Page 32 of Final Ride

The printer spewed out three copies and Dad read one of them over. He signed on the dotted line to make the offer official.

“You can see here where we gave them forty-eight hours to decide on your price, or they can make a change and adjust the price and sign it back to you.”

“Yep. I understand the process, Kevin. I’ve bought and sold property before.”

“I’ll see what I can do for you, Travis, to make this go smoothly.” Kevin packed up his laptop and put the offer in his briefcase. “Y’all will hear from me later today.”

Dad shook Kevin’s hand, and we went up to our room to get cleaned up.

“How about beer and pizza?” Dad asked us. “That’s what I feel like having for lunch.”

“Copy that,” said Virge. “Meat lovers for me.”

“Any kind for me. I’m starving.”

Pizza Heaven. La Grange.

The hostess showed us to a booth and Travis ordered a pitcher of beer while me and Virge decided which toppings we wanted on our pizza.

“All we have to do is wait,” said Virge. “How long will it take them to decide if your price is okay?”

“No idea, son, but they can take up to two days. That’s what we put in the offer, so we’ll wait and roll with it. Let’s enjoy our beer and pizza, hope for the best, and celebrate a little in advance.”

“I’m for that,” I said. My brother was the nervous, antsy one in our family. It wasn’t me.

The server brought our two large pizzas, and me and Virge had no trouble polishing them off. Dad helped us out a little by eating three or four slices, but he left the rest to us.

The three of us were sitting back, stuffed and hardly moving waiting for Kevin Bennett to call. Travis’ phone rang and it wasn’t Kevin at all, it was Bob Crockett calling from Coyote Creek.

“Travis, good news. I’ve got an offer in hand and it’s a good one. I had three bids come in at the same time and this is the best one. More than you’ll need to secure your ranch in Texas.”

“That is good news, Bob. What do you need me to do?” He put the call on speaker so me and Virge could hear the directions—especially me because I was the computer guy in the family.

“I need you to receive the offer by email and read it over. Make any changes you need to make.”

“Okay.”

“Then when you’re satisfied with the price and the terms, sign it and send it back to me so I can negotiate on your behalf.”

“Hang on a second, Bob.”

Dad looked at me and I said, “Give us ten minutes to drive back to the hotel and set up my laptop. In the meantime, you can send the offer to this email.” I recited my email to Bob Crockett, and he thanked me.

“I’ll send it off right away and wait for your response, Harlan.”

“Copy that, Mister Crockett. We’re leaving for our hotel right now.”

Dad paid the check, and we had to move it.

Budget Inn. La Grange.

I took my laptop out of my backpack and set it up on the table by the window in our hotel room. The offer was sitting there at the top of my emails with an attachment, waiting for me to open it.

“It’s here, Dad. Come and read it over.”

Dad pulled a chair up so he could see the screen and read the small printing. We went over it line by line, and I changed everything Dad didn’t like.

When we were done the read-through, I typed Dad’s name on the bottom line and sent it back to Bob Crockett in Montana.

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