“How do you always know when I need a call?” I tease.
“Bestie intuition. What’s wrong?”
“Oh, you know,” I say, forcing a laugh. “Just drinking wine and staring at spreadsheets, trying to figure out how to pull a miracle out of thin air.”
“The cattle?”
“No, I need to come up with fifty-k in two weeks.” I take a deep breath and lean back in my chair.
“Um, okay. Backtrack. Why the hell do you need that kind of cash?”
“My dad took out a second mortgage on the ranch. It’s got a ridiculous balloon payment and…the bank isn’t willing to work with him anymore. They’re threatening to foreclose.”
“Oh shit. Why didn’t you mention this sooner?”
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “Trying to figure it out on my own.”
“And how has that worked out for you?”
“Not great,” I reply.
“What are we looking at?”
“I have about half of what we need just from my savings and investment accounts. Dad’s been paying as much as he can, but it’s not enough. I’ve got two weeks to come up with the rest, and I’m out of ideas.”
“FeetFinder?” she quips. “OnlyFans?”
“Adding to my list,” I laugh.
“What about selling your house?” she asks.
“It’s an option,” I admit, “but it’s not fast enough. Even if I found a buyer tomorrow, closing would take weeks.”
“Okay,” Kelsey says, her voice taking on a determined edge. “What about a loan? Canyoutake out a second mortgage?”
“I thought about that,” I say, running a hand through my hair. “But my credit’s not great, and I don’t think I’d get approved for enough.”
“How is your credit not great?”
“Student loans out the ass, added on to being stupid in college and applying for all those credit cards for free tee shirts so I didn’t have to do laundry, and not paying them off. Money was so hush-hush in our family and something only my daddy dealt with. I didn’t really understand credit and all of that stuff. The house is the only thing I have in my name, and Mama cosigned for that. Now, I just have old credit, and that’s not a good look either.
“What about crowdfunding?” she suggests. “You could set up a GoFundMe or something. People love a good ‘save the family ranch’ story.”
I sigh. “It’s not a terrible idea, but it’s risky. What if we don’t raise enough? Plus, it’s not exactly a quick fix. And my dad would despise the idea of it.”
“True,” she concedes. “What about investors? Is there anyone who might be willing to invest in the ranch?”
“I’ve thought about that, too,” I say, staring at the spreadsheet again, because I have, even before Wade asked me to move to Hicks Creek. “But who’s going to invest in a struggling ranch with a ticking clock? Not to mention, my dad isn’t exactly easy to work with, and since he’s the one who always called the shots, it’ll be impossible to change that.”
“You’d be surprised,” Kelsey says. “People love a good underdog story. Maybe there’s someone local who’d want to help out and be a silent partner.”
I take a sip of wine and consider her words. “Maybe. I’ll have to make some calls tomorrow and see if anyone’s interested. I don’t think two weeks is enough time to vet properly or find someone who wouldn’t invest and then turn it all into a resort or something.”
“What about selling off some of the cattle?” she asks. “Would that help?”
“It might,” I say slowly. “But it’s a short-term solution. Selling off too many would hurt us in the long run. Besides, with the outbreak being known, it’s against everything I stand for to sell any of them, knowing they could be harboring silent symptoms. Then, the outbreak would just spread further. That could come back and cause fines that we’d never be able to pay.”
She sighs. “I hate this for you, Sutton. You shouldn’t have to deal with all of this on your own.”
