He figured he could run up the road to the turnoff from town. It was three miles or so. A good distance to start, since he had been off a few days. He thanked himself for having the foresight to bring workout clothes just in case wherever he stayed had a gym.
Well, this wasn’t a gym, but it would do.
He set off down the road, the sun warm on his face, the air so different from the city it took him no time to feel the difference. It was fresh, almost sweet, and he took in a huge lungful as he adjusted his stride to his workout playlist. He could get used to this kind of running. The river pathways this was not. No garbage, no smog, no dodging people walking their fluffy dogs with enormous whipped cream–topped coffees in their hands.
He had run to the turnoff and was starting back when wheels crunched on the gravel behind him. He turned, and Tanner’s dark-blue Ford F-250 drove up and slowed down beside him on the wrong side of the road, the diesel engine rumbling. It was a huge truck, the wide side mirrors the same height as his head, and Jake moved over farther on the sloped shoulder.
“You lost, City Boy?” Tanner said out the window as he kept pace with Jake. Jake pulled his earbuds out and stopped, hands on his hips, looking back at Tanner, who seemed amused as he braked the truck, a toothpick wiggling around the corner of his mouth, his eyes obscured by aviator sunglasses.
“No. Out for a run.”
“On purpose?” Tanner quipped back, looking in the rearview and then back out, not directly at Jake.
“Yeah. On purpose. Us soft, citified guys need to. We don’t throw cows around for a living.”
Tanner grunted and tapped the door. “Get in, I need to talk to you.”
Jake hesitated. He didn’t want to get in the truck. He would rather run another seven miles in the worst heat possible with no water than ride with his brother, but he sensed that this was important.
“Just get in,” Tanner muttered. “It’s about the bank.”
Jake walked around the back of the truck, then hopped in the passenger side. He buckled in, noticing that Tanner had not, and felt once again like an outsider. Tanner hadn’t moved the truck yet. He was just staring out the front windshield, the whites of his knuckles showing as he twisted his hands on the steering wheel.
“Okay, so the bank,” Jake said. Might as well get this over with, because Tanner looked like he was going to rip his head off at any moment.
“Can you shoot a gun?” Tanner suddenly asked.
“Um. No, can’t say I’ve ever had the need to,” Jake replied, mystified.
“You ever helped on a farm with cattle? Driven a tractor?”
“No. Um—” Jake replied again, but was cut off by another deadpan question.
“What about ride? Ever been on a horse?”
“That I have, but it’s been a while. Dated a girl who owned a jumper stable. She let me ride now and again.”
A snort came from Tanner. Obviously that didn’t count.
Jake stared over at his brother. “What does this have to do with banking?”
A sigh came from the other man, and his jaw jumped as he spit the toothpick out the open window. He finally looked over at Jake, and Jake felt the scrutiny of his penetrating gaze even through his sunglasses.
“What in god’s name would you know about ranching, then,” Tanner muttered more to himself, and pulled the truck back onto the road. “Turns out, now that you ‘own’ West Line, you have full signing and financial authority over the runnin’ of it. Everything. Frank had to file the inheritance stuff, and the bank had to be notified to transfer all the accounts.”
“Shit.” Jake covered his mouth with his hand, rubbing his jaw in frustration. “That was fast.”
“I can’t even take out a twenty to buy a lug nut for a tire without your say so, right now.”
Jake’s mind ran over how he used to delegate purchasing in his restaurants. But banking in Canada was probably vastly different from in the US. Maybe he could set Tanner up with signing authority, and it would be fine. He was still foreman, after all, wasn’t he?
They pulled into the barnyard and Tanner hopped out, standing with the door open. Jake did the same and came around to his side.
“What do I have to do to give you back that signing authority?” he asked bluntly. He had gotten the sense over the past couple of days that Tanner was not frivolous with his words. Blunt worked best. Jake sort of admired that, if not for the fact that it made his brother come across like a class A jerk.
“You’ll have to go into the bank and set it up. I reverted to an employee on the ranch, not a partner like I was under Dad. Same for Brady. Liz and Harry will need new purchase cards. Not sure what Peony will need for the house, Dad kept that separate.”
They stood in silence a moment, Jake searching for words, Tanner stubbing his toe in the gravel on the driveway, filling a tiny pothole with stones. He didn’t hear Liz come up until she was standing beside him.
