
“Maybe only half a ton,” he mused. “How about we push it enough for you to sweep under it, then push it back in place?”
“That’s about all we can do unless we call in the cavalry, and then your surprise is blown to hell.”
Leo had been secretly working on the office, cleaning it up and getting it set up to give Mac an easier time of running the ranch and the B&B.
“Where’d you get that fancy computer?” she asked before they pushed the desk about six inches toward the door, enough for her to get the broom under it. The last inch, something felt like it gave way, and Leo worried they’d broken something. Once they let go, sure enough, the desk wobbled a little.
“What the heck happened?”
Leo crouched to look under and saw a wadded up piece of paper near one of the feet, the perfect indenture of the foot on the paper. He picked it up, laughing. “Someone fixed the wobble with this, and by the looks of it, that happened about fifty years ago.”
“Throw it there in the dust pile,” she said, wrinkling her nose to it. “Or should I say, the dust bunny pile.”
He laughed and started to unpack the computer, telling her, “I graduated with this guy who became the CTO of a big computer company. He sends me computers or programs now and then. He loved the way I…helped him out with things back in school.”
“I’ll bet,” she snickered.
“This thing is great, all the latest business software, easy to use, it will give him inventory, debits and assets, everything he needs. Even alerts to his phone when things are running low like toilet paper.”
“I need one of those. Think you can flirt another one for me?”
“I didn’t flirt for this. I never had to flirt.”
Leo plugged the computer in and watched it start, the huge screen that had come with it lighting up perfectly. “It’ll be nice to get all the business paperwork out of the camper.”
“So, you can leave,” she accused, setting the broom aside. “He loves you, Leo.”
“I love him too. I’ll be back, if he wants me back.”
She looked him dead in the eye, warning him with everything she had, “You’d better be. Don’t you hurt that man.”
“I think at this point, he could hurt me a lot worse, Shan. I swear, this is just to convince him that he can do this without me.”
Before the conversation could go on, they heard Mac outside, calling for them. “Shoot! I’ll go and you finish up here. Get that dustpan and sweep this pile, then take out the trash too.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he teased and watched her heading out the door.
The pictures on the walls were cleaned and straightened, the fixtures had new, energy efficient bulbs. The thousand-pound desk held the computer and would soon hold a picture of Mac and him together, to remind him that Leo would always love him, no matter where he was.
He got the broom and dustpan, sweeping the pile Shan had gathered, but when the piece of paper fell into the can, his curiosity got the better of him. He figured it was just a blank sheet, but he thought he’s seen ink through the dust.
Laughing at himself, he murmured, “You really need to look at more old papers, Leo?” Unfolding the paper wasn’t easy. It had practically welded itself together from being under that weight for so many years and it tore twice, causing him to go slower and be gentler.
Once it was unfolded, Leo lay it on the hard floor, running a hand over it to clear the dust so he could read it, and to keep it from folding itself back over. Once it was clear, he saw it was a note and Leo read it over twice to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
Dan,
I know your thinkin and I know how much like your granddaddy you are. Don’t do to your boy like my daddy done to me. Tell McCully about the gold. He’ll find that mine if he goes near the slave quarters anyhow. I ain’t puttin this in the will, there ain’t no need for anyone else to know about it. No matter what, tell that boy about it. It’s saved this ranch more than once.
Pa
Leo blinked at the words, after he’d stared at them long enough to make his eyes water. All the things he’d heard ran through his mind, about how the Blaylock Ranch had survived the Depression, survived the recessions, every economic downturn that caved the other ranches around them.
Maybe Daniel hadn’t suspected that Mac had a boyfriend when he’d found him at the slave quarters. That had never made sense to him anyway. If he hadn’t gone inside, how would he know what they said or that they may have been about to kiss?
Then, there was the man from the pawn shop, asking if Mac had any of the nuggets his father used to sell to him.
“Fucking bastards. All of you fucking bastards.” He folded the note and set it on the desk, trying to think of what to do.
There was only one thing he could think of. He had to go look for himself. He took off out the door and got on the first four-wheeler he could find with enoug
h gas. He went the far way around, so he wouldn’t encounter Mac or Wayne or anyone that could ask him what he was doing. He didn’t think his temper could keep.
