"Yes, Trent. All bees should bow to you," Bill teased, then shrugged. "I don't think the guests were crazy about them anyway."
"They would have been good for the trees, though."
"Well, the trees will have to settle for the wild, hooligan bees," Bill said.
When the three of them reached the ATVs, Trent asked Bill if he wouldn’t mind taking him back to the parking lot so he could head home early.
Trent lived only a seven-minute drive from his work property, which was good, considering the amount of time he spent at the ranch.
Lily had also worked at the ranch, and for the brief time they were still together after Bex was born, she would stay home to take care of him so Trent could go to work.
Those were the days.
Now Trent was lucky if he got to spend four hours a day at the ranch, tops.
He had hired part-time help, but it felt strange giving his son to someone else throughout the day. Bex was his son, and Trent wanted to be around. He wanted to take care of him and be his companion. He just wasn’t quite sure how to do that while building a business.
Having two young children of his own, Bill made idle chit-chat with Bex as they rode back to the parking lot.
Bill was married to one of Trent's other friends, Maisie. She was twenty-six, a year older than Trent and one year younger than Bill. She had warm, dark skin, kitten-round brown eyes, and a mess of curly dark hair.
Trent appreciated the couple's friendship. They were often doing things together on weekends, allowing their children to all play together.
As they pulled up to Trent's black truck and stood from the ATV, Trent asked, "What are you guys up to this weekend? You wanna catch a ball game or something; bring the kids?"
"Sounds fun," Bill said, but Trent could hear the hesitation in his voice. "But we have one of Maisie's friends coming to stay."
"Maisie's havin' a sleepover?" Trent asked. "Sounds retro."
"I know, right?" his friend agreed. "Except it's not just a sleepover. Her friend is actually coming to live with us for a while."
"Live with?" Trent repeated unsurely. "No way! You said you wouldn't even let Maisie's mom come live with you when she broke her leg!"
Bill stood from the ATV and followed Trent to the passenger side door where the toddler car seat was.
"It was her ankle, and she could walk just fine on those crutches," his friend defended, and they both laughed. "Nah," Bill submitted, waving a dismissive hand in the air. "I know, I know, but this is different. It's Maisie's best friend."
"Oh, uh," Trent mumbled, then snapped his fingers as he sought to remember the girl's name. He'd never met her, but he'd heard Maisie talk about her on occasion. "Lacey?"
"Grace," Bill corrected.
"Eh," Trent shrugged. "I was close."
"Yeah, well, she's coming down from San Antonio," he explained. "Got kicked out of her house."
"What's the story?" Trent asked as he buckled his son in. "Can't pay her bills?"
"Ah, sort of," Bill winced, and Trent could tell he wasn't comfortable talking about it. "She bought a place with her boyfriend, and that didn't work out," his friend trailed off and wrinkled his nose. "She's just going through a hard time. Maisie convinced her to move here. She got a job at Taps and she's gonna hang with us for a while until she finds a place. So..." Bill twirled a finger in the air. "Yay."
"You guys get along?" Trent asked.
"Yeah, we do. Do I want her to live at my house for the next couple of months? Not exactly, but I feel bad for her. She doesn't have anywhere to go."
"No parents?"
Bill tilted his head to the side. "They live in Connecticut."
"Why doesn't she go there?"
"I think it's called 'she built a life in Texas and doesn't want to leave,'" Bill said.
"And now it gets to be your problem."
Bill nodded, but it was clear he was done talking about it. "So, what about you? You and Bex have any plans this weekend?"
"I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill ya," Trent said with a grin.
What he didn’t tell Bill was that his big Friday night plans consisted of eating chicken wings on the couch and watching old SNL skits with Bex.
At around seven-thirty that night, he put his son to bed.
Trent wasn’t much of a reader, but he recalled that his mother used to read to her boys—all six of them—each night before bed without fail. After Lily left him, Trent decided someone should step in and read to the poor kid, so he opted to buy the audiobooks of Bex’s favorite stories and have a narrator read to him while they sat together and flipped through the physical copy of the book.
Trent wasn’t sure if this would be considered cop-out parenting but it was as much as he could muster after a long day at the ranch.
He loved his business, but—and he would never say this out loud—he was starting to burn out.
Raising Bex alone was a tremendous task. He had no idea how any single parent raised a child without help. He had a part-time nanny, and he was still exhausted.
After his son fell asleep, Trent walked downstairs and grabbed a beer from the fridge before collapsing backward onto his overstuffed couch. He cracked the drink and took an unenthusiastic sip from the bottle before setting it on the coffee table and realizing he probably wouldn’t end up finishing it.
It wasn’t even eight-o-clock and he was already exhausted; his eyes felt heavy, and they burned with the desire to sleep.
As he stared up at the smooth, white ceiling above him, his mind drifted to Lily. As it often did.
It didn’t take much for him to miss her. Even though she broke his heart and she abandoned their family, Lily was the only girl he’d ever loved.
He missed coming home to her. He missed having someone who cared about the stupid little things that happened in his day, like how much sugar he put in his coffee or whether or not he was stung by a bee out in the orchards.
Trent wondered if Bex was ever curious about his mother. Probably not, he surmised. A two-year old's thinking capacity wasn't exactly set up for deep soul searching, but did Bex ever see Maisie and wonder why he didn’t have a mother at home?
The thought made Trent’s stomach turn. He wanted to give Bex everything, and Lily was just as content to take it all away.
He hadn’t spoken to her in almost two years now, but he never stopped thinking about her. There were even nights—many nights—where he wished they were still together.
Trent loved Lily. He met her when they were both fourteen years old, and by the time he moved to Nueces County, the two had been together for four years. He missed her so much that first month alone at the ranch that he asked her to marry him over the phone.
She said yes, and seeing as she wouldn’t have been eighteen for another two months, she got her parents to sign a legal document giving her permission to marry Trent at city hall and move to Nueces with him.
Not once did Trent regret getting married young. Not until the day she left.
They were in that kind of love.
Senseless teenage love. Reckless, risk-taking love.
There were people against their union—Trent’s mother, primarily, but also friends and extended family members who silently whispered that it wouldn’t work out between them.