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Being a teenager, he thought he knew everything, and yet he’d been dumber than a box of rocks about to be ground into dust. His lack of experience almost cost them the ranch.
The sun beat down hard on them, though the temperature remained cool. January in Texas could be hot one minute and then an ice storm could trap you inside for days. They were predicting colder weather, so he wanted to move their herd closer to the house to get them food and water if they needed to.
His brothers sat on their horses, knowing what had to be done.
“I never heard,” Blake said. “How was your date?”
Their mother had thought it would be amusing to name each of her sons the first letter of the alphabet in sequential order. But Frank had died at birth, devastating the family and leaving a hole in their hearts. Garth was the last child she’d had and was the youngest at twenty-two. None of them had married except for Adrian.
“The woman knows how to tango,” he said.
Blake laughed. “You do love a woman who can dance.”
“Yes, I do. You should try it sometime. It’s the one place in life where a man is still in control. I lead, she follows.”
Cody spoke up. “Control. You like to be in control, and women today, they don’t like that.”
Maybe it was true. His first wife didn’t like him telling her what he thought. Was he difficult to get along with? This was why he was never going to marry again. He’d failed at ranching until he’d gotten lucky. Then he failed at marriage and filed for divorce. He wasn’t willing to try again.
Cody knew women very well. Being a professional football player kept women hanging on him all the time.
“How much do I have to pay you for that advice?”
His brother shook his head. “Smart ass. I’ve studied women. You should try it sometime.”
“Don’t need to. I’m not getting married again. One and done,” he said, wishing they would reach the herd so he could turn off this nonsense.
The youngest of his brothers leaned out over his horse.
“Frankly, I think Madison is smoking hot and smart. You’d be lucky to have her for a wife – a lawyer with long legs and a body that dreams are made of,” Garth said.
Oh no, he didn’t need his brothers thinking about Madison this way. Especially Garth, the womanizing Casanova who liked women way too much.
“Yes, that dress the other night was smoking,” Evan replied. “You’d be the envy of men all over town.”
Being the envy of other men didn’t interest him.
“You’ve never told us what happened between you and Laurie. I still don’t understand. And then she remarried almost immediately,” Dakota said. “I really liked her.”
The other brothers glared at Dakota as if saying shut up.
“Sometimes, Dakota, you’re blind about what is going on around you. I’ll explain it to you later,” Blake said. “Now stop trying to ruin today. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
It was funny how Adrian hadn’t said a word, and his brothers had come to his defense. Sometimes Dakota was too engrossed in himself and didn’t see the bigger picture.
The bigger picture of running a profitable ranch and knowing how to keep them from growing broke again. Hiring the right people to teach him how to be successful and even going to college to learn about ranching.
Now his cattle were high dollar earners and his bulls were some of the most sought-after specimens. But he limited his bulls to a pasture with forty heifers. No need to wear him out.
While he was married, he’d gotten his own degree in animal science and was using everything he’d learned to make the Kissing Oaks Ranch one of the best. And it was slowly working.
If only he’d been able to use the same techniques he’d learned in college and animal behavior on his wife. But he’d been unable to please her and she’d found refuge in another man’s arms.
Today, he could think about her without hurting. But he still felt sad that he’d failed at marriage and he wasn’t about to try again.
“Dakota, it doesn’t matter why we divorced. She wasn’t happy. Hopefully the man she married can make her happy,” he said softly.
They rode along in silence. A cold blustery wind blew and he pulled his coat tighter.
