Page 49 of Coming Home to Maverick

“I sure hope so.” He gestured to a chair. “Come on in.”

“I have the finances for this quarter. And the tax estimates.”

“Did you pass it along to the accountant?”

“I will, but I wanted to let you know we had another loss.”

Maverick clenched inside.

“Just thought you should know.”

He lowered his boots back to the floor, his irritation swelling. “What do you think we should do about it?” His tone was flat, even.

“I don’t know. This ain’t my thing…” His voice dwindled as he searched Maverick’s face. “Look, Maverick…”

“What, Decker? If this ain’t your thing, then whose thing is it?”

Decker glanced at the door like he wanted to run, but Maverick had no mercy. “Decker.”

His brother sat, tossed the paperwork onto Maverick’s desk, and then crossed his arms. “I get it. Everything got thrown at you when you wanted to be doing other things. But I didn’t throw it at you. None of us did.”

“Well, now I’m asking you to take up some of the slack. You came in here with a problem and no solution.” He lifted the papers and held them out. “Come back when you’ve figured out what to do about it.”

Decker stared at him for a moment and then nodded, respect in his eyes. “Will do, boss.” Then he stood, grabbed the papers back, and left.

Maverick pressed his thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose. Why was everything suddenly getting to him? He’d been shouldering all of the ranch business for years. Why was he suddenly losing patience now?

The rest of the morning continued more or less the same. He handled ranch business by lashing out at his brothers and handing off responsibility. At their late breakfast, every brother had reason to brush his shoulder and groan and complain at him, which they did.

Their mama entered, ready for lunch, to a room full of grown men not speaking to one another. “What’s this?”

Everyone but Maverick turned away. He looked her in the eye. “What’s what?”

Nash snorted. “This, Mother, is the result of your eldest son getting after us all morning.”

“Just handing out the responsibilities as usual. Seems about par for my day. Except now maybe someone else will actually do their job.”

His brothers threw up their hands as they resumed complaining.

Maverick looked around at the bickering, angry faces and cleared his throat. Twice. What a mess. He’d gotten everyone riled up, and he felt a twinge of guilt. He stood up at the head of the table. “Brothers.”

They ignored him.

“Brothers!” At last, they quieted down.

Maverick smiled, chagrined. “Maybe I’ve been a little harsh?”

They turned their eyes to him. He glanced at Mama, who dipped her head for him to continue. He couldn’t tell whether she was supportive or unhappy with him.

“I think maybe I’ve finally…um…”

“Cracked?” Nash lifted a hand in the air.

“Or something. But I would like to talk about this with everyone. Because it’s not like this is coming out of nowhere.”

Decker nodded. “True.”

“But can we keep the overbearing, demanding older brother act to a minimum?” Dylan glared at him. “We’re all busy, and we get it. We need to divide up the work better.”

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