5. Jack #2
“Well, apparently, our sister has set up our ranch for a reality TV show, and she’s supposed to talk to you about it,” he says. “But seeing as how she hasn’t been able to get ahold of you, I’ll take the liberty of filling you in.”
“What do you mean a reality show for our ranch?” I reply, confused.
“I’ve gone over the contracts,” he says, switching to attorney mode.
“I’m going to level with you, Jack. The ranch isn’t doing so hot.
Our sales are down, nobody is booking us for horse training or boarding, and this is a great way to bring good attention to the ranch.
Hopefully it will distract people from talking about the Jessop who destroyed everything and more about the Jessops who are rebuilding it for the good.
The income from doing the show is solid. Enough to get us to a good place.”
My brother is a hell of an attorney. Our father basically deemed me worthless when I joined the Navy and tried to use the rest of our siblings to offer some sort of usefulness to him and his agendas with the ranch.
He sent Weston to Harvard and law school.
He groomed him to be able to fight all the battles on the ranch.
He just didn’t expect Weston to be smarter than him and not want any part of his shady dealings.
“What kind of money are we talking about here?” I ask as I look over our profit-and-loss statements for the month, which are luckily in the black, but not by much.
A lot of changes have been happening around here, and we’ve realized that if we don’t make big, long-term changes, we could potentially lose it.
It’s going to take us all working together and working our asses off to make it happen.
And if he’s talking about big money, we could all definitely use that.
No one realized how hard it was going to be when he got arrested, and everyone came back to help out. Coming back here alone is hard mentally, let alone working it alongside the ghost of our father.
“Big money,” he says. “Our sister is a damn genius.”
“Okay, so what’s the catch? They want to film our ranch for a reality show?” I shrug. “How boring would that be? I guess we can get it looking nice for filming.”
He laughs a little. “Well, Jack, that’s where it gets interesting. Really interesting .”
“Just tell me,” I sigh.
“You are going to be on a show where you find a wife.”
I blink. “Come again?”
“Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of women, and it’s kind of like that show, The Bachelor. Only a rancher. And that’s you, you’re the lucky rancher. They haven’t set a title for it yet, but it’s something along the lines of The Rancher Finds a Wife .”
“What the hell?” I ask, pinching the bridge of my nose, wondering if he’s fucking with me. “Why not you and Tucker? Tucker would eat this up.”
And he would, too. He’s a little ladies man pro bull rider. Hell, women flock to him as it is.
“Well, they’re going to use the part of dad’s story how he was the villain and we’re the kids taking it over, and since you’re the oldest and in charge and share his name, you’re the man for the job.”
Absolutely not. This is horrible. I don’t care how much money we’re getting. There has to be another way. “What if…”
“There’s no other way. We have no other money. You used your inheritance from mom’s estate, remember? We could have used that, but its gone now. This is it,” he says firmly.
“How can she sign me up for a show without my permission? Don’t they need a producer to get people to sign something? Is this even legal?” I complain.
I hear Weston’s keys on his keyboard. “Yeah. They do. Only our sister is one of the producers.”
“Are you being serious right now?” I ask. “A wife? I don’t want a wife.”
“Dead serious. And you’d better find her and talk to her. She said she’s left you a few voicemails, emails, and repeatedly tried getting ahold of you. You have been MIA. Where have you been, anyway?”
Shit. I do vaguely remember her saying that we needed to talk.
Several times. I’ve been so busy with the ranch and then everything that happened with Cami and Granger.
I forgot to call her back. I put Weston on speaker and scroll through my emails, and there are several from Jenna detailing this whole plan.
Double shit.
“I’ve been busy running the ranch. I don’t have time for this. I have a ranch to run, not some stupid reality show,” I hedge.
What I want to say is that I’m in love with Cami. I don’t want some random wife. I want her.
“ We all have a ranch to run,” he reminds me.
“Tucker knows about this?” I ask as I stretch and stretch my neck.
“Yeah, he’s good with it. You know how Tucker is. Pretty much goes with whatever we want,” he says. “Plus, it didn’t hurt that he was at The Black Dog the other night with Jenna when she had a meeting and saw pictures of the contestants. He said in his words that they were ‘all babes.’”
“Jesus,” I groan.
“Yeah, Jesus isn’t coming to save the ranch, Jack. We need cash, and Jenna just saved our ass,” Weston says matter-of-fact.
“What happens if I say no?” I ask.
“You could. But, she’s worked really hard on this. She’s some sort of producer on it. This can help her career out a lot, too. So, we’re not just saving our asses, but hers as well.”
“By pimping out her brother?” I say dryly. “This is weird.”
“You don’t have to do it, but I mean, why wouldn’t you? There’s a lot of money at stake here that can really help the ranch. You’d be crazy not to just do it. ”
“And I’d be crazy to go along with it,” I add.
