As soon as we were old enough, my brothers and I—myfullbrothers—escaped this place.
To my surprise, Travis had stayed. I guess Bill Thorne wasn’t quite such a tyrannical asshole to anyone who wasn’t his son. Either that, or Travis was just better at shutting it out than the rest of us.
“You going to stand there and watch me all day, boss?
Travis calls without looking up.
I chuckle and shake my head. “Someone has to make sure you’re doing it right,” I shoot back.
He snorts. “Pretty sure I know more about this particular line of fence than you do these days.”
“You’re not wrong.”
That earns a grin from my old friend. “You’ve been gone a long time, Wyatt. It’s good to have you back.”
I shake my head, not entirely sure how good it is at all.
For a few quiet moments, we both lean on the rail and look out across the pasture. The ground’s gone brittle and pale. I could blame it on the season and the recent frosts, but I know it’s more than that.
In the distance, the once bright barn sits dull, paint peeling, with the roof rusting in the sun.
I blow out a breath and shake my head at the way my father let this place fall into disrepair.
“It’s pretty hard to believe,” Travis says quietly, reading my mind. “Used to be you couldn’t throw a rope without hitting one of your mama’s horses out here in this paddock.”
“And she would’ve whipped your ass if you had.” I huff out a laugh, the first one that’s come easily in a while. But we both know Mama wouldn’t have done any such thing.
My chest tightens. “Yeah,” I say after a moment. “She’d lose her mind if she saw what this place had become.”
“I need you to know that I did my best, Wyatt.” Travis doesn’t look at me when he speaks. “And my dad, too. He worked overtime until the day he died trying to keep this place running. But your?—”
“You don’t have to say it,” I stop him. “My ol’ man ran this place into the ground,” I finish for him. “He ran us all off one by one to make room for his new family. I guess they weren’t enough to keep him happy here.”
My old friend turns and assesses me with a quiet gaze for a few moments before he says. “He ran them off, too, ya know? After Peggy died. It wasn’t just you.”
That doesn’t surprise me. I assumed something must have happened with hisnewsons, my half-brothers. If he’d been happy with them, wouldn’t they have inherited the ranch instead of the five of us?
I shake my head, dismissing the thought. It’s not my problem. My problem is right in front of me.
The silence that follows is heavy with memories. There was a time this place was a young boy’s paradise.
Laughter, freedom, horses and hay bales. The sound of my mother’s voice calling us in for a piece of pie.
“She solved this place,” Travis says after a beat. “Hell, we all did. Feels so wrong seeing it this way. I guess I didn’t realize how bad it was until I saw it through your eyes. Being here all the time, it’s harder to notice the big decline, I guess.”
“I could see that.” I shrug and shake it off. “But that’s why I’m here, I guess. To get this place back into shape. I appreciate your help with that, man.”
“Of course.” Trav gives me a sidelong glance. “What exactly are you getting it back into shapefor?”
I hesitate, jaw tight. It’s not something I’ve mentioned to him yet. And I’m pretty sure I know how it will be received. In the same way, my brother Colton took it. He’s got a young boy of hisown now. Might have some crazy notion of raising him on the land.
Travis arches a brow. “You thinking about selling?”
I drag a hand over my neck. “Doesn’t make sense to hang onto it, does it? It’s not like it means anything to any of us after…well, after everything. My brothers will be here soon. We’ll talk it through.”
More like, I’d do the talking and they’d do the protesting. Even after leaving Rock Creek, we’d all stayed in the ranching life in some capacity. I knew there was nothing like working your own land. It was Rex’s main argument. And the ranchwasleft to all five of us. But as the oldest, I knew my opinion held the most weight.”
Travis whistles low. “Can’t say I like that idea.”
