Cattle Valley 28 - Second Chances Read Online Free

eyes. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with Drake’s shit, especially
    after he’d been shamed into going on the last-minute trip in the first place. He snatched his pack off the seat and shoved it in a small locker next to the bathroom. Without saying a word to Drake, he dropped into a seat towards the front of the plane.
    A muffled curse came from behind Oggie and a few moments later, Drake took the chair across from him. “What’re you doing?” Oggie asked.
“Trying to bury the hatchet,” Drake replied, hands resting comfortably in his lap.
Oggie didn’t care to hear anything the conceited asshole had to say. “Better watch out or it’ll be buried in your head.”
Drake leant forward just as the jet left the runway. “What exactly have I done to make you hate me so much?”
The memory of their first meeting flashed through Oggie’s mind. He’d been made to feel like a damn invalid who couldn’t even take care of his own ranch. “I don’t like to be underestimated.”
“Who’s underestimated you? Certainly not me. I’ve tried to help out a couple of times, but that has nothing to do with underestimating you.”
“The hell it doesn’t,” Oggie growled. Drake was the first person to make him feel handicapped and for that alone, he would never be forgiven. “You came on my land and took over like you had every right to do so.” He held up his right arm. “One look at this and you assumed I needed your help.”
Although the plane was still ascending, Drake unbuckled his seatbelt and made his way to the same locker Oggie had stored his bag in. He rooted around for several moments before coming back with a small book. After resuming his seat, he passed it to Oggie. “I’ve never shown this to anyone, and if you care anything about that handsome face of yours, you’ll do the right thing and school your initial reactions.”
It wasn’t until the book was in Oggie’s hands that he realised it was a photo album. Although he was at a loss as to why Drake would want him to look at pictures, Oggie flipped open the cover. His jaws tightened at the photo of a young boy of around five and an older, heavy woman with missing feet. He turned the page, another image of the boy, but he appeared a year or so older. The woman was also the same except her right hand was noticeably absent. The boy had his arm lovingly draped around the woman’s neck.
“She insisted we take those,” Drake said in a voice so soft Oggie barely heard him.
“She’s your mother,” Oggie concluded. He felt sick to his stomach as the pictures progressed. In each photo, there was a little less of Drake’s mother as the boy grew older. “Diabetes?”
Drake nodded and accepted the album Oggie held out. “Neuropathy. She’d had trouble with it before she got pregnant, but by the time I was born, her poor body had nearly given up the fight.” He ran his fingertips over the album. “By the time I was two, she’d lost the toes on both feet.” He gestured to the book. “That first picture was taken right after I’d started first grade. By then, both feet were gone.”
Drake stood and put the album back into the closet. “She wasn’t healthy but at least she was happy back then. She still tried to do everything a mother’s supposed to.” He stopped abruptly. “Excuse me.”
Oggie let out a heavy sigh when Drake disappeared into the small restroom and shut the door. How was he supposed to respond to what Drake had just shared? He knew it was something he’d have to chew on for a while.
    After splashing cold water onto his face, Drake leaned against the small vanity and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He shouldn’t have revealed as much as he had. What the hell had prompted him to share his mother with someone after so many years? Hadn’t he learnt his lesson the one and only other time he’d done it? Sure, he’d only been eight at the time, but it had haunted him since.
    There was a soft knock on the flimsy door.