Page 19 of Trickster King

“Find out if Micky and his family are intending to sell their farm, where it is, and how viable it is. If so, get a hold of the real estate agent and make sure they have a good place for their retirement, one that won’t overwhelm them. Their horses can’t thank them, but I can, and so I will.”

“Consider it done,” Geoff replied.

FOUR

For some reason, Texans enjoyed tweaking my queen’s nose whenever possible.

While I took over the ranch kitchen, Randy and Geoff began the tedious work of selling my horses so I could buy several ranches to continue my operations. As I meant to buy them out from under my wife’s nose, I contacted the bank while I cooked, had them open an account specifically for the purpose of depositing funds and paying for my ranches, and warned them there would be a substantial amount of money moving around. The tax issues ate an hour, but upon hearing I was out to buy ranches without my wife’s awareness through selling horses, the bank’s rep went to bat for me.

For some reason, Texans enjoyed tweaking my queen’s nose whenever possible.

With the bank taken care of, I focused on my next problem: Eddie. In what had to be a record, he’d stayed passed out for the entire drive to the ranch, hadn’t budged on the journey to the couch, and remained oblivious to the general fuss going on around him. Once the soup was simmering and ready for consumption, I sat beside him and rubbed his shoulder until he protested. “It’s supper time. You slept through the entire road trip, but it’s time for you to get up and eat. You can go back to bed after if you want and take your shower in the morning.”

As a general rule, we required our children to shower or bathe in both the morning and evening, something I hoped would become quiet times in their day.

Eddie yawned, rubbed his eyes, and nodded, which was the most I expected out of him for a few more minutes. Once I got him on his feet, I herded him to the smaller of the two dining rooms in the ranch, where Randy and Geoff waited.

“Sorry for the fuss,” Eddie mumbled.

I sat the boy down on one of the center chairs at the table and chose a seat beside him. “It’s no fuss. Your mom would kill me if I even thought about letting you go to school while sick. You don’t want your mom to kill me, do you?”

That got a soft giggle out of him, and he shook his head.

Satisfied, I pulled the pot closer, gave him the first bowl and passed it to Geoff. Taking the last serving helped put everyone at ease, me included.

Some habits refused to die, and despite years of living as Texas’s king, I found comfort in returning to my roots. When I missed the days of having barely gotten by and struggling to reach my goals, I reminded myself I’d won more than wealth.

I’d somehow captured a wild west Texas wind in the form of my wife.

I expected I’d miss her within three days. Running so she’d chase me still appealed, although I would need to remind myself I needed the two to three weeks to build my empire without her being aware of my activities.

Once the pot made its way back to me, I dished up and said, “As you will make a fuss for having been kicked out of school to have fun for two to three weeks, I will make a deal with you.”

“What deal?” Eddie asked, and his tone reminded me a little of Jessica and a little of his father, skeptical blended with curious.

One day, I might forgive myself for the actions of others. I’d needed more therapy than Eddie to come to terms with his father’s death. While we’d made plenty of mistakes along the way, the empaths had reassured me of one thing: we might never be able to replace his father, but Eddie understood he was a loved part of a rather untraditional family.

And on holidays, he became king of the world. Six Christmases in a year, where each family treated him just like he was our flesh and blood, had worked wonders for him. The concern Eddie might follow in his father’s footsteps bothered me.

Like father, like son—and we all served in one way or another.

“I’m about to get in trouble with your mom as soon as she figures out what I’m up to,” I confessed in a conspiratorial tone. “You know how pretty Chocolate Cupcake is?”

“She’s gorgeous,” he replied. “And her foals are adorable.”

“Well, it’s time you learned how to raise up a foal yourself, and I’ve a line on Chocolate Cupcake’s sire and dam. They’re up for sale, and I’m purchasing them.”

“You’re dead,” Eddie informed me. “Mom’s going to hang you up from the barn this time for certain.”

Randy snorted, and Geoff fought valiantly, but a sound suspiciously like a giggle emerged from him.

I ignored the RPS agents and winked at my boy. “That’s why we aren’t telling her what we’re up to. So, you’ll get one of the foals, but you must help me make a few illicit acquisitions your mom can’t find out about until everything is finalized. The longer I pull the wool over her eyes, the better it is.”

“Mom’s already pregnant again, Dad. You should at least wait until she’s not having another kid.”

I choked on a laugh, gave up fighting it, and chortled at the disapproval in his tone. “We’re having twins, Eddie. If I make it through this pregnancy, I’ll have earned every one of the ranches I’m buying.”

Eddie’s eyes widened. “Twins?”

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