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“You are.” He laughed. “Stella’s here. I’m going to put you on speaker.”
“Copy that. Hey, Stella.”
“Hey.”
“I wanted to give you an update on your father’s will.”
I got up again to leave, but Buck pulled me back down on the bed, beside him.
“Go ahead, Ham.”
“First of all, it’s almost like he wanted you to fail. How in the hell would anyone who’s been running a ranch in the red for even a couple of years expect someone else to make a profit in the next?”
“That’s just the kinda guy he was.”
I could tell Buck was trying to make light of something that was anything but.
“Even if you could get your hands on cash, an investment doesn’t equal profit. To turn that in a year is damn near impossible.”
“Decker said the money from the lease wouldn’t be enough to make it happen. How bad is it, Hammer?”
“That’s one small piece of good news. Not as bad as I thought, and I’m not sure why Deck said that. Depending on how long the lease goes on, it could be that it’ll be enough.”
“How many months of lease income would we need?”
“At least six, but I have another idea.”
“What?” Buck asked.
“Have the Invincibles extend the lease for the full year. After the end of that year, once the cash is freed up, buy them out of the months they didn’t use.”
“But it’ll be after the fact. We wouldn’t be buying them out. We’d be kicking it back to them.”
“Semantics, Buck.”
“I can’t do that.”
I had a sick feeling in my chest. Buck’s pride wouldn’t allow him to do what Hammer was proposing, even if it meant saving the ranch.
“Then, you better pray they need the lease to continue for a minimum of six months. Preferably longer. It’s your best chance of fulfilling the profitability stipulation.”
“Anything else, Hammer?” Buck asked.
“There is. I’m still looking into it, but not with much luck.”
“What’s that?”
“When I received the lease agreement back, it wasn’t signed by the attorney for the estate.”
“So we have no agreement?”
“I didn’t say that. It was signed, just not by him.”
“By who, then?”
“That’s just it. I can’t read the signature, and in the typed version, it just says, ‘On behalf of the Roaring Fork Trust.’”
“Then, how do you know it wasn’t the attorney?” I had no business asking, but the reporter in me sensed there was more to this, and I couldn’t stop myself from poking my nose in.
