“Fuck!” I slammed my palm against the dashboard, pain shooting up my arm.
A year. A wholegoddamnyear of living with Jesse. Working with him. Sharing the main house with him. It was a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.
I started the engine and peeled out of the parking spot, tires spitting gravel. Main Street blurred past as I drove too fast, ignoring the disapproving looks from pedestrians. I didn’t care what any of them thought. None of them understood what had just happened to me.
Fifteen years of my life. Fifteen years of blood, sweat, and tears poured into that ranch. While Jesse was living it up in Seattle, I’d been the one breaking ice on water troughs in sub-zero temperatures. I’d been the one staying up all night with sick calves. I’d been the one watching my youth slip away, day by day, sunrise after sunrise, while the ranch consumed every hour of my life. The one that never got to live because he was too busy taking care of everyone else.
And Dad gave half of it to Jesse without even talking to me. Just like that.
The main house loomed ahead as I pulled up the long gravel drive. I hadn’t slept there in years, choosing instead to stay in the foreman’s cabin. It was smaller, simpler, and didn’t have the ghosts that haunted the big house. Now I was supposed to move back in…withJesse.
Evelyn was waiting on the porch when I pulled up, her arms folded across her chest. One look at my face and she knew.
“He told you, then,” she said, not a question.
I slammed the truck door hard enough to rattle the windows. “You knew. This whole time, you knew what was in that will.”
She didn’t deny it. “Your father swore me to secrecy.”
“And you went along with it?” I stormed past her, into the kitchen, needing something stronger than coffee. “After watching me break my back for fifteen years, you thought this was fair?”
Evelyn followed, her face a mask of patience I wanted to shatter. “Jack had his reasons, Cole.”
I yanked open the cabinet where Dad kept his whiskey, pulling out a bottle and a glass. “What reasons? To punish me? To reward Jesse for abandoning us?”
“To bring his sons back together,” she said softly. “His family.”
I laughed, a harsh sound that scraped my throat raw. “We’re not brothers. We never were.”
“You were once,” she replied, her voice maddeningly calm. “Before Jesse’s mother died. Before everything went sideways between you two.”
The whiskey burned going down, but not enough to chase away the bitter taste in my mouth. “That was a long time ago.”
“Your father never gave up hope that you boys would reconcile. He wanted his family whole again before he died.”
“Well, he didn’t get it, did he?” I slammed the glass down. “And now he’s trying to force it from the grave.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare speak ill of your father, Cole Nelson. That man loved you more than life itself.”
“If he loved me, he wouldn’t have done this!”
“He was trying to save you!” she shot back, her voice rising to match mine. “That anger you carry around and all those things you try to bottle up… it’s eating you alive, and your father knew it. He was trying to help you both.”
I turned away, unable to look at her. The truth of her words cut too deep. “Yeah well, he’s got a real fucking funny way of showing it.”
“Cole James Nelson,” Evelyn barked, that tone of motherly anger in her voice that told me I was in trouble.
“No,” I snapped back, pointing a threatening finger at her. “You’re not my fuckin’ mom, Evelyn. I’m an orphan now, remember? And I don’t even get the decency of being able to keep what I’ve sacrificed my whole life for!”
The pain in her eyes as my words settled in felt like a knife twisting through my gut. But I was too upset to apologize, too angry to take back what I’d said. Now, on top of hating this entire situation with the ranch, I hated myself for hurting the only family I had left.
Grabbing the whiskey bottle, I stormed out of the house, past the fence line, and just kept walking. It wasn’t until I reached the creek that I finally stopped, unwilling to brave the swollen waters after the rain. I took a swig of the whiskey, feeling it burn all the way down. Then, tearing my hat off, I tilted my head back toward that endless sky.
And I just screamed.
Chapter 4
Jesse
