Chapter Three
I want something you’re not willing to give.
Jonas couldn’t get Sloane’s words out of his mind. Someday, you may regret growing old alone.
She had his intentions all wrong. He should have told her, but he wasn’t sure he understood himself.
Except there had been tension between his parents before his dad passed, and he couldn’t forget how sad and lonely his mom was when his dad was gone.
He should have been able to forget, but he couldn’t.
He wasn’t planning to grow old alone, but for now and for the foreseeable future, not getting involved in a romantic relationship suited him.
And hoping to make sense of what had happened between them, he was focused on what he could do for the ranch, which included searching the attic, which was filled with old furniture and boxes of the things they’d left behind.
It was quiet, almost too silent. Sunlight filtered through the windows on either side of the room. Specs of dust floated in the air.
He didn’t know what he was looking for, only that Nathan had surprised him when he’d mentioned Duke’s Pride.
It was a long time ago, but he remembered their dad had a stud with that name.
And if he was correct, the horse was sold, along with one hundred acres of the ranch, just before his dad’s death.
At the time, he’d thought it strange because Duke’s Pride and the land were the center of his father’s Colorado Ranger breeding program.
He didn’t have many conversations with his dad about it after he started college.
All he had on his mind back then was passing his classes so he could get his law degree.
He loved his home, but he never questioned what his dad did with the ranch. He had his own life to get started.
Slowly he made his way through the boxes and furniture that was all that was left of his parents’ lives, except, of course, the Triple L, which he and his brothers were doing their darndest to save.
Sloane thought he was a man who had nothing more to look forward to than a cane and no one to make him happy in his old age. That wasn’t true. A thriving ranch was what he was looking forward to.
Someday he might change his mind about his bachelor status, but not soon.
The last thing he wanted to do was leave the woman who held his heart in the palms of her hands behind to suffer the profound loneliness that filled his mom’s last two years.
Could history repeat itself? He didn’t know but didn’t want to take the chance.
Jonas didn’t like how he’d been reduced to questioning his future, but he was man enough to admit that maybe, on occasion, he’d taken advantage of his best friend’s sweet generosity.
She’d always been there for him when he needed someone to have his back.
He was the one who had stepped away when his feelings for her threatened to morph into something more. Especially after his mom died.
It shouldn’t make him crazy that Sloane was using a dating app to find the love of her life. But it did.
His heart rate bounced in alarm. He respected that she didn’t want to remain single forever. Most people wanted to grow old with someone. He hadn’t given it much thought, but Sloane had, and now that she had painted that picture for him, he was beginning to think he should too.
Tired of his thoughts getting stuck in a Friday-the-thirteenth loop, Jonas texted his brothers to come for a family meeting. They couldn’t wait any longer to figure out what to do about Duke’s papers.
While he waited for them to show up, he went down to the front pasture to check on the ladies he’d added to Nathan’s small herd. He leaned on the fence. Rosie, Grace, Angel, and Bella were in the front pasture. Duke had his own paddock.
Bella’s foal’s pedigree papers were locked up at his law office in town. The sire was a registered Rangerbred. If they were lucky, they would be adding a filly to the herd in March.
The thing he could do to help the ranch recover was restart their dad’s breeding program.
The results wouldn’t be as immediate as Blake’s and Nathan’s efforts, unless he could get Duke registered with the Colorado Ranger Horse Association.
The time it would take to get through the paperwork, offset with what he could donate from his law practice, and including his brothers’ contributions, they should turn the ranch around.
Once that was done, they would have no problem paying off the existing loan and then setting up a fund to cushion any future setbacks.
Nathan came from the barn and leaned on the fence beside Jonas.
“They’re beautiful, aren’t they? I can see why Dad fell in love with the breed. ”
Hoping to unravel the missing papers mystery, Jonas asked, “Why didn’t you follow in his footsteps and revive his breeding program?”
Before Nathan could answer, Blake pulled up and parked in front of the barn.
Nathan shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. “We can discuss it in the house. I have cold drinks in the fridge.”
“All right.” Jonas would agree to anything to get his usually prickly brother to start talking.
“What’s going on?” Blake asked as he joined them. “Jonas texted we have to talk?”
