Chapter 31
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
Cash Young stayed on the couch as his daddy groaned and pushed himself up. “I’m coming, girly,” he said to Liesl, who’d just asked for his help to put up the curtain rods in Boston’s room.
Cash already had blackout curtains in his bedroom, because he didn’t have to be at the training facility until ten a.m., and he saw no reason to get up sooner than he needed to.
It wouldn’t take long to get a curtain rod up, but Daddy would stay upstairs and help Liesl hang the curtains as well, giving Cash as much time alone with Uncle Gabe as he possibly could.
He glanced over to his uncle as he came out of the kitchen and paused on the threshold of tile and carpet that marked the entrance to the living room. “You want to come in here?” Uncle Gabe asked. He held two cans of root beer, and Cash got off the couch with a groan of his own.
He reminded himself he’d already done the hard work; he’d already made the awful phone calls; he’d already confessed that things had gone wrong.
“Hey, I really appreciate you coming,” he said as he joined his uncle at the small dining room table that only had three chairs.
The fourth was set up in the living room at a desk that held Cash’s computer.
He could have put that in his bedroom, but he’d learned at a young age to keep his computer out in a public area, and that habit had come with him to Jackson Hole.
He sat down at the table, honestly not sure what to expect.
“Did you get your bank statements?” Uncle Gabe asked.
“Oh, right,” Cash said, and he hurried back to the desk to get them. “I wasn’t exactly sure what you needed, so I just printed out the regular statements.”
Uncle Gabe took them and set them inside a blue folder. “You’ve contested the withdrawals with the bank?”
“Yes,” Cash said. “They said it could take up to ninety days to make a decision.”
“Yeah, that’s what they always say,” he said. “Did you report Linus to the police?”
Cash nodded, his throat tight. “He’d already left town. They said they’d do what they could.”
Uncle Gabe nodded again, as serious as ever. Cash couldn’t seem to look at him, and he relied only on his peripheral vision to get the cues he needed.
“Hey, I just want you to know that none of this is your fault,” Uncle Gabe said, ducking his head. He wore a cowboy hat today too, and with his head down, he created a smaller pocket for Cash to exist in.
Cash sure didn’t feel like he wasn’t to blame, but he nodded anyway, his throat tight and his anger at himself skyrocketing again. He hated feeling stupid, and he honestly thought he’d left a lot of that behind when he joined the rodeo and didn’t have to take math classes anymore.
“I just feel dumb,” he told Uncle Gabe.
“Which is perfectly reasonable, but I don’t think things are as bad as you think they are.”
Cash finally looked up at him. “You don’t think so?”
“Well, you still have quite a bit of money in the bank,” Uncle Gabe said, tapping the folder. “So he took some money, and he split town.”
“Yes,” Cash said.
“How much do you think?”
“Well, I originally told you twenty thousand,” he said. “But I think it’s closer to fifty.”
“That’s quite the hit,” Uncle Gabe said. “I’m not gonna lie. I would be upset too.” He put his hand on Cash’s forearm, which drew Cash’s gaze up to his. “But it’s okay. We can get you back on track. And it’s a great lesson to learn this young in life.”
Cash swallowed and nodded. “I really appreciate your help, Uncle Gabe.”
“Of course. Now that I’ve got your bank account number, I can set up some withdrawals for investments, as well as create a personal account for you, where we’ll start to pay you as an employee of your business.”
Cash nodded. “That should help with the taxes, right?”
“Not this year,” Uncle Gabe said. “But we’ll get your business set up and registered with the state of Wyoming. We’ll get the bank accounts cleaned up, and we’ll get payroll started in January. So I think that’s what we need to go over the most—how much money you need to live every month.”
Cash swallowed once again, finding himself coming up short and fighting the feelings of inadequacy. He managed to pay his bills every month just fine. “I did a little budget,” he said. “Daddy sent me a sheet.”
“Yep, he said he would.”
Cash texted on his phone. “I did it digitally. Can I just show it to you?”
It took Cash a minute or two to get over to the budget sheet he’d done a few weeks ago when he’d first learned of his money manager’s theft.
He’d kept it to himself for a couple of days, and then he’d called his father and told him everything.
