Chapter Nine
Keegan woke alone in his bed onSunday morning, a bit surprised to find himself at home. The dream he’d had of Bristol had been so real, so vivid, he’d expected to wake up in her bed, with her in his arms.
Nope.
No Bristol.
Never again.
He didn’t know where she was, nor did he care.
If he said it enough, it would eventually be true. That was how it worked.
It was driving him fucking crazy that he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Before the night they’d spent together, he hadn’t thought about her all that much. Okay. Maybe not nearly as much as this. He’d thought about her, fantasized, even. But this was getting ridiculous. He found himself constantly wondering what she was doing, who she was with. And oddly enough, he wanted to be around her, to see her smile.
Which was utter bullshit.
Why? Why did she suddenly matter?
Thankfully for everyone, Keegan had something that would take his mind off Bristol and everyone else. Something that involved an errand to run after church, one that included a conversation about a ranch. A ranch that, with any luck, would belong to him and his brother in the near future.
There would be no woman responsible for changing his and Kaden’s lives for the better. No, that would be credited to chasing their own dream, the one they’d had since they were young.
A ranch.
Right here in Coyote Ridge.
Hell yes.
He wasn’t sure life could get much better than this.
Turned out, life could get hella better.
Church had been one of those inspirational moments followed by a short drive to the outskirts of town and an introduction to Jeremiah Tucker, better known as Tuck by his friends. At ninety-one, the man was an absolute hoot. And from what Keegan could tell, he was quite fond of the Walker family, something they’d learned as Tuck took them on a long tour of the barn, the pasture, then back to the house with the help of a dilapidated old golf cart with mud tires that Uncle Curtis had driven.
“Did you know your daddy’s the one who offered me this prime piece of real estate?” Tuck said, leading the way into the house so they could have lemonade.
Keegan glanced over at Curtis, then back to Tuck. “He’s our uncle.”
Tuck grinned, his wrinkled face shrinking as he did. “I’m no dummy, boy. And Curtis ain’t the one who gave me the property anyhow.”
“Gerald did,” Curtis confirmed. “It was the first piece we parceled out.”
“How much did you buy it for back then?” Keegan asked, though he knew the question bordered on rude.
Tuck laughed, easing down into a chair at the kitchen table. “The darn fool wouldn’t take my money. Not that I had much of it at the time. He insisted it was his way of makin’ right for some of his old man’s sins.”
Keegan had heard plenty of stories about Frank Walker, Sr., and while his kids had turned out to be respectable members of society, the man wasn’t known for his sparkling personality.
“Would you mind sharin’ what Frank did?” Kaden asked.
Tuck glanced at Curtis, then shook his head. “It ain’t worth repeatin’. Just know that we got over it long ago. Anyway. It was mighty nice of your daddy,” Tuck said, his eyes taking on that distant look. “And I hate to part with it now, but my kids’re right. I need to be with ’em.” His gaze shifted to Keegan and Kaden. “Wyoming’s a mite cold, but it’ll be a nice place to go to die.”
Keegan heard the teasing in the old man’s tone, but he couldn’t bring himself to laugh.
“Unfortunately for you boys, I ain’t got the means to pass it back to the Walkers without a price.”
“We wouldn’t expect you to,” Kaden told him. “You just let us know your price and we’ll see what we can do.”
