Page 2 of Final Ride

“Are we gonna sell this ranch right away?” asked Virge.

“We’ll put it up for sale tomorrow, but no telling when it will sell. I’m done work on the last day of July, and we might leave then or wait. Don’t know yet. Depends on the situation at the other end of the line. We need a place to go to in Texas before a lot of other decisions can be made.”

If this ranch doesn’t get sold before we leave for Texas, Billy will be here until the new people take over.”

“We’ll miss Billy and the station,” said Virge, “but I’m keen to live in Texas. Don’t know what I’m gonna do there, but I’m keen to be a Texan.”

“We’ll fly down to Texas and take two or three days to look around and find ourselves the perfect ranch.”

“Is our new ranch gonna be near Annie’s ranch?” I asked.

“That’s one thing we have to decide before anything else. Where do we want our ranch to be? That has to be first, then we can get us a real estate agent in that area and set him or her to work.”

“Where did you grow up in Texas, Dad?” I asked. “Maybe you want our ranch to be near there.”

“South of San Angelo. That’s about a five-hour drive from Annie’s ranch.”

“Five hours,” said Virge. “Huh.”

“It will have a lot to do with what’s for sale, too,” said Travis. “Might take a while before we find the perfect place.”

“I can’t wait to start looking,” said Virge. “Be nice to have an area where we can ride our horses. And it would definitely be good to live near a town with a lot of hot girls.”

Travis laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think they put that stat on the maps, Virge. You and Harlan have to find that out for yourselves.”

“Our first project in Texas,” said Virge.

Watson Residence. North Carolina.

Tammy sat at the kitchen table for breakfast with Willy-John and it made his heart pound faster to see her healing and making so much progress.

But she was young and had that going for her. Truly a beautiful girl. She was almost twenty and he would soon be forty. Willy kept asking himself if he was in love with a girl half his age.

And if he did love her and wanted her to stay, then what? She admitted she was a wanted fugitive. Did he want to risk aiding and abetting a fugitive? He could spend years in jail for helping Tammy like he’d already done.

“I can cook,” said Tammy. “My mama is a super cook, and she can make roast beef dinners and bake the best pies you ever ate,and every morning she makes biscuits for her cowboys at her ranch.”

“Your mama got a lot of hands on her spread?”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of them, and she loves them all.” Tammy smiled. “I guess I won’t ever get to go back there, me being wanted by the law n’all.”

“I’d like to think you could straighten a lot of that out, Tammy. Possibly with a good lawyer.”

“Don’t think it’s possible, Willy. I did some pretty bad stuff when I was out of my tree.”

“That’s it right there, Tammy. If you were mentally incapacitated and didn’t know what you were doing, the judge might take that into consideration and go easy on you.”

Tammy laughed. “I’m worse than you think, Willy. I am one badass that you don’t want staying in your cabin. The sooner I leave here, the safer it will be for you and George and Gracie.”

Willy took the dishes over to the sink and turned on the hot water, and that’s the moment George and Gracie raced to the door and barked their fool heads off.

“Lock yourself in the bathroom for now, girl. I’ll tell you when to come out.”

“I should just put my hands up and get it over with, Willy. I’ll walk out with you onto the porch.”

“No. Not yet. Please, stay in the bathroom until I see who’s at the door. Might be somebody who needs stitches or a mustard plaster.”

Willy opened the door and released the hounds. George and Gracie ran like the devil was up their butts circling around the sheriff and his deputy, yipping and snarling at them.

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