Page 87 of Cowboys Next Door

“He’s on the phone?” I ask in a much lower voice, my eyes widening in dismay. How the hell does he know where I am?

“No, it’s your sister.”

Shit. Almost as bad. Actually… maybe worse.

It’s too late to pretend I’m not there, Val already heard my voice, but there is no sense in avoiding her, anyway. She will just show up on my front step again, and I have no interest in another face-off with my incorrigible older sister.

Thanking Katherine, I take the phone and look over the ranch for Rose or Eli, but I can’t see either one of them. Taking the deepest breath I can muster, I dive into the conversation.

“Val? What’s going on?” I ask crisply, steeling myself for the inevitable news.

“Why the hell haven’t you answered your phone? Why do I have to call the whole goddamn neighborhood to find out that you’re Katherine Winterbourne’s lacky? What the hell is happening over there?”

I grind my teeth but miraculously manage to keep my calm. “Is there a point to this call, or did Jaxon leave you, and you need another victim to criticize?”

“Pardon me?” Val’s voice rises an octave.

“What do you want, Valerie? I’m in the middle of something.”

“Yes, I heard. Working on the Winterbourne’s money pit. Are you using our money for that?”

“Our money?” I echo with a laugh. “Did I marry you?”

“You know what I mean, Hudson. That’s our family ranch?—”

“Which you gave up all claim to when you moved to Boise. You didn’t want the responsibility, remember? So I bought you out. In cash.”

“Stop arguing semantics with me, Hud. You better not be using family money! I’m going to tell Daddy when I see him?—”

I don’t remind her that Daddy dearest also has no say in the oversight of the ranch, thanks to his ailing mind, but I decide to let it go. The ranch is mine, and she can’t do anything about it.

“And risk giving him another stroke?” I cut her off. “That’s very cruel, Val! What kind of daughter would do that to her own father? Why would you stress him out like that?”

My sister sputters on the other end of the phone. “Don’t you twist this on me. Daddy wants to come home!”

“Daddy is home. Inahome. Which is where he’s staying unless you and Jaxon are going to move him in with you. I’m not having this conversation with you over and over again, Val. Like I said, I’m busy.”

“You’re being ridiculous. You can prance around helping that crazy, old lady, but you can’t take care of your own father?” Val screeches.

Suddenly, I realize what’s happening, why my sister is so frazzled and coming for me.

“He’s turning on you now, isn’t he?” I say, dumbfounded.

I never thought I’d see the day when the golden child would become the scapegoat, but without me, it seems that my father had no choice but to go after Val. I have set my boundaries so firmly with Frank that he’s lashing out at Val, who has never really endured this side of her father.

“What are you babbling about?” Val hisses. “Turning on me. He has every right to be home. Have some compassion for an old man.”

I flop down on the steps and release a mirthless laugh. “The same way he had compassion for me?”

“What? What the hell are you talking about?”

But I know I’m right, and I drive my point home, catching the waver in her voice.

“He can’t get through to me, so he’s calling you and giving you the same shit that he used to give me,” I murmur. “All those years, listening to this endless shit. You sound just like him, Val, and you know what? I’m not dealing with it, not anymore.”

“I don’t know?—”

“If you call me again,” I interrupt, “and so much as raise your voice a notch, it will be the last time you and I ever speak. I have endured enough of his abuse. I’m not trading him in for a new model.”

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