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“I’m working on a deal with King Oil.”
“Yeah, you mentioned it, but I’m not celebrating until the ink’s dried. Even then, it doesn’t really affect me. You’re not like Barns, robbing from the left hand to give to the right.”
I appreciated Eliot’s confidence in me. Barns had floated the ranch with oil money. He’d overlooked cost-saving, efficient practices because the oil prices had been in our favor. When cattle was good, those got us through the rough oil years. And the horses? Those were a drain no one wanted to talk about. A business that should’ve been nothing more than a supplemental revenue stream. Instead, Barns had made the Arabians his empire. Only he hadn’t kept up with the times, and it had cost us. The horse breeding business was sponging off the other companies.
Now that Eliot was managing the horse and cattle side and I was in charge of the oil part, we were working to rectify that issue. Which meant Eliot had to figure out how to make the cattle profitable again and decide if the horses were worth keeping.
“I don’t know if what we’d find would help you. The rest of us have other jobs, and being forced to work the ranch isn’t helping our family lives.”
“As if that would’ve made a difference for Wilder.” The decree motivated Sutton to ask for a divorce. “Austen doesn’t give a shit.”
He didn’t. Barns was giving him a smaller portion of the money for his time in service. Still, Austen would lose a lot if he didn’t work for the family company. “There has to be a way to give us some freedom.”
“To get you your inheritance without working your ass off for the next thirty years at a second job?”
“Basically. We might figure out something that helps you.”
Another grunt. I couldn’t tell if he wanted us to find anything or if he didn’t care. “I’m sure we can at least hire a bookkeeper or another accountant to work under you and play around with the hours and titles to satisfy the trust. As long as you show them the ropes. I don’t have fucking time.”
Hiring someone while I move into a supervisory role might actually work. The weight was already sliding off my shoulders. “You sure about that?”
“Do whatever you gotta do. I don’t have a family to lose...”
“You might someday.”
A third grunt. “Right. There are single women flocking to Buffalo Gully daily who’d love to marry a man who spends more time with heifers than her.”
“Isn’t there that new dating show for farmers—”
“You can fuck right off.”
I chuckled. I didn’t want Eliot to be lonely if he wanted a partner. But I was still a brother who enjoyed getting under his skin. “Let me put in a call with Lorenzo. See what comes up. Worst case, we’re stuck doing what we’re doing until retirement.”
And we’d all be fucking lonely bachelors who had to put an oil and cattle company first. Tova would have long moved on, and hopefully, my kids would still talk to me when they were adults.
Fourteen
Tova
I was in a small-town bar as noisy as any city club with a fraction of the people. I held a red Solo cup, but instead of containing alcohol, mine held darts.
“Okay, so this game is like a countdown to zero,” Aggie yelled over the noise. The wood bar, wood walls, and wooden ceiling acted as an echo chamber that also provided good amplification for the cranked jukebox. Forget the theater. I should ask the bar if the kids could perform here. The acoustics were outstanding.
“We’re not competing, are we?” I asked.
Vienne wasn’t flitting around for once. Her game face was on. Her expression looked like she took out her opponents with darts to the head.
“Not really,” Aggie said, twirling a dart around her fingers. “This is just practice for league. You and me against Vienne and Sutton.”
Sutton was grabbing drinks for us at the bar. She was leaning on the bar top, one knee cocked, her boot on the footrest, and at least two men were checking out her denim-clad ass. Her hair was in a tight braid from work. Mine was in its typical haphazard top bun, but I wasn’t wearing jeans. I stayed in the white tank top and long skirt I’d had on when swing dancing with Cody. My nerves were keeping me warm against the AC pumping through the place.
How long had it been since I’d gone out with gal pals?
How long had it been since I’d had gal pals?
A few feet away, Vienne tipped her neck from side to side and narrowed her eyes on the target board.
“Is she going to kick my ass for real?” I asked Aggie.
