Tragic Secrets

3. Pitt

3

Pitt

I hopped on our private jet early the next morning. I’d always been an early riser—that’s just a rancher’s life—but even still I set off a lot earlier than Galen had thought I would. He was surprised when I called him, telling him I was in Aruba. He sent a yacht to pick me up, and I arrived on the island before daylight.

Galen greeted me personally at the dock that morning. “Welcome to Paradise, Pitt.” He clapped me on the back. “It’s damn good to see ya’.”

“It’s good to see you too, Galen.” I walked with him as the steward grabbed my luggage from the boat and followed us to the place I’d be staying the next three months. “I haven’t seen you since Dad’s memorial. And Mom said to tell you hi, too.”

“I’ll give her a call later.” Galen pointed to the row of cabins that sat out over the water—I could barely make them out in the night sky. “The first one is yours. I’ve got a personal hostess for you. She’ll see to your every need.”

“No, thanks.” I wasn’t into being taken care of. “You know I’m not that kind of man, Galen. I wasn’t raised like that.”

“Well, it’s protocol here, Pitt. She’ll be able to make your stay here very pleasant.” He seemed insistent. “Any questions you have, any activities you need organized—she’ll be able to help you out.”

I had the feeling he might be trying to set me up. “Galen, that’s nice of you. No, thank you, though. You know how it is with me and women. We don’t exactly mesh well. I’m not much of a talker, and I’m pretty used to silence. Women don’t always understand that. If I need something, I’ll ask for it. Don’t you worry ’bout me.”

With a nod, Galen let the hostess thing go. He knew me well enough to know that when I said no thank you, I meant it. “Okay. You’ve got my number if you need anything, and I’ll show you around myself.” He opened the door. “This is your bungalow for the next few months. Make it your home away from home, Pitt. It’s already been stocked with all sorts of things. Now, I’m going back to the comfort of my bed for a few more hours.”

“Cool.” I stepped inside, then turned to take my bags from the steward. “Here, let me get those.”

“I can come in and put your things away for you, sir,” the man said as he held the bags tight.

“Nope.” I nodded at Galen. “Tell him I’ll be just fine, will ya’, Galen?”

Galen laughed and patted the man on the back. “No need to help this one, Jack. He’s not one to be catered to.”

“Yes, sir.” He let go of my things, then the two of them turned and left me.

Not bothering to turn on any lights as I made my way through the dark place, I left the baggage on the sofa and found the glass doors to the patio already open.

Walking out onto the deck, the inviting sound of water lapping underneath the bungalow was instantly soothing. I took a seat on one of the two lounge chairs, then laid back to check out the stars. “Hey there, old friends. No matter where I am, you’re always right there, aren’t ya’?” Yeah, I talked to the stars, the sun, and the moon like they were people, too.

When you grow up on a ranch, sitting alone, watching over your cattle, you tend to talk to things most people wouldn’t even consider having a conversation with.

The quiet comforted me. It eased my mind more than I thought it would.

I hadn’t come to meet hot chicks. I hadn’t come to fraternize with billionaires. I’d come for one reason.

To finally grieve for my father.

But as I laid there on that lounge chair and looked at those stars, I could practically hear my father’s voice. Boy, you are not here to mourn me. You know damn good and well that I’m fine where I am. Just like I’ve always been.

“I know that, you stubborn man,” I said out loud. “But I miss you, believe it or not. I miss you, and I miss your stubborn ways.”

It’s time to start living again, Pitt Zycan. You’ve been grieving in your own way this whole time.

I couldn’t tell if the voice in my head still sounded like my father or if it started to sound more like myself.

Hell, I’d started grieving for Dad before the Lord even came to take him home with him. From the moment I found out he had lung cancer, I mourned.

The only good thing that came out of that was that you quit that Copenhagen habit.

“Well, tobacco killed you, Dad,” I remind him—or the him I’ve been talking to in my mind. And then I felt kind of silly for talking out loud. “I hope no one else is up, sitting on their decks and thinking a lunatic has moved in next door to them.”

I closed my eyes, wanting to shut out the sound of his voice. My life had changed drastically the moment my father was diagnosed and even a year after his passing I still hadn’t found my footing.

It was time to get on with my life—to break through this fog that had descended over me and get back to living. I wasn’t a kid anymore—thirty-two years old and not getting any younger. If the last year had taught me anything, it’s that the years were starting to move by faster than ever.

It’s time to find yourself a woman. The voice was back, and once again I couldn’t distinguish whether it was my own or that of my father’s.

