Chapter 19 #2
“No,” Lane said as he pulled out another piece of paper, opened it and grabbed a pen from the lazy Susan in the middle of the table. He used that as a pointer and explained the layout the way Cole had to them. It took some time, but the boys explained it as best they could remember.
“Let me get this straight,” John scratched his head. “This guy wants to sell his racehorses, and bring in rodeo stock to raise. Then he wants to allow rodeo folks that have their own horses to board them, then come in and train in a rodeo sized arena? Does he have that space?”
“It’s not built yet, but yes, that’s basically it. We want to get in on the bottom floor to help them build this. I know it’s going to take a long time to build it.”
“Not really,” Iris said. “If you have the money, and the right crew, it could probably be built in a year.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” she said with a shrug. “If you don’t believe me, call Grandpa. He’s worked construction all his life.”
“Wow, okay, well, we don’t know anything about that, but we wanted to tell you what we were offered, and that we’re willing to help out with the girls’ college education.”
“Can we get back to you on this?” John asked as he looked at his watch and slowly stood. “I need to get back out to the fields, you need to get some rest, and I need to think about this. It might take a day or two, because your mother and I will have to talk it over.”
“We’re not saying no,” Iris stressed. “We know you’re going to do it, and we appreciate you coming to us with this idea, we just want to make sure it’s all on the up and up and you’re not being hosed in any way.
Like Dad said, we have to talk it out, and I just looked, Fool’s Gold is roughly five hours from here.
I don’t see why we couldn’t take a family trip over there and talk to this Cole in person. ”
“Do you want us to call him and set it up?” Kade asked.
“Please,” John answered, then he grabbed his hat, stuck it on his head and headed out the door.
Later when the boys were in their old room, they looked at each other with a grin as Kade pulled his phone and the business card.
Ten minutes later he hung up and high-fived his brother that Cole said it would be fine, and there would be plenty of room for them to spend the night.
The following weekend, John slowed the family van down, and turned into the driveway.
Everyone, even him, had their heads on a swivel, and he slowed down even more when they came to the bend.
Right after that, he slammed on the brakes and when everyone yelled at him, he only pointed out the front windshield.
There were varying degrees of shocked responses from, “Oh my,” to, “holy shit,” as they all looked out and saw the ranch before them. John only whistled as he continued on. He stopped when he saw a man, and rolled down his window.
“Help you?”
“Yes, we’re here to see,” John paused and looked back at his sons. “What’s the guy’s name again?”
“Cole. I don’t know his last name,” Kade called out from the back.
“Are you the Montgomerys?”
“We are.”
“We’ve been expecting you. You can park on the other side of that small red pick-up truck.” He pointed and waited for them to park.
As soon as everyone exited and stretched, Becky, the middle girl suddenly dropped her hands to her knees and hung her head, saying repeatedly, “It’s her, it’s her.”
“What’s wrong?” Rachel asked her sister, but Becky didn’t answer, instead she jumped up and slugged her brother, which happened to be Kade and on his bad shoulder. She covered her mouth in shock, when he let out a howl, and tried to apologize.
“What on earth is wrong with the two or you?” Dana, the youngest daughter asked.
“Why didn’t you tell me she would be here?” Becky demanded.
“Oh, did I forget to tell you that’s who I’ll be working for?” Kade laughed.
“Who?” Rachel demanded.
“I believe she might be talking about me,” a voice from behind them said, and the entire family turned and stared in shock at the woman standing there.
“I thought you died,” Dana blurted out, and gave an oomph when Becky slapped her hand over her mouth from behind.
“No, I survived. It was an unusual circumstance, but I survived. However, I was in a wheelchair until this past spring. I know, it’s complicated, but I’m all good now.”
“Are you still racing?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“No offense,” John said as he looked at the beautiful woman standing before them. “Maybe I’m dense, but may I ask who you are?”
“Dad, that’s Naomi Alcott, the best barrel racer to ever live.” Becky stared at him in shock.
Naomi laughed. “I wouldn’t say that, but back when I was racing, I was unbeatable. Now I work here, for Erin and Clark Riceman.” She stepped back and introduced them. After they shook hands she pointed to the other couple there. “This is Lois Gibson, and Cole Mercury.”
“You’re not married?” Lane asked in shock. “Sorry, that was insensitive of me.”
“She said she had a boyfriend,” Kade said.
“Duh, I wasn’t there, I was in the arena riding Brutis.”
“Oh, that’s right.”
Iris caught the look of Erin and Clark and wondered at it until Erin giggled.
“Ah, siblings. Clark and I are brother and sister, and what Naomi failed to mention is that the two of them are dating. If you’ll follow me, we can go into the main house.
There have been some new developments since the boys called, and I want to tell you all together. ”
“Are you not offering them the job?” John asked.
“Oh, no, we are definitely offering them the job, it’s just that for the next year or two, it might be different than what they expected. That’s all my fault.”
“And mine,” Clark said. “I take full responsibility for any confusion. It’s taken the five of us this last week to iron out the gigantic details, but now we hope to move forward.”
They entered and after introducing Reid, Erin got right to the point. They used the kitchen table, and after giving the discussion with the visuals of where the ranches were located, she told them of the new developments.
“Why?” John said at one point.
“I don’t mean any disrespect, Sir,” Clark spoke. “You’re a farmer, right?”
“Yes.”
“You know about fields, and such?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we’ll give you the tour, but we picked this location across the street for the rodeo endeavor. We don’t know what to call it yet, and you’ll see what I mean by telling you the land is shit for growing anything.”
“I’ll reserve judgment.”
“Okay,” Clark laughed and they used the bathroom, and there were several golf carts lined up, and they organized who was with who, and Iris and John rode with Erin and Reid.
The girls rode with Naomi and Clark, and the twins rode with Cole and Lois.
At the rise above Broken, Erin stopped and when the others joined her, she pointed with her stub and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Broken Wheel.” She gave her five-minute speech on how it came to fruition and where they were now.
They drove down and Naomi took over to give the tour of the barn, and arena, and told them what they did there.
The group spent the afternoon touring Broken, New Double, and then across the road. At the end of the tour just before climbing back into the golf carts to go back to Erin’s Way, John looked at Clark with a smirk.
“You’re right, but I wouldn’t say the land is shit, I would say the terrain is shit.
” They laughed and headed back and were told where to go to the cabin they could spend the night in.
It wasn’t until they were headed home the next day that John looked at Iris with a raised brow.
At her nod, he looked in the rearview mirror and caught Kade’s attention.
When he saw both of them looking at him, he smiled and said one word, “Yes.”
The van exploded with glee, and John took his wife’s hand in his as they headed back home, happy to see that his sons would be happy working for Erin and Clark Riceman.
” The biggest part was that they would be working with the rodeo stock, but they wouldn’t be riding them, and causing them to get hurt again.