Page 37 of Blazing Hot Nights
“Yes, angel. At least to anyone with two eyes.”
He was kneading my right shoulder as I drove, and the sensation was so much different than on my left. He was still trying to comfort me, but it had a more intimate sensation to it when his fingertips skimmed my bare neck. Almost as though touching me offered him comfort as well.
I cleared my throat and kept my eyes glued to the road. “My physical inability to keep doing this work was a checkmate I couldn’t ignore any longer, Blaze. I’m in pain all the time, and I can’t expect Tex and Dawn to keep my family’s legacy alive just because I can’t let it go. That’s not fair to them. I also don’t think it’s fair to me. I don’t think my daddy would want me to be in tears every night because I can’t control the pain, right?”
“No, sweetheart, no,” he whispered. “Duane would have given up his life the day you fell if it had spared you the pain. I know that without a doubt in my mind. He wouldn’t want you to suffer the way you have been. None of us do. I lay in bed at night and try to figure out something, anything, I can do to give you a little bit of relief. Especially since I know your pain is partially my fault.”
I shook my head, and he wiped away a tear that fell down my cheek. “That’s not true. My pain is a result of my choices, but I can’t keep going this way. So, I’ve made my move on the board. I told Tex and Dawn about it the other day, and they’re behind me one hundred percent.”
“You know I’m behind you on anything that means you put less stress on your body.”
“I hope so,” I said, nodding as though that would help him agree with me. “I’m going to stop raising cattle and open a dude ranch.”
The cab was silent except for the hum of the tires on the road.
“What’s that now?”
I never took my eyes off the blacktop. This conversation was easier to have when I didn’t have to make eye contact with him. “You know that I sold the majority of my cattle. I’ll still have some but only a small herd for meat and to teach the students how to perform cattle drives.”
Blaze scratched his head like he was working hard to make my words gel in his brain. “I haven’t gotten past the part where you’re opening a dude ranch.”
“Complete with a riding ring, bunkhouse, and stables,” I agreed.
He was silent for several minutes while he stared at me with his mouth agape. I swallowed hard and tried to keep my face neutral. I didn’t know if it was working but I also didn’t want him to know just how much his approval of this mattered to me. It shouldn’t have but it did.
“I thought the ranch was close to bankruptcy,” he finally said, the confusion evident in his voice.
“It was. But I sold the herd and was able to pay off my debts with enough left over for operating expenses until December.”
“Forgive my obtuseness then, but how do you plan to start a dude ranch with no herd and no available cash?”
It was now or never. I took a deep breath and blew it back out. “I thought I’d sell the lower pasture.”
“To …?” he asked, one brow in the air when I peeked at him from the corner of my eye.
“You?” I asked, wishing I sounded more confident. “If you don’t want it, then I’ll put it on the market.”
“I want it,” he said instantly and without thought. “Don’t tell anyone it’s for sale, please. I’ll call my father about it once I know the asking price.”
“There are seven hundred acres, and it has the only accessible watering hole. The asking price is two million.”
His whistle was long, low, and definitively cowboy. “A cool two mil. Top-end, it’s only worth about 1.7, Heaven.”
“One million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be exact. The extra is for an established watering hole, the fencing that’s already in place—”
“And for pain and suffering,” he finished, his voice low and hesitant.
I didn’t answer. I just stared straight ahead at the highway, wishing what he’d said wasn’t accurate, even though it was.
Blaze’s hand was on my shoulder again—warm, gentle, caring—and I forced back the words that wanted to tumble out of me. I knew it was better to wait him out.
“I’ll talk to my father when we get back to Wisconsin. I’m willing to pay the two million. He may not be.”
“Understood, Blaze,” I whispered. “I have no doubt someone else will, though. Bickering about the difference will only hurt Bison Ridge in the end.”
“I agree with you, and I’m sure my father will see it the same way. If it matters to you right now, I think your daddy would be proud of this decision.”
I laughed sarcastically and shook my head at the highway beyond the windshield. “I doubt it. He was always about the cattle. He died for the cattle. I have to accept that he’d be happy I figured out a way to keep the ranch he loved so much, even if it’s not the way he’d do it. I can’t do it the way he always did it. I don’t have the physical or financial ability. I’m out of options.”
