“What’d your dad name the farm, Cormac or something?”
“Cormallen. It’s from Lord of the Rings, I looked it up. It’s where the eagles take Frodo and Sam when they were rescued from the fires and they were finally held up as heroes. I think it was kind of a glory thing. You probably didn’t want to know all that.”
“Now hang on there, Bilbo,” he smirked. “I’ve watched all three of those movies. A bit dark for my taste, but interesting. I never read the books, though.” Russ finished his plate and sat it on the side table.
Suddenly, I could hear my dad’s voice on all those phone calls. “Hey there, Outlaw.” It’s strange how those kinds of things can hit with full force without any warning. I took a bite of roll and swallowed it, pushing past the urge to cry.
“We’re going to have a planting party in a couple of weeks,” Jodie said.
“You’re welcome to come, too. My friends, Liv and Nate, are bringing the plants. Elliot may be there if he has time.”
“Yeah, I heard he is working with the vet now. That’s a big change for him. I don’t know if I’ve seen him in town more than a handful of times since I’ve known him.” Russ took a sip of beer, as one of the players threw a three-pointer. He smacked the arm of his chair, and I noted that he’d cleverly avoided committing one way or the other to going to the planting party.
Jodie smiled. “And he is dating Doc Frankie, too.”
“Well, good for him. She’s a good vet. How’s work going, honey?”
“Okay.” She hesitated. “I have a conference coming up on the second week of June.”
We had all finished eating, so Jodie hopped up to grab our plates. I helped her clear, rinse, and stack them in the dishwasher, a luxury I had forgotten that I missed.
“Hey, Dad. Do you mind if we take a break from the game?”
“No, go ahead.”
I followed Jodie into her room, and she closed the door. One entire wall was filled with awards and trophies for contests at rodeos and county fairs. Best Welsummer Breed - I read from a certificate.
“My first 4-H project. Here’s the one your dad helped me get.” She handed me a blue ribbon that read Best in Show and pointed to a trophy on her shelf.
“Cool. I never won anything this awesome. Just a red ribbon for second place in a science fair project.” I took in the rest of the room - paintings of horses on every wall, stacks of books about horse care and breeds, and tall shelves filled with books, a lot of them about horses, too. “Obsessive much?”
“Well, when I came back from college, I took all my NSYNC posters down, so I had to put something up.”
“Ha-ha.”
“Hey, I wanted to tell you something. One of the board members from the library found out I am gay and is making a campaign to get me fired.”
“What?!”
“Yeah. But I have a lot of people on my side, and there isn’t much she can do. Except be a bitch. I never really liked her. But I thought you should know in case somebody said something.”
“I’m sorry. It’s because of me, isn’t it? She wouldn’t know anything if you weren’t running around all over town with me.”
“No, no. Even if that’s what got her started, it’s the fact that she hates lesbians that’s the problem. I’m going to fight her by doing my job and being good at it. I don’t know what she thinks she’s going to do but make a lot of people mad at her.”
“Okay.”
“I haven’t told my dad. I don’t want him to worry. And I don’t think anyone would be stupid enough to say anything to him.”
“Your choice. I know I wouldn’t want to get him riled up. Your dad’s sweet, but he’s like six-four.”
“Oh, he wouldn’t hurt a fly, unless they hurt me in some way. He did get a teacher put on administrative leave once for leaving a group containing yours truly unattended. We were on a field trip to the zoo.”
“Ow.”
“We were fine. I thought it was funny that they had to call our teacher over the intercom to get us at the gift shop. Russ didn’t think it was funny. The only times I’ve ever seen him get truly angry have had to do with defending me or my mom.”
“She was in the hospital a long time?”
“Not really. My mom’s not much of a complainer. So when she finally went in, it was too late to reverse it. She did some chemo, and there was talk of surgery, but they just tried to make her comfortable, and she lasted two months in the hospital. She died a few days before Christmas.”
“Oh, no. That’s terrible.”
“Well, we were lucky in that she died after getting her medication. We at least had some time to say goodbye.”
“Here in town?”
“No, in Boise. Dad took her to Seattle for her tests, actually to a care center at the University of Washington. He had good insurance back then, but there was still a lot they didn’t pay. Hence …” She held her hands open. I knew what she meant. The scraping by, not taking any trips or fixing up the
