A horrible realization sank into my gut as solidly as a rock in a wading pool. “If it wasn’t expected, you wouldn’t have worked at the company?”

His mouth tightened so briefly that I might’ve missed it if I hadn’t been scrutinizing him for all this new information. “It’s a family company.”

“Did your dad tell you that you had to work there when you were done with college? Your grams?” I could see Emilia doing that.

“Yeah, Grams and DB were pretty clear about their expectations for me. Beck talked about starting his own company even in high school. Xander obviously wasn’t going to be an office jockey. And Dawson loves ranching, so we all knew he’d be running the cow-calf operation as soon as he was able.”

“And you’re the oldest,” she finished. “But you wouldn’t have chosen the company?”

“I didn’t have to. It chose me,” he said with zero emotion.

I tried a different tactic. “If you could’ve gone to school for anything, what would it have been?”

“I never thought about it, since it never mattered.”

I switched my gaze to stare out the windshield. The snowy landscape on each side of the interstate was sparse and stretched as far as the eye could see. Brown grass stuck out in tufts, almost as plentiful as the snow.

Sadness filled my heart. Randall and Mom had worked to give my brothers and me the option of college if we wanted it. They couldn’t have afforded to pay the full amount, but they’d put away as much as they could. My brothers had each chosen technical programs and I’d gone to a university. After that, I’d chiseled away at my student loans until I was married. Then Aiden had taken care of the entire amount with one hammer blow.

I hadn’t taken it for granted that I could continue my education after high school graduation. What I had taken for granted, and only realized now, was that I’d been able to choose whatever program I wanted. I’d envisioned myself as a kind librarian with an ever-ready smile, like the ones that had helped and nurtured me while growing up.

Aiden hadn’t chosen his career. He might hate his job and none of us would know. That…sucked. He made an obscene wage, but it had been at the cost of the rest of his life. He gave King Oil his everything, but it gave him little in return.

Aiden

I clicked through finance reports from our sites in North Dakota. A few sites around Williston were still moving oil, but several were shut down until the price of a barrel rose. It wasn’t ideal, but that was the current climate.