There were glorious amounts of junk food, alcohol, music, and cake. There was also a horseshoe tournament, made all the better by not only alcohol but the fact that each horseshoe had actually been on a horse at one point and was slightly different from all the others. Vince had never been good at the game. Every year, the stable hands pooled funds to get him a gift card—they did the same for Wes—but this year, Vince was very aware of the fact that Chris’s name was missing from the birthday card it came with. The amount on the gift card was also slightly lower than usual, which Anna apologized to him about privately. “The money doesn’t matter,” Vince assured her. “I’m happy just getting something from you guys. You know none of you need to do that.” “Well,” she argued with a smile, “sometimes you’re more like a brother than a boss.” Vince wasn’t sure which he was acting like when he watched Dustin get himself drunker and drunker as the night wore on.