“Look, I’m going to tell you what she explained to me. Most of the reality shows are staged. They’re not real. You don’t really have to marry someone. Unless you want to,” he adds.
This sounds…awful. Like it’s going to be a lot of showboating and fake nonsense that I want nothing to do with.
I groan. “I’ll think about it.”
“Speaking of money, the Wilder Ranch sale is almost final,” he tells me as I hear him shuffling papers on the other end of the line.
“Good. And you set up the trust?”
“I did. As much as our family battled with theirs, there was some weird clause on their ranch with the bank that they couldn’t sell to anyone without offering it to us first. Apparently, it was some sort of gambling debt that Clay Kendrick had with our dad.
Weird as hell. I had never seen anything like that before, but apparently, it was legit, so I could bypass all the other offers.
And there were others, Jack. So many developers wanted to get their hands on that ranch.
Our father was an asshole, but apparently, he did one thing right with protecting the boundaries of our ranch.
He at least ensured they couldn’t build a mall or something next door. ”
Relief fills me as I realize Cami and Ollie’s family ranch will be safe. “How much did this set me back?”
“It’s not pretty. It wiped out your entire inheritance from mom’s estate.
Since you’re thirty now, you can access your portion, but Jenna and I have a few years to go, yet.
Another reason why we need to do the show and get the money.
I know you have this crazy, weird attachment to Cami and Ollie, but spending your inheritance on a woman who seems like she hates your guts doesn’t seem smart. ”
“It is the right thing to do,” I say gruffly. “But it’s for sure a done deal?”
“Yes. You said you wanted to keep it to yourself for right now. right?”
“That’s right,” I say adamantly.
“I’ll finish up the details and get everything over to you.”
“Weston?” I ask, my voice lowering. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, brother. Things are different now for all of us. He can’t touch us. We’re doing things our way. No more bullshit.”
“No more bullshit,” I add with relief.
Except this show? It feels like a lot of bullshit.
I glance at my watch and realize I missed my morning ride with Cami. “Shit,” I mumble as I get up and head to the barn. I’ll ride fences anyway just to keep an eye on things. Ollie’s stayed the past few nights, and I’ve been busy at the ranch.
I make my way to Pesto’s stall, and he’s not in there. “Where’s my horse?” I call out to the other wranglers.
Nothing. Crickets.
I look around at a few of the wranglers and notice that Jace, a wrangler who usually takes care of the horses, is missing. None of them meet my eyes and ignore me.
“Jace!”
“He’s not here,” one of the wrangler’s named Anson calls.
“Where’s my horse?” I demand, anger filling my chest. No one rides my horse but me.
“Jace has him out running fence.”
“The fuck he does,” I quip
as I take one of our spare horses and get him ready.
That fucker did this on purpose. He knows no one touches my horse. There are at least a dozen horses the wranglers ride, and they’re all still here. He took mine on purpose, and I’m sick of the slacking off, shady crap, and taking my horse to goad me. Big mistake.
“Which way did he go?” I ask.
The wrangler shrugs and looks away, not wanting to tell me.
“You’re fuckin’ fired. Get the fuck off my ranch.” I point to Anson.
He scoffs, and kicks up dirt with his boot.
I glance around at the other wranglers. “And if any of you want to remain working here, I suggest you start doing your actual jobs and remember who signs your fuckin’ paychecks now.”
Hank walks in the barn, looking around at the commotion.
And if I had to guess by the look on his face, he looks relieved.
I’m done with people walking all over this ranch.
They want to be loyal to my father and his old ways, then they can go find a new ranch to work with or join my father in prison for all I care.
“Hank!” I call as he turns and looks at me. “Anson is out of here.”
I head out and ride the pasture until I come over the hill and find Jace talking to someone on the fence line that borders our property to the north. When I get closer, I see that it’s Granger he’s talking to.
Anger sears through me at seeing him near my property and my horse.
I ride up, and Jace looks over at me and sneers, then looks back at Granger and says something.
“Why the fuck do you have my horse?” I ask when I get off and walk over to where Pesto is standing next to him. I snatch the reins out of his hand and walk Pesto over to the other horse and tie him to her.
“Now you can fuckin’ walk. And you can head that way with your friend,” I say as I point to Granger’s property.
“You think you can get away with that stunt you pulled with my truck?” Granger snarls as he spits and stands with his hands on his hips. He smells of skunk, and I hold back a smile.
“Granger, get the fuck away from my property.” I turn, ignoring him, and point to Jace as I mount Pesto. “Don’t step foot on my ranch. If I see either of you on my property again, you’re a trespasser. And neither of you want to find out what I’ll do to trespassers.”
“And just what do you think you are going to do about it?” Jace scoffs.
I level my gaze at him and say calmly, “I’ll remind you what my fuckin’ last name is and where it came from.”