Page 47 of Cole's Joy
“Yeah.” Lane nodded and waited until Kade had his footing before they headed to the parking lot where they’d parked their truck and headed back to the rodeo to set up for the next two days. Kade had to back out of his events after being hurt in thelast one, and Lane had his bronc riding events to get ready for. As soon as they settled, they lay on their cots and sighed.
“That was the first real meal we’ve had in weeks. We have hours before we have to get ready, and we don’t normally do this, but I think I’m going to rest and let this meal digest.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” Kade took a pain pill, stretched out on his bunk and was asleep in seconds. His dreams were filled with images of him being a ranch manager like Cole.
CHAPTER 18
Two daysafter returning from the rodeo, Lois answered the knock on her door and was shocked to see Cole, Erin, and Clark standing there. She invited them in and caught Cole’s eye, and he looked scared. They heard another knock and opened the door for Naomi to enter. Lois invited them in and she and Cole quickly got drinks for everyone, and didn’t see the smirks exchanged between the other two women. Once they all had a drink, Lois drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and asked, “What’s up?”
“You know I’m not one to beat around the bush, so I’ll get right to the point. After you gave me the information on the Montgomery boys, I immediately reached out to Jake over at Brotherhood.” She shook her head, and held up her hand. “Nothing yet. I don’t know if you know that I do this, but since hiring Duane, I still use Jake, but I also give the information to Duane so he can use his former FBI contacts to get information. It's all above board. I would never ask anyone working for me to do anything illegal.”
“We understand,” Cole said.
“Well, when I was giving Duane the information, Clark walked in and heard that I wanted a background check on them. He asked me why, and it blew my mind.”
“Why?”
Erin looked at her brother with a wrinkled nose, then grinned as she turned back to the older couple. “I have run Erin’s Way, Riceman Stallions, and Broken for so long all by myself, that I forget that Clark’s not only my brother, but he’s also now legally an equal partner in everything. Naomi is the rightful owner of New Double, Clark and I only own the land and the buildings.” She saw she had their attention then turned to Clark. He took over the conversation.
“After Rin told me what you wanted to do with New Double, Naomi and I sat down and had a very intense conversation. This was Sunday night. For the last two days, I’ve been doing some investigating.”
“On?” Cole held his breath as he waited for an answer.
“Before I answer that, I want to tell you that once the construction of Broken Two is complete, which it should be in two months’ time, I’ll have nothing to do. As Rin said, she runs Erin’s Way, Riceman Stallions, though we own Broken, Naomi runs it, and Naomi owns New Double, but you run it. I’m not one to step on any toes, and after hearing from Rin what you wanted to do, I did some investigating and I’m here to talk to you all about it.”
“What?” Cole asked again.
“Please, don’t dismiss my suggestion until you hear everything.”
“Son, I can’t pass judgement on something I don’t know. Spit it out.”
Clark laughed and looked at Naomi with a grin. “You’re right, Cole likes it straight.” He turned back to the older man. “Okay, this is just a thought, but part of me working on Broken Two,I took the time to put in a race tack on the backside of New Double. It should be done within the next two weeks. I didn’t want to tell anyone, because I didn’t know if it would ever be finished.”
“Really?”
“Yes, now onto what I’ve been doing in the last two days. I’ve been exploring this place.” He waved his hand and at their confused looks, he clarified, “The Old Atherton Spread.”
“What did you find?”
“Shit.”
“Excuse me?”
“Other than this space with the three houses, barn, greenhouses, and fairly significant sized lawns, there’s only one other spot on the entire ranch that is flat. During my inspection, all I could think was what the hell was Rin thinking when she agreed to buy this place. I knew she thought she could get some hay off it, but there is no way to do that. There is no place to put in a hayfield, let along corn, oats, sorghum, or any other crop. There are too many hills and valleys that it would be impossible.” He shook his head and held up his hand. “However, after talking it over with Naomi, then going to Rin with my thoughts, we’ve come up with a plan.”
“What’s that?”
“You continue New Double as is.” He saw the disappointment on the other man’s face and smiled. “For now. Let me finish the construction I’m doing now, then why don’t we take that one flat spot on this ranch and turn that into what you want to do. When that’s up and running, you can take over managing that, and I’ll manage New Double.”
Cole cocked his head to the side and stared at the younger man. He shook his head and looked between the three people sitting before him. “Let me get this straight. You want to keep everything Erin, sorry, both you and Erin own and operate, butadd the rodeo stock, training arena, and boarding barns. In addition to bunktels, cabins, and possibly a main house?”
“Yes,” Erin spoke then, “Except for the main house. I might be talking out my ass here, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel that you and Lois are together, like as a couple. You could have this place as the main house, and then the workers could have the cabins, like at Broken, and the people only coming in on the weekends to work their own animals can stay in the bunktels. Like the clients would for their family that is being rehabilitated at Broken.”
Cole shook his head again, scrubbed his face, then turned to Naomi. “Noomi, I have to ask you this. Did you think by my coming to you and wanting to change the racehorses to rodeo stock as a kick in the teeth to you?”
“No, absolutely not,” she said so quickly and firmly that he believed her. He saw her lean around Clark to look at Erin, then Erin gave her a nod, so she turned back to him. “I have been wracking my brain for a solution to a problem I thought I had.”
“What’s that?”