“We have some things to decide,” Jonas said briskly, turning toward the house. The brothers walked shoulder to shoulder with Blake in the middle. Nathan didn’t say anything. Yet. Jonas asked Blake, “Do you remember Dad’s stud, Duke’s Pride?”
“Barely. I had girls on my mind back then.” Blake took the porch steps two at a time.
Just as Sloane drove through the gate and parked in front of the guesthouse, Jonas followed them into the main house.
“What’s up with Sloane?” he interrogated his brothers.
Nathan carried three bottles of cola to the table. “She’s doing a girl thing with Izzy. Drying flowers from the garden, I think.”
Jonas couldn’t let the bone go. “What I mean is, what’s with her using a dating app?”
“I don’t know, brother.” Nathan gave him a stern side-eye. “You could ask her, but my guess is that she’s looking for someone she can spend the rest of her life with. Maybe it’s easier than going to the bars to meet someone. She’s not getting any younger, you know. And neither are you.”
Sloane wouldn’t appreciate being told she was approaching a use-by date.
Jonas narrowed his gaze on the garden. Sloane and Izzy didn’t come out.
Nathan sent a calculating look in his direction. “If you’re so worried, you should ask Sloane out, though I don’t think she would go on a date with you.”
“Did she say that?” All he got was a grin and a shrug from his ornery brother.
After his last conversation with her, he wondered what Sloane would say if he asked her to go on a date.
For dinner or a movie. They could even go to the zoo in Durango.
She’d had breakfast with him without too much fuss.
Internally, he made the argument—that had to prove she didn’t object to him too much, right?
However, she’d accused him of not being willing to give her love and kids and to do all the things a family did together. He could give a woman all those things, he argued. It was just that now wasn’t the best time to start a romantic adventure with anyone. And especially not with his BFF.
So, why did he care if she was using a dating app to find a guy, anyway? Sloane wanted all the trimmings. Somewhere out there was a guy who could give her that dream right now.
He should let her go for it. She was a grown woman who’d always known her mind, even when she was a kid.
Taking one of the colas, he sat at the table. “What’s the deal with Duke’s Pride and his registration papers?”
That wiped the smirk from Nathan’s face. With a heavy sigh, he sat. “It’s never been my story to tell.”
“We’re listening.” Whatever secret Nathan was keeping, it couldn’t stay hidden any longer.
Grabbing the remaining cola bottle in both hands, Nathan frowned. “A month before he died, Dad sold half the ranch and Duke’s Pride to pay off a poker debt.”
“That was a lot to pay.” Jonas studied Nathan intently. “I don’t remember him ever playing for money.” Jonas turned to Blake. “Did you know about this?”
“I knew he had monthly poker games, but he never talked about them. It upset Mom too much.” Blake sat straighter, watching them both.
Nathan rose to pace around the kitchen. “I didn’t know until I read Mom’s letters. After he sold Duke’s Pride, feeling guilty that he’d lost so much, Dad burned his breeding records, including Duke’s Pride’s pedigree and registration papers, and stopped his breeding program altogether.”
Stunned that he’d known nothing about this, Jonas stood and faced Nathan. “Mom wrote letters? When?”
“About six years ago, a bill came for Mom from the Equine Reproduction Laboratory for two straws of frozen sperm.” Before Jonas could interrupt, Nathan held up his hand and pushed on.
“I couldn’t find any mention of an account for ERL in the ranch books, so I went looking in Mom’s bedroom, which I’d moved into a few months before. ”
Jonas asked quietly, “And you found letters?”
“Mom’s treasure box. The one she kept all of Dad’s letters that he wrote to her in.”
Jonas nodded. He also remembered he hadn’t wanted to go into her and their dad’s room to clean things out after she was gone. So, he’d pulled his disappearing act.
“It was on the top shelf in her closet. I’d pushed it into a back corner because I didn’t want to have anything to do with their things.
After Dad died, she wrote letters to him.
Before he let Duke’s Pride go, she talked him into taking two sperm samples and freezing them.
After Dad was gone, she paid for ten years of storage in advance.
Other than the name of the facility, she didn’t say who bought the stud, the land, or if she had copies of Duke’s Pride’s papers.
” Finally, Nathan came back to the table.
The look on his face was one Jonas readily recognized.