“You’re the head of the ranch now, right?” Trish took a step toward him, reaching for the sweating bottles and setting them on the table by their settings. “I’m sure he’d be happy to have you sit in his place. I’ll be right back. Forgot silverware.”
At the rattle of the silverware drawer, Shadow made her first appearance since Trish dressed for dinner. With the length of her stretch, Trish assumed she’d just woken from a good, long nap. Trish could use one herself with how late she was up the night before. Maybe tonight, she’d go to bed early. But as she walked back toward the dining room table, her heart sank a little. Tomorrow was her last full day at the ranch. The day after, she’d have to get on the road.
“Wade, is everything okay?” Trish asked when she noticed his hands on the top of the chair, his head lowered. She touched his arm, but he kept his head bowed.
“Let’s eat.”
“Hey.” She reached a gentle hand to his chin and turned his face toward her. Tears glistened in his eyes. Even through the shirt he’d put on, she could see the tension in his shoulders. “Talk to me.”
“My uncle wants to sell part of the ranch. I think Grams might go for it.”
“What?” She couldn’t believe the words could be true. Lina loved the ranch as much as the rest of them. Trish saw that in her glowing eyes, in the way she talked about their ranch every day. “What makes you think that?”
Wade pulled out his chair and nodded for Trish to do the same. “Money’s been tighter than I realized. Grams didn’t let on how tight, though.”
Act natural.Cutting into her country fried steak, Trish asked, “But aren’t you the one running things? Wouldn’t that include the books?”
“Grams has always been pretty secretive about her bookkeeping methods. I figured it was because my uncle Bill always got dollar signs in his eyes whenever money was brought up. Guess I should’ve known something was up when she still wouldn’t share that with me after he left for Europe.”
“Maybe that’s why she put this retreat together?” Trish suggested. “Maybe if she did a few more . . .”
“I saw the books this morning. This retreat—” he waved his fork in the air “—won’t make a dent in what we need. Leave it to Bill to want to sell the best part of the ranch to some stranger.”
“What part?”
Wade took his time taking a bite and swallowing before he answered. “North pasture. All hundred acres of it.”
“That must be just a small corner of the ranch, right?” Trish asked and waited for a nod. “Would a hundred acres be so bad if it helped catch things up?”
Wade’s fiery glare sent shivers through Trish, and not the good kind. The kind that let her know she’d said something very, very wrong. “The north pasture has the best grazing land we have.”
There was something he wasn’t telling her. She braved on, hoping to learn what it was. “What else is out there?”
Wade wiped his mouth with a napkin, tossing it on his empty plate. He took a swig of his beer before he asked, “You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
He pushed back from his chair and grabbed both their plates. “Grab a jacket.”
Chapter 16
Wade
If Wade had beenon his own, he would’ve raced across the ranch. But with Trish as his passenger and Shadow insistent on joining them, he had to take the drive in the ATV easier. At first the slow pace grated on him. But with the sun illuminating the tops of the trees, more yellow by the day, some of Wade’s tension lifted.
Near the top of a rolling hill, his small cabin peeked out from behind a couple of mature trees and they rolled to a stop. “We have a couple of these cabins on the ranch in different pastures,” he explained. “Kind of like base camps if someone needs to stick around to keep an eye on things.” He thought it might be best to leave out the detail about Chet spending two weeks out here a few summers ago to keep the herd safe from a lurking wolf.
“You should tell your grandma to stick writers who don’t like people out here.”
“Haven’t met one yet,” he said with a quick smile, feeling relief that they were back to bantering. He knew it was childish of him to hold her innocent, rational question against her. She hadn’t grown up on a ranch. She didn’t understand how sacred every acre was to a ranching family. Uncle Bill should, but Wade wouldn’t take that frustration out on Trish.
“Oh.”
Wade had called someone to come out next week to take a look at the well. But unless he could keep Grams from making any rash decisions about selling this part of the ranch—or any of it for that matter—he should probably hold off. If she chose to sell, there was nothing he could do to change her mind. But that didn’t mean he had to make things easier for a new owner on his dime.
“Grams figured this one might be a little too rustic for a romance writer,” he added because he didn’t want to talk about the possibility this cabin might not be his indefinitely. “And it’s kind of under construction.”
Wade stepped off the ATV, Shadow immediately leaping from the back. The shepherd went right to sniffing along the deck, looking for her buddy, Squirrel. “You can get out here by the river, too, but it’s a bit of a hike up that hill.” He stepped around the ATV and reached for her hand. It fit perfectly into his own, and he found himself reluctant to let go, so he didn’t.
