Clean Slate by Holley Trent

hadn’t been so cynical when he first knew her almost
thirty-five years ago. That grew over time with every new promise he made and
broke. He’d been so weak back then. He was through with being weak, especially
now that one of those men was getting married. That meant grandchildren soon.
He didn’t want his grandchildren to think him weak and cowardly. He was
supposed to be an idol, but he had some work to do to get there.
    “I probably care less than I should.”
    Alice sighed. “Lou, I don’t know all the details. He’s
forwarding the paperwork to you to review by courier. From what he hinted at,
it’ll hurt, but you’d keep most of your cash assets.”
    “Losing the house and family property, then.”
    “That’d be my guess.”
    He propped his head atop the back of the desk chair and
stared at the drop ceiling. Is it worth
it? Two hundred years of family history signed away with some paperwork?
    His fingers wrapped around the frame one more. It was
missing one more person he loved—never stopped loving.
    Yes. It was worth it.
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Daisy startled when she looked up to find Ben leaning onto
the end of her worktable. She pushed back her headphones and clutched her chest
as she scanned the barn behind her. It was late and she’d been there alone.
Sneaking up on her probably wasn’t the best idea he’d had all day, but hadn’t
wanted to frighten her by entering the building with a lot of door slamming and
foot stomping, either.
    “It’s just me.” He pulled a stool over from a nearby table
and perched at the end of her workstation. “I went out for a ride. Giving Jerry
and Trinity some space. They’re very tolerant of me, but I like to get out of
their hair sometimes. Saw the light on and figured it was you in here finishing
up.”
    She nodded and peeled off her latex gloves before pushing
some errant curls back from her face. Her hair was untamed beyond what the
simple elastic she’d looped around a tenuous bun constrained. It looked ready
to collapse at any moment, and he wanted to help it along—to free her
curls so they fell over her shoulders. Maybe thread his fingers through them.
See how soft they were.
    He stuffed his hands into his pockets.
    “Momma doesn’t know what I’m up to, and it took me a long
time tonight to shake her off my trail.”
    He pointed to the untended tray of soap at her elbow and
made a beckoning gesture.
    She passed it down along with a roll of plastic and some
seals.
    They wrapped in silence for a while, though he
occasionally looked up at her to find the blush in her cheeks gradually
receding as she became consumed by her chore. He knew his presence there was
affecting her, although he couldn’t be sure of why. Being easy to talk to was
one of his charms. At least, that’s what everyone said. Getting Daisy to talk
to him was like trying to get a kid to give up her ice cream cone.
    He held up one translucent yellow diskette of soap and
inhaled its scent. Lemon, but not cloying or overpowering. It smelled like real
fruit and not some chemically manufactured substitute. “Have you tried these?”
    She yawned as she nodded her head. “Yes, but just limited
tests to make sure they lather. You don’t really need a good lather to get
clean, but there’s something mental about having bubbles that makes people feel
like soaps working. I think they need a bit of tweaking, but I don’t have
time.”
    “Hmm.” He wrapped the soap and placed a silver foil
Natural by Nicolette sticker where the plastic edges came together. “How do you
normally troubleshoot?”
    He heard the sharp inhalation of breath and looked up to
find her cheeks flooded yet again.
    “I don’t.” She stacked her packaged soaps into the short,
wide cardboard box at the center of the table and added a divider. “Momma does
all the troubleshooting around here if there are any soap issues. This is the
first recipe I’ve devised on my own for N-by-N.”
    “What do you think she will say