Tanya was never the girl for you. That’s why you found it so easy to leave her behind. But there is someone out there for you, and I don’t want you to be so caught up in missing me that you miss seeing her.

I couldn’t deny that. The fact that I was able to let Tanya go so damn easily proved to me that our love wasn’t real. Or deep. Or meant to be, either.

I’d known her for so long that things just kind of fell in place without much thought. I’d gone to high school with her and then we’d ended up in the same college. Then she ended up managing the feed store where I bought food for all of our animals. One day, she asked me if I’d like to come over to her place for chicken-fried steaks with homemade mashed potatoes and creamy gravy. She said she’d even throw in some sweet tea.

How could a man pass that up?

One dinner led to another and another until we were dating and having sleepovers at her place. But my heart wasn’t ever hers, and hers was never mine. I had to admit that she was a damn good sport when I told her that I didn’t have time for a relationship when Dad got sick.

Her exact words were, “I understand, Pitt. You do what you’ve gotta do, handsome.”

As I had walked away from her front door that afternoon, I couldn’t help but notice how she never mentioned anything about being there when I got ready to come back. I knew she wouldn’t wait around for me, and she was smart enough to know that I wouldn’t be back anyway.

I hadn’t asked about her after that. I stayed out of the feed store after that, too, leaving that business up to Lucy and her entourage of ranch hands.

I hadn’t even seen Tanya once since my father’s memorial. She showed up to that, but so did most of the town. We shared a brief hug, and she told me she was sorry. When we parted ways, she told me to take care of myself. She didn’t call me handsome—the way she’d always done before.

The thing was, I wasn’t that damn sad about it. She wasn’t the one for me anyway. Somewhere—deep inside—I’d always known that.

Dad wouldn’t want me to spend my time on the island mourning him, so I didn’t know what I was really doing there, then—not until the sun started coming up over the clear water, anyway.

“Hello, beautiful,” I whispered. “Look at you.” The colors looked the same as they did at the ranch, only they added their beauty to the sparkling water instead of the snow-capped mountains.

Slowly, the shadows over the water began to fill with the sun’s light until not one shadow remained. Seabirds called out their good mornings to all who were awake at the early hour. Some fish splashed happily in the water.

I took in a deep breath of salty sea air. “Ah, this is nice. This alone is worth the trip.”

Once the sun was all the way up, I went inside to see what kind of breakfast I could rustle up. The coffeemaker was some fancy thing, but I figured it out without even reading the directions. There were eggs and bacon in the fridge and a loaf of wheat bread in the bread box.

Breaking out the frying pan, I went to work making my first meal on the island. Soon, I found the smell of bacon paired just as good with salty sea air as it did with cool mountain air. “Ah.”

After eating breakfast, I set to work unpacking my bags and putting everything away. Then I showered, shaved, and put on a fresh pair of starched blue jeans, a white, long-sleeve, pearl-snap button-down, my tan Lucchese boots I’d bought especially for the island, and a brand new Stetson cowboy hat. Looking in the mirror, I commented, “Not bad, Pitt Zycan. Not bad at all.”

The phone in the living area rang, and I went to answer it. “Pitt here.”

“I know,” Galen said. “We’re heading to breakfast. Should I come to get you? Or do you think you can find your way to The Royal? It’s straight up the pathway and easy to find.”

“I’ve already had my breakfast, thank you very much.” I knew I would most likely always be ahead of the man when it came to meal time. “How about I catch you for lunch around eleven?”

“Um—no.” He laughed. “Maybe we can meet for dinner. How’s nine-thirty for you?”

“It’s not a great time for eating as I’ll likely have been asleep for about a half hour by that time. Early to bed and early to rise, you know.” I had no idea just how off our schedules would be.

“You don’t have animals to care for here, Pitt.” He chuckled. “I tell you what. We can meet for drinks at one of the bars here. How about at Cantina Cordova at noon? You just leave your bungalow and go to the right, then come along the beach to a large open-air hut with a bar in the middle of it. You can’t miss it.”

“I’ll be there with bells on, Galen. See you then.” I hung up the phone and went to check out the television, only to find there wasn’t one. “Well, what the hell am I supposed to do with my time off now?”

It was ten in the morning. No television to entertain me. But there was a beach to walk down. And a bar to go to, apparently.

Taking off, I walked out of the bungalow to find a group of people hardly moving around. All of them wore dark sunglasses, shorts, and short-sleeved shirts with flip-flops. I walked along the beach, making sure to keep my boots out of the waves that lapped along the shoreline.

Well, let’s see what today brings my way.