“I could buy fifty houses and it still wouldn’t put a dent in that money, and you know it.”
“I just…I can’t accept this, honey.”
“You can,” I assured her. “And you will.”
“Why are you doing this?” she asked with a sniffle.
“Because Dad is gone,” I said bluntly. “That means I’m the head of this family now. And as the head of this family, it’s my job to take care of y’all.”
“I’m the parent,” she said. “It should be me doing the caretaking.”
“Just let me have this!” I burst out. “Please, Mama.”
My mom sighed heavily before giving me a terse nod. “Okay,” she said. “But I’m setting some ground rules.”
“Here we go,” I muttered.
There was commotion in the background as the twins stumbled inside and appeared on the screen, West covered damn near head to toe in what looked like mud, Finn wearing a sheepish grin next to him. They were fourteen and absolute hellions.
Mama was on them in a flash, grabbing them both by an ear and towing them back out the door. “What have I told you two about staying away from that crick?!” Her shouted words floated back to me, muffled my distance, and I couldn’t help chuckling.
When she finally came back, she found six-year-old Aria seated in her place, showing me how she was teaching herself to braid on the hair of a creepy-looking, dark-skinned bust she called Sasha.
“You’re doing great, kiddo,” I told her warmly. “But Mama and I need to have a grown up conversation now. Go play in yourroom.”
“Okay, Owen!” she said brightly, hopping up and scuttling off to her room—the only one of the Lawless siblings to have their own.
“A young girl needs her own space,”my dad had said once.
Aria had always been his favorite, probably because she was the only one who hadn’t given him ulcers. Though, had he lived, I had no doubt she would’ve followed in our footsteps.
“Now about these rules,” I drawled as my mom retook her seat.
“You only send enough for ranch expenses,” she said. “I’ll send you invoices as we get them, and you pay them. Just until I can hire someone to take over and handle all of that in house.”
“Not necessary.”
“What isn’t?”
“Hiring someone to take over. You’ve got Cyrus there. He was Dad’s right hand for twenty years. I think he knows how to run the place.”
“Well sure he does, but don’t you think he’s ready to retire? The man’s nearing sixty!”
“Has he said he wants to retire?”
“No…” she said, rolling her lips together. “Actually, he said I’ve got his help for as long as he needs me.”
“Perfect,” I said. “One less thing you have to worry about. What’s next?”
“I can’t let you give me money to take care of the boys and Aria,” she said. “We’ll make due.”
“With what, exactly? Mama,” I said, exasperated. “The twins are fourteen and growing like weeds. Trey needs to be focusing on college, and Lane needs to worry about finishing high school. And what are you going to do with Aria? Dress her in the boys’ hand-me-downs forever? Give her even more of a complex about being the only girl in a family of men?”
“Who are you and what have you done with my son?” she asked, squinting at me in the screen.
I shrugged. “I had to grow up sometime.”
The conversation had gone on like that for another hour, my mom fighting me at every turn about every little bit of help I wanted to offer. In the end, we agreed I’d provide them with a modest allowance for groceries, clothes, and other day-to-day necessities. I set up a bank account with my and Mama’s names on it that she could draw from in case of emergency, and I’d pay all the ranch-related expenses only so far as operational or unforeseen costs went.
