Page 141 of Opposites (Never) Attract
Prescott cleared his throat. Lord, that man was sweaty. Ethan insisted on taking his blood pressure before the meeting, like the guy might have a heart attack any minute.
Prescott pulled an envelope out of his briefcase and the whole room groaned.
“What’s wrong?” I asked Tag. “It’s just an envelope.”
“That’s how the bullshit starts.”
Prescott opened the letter and started reading.
“Carter, I worry about you being a single parent. This life is not meant to be lived alone.”
“I’m not alone,” Carter cried. “I’ve got three kids and too many brothers and a brand new sister.”
Prescott kept reading. “It is impossible to raise children on your own and run the ranch successfully.”
“That sonofabitch,” Carter barked. “He was the one who put the ranch in jeopardy in the first place.”
Gordon cleared his throat. “Anyway, to sum up, Carter McGraw has six months to show he can run the ranch as expected. Which means, after six months, the operation still needs to be in the black, otherwise the operation will be turned over to Mac McGraw to run, while Carter instead focuses on his children.”
The room was silent. Painfully tense.
Mac turned to his brother, white-faced. “I didn’t know,” he said. “I don’t…”
“I know,” Carter said, his jaw clenched. “It’s more of Dad’s fucking horseshit.”
“What happens if I don’t want it?” Mac asked, from where he was standing.
Amity whipped her head around to look at him, but when he didn’t make eye contact with her, she turned back to face forward, her fingers entwined in her lap.
“Then the same failsafe goes into effect, and the operation, along with all the land, will be turned over to the Bureau of Land Management.”
“That motherfucker,” Carter muttered. “He’d rather there not be an operation than just let me have it?”
“That wasn’t his intent,” Prescott said, quietly. “He wanted to make sure the children were being raised properly. And the ranch was being run successfully. And one man can’t do both.”
Tag and I shared a look. Leroy McGraw had a point. Carter was being run ragged trying to do everything and the ranch work. Because of that, everyone else was picking up the slack. And everyone was trying with the kids, butwith Mrs. Walker retiring, there were going to be problems.
“Then why not just leave it all to Mac?” Ethan said.
Prescott read the last part of the letter. “Carter, as my first born, this ranch and this land are your legacy. They’re your children’s legacy. You know I’m right.”
Prescott folded up the paper, slipped it back in the envelope, and heaved a heavy sigh.
“Six months,” Carter muttered. “Six months and I make sure we’re in the black, and that proves to everyone I can do both. Run the ranch and see to my kids.”
“We’ll help,” I said. “All of us. Now that Mrs. Walker is retiring, we can take shifts with the kids.”
“Speakforyourself,” Bliss coughed into her fist.
“Hush, Bliss,” Amity said. “Sunshine is right. We can all chip in.”
That’s when Carter tilted his head back and laughed. Like a supervillain sound, like somehow he’d thwarted his father in his grave.
“Joke’s on him,” Carter spat. He pulled a letter out of his back pocket. “Just got this in the mail yesterday. Someone’s interested in the nanny position. She’s coming out to the ranch next week, and if everything works out, the kids will have a full time, live-in babysitter which will free me up to focus on the ranch. I accept the terms of the agreement, Prescott. And I’ll make my father eat those words in hell.”
With that, he stomped out of the study and we all let him go.
“What arewe going to do when your dad comes back from Florida?” I asked Tag. It was later that night and wewere both blissed out from some roughhouse sex. I screamed so loudly the barn animals might have heard me.
