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The man glanced around, staring up at the rafters of the barn. “This place has been here a long time. Did you know that my great-great-grandfather tried to purchase the place from Lillian Bradley years ago?”
“No,” Preston said, not looking at the man.
Colby didn’t say a word. Nothing. Just continued to rub down his horse.
“The woman was all alone and refused my grandfather. She refused to sell the place and married two Texas Rangers.”
That was all interesting and such, but he wanted this snake out of the barn before he scared the horses.
“What can I do for you, Mr. White?”
The man grinned like he knew they were trying to get rid of him.
One of the horses snorted like it was growling for him to stay away.
“What’s the lawyer telling you, boys? Have you heard who inherited the ranch?”
Like anyone would tell the hired hands anything.
Colby raised his head over the stall and glanced at the man like he was a total idiot. “We’re to be out of here in fifteen days. They’re giving us all a bonus of ten thousand dollars and telling us to move on. Also we can choose which horses we want to take with us and Rusty the cow dog will go to one of us.”
“Really,” the man said. “I hadn’t heard they sold the place.”
Rolling his eyes one final time, Colby bent to run the brush down the horse’s legs.
“We haven’t heard a thing,” Preston told the man. “We’re just doing our jobs until someone tells us to move on.”
The man frowned and spit tobacco juice toward Colby.
“Why did you lie to me, boy?”
His head popped back up and he glared at the man. “We’re the hired help. If you want to know the truth, I would suggest you speak to the Parkers’ lawyer in town.”
“I want this ranch. It should have been my family’s years ago and I aim to make certain that it becomes mine this time. If you’d been honest with me, there might have been jobs for the two of you.”
Like he would ever work for this scum of the earth.
Neither Preston nor Colby acknowledged the man’s words.
“Well, I would have thought you would like to have a guaranteed job,” he said.
There was no guarantee with this man. He would hire you one day and fire you the next. Preston had seen him do it to men in the past, and he wanted no part of his operation which often skirted the edge of the law.
And he knew Colby would never take a chance on working for a man who didn’t tread carefully on the up-and-up. The man didn’t want to return to prison.
“Glad you came by, Mr. White,” Preston said, hoping he would get the hint to leave.
“I’m meeting with the lawyer tomorrow to put in another offer on this property. I’m hoping this one will be the one that convinces whoever it is to accept that I’m going to purchase this land,” he said, standing with his hands on his hips like he was directing traffic and telling them what was going to happen.
“And what will you do with the land?” Colby said, popping up from the stall and gazing at him like he wanted to throw a punch.
“The Big W Housing Development,” he said with a grin. “New homes for anyone who would like that country atmosphere with city streets. Five-acre mini ranches.”
Mini ranches? Just what the town of Blessing didn’t need.
Colby shook his head and went back to brushing Sadie’s thighs.
“What? You boys don’t approve?”
