Page 10 of Ride the Sky

I shrug. “Ain’t the rodeo, that’s for sure.”

“Wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it. Our little brother, a coach.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I say, annoyed by Ford’s affectionate ribbing.

Hunching my shoulders, I dig into the lasagna even though I’m not hungry. I want to ride. I want a drink. Preferably at the same time. A fact that would only make Davis growl.

“While you’re here, need to talk to you ’bout something,” Charlie says. His tone is serious, which means it’s about the ranch. “The land you’re livin’ on…we need it.”

The left-field announcement has me gaping. “You serious?”

Davis passes the whiskey bottle down the table. “It makes no financial sense to let that land sit.”

“So that means, what?” I glare around the table, pissed off about this sudden revelation. Pissed off they’ve all discussed this without me. Fucking figures. They’ve always left me out of big conversations. And I’ve always hated it.

Ford smirks. “You’re gonna move, kid. End of summer.”

Reese looks at me hopefully. “The garage is free.”

Great. The fucking garage.

I glare at them. “What about my Airstream?”

“Your Airstream has rats,” Davis says, and Dakota shudders. “It’s hollowed out. Eaten through. Ain’t worth shit. At the very least, you shouldn’t be livin’ in it.”

I set down my whiskey. “Fuck.”

Ford nods. “You’ll be okay, kid.”

I already hate this. Change. It scares the shit out of me. Maybe that’s why I’ve always acted like life’s too serious. Maybe this is their way of telling me to finally get my shit together.

I’ve always felt a ton of pressure to live up to my trailblazing older brothers. Charlie has the ranch. Davis his dog rescue. Ford his baseball camp. But they’re not pressuring me. It’s pressure I put on myself. I see what they’ve done, and I’m not sure I stack up.

I’m proud of my big brothers.

I don’t know if they’d say the same about me.

“What are you gonna do with the land?” I ask.

“Ain’t sure yet.” Charlie looks at Davis. “We gotta clean up all those old trees. Tear down those posts. Level out the land.”

“I’ll do it,” Davis says.

“Davis.” Dakota’s lips thin. We all watch as a silent conversation happens between them. She lays a hand on his arm, and his big muscles untense. “Hire someone. You don’t need the stress right now.”

My eyes narrow. “What’s going on?”

Dakota sighs. “You didn’t tell them?” Pretty face pained, she looks around the table. “He has an ulcer.”

Davis sighs. “Dakota.”

“Shit,” Charlie swears.

“How long have you known?” Ford looks pissed. Then worried.

I clear my throat. “You’ll be okay?”

“About a month. And I’ll be fine.” Davis grunts, standing to pluck a whimpering Lainie from her cradle. Slowly, he rocks her side to side. “Feels like a fucking burning in my chest is all.”

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