Page 23 of The Prodigal Brother Returns

Over the next two days, Malorie focused on her job. Unfortunately, she couldn’t help noticing how good Blake was with the kids. The more he spent time with them, showing them the ropes of the ranch—and her, when she had a few spare moments—the more she liked the rancher turned middle-grade book author. Not as an available guy she wouldn’t mind dating, of course, but as a man who had similar parenting challenges as she did.

They would be better off just being good friends.

Chapter Seven

For three daysin a row, Blake watched as his brother got out of his bed and into his wheelchair, and pushed himself to sit on the porch longer each day. Nathan did not give up easily. He could say that about his brother, which made the shape the ranch was in that much more confusing.

Malorie seemed pleased with Nathan’s progress. And while his brother was distracted with the kids, who’d gotten into the habit of hanging out with him while he was out of the house, Blake had a chance to go over the ranch’s financial ledgers without his cranky brother hovering at his elbow. That’s where Jonas found him. Hiding out in the library their parents had used as their office.

Memories swirled around Blake of his younger self, sitting across the desk from his mom as she made entries into the ledgers on the shelf behind him. True to form, Nathan kept them all lined up on the same shelf.

His brother was following in their dad’s footsteps. It was their mother who made the finances work. Dad was more interested in running the ranch and left keeping track of the balance sheet to his wife. The only difference now was that Nathan didn’t have a Mrs. to cover that for him.

“How does it look?” Jonas placed a cup of coffee in front of Blake, then sat in the empty chair, cradling a mug for himself in both hands.

Every once in a while, Blake wished he still drank. Not really—that bad habit had caused enough damage in his life. But at the moment, he would welcome a good stiff two fingers of whiskey. He drank the coffee instead. “It’s not good.”

Two years after their father’s death, their mom was practically letting Blake do the ranch finances on his own, so he knew what he was looking for. And when he’d skip school to drink more than he should, she’d scold him, but not with much of her former ambition to get her sons graduated and on to college. He’d hated disappointing her. But more than that, he realized now he’d faded with her as her zest for life disappeared.

“That’s my take, too, but I don’t know how to stop the bleeding. You were always better at the finances than Nathan and I were.”

After all the years of nothing but crickets from Jonas, that was quite an admission from his big brother.

Blake nudged his coffee aside and scrubbed his face before he stared at the columns again. This ledger was from five years back. “I have to keep looking, but something’s not right.”

“What do you mean?” Jonas leaned forward on his elbows. “Are you saying there’s missing money?”

“I’m not sure. I see where you’ve been making payments on the loan Nathan took out, using the ranch as collateral. The numbers are just not tracking.” He rocked back.

Jonas straightened. “Are you suggesting our brother has falsified the records?”

Not exactly, but after sixteen years, what did he really know about his brothers? “I’m not suggesting anything at this point.” He stuck to the easy questions. “What happened to Dad’s horses?”

“We lost several giving birth. We couldn’t keep up with the vet bills. And with the price of everything going up, and machinery breaking down, we couldn’t afford to feed them or keep the ranch hands to take care of them. Over the years, they were sold.” Frowning, Jonas rose from his chair and paced from the heavy oak desk to the window that looked out onto the circular drive. “I know what you’re thinking.”

Blake raised his brows at his brother’s back.

“There had to be other ways to bring in money.”

Blake locked both hands around his coffee cup. “That would be the logical next step. What did you try?”

Ignoring his question, Jonas gave up the view and faced Blake. “It’s not all Nathan’s fault. He’s tried to keep everything as it was when the folks were alive and running the place, and for a while, everything was fine. Early on, I didn’t give him much help. As soon as he turned eighteen, I took off for law school. When I graduated, I accepted a position with a great firm in Denver. I didn’t come home much during that time and a few years later, I opened my own practice. When I finally figured out how much he was struggling, I sent as much money as I could spare.”

Instead of coming together, they’d all gone their separate ways. Blake on the run and getting lost in the bottle. Jonas to a career that took him far from the memories of the ranch where they’d grown up. And Nathan hanging onto the memories of his childhood until there was almost nothing left of his parents to hang onto. They weren’t much of a family, were they?

He wasn’t sure he could change that. Their history couldn’t be rewritten. That shouldn’t bother Blake, but it did. He warned Jonas, “In the early days after the folks passed, the business side of breeding, raising Dad’s Colorado Rangers and selling them at the right time probably ran itself, but now with only one stud and two mares left, it’s going to be a long road to bring the Triple L back. And that’s if you want to bring back Dad’s breeding program. It might not be the most logical option.”

Jonas nodded. “I figured as much. And reinstating the breeding program would be up to Nathan since he’d been the one holding down the fort.” Jonas paused, then in his precise way, said, “Did you know Mom put money in a Testamentary Trust for us?” And before Blake could ask, he continued, “It’s a trust, where the funds aren’t distributed until the beneficiaries, in this case, you, me, and Nathan, turn forty.”

“No. Why would she do that?” Blake vaguely remembered she’d talked to her and his dad’s solicitor just before she died, but that was a very long time ago.

“I don’t know, but we were a handful back then and maybe she was afraid we would lose the ranch before we got straightened out.”

Setting his coffee to the side, Blake stood and faced off with Jonas like in the old days when they were kids. “We’re about to lose the ranch now. We can’t wait seven years for an influx of money.”

“I agree. That’s why I called you home.” Jonas shoved his hands in his jean’s pockets. He wasn’t going to back down.

Blake’s anger eased off a bit. He could live with that. “Does Nathan know about the trust?”

---