Page 10 of Make Her Mine
“Time to time?” Clayton asked with a goofy grin. “Yesterday you caught her twice. I almost wonder if she fell on purpose to get you to scoop her up in your strong arms, Romeo.”
“Cool it.” We had better things to discuss besides the young housekeeper. “Now, tell me how we’re going to do right by that ranch.”
Dyllan seemed optimistic, “We can learn, can’t we? Now that we’ve got loads of cash, we can learn things.”
“A Cowboy college?” Clayton joked. “I don’t think they have one of those. Not even in Texas.”
“Yeah, but we have Zeke Finley,” I reminded them. “He’s been around that ranch forever. He’d teach us everything we need.”
Dyllan’s eyes narrowed. “You know what? Why do we have to learn a damn thing? We’ve got money to pay everyone to do everything for us.”
Living a life of doing nothing seemed like a bad way to live to me. “Dyllan, the idle rich seem to get into a lot of trouble. I think it best if we all work at the ranch.Ifwe keep it.”
As we came into the outer suburbs of Dallas, we passed the historical Mesquite Rodeo Arena. “Hey, how about we get into the bucking bulls game?” Dyllan suggested.
Indeed, we could use the ranch to not only make money but to learn some things while we were at it. “If that’s something you’d like to do, then go after it. Once we settle on staying or selling.”
Clayton’s eyes glazed over as he said, “You know what we could do?”
“What?” I asked as I took the exit to Mom’s and Dad’s house.
“They can coach us how to cowboy up! The guys working at the rodeo arena could teach us the basics at least. That way, when we go back to the ranch, we wouldn’t be such greenhorns about everything.”
“Sounds good. Get on that,” I advised, taking a right on the street we grew up on. “Ifwe choose to keep the place.”
“We’vegot ideas, Brandon,” Dyllan said. “What are your ideas?”
“At the present, I’m looking for a real estate broker to talk to.” I didn’t want to run the property into the ground because of our lack of knowledge. More people than just us count on it to make a living.
Parking in front of the modest two-bedroom home we’d grown up in, I couldn’t help but sigh. Dyllan and Clayton did, too. Clayton looked at me with a frown. “I don’t know about keeping them out of our newfound wealth, Brandon.”
“Me, neither.” I got out of the truck, and we all headed inside.
Mom never had a job. Dad wanted her to stay home with the kids instead. Dad did not go to college. With no education and no work experience other than some labor work, he had a tough time finding employment when they moved to Dallas. Eventually, he landed a job with a construction company. But it didn’t pay well. Not that our father ever complained.
Mom threw the front door open and held out her arms. “You’re back! My boys are back home!”
“We’ve only been gone one night, Mom,” Dyllan laughed. “How could you miss us already?”
Her dark eyes glistened with what might be tears. “I was worried that you would see what we had left behind us and suppose we were insane and write us completely off.”
Why did they leave? “Mom, can you and Dad please tell us the truth about everything? We need to know.”
Nodding, she hugged us then let us go so we could get inside. “Arny,” she called out. “The boys are back. They want to talk.”
My father came out of the bedroom. His robe untied, wearing night clothes, he looked tired and a bit sick. “What do you want to talk about?”
As Clayton and Dyllan took seats on the couch, I put my hand on our father’s shoulder. “Are you doing okay, Dad? It’s noon, and you’re still in pajamas? Are you sick?”
Mom patted me on the back. “Go take a seat, Brandon. Your dad just tied one on last night is all.”
We’ve never seen Father with a hangover. “Why’d you do that, Dad?”
He sat in his threadbare chair, hollowed out where only his butt ever parked. “I thought we might lose you to the life we left behind. We know how alluring wealth can be. No one would blame you if you did take it and leave us. You see, I know about my father’s Last Will and Testament. His attorney sent an e-mail to us. We got it yesterday, not long after you took off.”
“Just ’cause we can’t give you anything doesn’t mean we’ll walk away from you guys,” Dyllan said. “You’re our family. Money won’t get in the way of that.”
“We’ll give it to the state then,” I said because of how they were taking things. “We never had anything before, and we don’t need it now.”
