Chapter 7 – Kaitlyn #2
I looked away from Tag, out over the open space. I thought I hadn’t missed this place, and I still wasn’t sure I did. But I liked the way you could take a deep breath and feel as if you’d breathed in the sky and the clouds.
“Take me back to the Lodge,” I finally said. “Apparently, I’ve got some books I’ve got to tear through.”
He smiled again, and I tried not to, but I smiled back.
“This is the right thing,” he said .
“I hope so.”
We cleaned up the paper plates, cutlery and napkins, and then I found myself once again climbing into the passenger seat of his truck.
That’s when another thought occurred to me. With everything that had happened…between us, there hadn’t been any satisfaction for Tag.
He got behind the wheel and started the truck.
“How come you didn’t…well, fuck me?”
That got his attention real quick. He stared at me behind his aviators, so I couldn’t really read his expression.
“I don’t fuck women who are vulnerable like that.”
“But you didn’t even…I mean you could have…you know.”
“Jacked myself off?” He turned his attention back on the road. “Don’t worry about that sweetheart, I’ve got a date with my fist and your panties later on tonight.”
“I haven’t given you my panties.”
He flashed a smile at me again, only this time it wasn’t his nice guy smile.
This smile said something else, and he pulled from his jeans pocket the nude thong I’d laid out on his thigh.
“Then what are these?”
I reached for them, and he shoved them back in his jeans, grinning at me like he had my number. I wasn’t about to admit it to the man, but he did.
He totally did.
An hour later, I was sitting behind a desk, in the office at the Lodge, staring at a profit and loss spreadsheet.
My brain only had the capacity for two thoughts. One, these numbers looked worse than I imagined. Two, I wasn’t wearing panties.
This was not ideal while my new half-brothers sat across from me with scowls on their faces.
Carter was pacing in front of the window that looked out over the valley of the ranch.
Mac sat on the leather couch, his knee bouncing as he looked from his brother, to me, and then back to his brother.
I had spent less than five minutes with the guy, but it was obvious he worshipped his older brother.
He was probably shaken that Carter hadn’t been able to fix this on his own and needed help.
Ethan was there, too, of course. A man who’d obviously returned to the family fold. He was leaning against the mantle over the cold fireplace. There were pictures of the family all over the place. Graduations. Camping trips. Weddings. Carter’s kids.
The Calloways had the same pictures, minus the weddings and kids. Our frames were all cockeyed, and a lot of them were homemade school projects with macaroni and glitter.
While the McGraws’ were all polished wood and brushed steel.
“Please, just say something.” Carter finally cried.
“Let her work, Carter.” This from Ethan, who was clearly more patient than his older brother.
“She’s been working for over an hour,” Carter told his brother.
“She’s processing,” Ethan said.
“ She’s in the room, boys,” I said, finally scootching the big chair back from the desk. I’d seen enough.
Carter charged across the area rug to stand in front of the desk, towering over me. I wanted to roll my eyes and tell him to sit down, but the guy was in a full blown freak out and I didn’t have good news.
“Give it to us straight, was Dad right about potentially losing the Swinging D?”
“No,” I said.
All three McGraws sighed, like they’d all been holding their breath.
“I knew it,” Ethan said, smiling confidently at his brothers. “Dad was always over exaggerating everything. The man lived for hyperbole.”
“The Swinging D will be fine, if you run a much smaller operation and sell off about twenty-thirty thousand acres,” I told them, and the room exploded.
“Fuck that!” Mac cried, bursting from his seat on the couch. “We’re not selling anything.”
“Dad called you back here for one reason,” Carter said, through his teeth. “He wanted you to save the operation, as it exists today.”
“I’m sure he did,” I said. “So, instead, I’m going to tell you the truth. There is no saving the Swinging D as it exists today. You’re too over-extended. Unless there is some magical pile of cash you’ve been hiding, all you’ve got is the value of the land.”
“That’s…disappointing,” Ethan said, in his very measured way.
“There’s nothing you can do? You’re supposed to be some kind of genius,” Carter said, with just a thin strain of derision that was a little too close to Smarty Sunshine to let it slide.
I slammed my hands on the desk and stood to get their attention.
“Look, maybe you think this is the part of the movie where the prodigal daughter comes home to save her new family, and she tells them all they have to do is start raising buffalo or some shit like that. But, here is the thing. I don’t know fuck all about cattle ranching.
I work for a trading firm in New York. I’ve never castrated a bull, shot a gun or ridden a horse! ”
“Never?” Carter asked, then shot Mac a look. “That seems wrong.”
“Geesh, Sunny, you’re from the Gulch, you’ve never ridden a horse?” Mac said, simultaneously.
“We could take you horseback riding if you’re hanging around…” Carter said, like he was offering me a consolation prize.
“Stay on point, gentlemen,” I said, through clenched teeth. “There is nothing to do, but the obvious. Sell the land.”
Carter shook his head. It wasn’t refusal, it was just disappointment.
“Now, if you’re done with me, I think I’ll be heading back to New York.”
Subtly, I swept my hand down the back of my dress to make sure I wasn’t flashing my bare, red ass at anyone, and stepped clear of the desk to go find Harmony and say goodbye.
I should probably say something to my mom too.
Although, just the idea of it was exhausting.
But it’s not like we could postpone this. My mother had never left the state of Wyoming. The one time she almost got on a plane, she had a panic attack and Dad took her home, forgoing the anniversary trip to San Diego he’d planned for her.
She was also the most conflict averse person on the planet. When we were kids, Dad always disciplined us, and Mom would come in afterwards and bring us cookies and grilled cheese sandwiches and let us rant about how unfair Dad was.
So, it made sense to me why she wouldn’t have come to New York, but why not just send Harmony?
Why send Tag?
I’d have to say goodbye to him, too.
With a big fuck you for bringing me back here to destroy my well-ordered life. But also, thank you for the best orgasm of my life.
Forty-eight hours with the guy, and he was the most complicated relationship I’d ever had with a man.
Did my family know about my pathetic high school crush? Wait, did Tag?
I really needed to get those panties back before I left.
“What do you know?” Ethan asked me, just as I reached the door.
“What?” I asked, turning around, ready to battle again.
“You said you know fuck all about cattle ranching. What do you know?”
Not sure where he was going with this, but I took the bait. “I know the stock market. I know a good investment when I see it, and I know how to make my clients money. Lots and lots of money.”
Ethan slowly nodded. “So, if we were a client, and we gave you some money, you could…make a magical pile of cash?”
“Very clever,” I smirked. “The kind of cash you’re talking about, would take years to earn on your return. You don’t have that kind of time.”
“We,” Mac corrected me. “Sorry, sis. You’re in it with us now. You’re half McGraw, which means we live together and we die together.”
He was right. I was mixed up in this, too. Not because these three men were my half-brothers, but Ethan was married to Harmony, and it looked like they were staying that way. Which meant Harmony was a McGraw. If they had kids, then my nieces and nephews would be McGraws, too.
And those kids would want a town to grow up in, a school to learn in. If we downsized the ranch, the town might survive, but it wouldn’t thrive. It wouldn’t grow.
My brain started clicking through my clients’ portfolios. My own personal investments. Something that would earn nearly double digit returns in a short amount of time…
“Shit,” I said.
The boys looked at each other.
“It’s a ridiculous idea,” I told them, before I even shared my thoughts. “Super risky. I mean, if I’m wrong, I could put the whole operation in jeopardy.”
“But, if you’re right?” Ethan asked me.
“Then I could save the Swinging D,” I admitted.