He drove fast, pushing the vehicle harder than it was used to, and he flew up in the air, off the seat as he hit bumps or ran over rocks. He didn’t care, didn’t care if he wrecked and broke his neck. His fury at what the men in the Blaylock clan had done ran him straight through with rage.
He got to the slave quarters, where everyone would be gathered that afternoon. He had to search quickly.
He started with the last one and carefully made his way inside. The floors were rotted, but he cross beams were what he stepped on to get across.
They were one room shacks. Old pot belly stoves in the corner were where the families cooked and heated their homes. The windows had long been gone, some glass on the floor, but mostly there was dirt and bushes growing up through the cracks.
Two of the houses didn’t even have wood floors, just dirt. Leo’s stomach turned at the thought of people living there. Outside, he didn’t see any signs that people had been there in decades. Maybe they hadn’t. Maybe the mine was dry, Daniel selling off the last of the gold.
At the last house, he had no luck. From the hole in the wall where the window had been, however, he saw a piece of tin with a rock on the top, keeping it from blowing away. “I’m betting that’s where you are.”
He was in a hurry to get out back, where he’d seen the tin, and wasn’t watching that he was walking on the beams. He stepped through a rotting board, but instead of hitting the hard ground below, he fell at least twenty feet into a hole in the earth.
The wind was knocked out of him, but that didn’t stop the pain in his arm. With the crash, he hadn’t heard a snap, but he damn sure felt it.
Moving, with the debris and dust falling on him, and his broken arm, wasn’t easy. He could hear the creaking of the other boards and beams, and he had to scoot out of the way. He reached behind him, and pain shot through him so badly, he almost passed out, the grey seeping in from the edges of his vision.
He took a couple of deep breaths, only to realize that was just as hard and painful. His heart was racing with the fear that was settling on him, knowing that no one knew where he was.
Breathing much shallower, he made small movements to get back from under the hole in the floor. At the same time, he managed to get his phone from his pocket, getting the flashlight on as he made it to a wall of dirt, ten feet or so from the hole.
He flashed the light over the area and sucked in a breath before he remembered how much that hurt. After wincing, his eyes slamming shut, he got the pain to a dull roar again and opened his eyes.
The light glinted off pieces of gold in the walls. Nothing big, but tiny pieces that made it seem like glitter. “Jesus. It’s real.”
Flashing the light around more, he saw two tunnels, but the light didn’t reach far. One went north, toward the ranch house and stables, the other east. He was in the mouth of the mine, but he saw no exit. Even where the tin had been was behind him, like it had either caved in or been filled in to hide the place.
Before the flashlight could kill his battery, he tried to call out, but there was a very weak signal, he was so far under the earth. He tried several more times, and finally got a call to Mac’s number.
Mac didn’t pick up, so he left a frantic message, “Mac, baby, I’m under the slave houses, the last one to the east! The place is ready to cave in! Please, help me, baby! Send me help!”
He ended the call, and wanted the flashlight back on, but decided against it. The dark was horrifying, the little light coming in from where he’d fallen through dim and hazed with dust. The creaking of the wood sounded like moans, as if the ghosts of those that had bled there were coming for him.
“Mac, baby, come get me. Please.”
The creaking turned into a roar as the rest of the shack collapsed in front of him, and the darkness that had alluded him last time, took him.
Chapter Eighteen
The bunk house they’d gotten fixed up for guests was nearly filled, but he took Shan on a tour of the one room that wasn’t rented. “See there, we got some old pipes and barn wood to make those shelves. Found some old western novels to put up there. Leo said it gave the rooms character. Whatever that means.”
She had nothing but praise for all they’d done. The old paneling, roughed up more than it had been, twisted barbed wire and paint splashed tins for artwork on the walls gave her reason to clap. “This place is amazing. I can’t believe all you’ve gotten done. And cows on the way too? Mac, you have done yourself proud.”
“It weren’t just me, Shan, and you know it. If Leo hadn’t come along…”
They sat on the bed as she asked, “How are you doing with his leaving?”
“Don’t like it, o’ course, but I git it. It’s better if I see myself if my backbone is all him or if I can stand on my own.”
“I know you can, he does too, but it’s true. You have to see that. Mac, he loves you. I’ve known him a long time and never saw him in love before.”
That was felt deep in his chest, hearing that from her. “I love him crazy, Shan. He’s a good man.”
