Chapter Eight
Outside, Will adjusted Ryan’s grip on the football and his fingers on the laces after the boy racked up H-O-R in their game. “Spiral is the key. Pull your arm directly back and finish with your fingers pointing exactly where you want it to go. Like this.” He demonstrated, zeroing in on the target.
Izzy sat on the covered porch in the big swing that hung from the rafters as she watched him with the boy, gently winning him over as only Will could do. It had taken some convincing in the first place to draw Ryan into a game after Will found him floundering with the football on his own. Ryan’s reluctance to engage with his uncle was so thirteen of him, but as Will invented the game with the tire swing as a target, Ryan’s reluctance waned. He admitted to Will he wanted to try out for the school team for next year, but his skills sucked. How many ranch kids could say they had an ex-pro football player as a coach?
Ryan heaved the ball and struck the center of the tire swing exactly without so much as grazing the sides. He let out a squeaky sound of victory as his teenaged voice broke in the middle.
“I did it!” Ryan’s dark hair flopped down in his eyes, shorter on the sides and back like all the boys were wearing it, and he brushed it back with his fingers.
“Yeah, you did. Let’s see if I can match that.” But his ball bounced sideways off the tire. “Ohhh! H-O. Must be the breeze moving that tire,” he joked.
“Nah! Nah!” Ryan laughed, retrieving the ball and nailing his next throw again.
Something warm swirled in Izzy’s chest, watching Will celebrate him, seeing how good he was with the boy. And how much Ryan seemed to respond to him, in spite of himself. From what she’d gathered, Shay was single and had been for some time. Boys Ryan’s age needed fathers or at least men to show them the way. She could imagine that Will would make a good father himself one day, better than her father had been.
Often, watching fathers with their children, she was reminded of her own father’s lack of involvement in hers. She couldn’t recall him ever including her in his many extracurricular activities, like golf or tennis, and only occasionally included her on his walks with his precious hunting dog, Sam. And only then when she begged him to let her come. It wasn’t that he was mean about it. He never was. He was just… busy with his own life. Even when she was young, she knew she didn’t fit into his world.
She’d been about Ryan’s age when she’d overheard her parents talking—arguing—behind closed doors about her. Her mother had used the words mistake and consequences, talking about her, while her father had angrily insisted that it was too late for regrets. They simply had to do the best they could with her. From that moment on, she’d known that her very existence was an accident her parents were forced to manage. It explained so much and left her gut punched as a tragically hormonal teenager with no idea what to do with that information but pretend everything was fine and try to be the good daughter they needed her to be.
And yet, she’d loved him. More than she loved her mother. Needed him to love her. Tried for the better part of her life to make him proud of her. And maybe he was—just a little—at the prospect of her marrying a Margate.
Ugh.
Apparently, Theo was simply another version of him, and she’d been too blind to see it. She shook her head, blinking back the moisture in her eyes. Epiphanies like that were hard to swallow, but true. And weirdly, it felt like Theo’s betrayal had finally somehow liberated her. She felt lighter than she had in years. Hopeful that she could finally stand on her own two feet and not need anyone to make her feel whole.
She wouldn’t hold onto things that didn’t belong to her anymore. Theo and Gina and her baby were three of those things. Oh. And the future she’d imagined. That was gone, too. And that was probably a very good thing.
Isabella forced a smile, watching Will. She couldn’t help but compare this man she was getting to know in such a strange way with the man with whom she’d thought she’d spend the rest of her life. Theo came up wanting. All the things she imagined would make their lives easier, all of Theo’s money, his houses, his job, certainly had seemed a plus on his side. But none of that had mattered in the end. Money had its blessings, but it only made things more complicated.
“He’s really something, isn’t he?” Shay asked, appearing beside her on the porch.
“Yes,” she answered. “Yes, he is.”
Shay leaned against the porch rail, a glass of wine in her hand and one for Isabella, which she took gratefully. “How did you know?” she asked his sister.
