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"I can't believe you're doing this!" Paulina stood on the other side of JT's desk, her arms folded across her chest. Her skin was pale underneath her summer tan. "How can you possibly quit?"
JT sighed. After meeting with his uncles and his father earlier that morning to turn in his resignation, he'd asked Paulina to come to his office so he could break the news to her in person.
"What are we supposed to do?" she paced across the office, arms flung in the air.
"I'm staying through the end of the guest season, so it's not like I'm leaving you in the lurch."
"And what about after that? What about marketing for next season? What about next year?"
"You've been great at handling the marketing for the last few years. And as for the rest, I'm sure you guys can figure it out. Dad and the Uncles seem pretty confident they know what they're doing."
In fact, they had seemed almost unfazed this morning when he told them he would be quitting when the guest season ended. JT hadn't exactly expected them to fall on their knees, beg him to stay and give over responsibility for running the business side of the ranch in an effort to change his mind. But he had expected a little more than his father's gruff, "Well, we hate to lose you, but if that's what you need to do, that's what you need to do."
Then again, the Osborne brothers weren't known for any dramatic displays of emotion. His father could be seething inside for all JT knew. Not to mention, they probably thought JT was bluffing to get his way, and would have a change of heart before the season ended.
They really had no idea how far over the edge they had pushed him.
"How are we supposed to just figure it out? You know I'm not good with the budgets and financial stuff. And all of the recruiting and hiring of the summer staff. You do almost everything around here..." her voice trailed off and she slumped in the leather armchair across from him. "I guess that's kind of the point, isn't it? You've been doing everything to grow the business—"
"And they still second guess me and cut me out of major decisions," JT said. "You know I've been frustrated, almost from Day One. We both have. But this thing with Cort and the Murphys, they went too far. I can't take this anymore."
Paulina looked at him imploringly, blinking hard as her blue eyes filled with tears. "I still don't understand how you can just give up. Ever since you were little, it's been your dream to come back and run this place. This is what you always wanted."
He gave her a mirthless laugh. "My dream was to come back and be able to make changes that would grow the business so it would be around for several more generations. But you and I both know the reality has been a far cry from that. This is so far from the life I wanted, it's not even funny."
"I know, I get it, and I'm frustrated too. But if you just give it a little more time, have a little more patience, I know things will change."
"Will they? When? When everyone retires? Hell, Dad's officially retired and he's still sticking his nose in everything. I'll have to wait for them to die to actually accomplish what I want to around here. And by that time the place will have gone belly-up. In any case, I'm not going to spend decades working twice as hard as everyone for the same pay and constantly being undermined. Not to mention, I'm hoping at some point I'll get married and have kids, and Dad has managed to go and fuck that up for me too."
"I'm sorry about you and Colleen. I guess I hadn't realized you two were that serious."
"We weren't," he sighed. "But we were moving in that direction."
"Do you want me to talk to her? Tell her you had nothing to do with the offer? Maybe you two could patch things up—"
He leaned back heavily in his chair. "The problem is bigger than that. She should have believed me when I told her myself. I shouldn't have to send my sister to vouch for me."
She shrugged. "I don't know, I mean if you really care about her, maybe—"
"Colleen and I are done. I should have never gotten as involved as I did." Once again, he'd let his hopes and dreams run away with him, when all the while reality was telling him a very different story.
"What am I going to do without you?"
His stomach clenched with guilt at the look of deep disappointment on his sister's face. "You're going to do just fine. I'm not leaving just yet, and I'll never be more than a phone call away when you need help.
He meant what he said. He would do his best to train her on the business end before he left, and he would do whatever he could to help her as she took on more responsibility. But he couldn't stay here. Not for his sister, not for anybody. For the sake of his sanity, he had to go.
"Are you really sure you want to do this, Mom? Because you can still change your mind."
Colleen was sitting with her mother, Liam, and Robert Osborne around her mother's kitchen table– a stack of papers in front of her mother, her pen poised to sign.
"I'm sure, sweetheart. I really do think this is the best thing for all of us."
In the end, they had come to a compromise on the sale of the land. Rather than all three of them selling their shares to the Osbornes, Eileen was selling her fifty-percent stake in the property, and Colleen and Liam would jointly own the remaining fifty percent. That way they would be able to keep the house and some of the surrounding acreage, while the Osbornes would take over the section of land with the best access to the creek.
"In fact," Eileen said as she signed and dated the contract, "I've already got my sights on a little house in town, just three doors down from Dory." Her mother, who had just a few short months ago been nearly paralyzed with grief, seemed genuinely excited for this next chapter in her life.
Colleen wondered if maybe she was crazy, clinging to the house and the land when she didn't even know how much longer she would be in Big Timber. But in the end, she and Liam were in firm agreement that they owed it to their father to preserve at least some portion of the legacy he'd worked so hard for.
