“I know.”

“Why didn’t you scream at me?”

“I was too tired to start.”

He laughed, a broken, wet sound, and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me.”

“I’m not offering that. Not yet. Maybe not for a long time.” I stood. “But I’m offering something. Tom asked me to give you a way back, and I’m going to. There’s a condition.”

He looked up.

“You’ll come to the ranch on Saturday. You’ll work. You’ll help Ben haul the last of the bales to the winter pasture, and you’ll feed with him, and you’ll do it every Saturday until the first of the year, without being asked and without being paid. And you’ll go to Arlen and Gene and the Reyes couple and tell each of them the truth, in your own words.”