“It’s always time for a glass of wine, right? Especially now that summer’s almost here and the evenings are so beautiful.”
“You must love this place. It’s so lovely.”
“I do. We all do. Well, most of us do.” She glanced out at Will. “I wasn’t sure Ryan was going to let him in, but football is apparently the great leveler. He’s been having a tough time lately. Thirteen, you know?”
“Will’s good with him,” Isabella said. “I think it’s been hard for him being away from you all for so long.”
Shay glanced at her as if to see if she was serious. “Did he tell you that?”
She didn’t want to speak for him. It wasn’t her place to do that. “In so many words,” she said. “He’s a complicated guy.”
“Don’t I know it. He’s my twin and I still don’t completely understand him. I just know I’ve missed him. We’ve all missed him. But we’re happy to see him so happy. With you.”
Guilt rushed in, filling the peaceful moment with the lies they’d told them. So, she took a gulp of wine, staring out at the horses grazing in a nearby pasture. “Are those the wild mustangs Will told me about? The ones you take care of here on the ranch?”
“That’s them. We just got about ten more last week to replace the ones we’ve managed to adopt out. See that palomino out there? The one with the white blaze on his face?”
Indeed, he was a beautiful horse with a blond mane and tail, prancing around the pasture like he owned the place.
Shay went on. “He’s the stallion of that bunch and none too happy to be here. But at least he’s got a few of his original mares with him. We’re still waiting to see how they shake out with the rest of the herd. There’ve been some issues.”
“Do you work with them yourself? Train them?”
“I’m not exactly a trainer. But I work on building trust with the ones that are potentially trainable, trying to get them used to humans. Especially the babies. They’re wild, but some of them are willing to give us a chance. Those are the ones I focus on. For training, we usually hire it out. It can be dangerous working with them. They’re unpredictable. And, not that I let fear rule me, but I am a single parent and, you know, all that comes with that.”
“Totally. A thousand pounds of wild mustang out there would scare me silly.”
“More like eight hundred,” Shay said, “but when they step on you, a couple hundred pounds is pretty much irrelevant.”
Cami leaned her head out the door. “I hope one of you is better at cutting up roast beef than me. Mom has banned me.”
Isabella jumped up, ready to help.
Shay held out a hand. “You’re the guest. You don’t need to—”
“No, I want to. Besides, you should go talk to him,” she said, indicating Will as he and Ryan ended their game. Will had his arm around the kid’s shoulder and Isabella caught the smile on Ryan’s face, in spite of himself. “You haven’t even had a chance yet.”
Shay tilted a grateful look at her. “Yeah. Thank you. I’ll see you inside.”
Isabella raised a toast to that and disappeared through the door following Cami.
*
Will gave Ryana pat on the shoulder as the kid headed into the house to wash up for dinner as Shay walked toward him with a smile.
“Who won?” she asked, crossing the newly greening lawn toward him.
“He whooped my butt. I think he might have a quarterback arm.”
She handed Will her glass of wine and offered him a sip. “Thank you for spending time with him. He needed that.”
“He’s a great kid. But then, you knew that.” He took a sip of her wine and handed it back.
“He is,” Shay said, pulling up her mama lion pride. “He’s just a teenager and lately I think he’s missed having a dad.” She cringed. “My bad.”
“Where is Ethan, anyway?” Her ne’er-do-well baby daddy who had refused to be a stand-up father. Marriage had been off Shay’s list from the start. Ethan had been a summer mistake, but Ryan, the boy she loved more than life itself, never would be.
“Who knows where he is?” she said with a shrug. “Last I heard, he was back in New York selling airplane parts. I… I don’t try to keep track of him. It’s not good for Ryan who… well, he doesn’t like to discuss him.”
“How much does he know?”
She shrugged. “Only what he needs and wants to know. As he gets older, I know there will be hard conversations.”
When Ryan was born, Shay had made Will his godfather. Aside from remembering him with gifts and phone calls on holidays and birthdays, he had failed miserably at that.
