It was the hottest day in July so far, and the days had begun feeling too damn long. Anthony never claimed working outdoors was better than being cooped up in an office building, but he didn’t say it wasn’t either. However, when the rare heatwave of 90-100 degrees hit, he would pay big bucks to work in a building with AC.

Still, he never complained.

The world was rough, so you just had to get rougher. That’s what his pops, Sean, always told him.

Thankfully, he had found a few helping hands to help on Eagle Acres. Over the years since he opened, he’d gathered a group of five other workers, and they all worked their asses off just like him to keep the place running. Anthony had quite a few animals here now. He had horses, cows, sheep, goats, a few donkeys, chicken, ducks, turkeys, and pigs. In addition to all that, he had one more critter that he personally had to make time for everyday.

He was out herding the cattle to their barns for the evening, which they were greatly protesting against. Suddenly, he heard a voice calling out to him over the noise of the animals. He turned on his stallion, Kipper, and smiled down at his boy who was hopping on the fence around the pasture.

“Kenneth,” he smiled fondly as he maneuvered Kipper to the fence. “Why’re you not with grandma? Surely that woman has something for you to help with for dinner,” he teased.

Mary, Anthony’s mama, lived with them since his pops passed. She watched over Kenneth while Anthony worked, and home schooled the boy as well.

“There’s a stranger at the gate,” Kennneth said, pointing down that way. “On the cameras, they look like a city dweller.”

Anthony frowned. His first thought was it was another one of those rich bastards who wanted to buy his land to build more useless, fancy buildings. He nodded toward the house.

“Get back to grandma. I’ll check it out. Stay there, alright?” he called back as he called for one of his workers to take over herding.

When he arrived at the front gate, Anthony did indeed find someone who looked completely out of their element. They didn’t look like those business people though, but he didn’t let his guard down quite yet. If they were in need of help, he would give it. He wasn’t an unkind man, but he wasn’t stupid. He’d ask them to leave if something felt off.

This person didn’t look like they could kill a chicken though. He slowed Kipper down and nodded at them over the gate.

“Evening,” he greeted, keeping his tone even as he studied them to see if they could be dangerous or deceitful. “What brings you to Eagle Acres with the sun’s settin’?”