“So are you. Now, it’s almost time for the folks to show up and we want to be there to greet them.”
Back at the house, Mac went into the kitchen where Wayne was speaking to two of the guests. They waited for him to finish and the guests to leave the room before he asked, “Have you seen Leo?”
Wayne looked to his wife like he was uncertain, and Shan laughed at him. “Wayne, stop.”
“Well, I didn’t know if it’s ready or not!”
“What the hell are you two goin’ on about?”
Shan confided, “Leo has a surprise for you, but being that he hasn’t texted me yet, I think he must still be working on it.”
Mac smiled at her excitement. “I can’t wait.”
Wayne leaned over the sink to stare out the window and whistled between his teeth. “I’ll be damned. How many did you say were coming, Shan?”
“Fifteen or so. Why?”
“I think the guest list grew.”
The three of them rushed outside and Mac immediately saw what Wayne was talking about. There were at least fifteen cars and they were filled with people. “What the hell?”
“There’s Andrea,” Shan said, pointing to the second car. They went over, Mac opening her door for her and Wayne taking the other side to open the door to Linnie.
“Andrea, hey!”
“Mac, Shan, Wayne, I’m sorry, I should have called, but word got out about what we all were doing. Some of these folks may have been descendants, but most don’t know. They have no idea where their people came from, so they came along, for, oh, I don’t know, support? Closure of their own? Who knows?”
People started getting out of their cars and Mac, Shan and Wayne greeted all of them, though he knew he’d never remember all their names. Some didn’t give him anything but hateful glares, but most were kind, introducing their families, who’d come along.
Mac’s resolve was weakening, though. All these people, some with ancestors that his had owned. He didn’t know what to say or how to act, except the urge to express how sorry he was.
Shan stood with him, but he needed Leo, his strength. Then he remembered, this was exactly what they wanted to find out with their absence coming. If Mac could stand on his own against his anxiety and fear. The only problem was, Leo wanted to be there for it, with him.
“Shan, where the hell is Leo? We can’t just let these people stand around.”
“I’ll go get him. You and Wayne get in the truck and lead them there. I’ll come with Leo on the ATV.”
Wayne nodded over to him, but Mac saw his Adam’s apple sliding up and down as he swallowed hard. Mac knew the feeling as they started for the truck, their pace slower than it maybe should have been.
Once inside, on their own, Wayne whispered, “Why the hell do I feel like this?
Like it’s the end of something?”
“Because it is,” Mac gritted out, the bitterness in his voice not coming close to what he felt. “It’s the end of them. Daddy, Wyatt, Sam and the rest who thought it was okay to judge people by the color of their skin. Or who they fuckin’ love. It’s the end of them, Wayne, and we are here to start new, get the past behind us.”
“I know you never thought you were good enough, Mac, that you’d never run this place like Daddy. And you were right. You’re doing a much better job.”
He wouldn’t give him fake humility over it. It was true. “That may be right, Wayne, but I didn’t do it alone. You, Shan, Leo, even Cecil, bein’ a little kid, you all he’ped, and I don’t want you to think I don’t ‘preciate it. I want you to share in this place, Wayne, once it’s out o’ the red.”
“I appreciate that, Mac. I do, and maybe give the kids a piece of it. Cecil would love it, but not for me and Shan. We have bad memories here that can’t be forgotten. The one thing you didn’t have to experience is Daddy spitting at your spouse or your kid. That isn’t right, no matter what happens. His own blood grandson, and he wanted nothing to do with him because his skin was a little darker than ours. That kind of hurt never heals, no matter how hard you try to go on with your life.”
Mac reached over to grip his shoulder and added, “I hated him for it, Wayne. I never want you to think otherwise, with me not leavin’.”
“Damn it, Mac, I know that. I never expected you to. You’re a part of this place that I could never be. Even when I was thinking of ranching for a living, it never felt right. For you, it just comes naturally.”
“He woulda, ya know.”
Wayne looked over at him as Mac’s hand slid off his shoulder. “Woulda?”
“Woulda spit at Leo. I’da walked away too.”
As soon as they exited the truck, they helped Linnie out of Andrea’s car and into her wheelchair, navigating it over the bumpy terrain. She patted Mac’s hand before he let go of the chair and blessed him with a gentle nod and smile.
Remember the Alamo (Legacy Book 1) Page 17