Shay suddenly grabbed his arm, stopping him. “I can almost hear you blaming yourself,” she said, butting into his thoughts. “But don’t. We’ve all got our own journeys here. Ryan isn’t your responsibility. And I know what you’ve gone through, with the leg and the NFL. Kaylee. I know, better than anyone, how it was with Dad for you. Especially for you. And how you feel about this place. But Dad’s gone now. And I don’t want you to think we’ve tricked you into coming home, even though we sort of did.”
Will sent her a look that communicated without words.
She took a long sip of wine, watching the mustangs grazing nearby. “Okay, we did. But we miss you and we also wanted to know if you’re all right. Seeing you with Izzy? For me anyway, I’m just so glad you’ve found someone like her. When I came outside, I saw her watching you when she didn’t know I was there. I can tell she’s crazy about you, Will. It’s how she talks about you. She’s Kaylee’s polar opposite. Day and night.”
Crazy about him? Was she?He should tell Shay the truth. Shay was not only his twin, but she was also the one person he’d always confided in, up until he’d left home. He’d broken that bond with distance and sustained that break with geography. Healing that brokenness between them felt important now, especially because she was trying to do that herself.
On the other hand, his relationship with Izzy—can I even call it that?—felt unlike any other one he’d ever had. Which seemed foolish considering where the two of them were at—halfway between Dallas and never seeing each other again. So how could he even explain to Shay what he didn’t quite grasp himself? What if there was more to the two of them than either of them was acknowledging? What if something could come of this long-distance marathon of forced intimacy?
The kiss they’d shared this morning was all for show, but it hadn’t felt that way. It had vibrated through him for the better part of the day. Even now, he could feel that kiss in his gut. So, Shay’s observation about Isabella only made everything more muddled. More gray than black or white.
So, what he said was, “I’ve missed you,” and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
Shay leaned her head there as the two of them made their way toward the house. “How long are you here for? And please don’t say for twenty-four hours. Liam tells us you’re driving Izzy to Seattle?”
“Right. She’s visiting a friend.” At least that was the truth.
“And you’re visiting that friend, too?”
He smiled and shook his head. “I’m probably going to have to put her on a plane at this point in a few days since you guys wrangled me in here like a hostage. Kidding.” He shook his head and mouthed, “No, I’m not.”
Shay had the kind of bawdy, rumble of a laugh that made him want to laugh with her, which he did.
Then she punched his arm. “Well, don’t let her go, then,” she commanded. “Keep her here until you seal the deal. Then at least you’ll have a good memory of this place to replace the bad ones.”
Personally, he kind of liked that idea. Not that it made much sense, nor would it to Izzy, who was in a hurry to reinvent herself in Seattle and get on with her life. Not to mention the fact that she was less than a week away from marrying the absolute wrong guy, getting her heart broken, and declaring independence. Where exactly could he possibly fit into that scenario? As the stand-in?
Sarah called them all to dinner and he and Shay walked in together. “Think about what I said,” she whispered.
The scent of roasting beef and fresh bread filled the room and Sarah was just finishing setting the last dish of potatoes on the table. Liam was in the kitchen at the apron sink, washing his hands.
“No shop talk until dinner’s over,” Sarah declared. “Let’s just enjoy a meal.”
*
Shay and Camidid their best to include Izzy in the conversation about Marietta, the baby chicks Cami’s classroom had watched hatch and were adopting out, and Will’s foibles as a child. Izzy talked a little about her work in child advocacy, skirting around any mention of her wedding and Theo.
Will watched her hold her own with his family and leaned back in his chair in wonder. They were a lot. All of them together? A force. But while she was still dealing with the aftermath of last week’s events—and he knew she was—she didn’t show it. She laughed with them, answered questions, and seemed to enjoy herself. For his part, he found himself unable to stop looking at her, or smiling at her now and then in encouragement. Something had shifted between them. Something that had him contemplating how to keep her here longer. Something that had him thinking how he hated goodbyes.
