Western Connection

Chapter 3

Brady fidgeted with the receipt as he sat in the back seat in Tanner's truck, on the highway out of the city, heading home.

Tanner and Jake were talking quietly in the front. He turned his attention out the window, rolling hills and fencing flying by, studying the early green of the winter wheat poking up in one field, the gulls on the freshly turned soil in another. It was full on late Spring, normally a time of year he loved. Calving season, planting, it was a busy time. They often worked long, hard days to get it all done, and he loved the problem solving that came along with it. Using his brain as much as his muscle.

He could be helping birth calves out onto fresh straw one minute, and talking logistics of seed delivery and schedules the next. If it was too hectic, he'd retreat to his shop and fix something.

Right now though, nothing felt right. He was preoccupied, and with fate deciding to be a dick, they had bumped into the one person he had been thinking about the most, and never wanted to see.

Keith had gotten old. When had that happened? He swallowed the lump forming in his throat and pushed aside the pain. It would do no good to dwell on the fact that they had lost touch with him since he left. He'd been selfish, losing his favourite horse not a month after Keith had retired. They'd barely kept in touch, and Keith hadn't visited.

Now he knew why. It likely hurt like hell for Keith to be reminded of what he was losing, leaving the ranch. If Brett had known he wasn't Brady's father, then Keith likely knew he was. Maybe Brett had told him not to come around any more.

Brett would've done that. The man had been an asshole when he wanted to be, and they'd never gotten along.

Keith's departure and sudden absence in his life had put him in a funk when Baron had died, so he had taken a break from working the horses, asking Brett to move him onto something else. Brett had been happy to give him more duties in the cash crop end of things, and handed him a wrench, telling him to get on with it. Over time, he really began to enjoy his new duties, and gave up his horse trainer ambitions. Trevor had come on full time as their trainer, and Liz had taken over the management of the stables when she was done school.

Keith had been there when his mother had died, comforting him, giving him lots to do to keep him occupied. Tanner became foreman almost overnight, compensating for Brett not handling his wife's death well, and was too busy. So he'd relied on Keith to help him get through the grief.

"Hey Brady, you fall in back there?"

Brady turned at Jake's question, and waved a hand. " Goin' over my to do list."

"It was good to see Keith," Tanner added. "We should find out where he lives, go see him sometime."

"His nurse gave me his address. He's in Brightside, in the apartments over on the south side. Says he doesn't get many visitors."

Tanner caught Brady's eye in the rearview, brow furrowed as always. "Wait, I remember seeing him in Bragg Creek a couple years ago at the supply store. He's close by now? Huh."

What Tanner didn't ask, but communicated through the mirror, was if he was okay. Tanner remembered how hard it was for Brady too. He would've never dove into that touchy-feely shit, but since last year, he'd been more relaxed, coming out of his shell after reconciling to both Jake and his dad's death. A shell he'd put on when their mom died.

Brady both liked the change in his brother, and didn't. His relationship with Tanner was pretty cut and dried. Tanner was the stoic, stubborn decision maker. Brady was the one who kept the peace, and backed down even if he disagreed. They circled around one another like that. If Tanner was upset, he would yell at Brady and Brady would take it, letting him get it out of his system. Liz would tell him what he needed to hear. Jake would get in his face, the two of them matching tempers, and yell back.