Page 48 of Heart & Hope

“Absolutely.” She twists in the saddle, our eyes meeting. “You have options. You want to check out some other business models?”

“Sure, baby, whatever you want.”

“No. No, Reed. It’s what you want. Stop people-pleasing, or you are going to end up miserable.”

I hug her tighter and sink my face into her hair, never wanting to leave this spot. “If you say so, beautiful,” I say, muffled against her neck.

“Maybe that’s what happened to Harry?” she quips.

I laugh so hard my gut hurts. Apparently, I’m not the only funny one on this horse.

The ride home is too short, even with Magnet’s overloaded, lazy walk. And when I unfold myself from Ruby and swing down off the gelding, my world feels colder.

And I’ll be fucked if I want that.

Ruby Robbins may have found a way to turn things around for me. But I’m the mug standing in front of Harry Rawlinsright now, nerves sending me higher by the minute, as I try to articulate the idea we came up with that I can live with.

My palms are sweaty and my pulse bounds through my head, drowning out the words I struggle so hard to make come out of my mouth.

A ranch resort.

A holiday place for city folk to escape to and live like a cowboy, or cowgirl, for three to seven days. Experiencing everything Montana mountain country has to offer.

Ruby stands beside me, and Ma sits at her spot at the kitchen table with Harry at the head.

Always.

Ruby’s shoulders are back, her work face is on.

Kind of feel sorry for the old man.

Nah, nope. Not a bit.

Ruby nudges me, and I slide the tablet with her presentation down the table to Harry. He doesn’t break eye contact as it moves toward him.

“With your perm?—”

Ruby elbows me hard to remind me we talked about this. Time to make decisions.

“I have come up with a way to move forward with my ranch that will be a better, more profitable model. And I want to run it past you, since you have experience with business.”

Harry’s focus drops to the tablet.

“This model helps turn a profit even in the dry time and when cattle prices are low. Spreading the income generation to more than one basket, so to speak.”

A small smile pulls over Ma’s face. I glance at Ruby as she sits in the seat next to her. I take the one at the end of the table as my old man swipes through the slides. Which, after hours of research and calculations, Rubes and I put together. A working holiday ranch model with three tiers of involvement, from thosefolks who want a vacation and a bit of fun to people who want to dirty their hands and do the real cowboy work.

When Harry reaches the last slide, he pushes the tablet to Ma, who carefully goes through each feature of the presentation. It’s the first time I have ever done something like this. But I’m sure Ruby has pulled this sort of thing off many times.

Harry steeples his hands and leans back in his captain’s chair. I have always found that ironic; that chair should be Ma’s.

“You’re not happy with the operation we already have?” Harry says. His gaze flickers between Ruby and me. As if this upheaval is somehow her fault. I sit forward in the chair, heat trickling through my veins.

“The current model is reliant on one income stream. This gives us two, possibly more. It’s smart. And means I can enjoy my days, instead of being saddled with the entire workload and isolated from the rest of the world.”

Ma snaps her head up. “You’re not happy?”

I stare at her for the longest time, a stone growing in my throat. Her face falls as the seconds tick by.

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