“Why?”
“Because if I say it, then I have to believe I let it happen.”
Nobody answered.
At 4:00, Maya field-tested tractor one.
Luke drove.
Maya sat in the instructor seat with the laptop.
Clayton followed in a pickup.
They pulled a loaded feed wagon up a grade.
No fault.
Twenty minutes.
Forty.
An hour.
Stable.
Maya made Luke stop.
Restart.
Reverse.
Operate hydraulics.
PTO.
Transmission ranges.
Everything held.
Back in the shop, Clayton stood beside the tractor.
“One.”
Maya nodded.
“One.”
He almost smiled.
Then caught himself.
“Eight left.”
“Six days.”
“Five.”
She looked at her phone.
“Agreement started yesterday at ten twenty-three.”
“It’s the second day.”
“Five days and fourteen hours.”
Clayton laughed.
“You’re annoying.”
“My father said precision looks like annoyance to people who prefer vagueness.”
Clayton stared.
“He said that to me.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“He said it about somebody.”
“I assumed you.”
Clayton laughed despite everything.
That night he brought dinner to the shop.
Two steaks.
Potatoes.
Coffee.
Maya stared.
“I’m not eating steak near an open wiring harness.”
“City girl.”
She looked at him.
“I grew up three miles from a stockyard.”
“Still.”
They ate at a metal workbench.
Logan had gone home.
Luke was outside.
Helen had left with copies of records.
Clayton was quiet.
Then:
“Your father hated me.”
“No.”
“He did.”
“He thought you were arrogant.”
“That’s hate with extra syllables.”
Maya smiled.
“He respected that you paid bills.”
Clayton laughed.
“That’s the nicest thing he said?”
“Probably.”
They ate.
Then Clayton said:
“He told me Big Sky was cheating us.”
“I know.”
“I told him he was paranoid.”
Maya waited.
“I had just bought the east section.”
“I was carrying debt.”
“Every day somebody was telling me what could go wrong.”
“Bank.”
“Feed.”
“Labor.”
“Drought.”
“Then Daniel comes in and tells me my best service vendor is stealing.”
“So I told him I didn’t have time for another problem.”
Maya looked at him.
“Problems don’t disappear because you don’t schedule them.”
Clayton nodded.
“That sounds like him too.”
“He taught me.”
“He left.”
“You fired him?”
“No.”
Clayton rubbed his hands together.
“I told him if he couldn’t trust my vendor, I’d use somebody who could.”
“He packed his tools.”
“Sent invoice.”
Maya smiled.
Clayton didn’t.
“Three months later, one machine failed.”
“Big Sky charged us nineteen grand.”
“A year later another.”
“I thought Daniel would call and say I told you so.”