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His father’s eyes widened. “You mean there’s a man somewhere that you can’t figure out? As I live and breathe, I never expected to see the day. You made a fortune anticipating what folks want and outmaneuvering your competition, but this man stumps you?” He grinned. Sometimes he could be a real smartass. At least he wasn’t a huge prick. By and large, Russell considered himself lucky in the parent department.
“Dad, that’s enough.” He went into the living room and made a couple of martinis from the cart, then handed a glass to his father before sitting on the leather sofa positioned so it had an amazing view of the mountain peaks, already white with snow. Every day, it got closer to the valley floor. They had already had snow, but it had melted. Russell figured the next snowfall would stick, and then it would be a blanket of white as far as the eye could see until spring. “It turns out he’s Mack’s nephew. Remember him? He used to visit when he was a kid and seems to have good memories of his uncle.”
His father’s gaze hardened. “Then why did he leave Mack all alone? Mack didn’t deserve to be treated that way.” He sipped the drink and took his own seat, putting his feet up on the plush matching leather ottoman. The room had been decorated by his mother a little over five years ago, and neither of them had had the heart to change anything after she passed. Everything from the leather sofas and rustic tables and lamps to the original Charles Russell painting of a cowboy on horseback hanging above the fireplace was exactly as she had placed it.
“I don’t know. But I get the idea that he isn’t as big a dick as we’d thought. And Rafe’s a real cowboy. I checked him out on my phone on the way back. He won the World Bull Riding championship a few days ago. He wasn’t money grubbing either. He didn’t know about the ranch and seems genuinely perplexed about his inheritance. And Mack’s dogs seem to like him….” Russell cut himself off. There was no need to go into his personal observations about the man… like how Rafe’s dark eyes and sun-kissed skin made Russell wonder what was below the V in his shirt. The man had obviously worked hard for a lot of years, judging by his arms and the pull of his shirt over his chest.
“How long did you talk to him?”
“Not long. I gave him our card. Hopefully he’ll call when the vultures start circling. I don’t think things between us got off to the best start.” He sipped his drink and sighed softly. This was his favorite spot in the house.
“And why not?” his father asked.
Russell groaned. “I may have made some assumptions that turned out to be a little off the mark. Mack lived alone all these years, and his family never contacted him. The bastards found out he was gay and they cut him off as though he had some contagious disease.” Russell set his glass aside, calming himself before his anger took over. “But I remember Rafe as a kid. We used to play together sometimes at the cookouts and such. He always loved it here.”
“If you remember, I didn’t necessarily take the news of your announcement with smiles and a coming-out party.” He grinned.
Russell rolled his eyes dramatically. “That was bad.”
“I thought it clever. But seriously, no parent wants their child to be gay. We can accept and support them, but we know life is easier for them if they aren’t. I’ll admit, it took me some time to get my head around it, but I never dreamed of cutting you off or kicking you out of the family.”
Russell snickered nervously. “I’m really glad of that.” He picked up his glass and drank the last of his martini. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have some work to do in my office. There’s a call with a conglomerate in Japan about to come in. What about you?”
“I should check on the men before the end of the day. Will I see you at dinner, or should I have something brought in for you?” his father asked.
“I’ll be in. The call will only take about an hour or so. One of their divisions wants some of our beef, and another is interested in talking about having us adapt our software for their specific use.” It was an interesting proposition and one his gut said could be beneficial for both sides. He took one last look out the large windows before heading to the other room and closing the door.
The Banion family had been ranching in this valley for generations, and over the years, they had amassed a sizable landholding with a large cattle operation. It wasn’t as big as the ones in Texas or Florida, but it was healthy and provided the family with an excellent living. Everything changed after Russell went to college, though. His parents had fought him the entire way when he majored in computer science and engineering. They wanted him to study animal husbandry. But Russell had grown up on the ranch and on horseback and knew all about breeding and managing animals already. After college, he’d combined the two areas and developed a software system that not only tracked animals and their breeding, but also worked as a complete ranch and farm management system, adaptable for small, medium, and large operations. It was now in use in many countries, including Japan, South Africa, and throughout Europe. The Chinese government had expressed an interest, but Russell was checking with special security experts before he entertained their offer. Needless to say, the cattle operation was the heart of the family and his father’s domain, but it had been Russell’s tech abilities that had made them wealthy beyond belief.
He sat in his desk chair just as the call came through. “Konnichiwa,” Russell said, bowing his head slightly, and the meeting began.
“I’M SORRYI’m late,” Russell said as he took his seat at the large table off the kitchen. “Thank you, Violet,” he added as she placed a plate with a small steak in front of him.
“You’re welcome, Mr. Russell,” she said softly, then returned to the kitchen. Violet had been with them for almost as long as he could remember. Russell had been trying to get her to eat with them, but she always took her meals in the kitchen.
He helped himself to the potatoes and vegetables as they were passed to him.
“How did it go today?” he asked one of the ranch hands who’d joined them for dinner. It had always been that way. Everyone who worked the ranch was treated the same, and that included taking their meals in the house. Neither he nor his father thought that should change just because the house had become fancier and they had more money. The ranch was a family, as far as his father was concerned, even if it was now a much larger operation than it had been.
“We need to check out the boundary we share with Mack’s place,” Dustin, one of the more seasoned cowboys, said. “We think some of it will need to be replaced.” All the men seemed to have liked Mack, and the table grew quiet for a few seconds at the mention of his name.
“Did you meet the new owner?” Clyde asked, looking up from his plate. One of the other men bumped his shoulder, indicating that he shouldn’t have asked anything. But Russell didn’t take offense. Clyde was young, but a hard worker.
“I did.”
“Should we go ahead and patch what’s essentially his border?” Dustin asked.
Russell was about to answer but decided to hold back and allow his dad to take care of the question. The ranching operation was his father’s, but Russell was slowly taking over some of it as his dad got older.
“We need to protect ourselves, so yes. And Clyde, Russell did meet the new owner, and we know nothing more than we have for months, other than he’s Mack’s nephew and that he used to come here as a kid.”
“Is he going to sell?” Clyde asked. That was the topic on everyone’s mind. “Are you going to buy it?” Clyde got another nudge, which made him lower his gaze to his plate.
“I don’t have any idea. The man just arrived, and I paid him a short visit,” Russell said. Which hadn’t gone well because Russell had let his personal feelings for Mack get in the damned way. He should have known better and put on a friendly face for his childhood playmate, regardless of his feelings for Mack. Russell couldn’t count the hours he’d spent sitting at Mack’s kitchen table, just talking. The time and attention Mack had given him had meant the world to him, especially back before he’d come out, when he’d still been trying to figure out who he was.
“I heard the new owner is a bull rider,” Dustin said. “Probably some hotshot wannabe.”
“He’s about as big a wannabe as you are a rancher,” Russell teased Dustin. “He won the world championship a few days ago, and we used to go riding together around here when he and I were kids. So what we have is the top bull rider in the world right now living next door to us. Definitely not a wannabe.” An image of Rafe flashed in his mind, and damned if he didn’t force himself not to squirm as his jeans grew tight. Now that he knew what the man looked like in person, his imagination conjured up an image of Rafe riding a bull, naked, those legs gripping, hips rolling, and…. He swallowed and forced his mind back to the present.