It didn’t make any sense to him. He knew she was going. Her broken heart would take a long time to mend, longer than he had. Besides, whatever was between them was probably just that they’d been in close quarters for the last few days and naturally, things… happened.
Unlike that kiss, which hadn’t been a for-show kiss at all, but a mind-blowing, sucker-punch of a kiss that had made him forget every other kiss he’d ever had. And if he wasn’t mistaken, she’d felt it, too.
No, he had to put those possibilities out of his mind and focus on the here and now. She was going and that was that. Right now, he had decisions to make about his own life and how he was going to move forward with his family. Allowing himself to feel all the feels that were cropping up with Izzy right now would only bring him heartbreak.
It wasn’t until after dinner that Will brought up the possibility of hosting Kevin and Emmaline’s wedding, along with Izzy’s ideas for decorating the barn and the outdoor area under the pretty stand of maple trees. The idea was met with surprise and a little resistance, considering the short timetable, but Will proposed it as part of a bigger picture of how they could transform the ranch into a profitable operation.
Cami piped in. “What about that old round barn in the east pasture near Liam’s place? Renovated, that place would be amazing.”
That sparked interest in Liam’s eyes. “I have always wanted to fix that barn up.”
“See?” Cami said.
Will said, “We all know things have to change. The ranch must evolve. We’ve got everything we need here to make this land work for us. It could stay as a working cattle ranch, or some version of that.”
“Meaning?” Shay asked.
He turned to Izzy. “Izzy says her Dallas friends would pay a lot of money to come to a place like this. I agree. There are a few well-known ranches in Montana known for ranch experience vacations, with lux cabins, glamping tents, etcetera on the property. We’ve got horses to ride, streams to fish, wildlife to hunt or photograph. Cattle drives. Campfires. We could eventually hire a chef. Good food.”
“Does that mean your vote is not to sell?” Liam asked, side-eying him skeptically.
“I guess that depends on all of you.”
“Meaning, you’re out?”
“No.” Will raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t know yet. I’m just throwing ideas out here.”
There was a long stretch of silence at the table.
“We could… start small and grow,” Will went on. “The Hard Eight is twenty-four thousand acres of prime land that nearly backs up to the Absarokas, with the river and town nearby. It would solve Liam’s need to be more in the world and he can oversee the building of luxury cabins and glamping tents we’d need as we grow. It would be seasonal until the operation gets going, but profitable summers alone could support the rest of our year in ranching. But there’s plenty of winter sport that might attract people to Montana in that season, too.” He looked at Shay and Cami. “I am not here to tell you what to do. You both have lives, too. It’s not my place to tell you anything. But I’m saying an infusion of cash investment now would get us on the path to an operation that would be semi-viable in a year or so. Meanwhile, we keep the cattle business going, build our name with events, create a social media presence, spread the word.”
“We?” Shay asked pointedly.
“Collectively,” he corrected. “You. Me. All of us. I spoke with a loan officer at the bank this morning, just to see the viability of securing financing.”
“Against the ranch?” Liam asked.
“No. I’d take the loan personally.”
“Hell no,” Liam said firmly, throwing his napkin onto the table. “No way.”
“I’ve got a good amount of money saved,” Will argued. “Invested in the limo company and elsewhere. We’ll use some of that first.”
“That’s not an option. You’ve already given us so much over the years,” Sarah said, agreeing with Liam. “If we do this, we do it together. We stand or fall together with the land as our sponsor. It can’t fall on you, Will. I won’t allow it. Besides, if money was our only problem—which, granted, it is a big one—we could simply expand the herd, upgrade the operation. Hope things get better in the market. That’s not… the only problem. It’s too much on Liam’s shoulders. After Holland Meeks retired a few months ago and moved back East to be near his grandchildren we’re seriously short-handed.”
Will leaned close to Izzy and explained, “Holland worked this place for almost as long as my father. He was his right-hand man before Liam.”
Sarah went on. “Ryan helps when he’s not in school, and Shay, of course, but we need more hands.”
