Page 66 of Samuel

“I don’t know. It’s just beautiful. Solid. I imagine a lot ofkids have climbed those branches over the years. I like to think about Jellybean being a little older. How she’ll try to climb it… It feels like it’s seen the entire history of this ranch, of your family. There’s some sort of magic in its roots.”

“It’s been here since my great-great-grandfather started the ranch. I’m sure all nine of his children played in it at one point or another.”

“Really?”

“He planted it in the ground the very first day he owned the land. Then he turned around and asked my great-great-grandma to marry him. He’d branded her name onto the inside of his cowboy hat. Got down on one knee and handed it to her.”

“That’s the hat hanging in the office.”

He nodded. “My grandad and my old man proposed the same way. Mom still has Dad’s hat up in her room with her. My great-great-grandma had eight kids right in that farmhouse.”

“I thought you told me they had nine kids?

“They did. After Lyle asked Ginny for her hand in marriage, he turned to her son and asked if he could be his daddy.”

“That’s why the hat says Ginny and Ezra. Because he asked both of them to be his family?”

“Exactly. Ginny’s first husband ran off on her before my great-grandpa was even born. He never knew any other dad, except Lyle.”

“And Lyle passed the ranch on to Ezra even though he wasn’t biologically his?”

“That’s just it, Evie. He did. Because he was his dad in every way that mattered. And my great-grandpa kept the traditions of our family alive. Genetics are important. But they aren’t everything.”

“Why are you telling me this?” she whispered.

“Because, you’ve earned your place here. You’re right. This is your home. And Jellybean’s too.”

At the ranch, and in my heart.

My girls.

Seventeen

Shit. There was another account he didn’t recognize, drafting money out of the ranch account. So far, they’d identified four different accounts that were taking small amounts of money out at varying times. Small enough, and infrequent enough, that it was easily missed by him. But not by Evie.

Her phone rang, and he looked up from the pile of paperwork to see why she hadn’t answered it.

One look and he knew.

“It’s that asshole again, isn’t it?”

She shrugged. “Unknown number.”

“Answer it.”

“Sam…”

“Answer it. On speakerphone.”

She shook her head, but her hands were moving towards her phone.

“Hello?”

“About fucking time you answered my calls. You fucking think you can destroy my life and then just block me? I’m going to bury you, Evelyn. I’ve had this practice for almost fifteenyears. This is my reputation. My livelihood. I hope you’re having fun on your little ranch. You fucking bitch?—”

Sam stood, blood raging hot through his body as he stalked over to her desk. Picking up the phone, he took it off speaker.

“Listen here, asshole. This will be the last time you ever dial this number. I am filing a report with the police today for continued harassment. It’s over. She’s no longer a thought in that walnut sized brain of yours, got it?”

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