Daddy had given him good advice, like what to document, how to call the police in a non-emergency situation, and then he’d said that Cash should work with Gabe to manage his money.
He should invest now because he wouldn’t be able to be a bull rider forever.
Cash had seen his own father go through multiple surgeries and literally put his life on the line for his career.
He loved the rodeo, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it forever, so he’d swallowed his pride and made another phone call to the police and then another to the Teton County Sheriff’s Department.
He’d talked to Belle about what the detectives might do, so Harry and Belle knew about the theft as well.
Harry, too, had recommended Uncle Gabe for money and wealth management, and Gabe had been on the phone with Cash almost daily in the past ten days, outlining the things that Cash should do to live a financially stress-free life.
He hated being beholden to thinking and worrying about money.
He made far too much to have to do that.
Setting up a business that would be able to be used for investments, shelter him from certain taxes, and pay him like an employee had been an excellent solution for Cash.
He couldn’t say he really understood all of it, but he trusted Uncle Gabe would not lead him astray.
They chatted through the details Uncle Gabe needed to know, and since his uncle was a no-nonsense lawyer with plenty on his plate already, the meeting finished before Cash heard his father’s footsteps coming downstairs.
“Thank you so much, Uncle Gabe,” he said. He got to his feet at the same time his uncle did and clapped him on the back, his gratitude overflowing. “Thank you so, so much.”
“It’s my pleasure, son,” Gabe said. He stepped back and held onto Cash’s shoulders, looking him straight in the face. “Listen, don’t let this derail you, okay? We all make mistakes, and there’s no reason to beat yourself up over them for very long.”
“I told him the same thing,” Daddy said, appearing around the corner.
“You’re a good boy, Cash. Don’t let one little mistake define you.”
“I’m working through it.” Cash really was, but things weren’t always as easy as he’d like them to be.
“Where should we send Uncle Mav for lunch?” Daddy asked.
Cash appreciated that Daddy wouldn’t harp him to death on this, and relief filled him when Uncle Gabe said, “I really want some steak.”
“I’m always in the mood for steak,” Daddy said, glancing at Cash.
“Me too,” he said. “But I have one more piece of news.”
“Oh, my aging heart,” Daddy said, and he brought his nearly black-eyed gaze to Cash’s. “Is this rodeo news, personal news, financial news…?”
“Why do you need a category?” Uncle Gabe asked. “Just let him tell you.”
Cash grinned at the chastisement from his uncle. “Daddy likes to prepare himself.”
“How does knowing what kind of news it is help you prepare?” Gabe asked.
Daddy simply glared at Uncle Gabe, and then looked back at Cash. He said nothing, which was code for Hurry up and say the news.
“Okay, okay,” Cash said. “This is good news, Daddy. Try not to look like you’re about to commit murder.”
“That’s just his resting face,” Uncle Gabe said dryly, and Cash laughed.
He’d grown up for the first twelve years of his life in Utah, with his mother.
He had a complicated relationship with her, though he spoke to her often.
His father had always made sure that Cash understood the sacrifices his mother had made for him and how much she cared for him and loved him.
“It kind of has to do with Mom,” he said.
And Daddy’s eyebrows went up. “Oh?”
“Yeah,” Cash said. “I told her a while back that I was trying to find a good church to go to up here, and she did some investigating for me and found a congregation she thought I’d like.”
His father and his uncle said nothing, so Cash forged onward. “I went just before Thanksgiving, and I really liked it. So that’s the news. I thought you might like to know that I’m going to church here.”
“That’s great news,” Daddy said.
“Grams will be really happy about that,” Uncle Gabe said, his smile wide.
“Yeah,” Cash said. “It helps that the pastor’s daughter is really pretty and stands at the door and greets everybody.
Her momma died a few years ago.” Cash grinned as his father’s expression continued to darken.
“So she comes and sits by anyone who doesn’t have someone else to sit with.
She sat by me last week, and it was real nice. ”
“Are you telling me this is church news combined with personal, dating news?” Daddy asked.
Cash chuckled and shook his head. “If I ever work up the nerve to ask her out, you’ll be the first to know.”