Jesse stopped pacing, then cracked his knuckles. “Literally.”
“Oh man!” Zach threw up his hands. Sam winced.
“Okay. I don’t want to lose the ranch to some old man who put one over on Miss Leona, but what’s Frank Chester, like, seventy-eight?” Zach asked. “You could have given him a heart attack. You can’t be rolling up on the elderly like that.”
“Whatever, he’s fine.”
“Okay. So you’re trying to protect Miss Leona’s wallet and the ranch. Fair. But how do we know this new guy is after her money? He could be a nice dude,” Sam said.
“What do you mean ‘this guy’? She’s out with Frank Chester again.”
“Uh right, she is.”
“There’s someone else?!”
“Jess. Calm down,” Zach said, palms up like he could soothe the rage out of him.
“I’m not gonna calm down.”
“Fine. Don’t. But can you at least go back to your own fucking house? Break some shit over there. Heat the pool and take some laps. Whatever you need to do. But you know damn well Lilah is right. You cannot go off on Miss Leona.”
“Fine, whatever. Fuck you two.” Jesse stormed toward the door, but Zach grabbed his arm before he could leave the kitchen.
“Nah. Something else is up your ass. Out with it.”
“There’s nothing up my ass. Senior and Mom are six thousand miles away on a good day. Uncle Gerald is too afraid of Lilah, Uncle Justice just doesn’t give a shit. I know Miss Leona is her own woman. I also know she’s too sweet and too kind and eighty-two fucking years old. If someone in our family let Corie have her way, she’d be setting Miss Leona up with a different dude every week. Do you know the STI rates among the elderly?”
“Okay. I do and no, I don’t want to think about that. But I don’t know why you think Evie and I don’t care—”
“Or that I don’t either,” Sam said, offended as hell. He loved his grandmother and it was fucked up for Jesse to imply otherwise.
“I cut back at the ranch so I could be present and shit, for Evie and the family. I’m here, man, and I care about Miss Leona too.”
“Yeah, I know. Let me go.” Jesse stormed out of the kitchen and down the hall, slamming the front door behind him. Zach scrubbed his beard as Sam leaned against the counter.
“He needs to go to therapy,” Sam said. “That was fucking wild.”
“I know,” Zach sighed. “Should we call Senior?”
“Maybe. Mom will just calm him down, but Miss Leona and Senior are the only ones who really get through to him. Evie used to but—”
“She’s Team Zach now. The traitor.”
“You noticed that too?”
“She used to be his homie. Now she’s my woman, with, like, no time for him to adjust.”
The ten years Evie and Zach were on the outs she’d kept in touch with Sam and Jesse, but she really talked to Jesse to the point where she’d made him her ultimate emergency contact. It was her connection to Jesse that had brought her back into their lives when she’d lost her memory. Jesse was glad to have her back in his life as a friend, but her love for Zach had taken the lead in the saddle. There was no conversation to be had about it. It was what it was.
“Can we sign him up for a class or something?” Sam said. He wasn’t trying to be funny, but Zach laughed anyway. “I’m serious. Does he have any friends outside of the ranch and the senior center? Is his whole world the ranch and the old people?”
“Fuck. I think so. Jesus, maybe I haven’t been present.”
“You just got Evie back. You guys are opening the restaurant and shooting a documentary. It’s all right for you guys to take this time just for the two of you.”
“And now you have Amanda? She okay after last night?”
“She’s great! Just left.”