Page 50 of Coming Home to Maverick

“Fair enough.” Maverick gestured at the meal in front of them. “Why don’t we eat? We can talk over Mama’s delicious food.”

Mama lifted her glass. “Yes, let us eat. And remember your dear father as we do, the man who loved you all and would be so proud of the honorable men you have become.” Her gaze moved over the table to each of the brothers. “Perhaps I’ll pray this time.” She bowed her head, they held hands. “Dear Lord. Bless my boys. Bless our ranch. May the peace and spirit of unity and love, your Holy Spirit, be with us always. Amen.”

They started their meal. Maverick pressed his fork through the pile of whole wheat pancakes on his plate and brought a delicious bite dripping with syrup to his mouth. But even the pancakes felt old, without luster. He lifted his eyes and then lowered his fork. No one else had started eating. They all watched him.

“What? You might not like what I said to you today, but you have to admit I had a point.” He eyed them. When no one responded, he pointed his fork toward them. “Decker.”

Decker messed with the food on his plate. “You’re right. We come to you with the problems, but you shouldn’t be the one to solve everything.”

Maverick nodded, satisfied.

“But,” Decker continued, “none of us knows better than you how to fix this stuff. We’re all just guessing here. Dad…he just always knew what he was doing.”

Nash folded arms across his chest. “Exactly. And just because it was Dad’s dream doesn’t mean it’s my dream.”

The tension in the room rose a notch. But Nash held out his hands in a placating gesture. “I’m all about the Dawson Ranch. But to me, it’s more about who’s sitting here at this table than it is about what happens out there.”

Something inside Maverick knew his brother had a point. “But where does that leave us? Someone’s gotta keep things going around here, or we don’t have a Dawson Ranch. We don’t have a place to live. And…” He choked back a sudden lump in his throat. “And we’d lose the last bit of Dad we have with us.”

Mama’s eyes teared up, and he hated to see it. She shouldn’t be a part of these conversations. Every eye turned to her.

She dabbed her mouth with her napkin. “Boys, no one ever said ranching life was easy.” She paused to share a loving gaze with each one of them. “How much we give to the ranch just depends on how much we want out of it.”

Maverick nodded.

Nash grunted. “Oh, stop with your nodding, Maverick. I’m so sick and tired of feeling like you’re the one who has to take a hit for all of us. Look, if you want to ride, go ride. Just do it. Your decision doesn’t mean we all can’t ride. If we ride and you don’t, it doesn’t mean our circuit is stealing yours. Make your own way in the world, man. If that’s what you want, do it.” Fire flashed in his eyes.

“And then what?” Maverick asked. “You guys gonna make sure things stay afloat around here?”

Decker nodded. “We already talked about this. I think we could work on a way to divide up the responsibilities better. We already said we were willing to trade out circuit years.”

“Instead of trying to be like Dad, we could just work out our own way of handling things.” Dylan leaned forward. “Like a board of directors.” He was the one Maverick had thought would get an advanced degree and leave them all to work in a big city. He’d always had the business sense that most of them lacked.

They relaxed into a more productive conversation, and the brothers started eating. Mama looked relieved. And Maverick felt parts of the ranch responsibility leave his shoulders one piece at a time.

He sat back in his chair. Why had he suddenly snapped?

His phone dinged.Bailey.He stood. “I gotta take this.”

Nash pointed. “And there’s the reason for the new Maverick.”

They watched him leave. Was Bailey his problem? He held the phone up to his ear.

“How you looking?” she asked.

When he heard the smile in her voice, he just couldn’t think she brought him anything but a new hope for happiness in his life at last. “I need to see you.”

“Come over.”

And with those words, he realized his loyalties had changed. Without a thought, he grabbed his keys and headed for his truck, lunch with Mama or no.

Chapter 15

Bailey hummed with happy expectation. Maverick was coming over. Then her stomach twisted in knots.Maverick was coming over.

Daniel had called again. Bailey ignored it, but after staring at her phone for an hour, she opened up their text conversation. She’d been somewhat disarmed. Her mind had kept her awake with thoughts of how that could be. And now she felt disloyal for harboring any positive feeling for Daniel at all. And yet, he’d been…nice. Not apologetic, but interested. Humbled maybe.

Maybe.

---