Page 4 of The Cowboy Fix

“Okay, you guys.” Jonas stepped between him and Blake. “Simmer down.”

Nathan squared his shoulders. He would not be defeated. Not by the circumstances that had gotten them to this place. Not by the fracture of his pelvis. And not by his brothers’ improbable ideas of how to fix their problem.

If he hadn’t just spent seven weeks recovering from his accident, he would take on both of his brothers, but in his mind, he could hear his dad’s voice.Fighting doesn’t solve a thing, son. Use your brain to solve your problems with your brothers.

And if that didn’t work there was always drawing high card.

“So, what do you suggest, then,” he asked Jonas as he leaned heavily on his cane. “I don’t want to do anything that will destroy the livability of the ranch. And I especially don’t want to be overrun with wind turbines or acres of solar panels, or tourists every time I turn around.”

“Sit.” Jonas pointed at both of them. “Those are good points, Nathan. We’ll keep in mind as we come up with a plan. It just so happens I have an idea in mind.”

Nathan reluctantly returned to his chair. Blake followed suit and pulled out his phone. “How much money do we have to put back into the ranch? I got the advance forTimmy, the Superhero Comes Home. Some of that can be earmarked for the Triple L.” His fingers moved quickly over his phone as he took notes, then looked up at Nathan expectantly.

Jonas beat him. “It’ll take a while to build a new law practice in Strawberry Ridge, but some of the money I got from the sale of my Denver practice can go to the ranch too.”

When they both stared at him, Nathan huffed out a breath. He hated that they were having this discussion. More than that he hated to admit they had to work together to keep the ranch going. “Normally, I use my earnings from training barrel racers to pay on the loan and the ranch’s monthly expenses. I’ll have to build up my business again, but several riders have contacted me to get on a list to brush up their skills for the Strawberry Ridge Rodeo coming up at the end of September. I’ll get in touch with them and get started this week.”

Blake’s brows pulled together. “Are you sure you’re up to that?”

Nathan just stared at Blake. Just because he was out of commission for seven weeks now, that didn’t mean he was incapable. With his brothers gone, he’d gotten the ranch this far, hadn’t he? Even if there were more hard decisions to be made.

“It’s time to bring in someone skilled at saving businesses from financial ruin,” Jonas said, looking pointedly at Nathan.

He had one response for his older brother. “We don’t need an outsider to fix the ranch.” Their dad would not have asked for outside help.

“But you admit the ranch needs help,” Blake jumped in.

Nathan could feel the steam starting to come out of his ears. There had to be a way to stop his brothers from steamrolling over what he considered was right for the Triple L. Unfortunately, he had to acknowledge they weren’t completely wrong. The ranch needed some—not a lot—of work and more importantly, an income stream or two besides the three brothers’ monthly contributions.

He shrugged. The nonverbal agreement was all he could give Blake, who, if Nathan was being honest, had the ranch’s best interests at heart.

After a brief nod of understanding (that was like nails scraping on a blackboard for Nathan) Blake went to the fridge and took out a soda. “We all want to return the Triple L to her former glory, but with a balloon payment coming due, we can’t afford to drag our feet any longer. I just got the bank statement. It’s not good.” He stopped at the end of the table, facing Nathan. “Malorie has a friend—”

Unable to sit any longer, Nathan grabbed his cane, and paced, as well as he was able, in a circle until he faced his brothers again. His hips hurt and he was exhausted, but he would be danged if he’d let Blake and Jonas know. “We don’t need Malorie’s friend.”

“Look. You can’t stop this,” Jonas joined Blake,two against one. “Malorie told her how much trouble we’re in and the lady, Izzy Payton, agreed she would come to the ranch and see if she can offer any suggestions.”

“How do we know she’s qualified to know what’s best for the Triple L?”

“Malorie says she’s nothing short of a miracle worker.” Blake squared his shoulders, his temper starting to show. “We can get references, but in the meantime, it can’t hurt to interview Ms. Payton. Will you at least think about it?”

Blake might be right, but it was still a hard pill to swallow. A stranger couldn’t love the Triple L as much as he did.

Going to the kitchen junk drawer, he pulled out a deck of cards and limped back to the table. Moving the pizza and their plates out of the way, Nathan fanned the cards out on the flat surface. “High card decides if we hire an outsider or not.”High card winswas something their dad had started way back to settle his sons’ arguments. He paused for a second, determined to make sure he was being clear. “If any changes are made to the ranch, high card will have final say whether to implement or not. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Blake and Jonas said together.

Nathan drew a card but didn’t look at it. Blake and Jonas both took cards. They turned them over at the same time. Jonas had the ten of clubs. Blake, the jack of diamonds. Nathan closed his eyes for a brief second, then finally looked at his card. king of spades.

For the first time in a long time, he felt lucky. “Okay. I say there will be no interviewing this Izzy person.”

“You are being completely unreasonable!” Jonas practically shouted as he slapped his card on the table.

Nathan stepped back. In the sixteen years since Jonas had kicked Blake off the ranch, he’d never seen his easygoing brother shout or lose his temper.

This time it was Blake who did the separating. “Okay, guys, be reasonable—”

Blake looked mad, too, but was holding it together better than Jonas. A surprising turn of events. Nathan wasn’t sure he had it in him to be that reasonable. Maybe after a good night’s sleep. In his bed and not a hospital bed, there was a slim chance.

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