“And Mom can’t do the physical stuff like she used to,” Shay said.
His mother was only sixty, but the last few years had been hard on her. Will met Sarah’s gaze before she turned away, embarrassed.
“Still,” she said. “I’m not voting yes. This place is your legacy. It’s not up to me to take it away.”
“Does anybody care what I think?” Ryan asked suddenly. All heads turned in his direction.
Shay touched his shoulder. “Of course, we do, darlin’. This place is as much yours as anyone’s.”
“Then I vote we keep the ranch. Change things up like Uncle Will says. What are you all so afraid of anyway? What’s the worst that could happen? We try something and it doesn’t work? But all I ever hear is how it’s not working now.” The room went quiet as the others exchanged looks. “Mom,” he went on, “you’re always telling me how failing is just success in progress. That we need to come at things from another angle if we fail, but to not give up. Hardestys have been ranching the same way for a hundred years. Maybe the ranch is tired, too, of the same old, same old. Maybe the land is holding out for something new.”
Will frowned. The kid seemed to have deeper water than even he had imagined.
“If the Hard Eight is your legacy,” Ryan went on, “it’s mine, too. That’s my vote.”
“What do you think of this idea, Izzy?” Cami asked her.
Izzy opened and shut her mouth, sending Will a panicked look. “I don’t think I should have an opinion here.”
“As an outsider then,” Cami prodded. “Is this a place you would come to for a getaway? Or a wedding? If it was set up properly, I mean?”
“Yes,” she said quickly. “Absolutely. You’re so used to all this, but this ranch is gorgeous and different, and it sparks the imagination of anyone who’s ever wondered what living in a place like this would be like. Ranch life in the Wild West, well, there’s a romanticism about it.” She met Will’s gaze and he nodded, encouraging her to go on. “It’s a fantasy for most city dwellers, but for those who are used to five-star hotels with room service, this place could be the perfect antidote to what they’re used to, without sacrificing all the lux bedding, comfy surroundings, and amazing food. Done right, this could be an incredible destination.”
“But…” Liam said skeptically, “tents? That doesn’t sound very lux to me.”
“Not just tents,” Izzy said. “Glamping tents. With wooden platforms and cushy, four-poster beds and thick rugs and full permanent baths, a soaking tub… They’re a whole thing. Maybe even private Jacuzzi’s for the cabins?”
Cami piped in. “A thing I’d like to see. Shay could decorate. And Will’s got the limo. And I already have some ideas on how we could spruce up the barn for weddings.”
“And we won’t charge for this first one,” Will suggested, “because it will be our introduction. I did some research and found there aren’t nearly enough venues locally to host those kinds of events and according to my sources, this area—Bozeman, Livingston, Marietta—they have a few great venues, but there aren’t enough. And nothing like the Hard Eight. Now, weddings aren’t the only way we can expand.”
Izzy said, “You think Texas would offer all that and they do, but not what’s right outside your door here in Montana, with the mountains and rivers and this beauty all around. Besides, people want to get away. Far away from the Dallas suburbs—well, suburbs everywhere I suppose, and Dallas heat in the summers. And there’s a lot of money in that kind of a resort ranch destination.”
“That’s what we could be,” Will said. “A destination. It would be the investment here, and once we got some initial dwellings, we could start turning a profit,” Will said. “Liam, if you think this might be workable, I can draw up a business plan and we can talk about it more.
“Just think about it. We’ll talk about it more tomorrow. For now, I’ve been up”—he glanced at his watch—“for about thirty-seven and a half hours as has Izzy here. So, if you don’t mind, I think we’ll hit the hay before we fall asleep in Mom’s dinner plates.”
“He’s exaggerating,” Izzy said. “But it was a wonderful dinner. Thank you.”
Will slid his hand into hers and she curled her fingers around his as if it was the most natural thing. His heart squeezed and for a moment, forgot what it was supposed to do.
We’re just pretending.
“Sleep well, you two,” Shay said, giving Will a hug before they made their way to the guest room.