Chapter 24 – Tag
TWENTY-FOUR
TAG
“Any word yet?”
We all looked up to see Mac walking into the living room where I was waiting with Ethan and Carter. Sunshine had locked us all out of the study hours ago. Said she couldn’t concentrate with three men looming over her while she worked.
I don’t know why.
“No,” Carter said. “And I can’t stay any longer. I’ve been sticking Mrs. Walker with the kids too often. I think she might be getting sick of them.”
“Nooooo,” Ethan said, immediately.
“Not possible,” I added, because that’s how we rolled when it came to the kids.
We loved Carter. We’d all loved Lilly. We loved those kids.
But to put it in simple terms, those kids were not easy and Mrs. Walker wasn’t getting any younger.
The word monsters was thrown around often enough, but I refused to use it. I’m sure people said the same about me after my mom left and Dad was working so many hours. Those kids just needed some structure in their lives, which given Carter’s workload, wasn’t easy.
“I’ll text as soon as she gives me any update,” I told him.
A few minutes after Carter left, Harmony came into the house, followed by Jenny and Bruce. She made a beeline for Ethan and kissed him in greeting before asking, “Any word yet?”
Jenny barked towards the empty couch and Bruce lifted her one wing and let out a magnificent honk as if to say, we’re over here. These animals were ridiculous pets, but I had to hand it to the goose, she took good care of the blind dog.
“They’re clearly as nervous as I am,” Harmony explained.
“Clearly,” I laughed.
“I heard some good news,” Harmony said. “Seth is confirmed for the rodeo in Big Horn tomorrow night.”
“You’re kidding?” Ethan said. “Why does he tell you that and not me?”
“What can I say?” Harmony gave him a cheeky grin. “He likes me better.”
“I guess we’ll all be going to Big Horn!” Ethan said, pulling his wife into his lap.
I imagined taking Sunshine to the rodeo.
Buying her a hot dog and a cup of beer. The way she’d name the animals and worry over them, ignoring the cowboys and the score.
I imagined walking back to my truck, my hand in the back pocket of her jeans.
Her riding home with her head on my shoulder, the windows open, letting in the twilight.
Talk about a perfect night.
“This is bullshit,” Mac snapped, getting to his feet. He walked over to the large double sliding doors that looked out over the valley and gave this living room one hell of a view. “ All Dad had to do was sell off the land. All we had to do was sell off the land.”
“That’s not what he wanted,” Ethan said. “He wanted to expand the operation. He wanted more for us.”
“He wanted control,” Mac countered. “You know what this is about. He knew he was dying and he couldn’t accept his own damn mortality. So, he set up these obstacles to control us from the grave. I loved the old man, but this shit…it’s not fair.”
“It’s not fair,” I said, from my spot leaning against the entryway into the living room. Not a member of the family, never that, always just on the periphery. That had been my place.
But my interest was no longer in the McGraw operation or the potential impact on my cowboy career.
“You got something to say, Tag?” Ethan asked me.
“If she can’t pull this off, people are going to blame Sunshine for all of our troubles, and that isn’t right. We shouldn’t have done this. We shouldn’t have made her responsible for all of us like this.”
“We won’t blame her,” Harmony objected. “We would never do that.”
“Us? Maybe not,” I told them. “The town sure as shit will. Not only that, we might have cost her the big promotion back in New York. The suit who was here today isn’t going to have anything positive to say about what she’s doing in Last Hope.”
“We weren’t the ones who slammed him into my truck,” Harmony said, giving me a look as she sat on the arm of the chair where Ethan was sitting.
He’d casually wrapped his hand around her hip, and the sight of his wedding ring caught me off guard. Something about how bright it was.
It screamed commitment.
I looked back to Harmony. “You’re right. That was me,” I admitted quietly, suddenly feeling the impact I might have made on her life. “I might have cost her that chance.”
“Explain, please,” Ethan said.
“Some asshole from her firm back in New York showed up in town,” I told him. “I was picking up supplies at the Goods and came out to see him raising his voice and pointing his finger in her face. Didn’t sit well with me.”
“Her boss flew out to Last Hope?” Ethan said, his tone incredulous. “She must be more valuable to that firm then even she realizes.”
“Turns out Clive’s Harvard buddy is one of the partners in her investment firms. Small world,” I added.
“Hmm,” Ethan mused. “Or, is it? Anything Clive can do to keep us from succeeding, works in his favor. Do I buy that it’s a coincidence that the Land Management rep they picked to oversee this probate case happens to be connected, even loosely, to someone from the town?
No, they would have done their research.
They would have known exactly who Sunshine Calloway was and who she worked for. ”
“Holy shit,” I said. “You think they’ve been pressuring her to go back to New York this whole time just to stop her from helping us?”
“Assholes!” Harmony interjected.
Ethan shrugged. “Who knows? But, it wouldn’t surprise me if this bureau in particular, was pulling every lever it could to stop us from meeting the terms of Dad’s will.
Or, should I say wills? Having someone at Land Management connected to Sunshine’s firm in some way, plays to their hand.
Just one more way to control the outcome of all of this. ”
“Which is why this is bullshit,” Mac said. “Dad should have just left the business to the five of us and we would have figured it out from there.”
“Can’t agree with you, Mac,” Ethan told his brother. “If Dad hadn’t pulled this bullshit, I wouldn’t have had to marry Harmony.”
“Aww,” she said, cooing to her husband. “That’s so sweet. You like me, don’t you?”
“In fact, I love you,” Ethan told her.
“Things are about to get gross,” Mac warned me.
If their father hadn’t pulled that shit, demanding we bring Sunshine home to save the ranch, I might never have…
“I did it!”
Cut off from my thoughts, I turned in the direction of the study. And there she was. Triumphant. Radiant. Gorgeous.
If Leroy hadn’t pulled his shit, I wouldn’t have had her. Kissed her. Tasted her.
I wouldn’t have seen the look of absolute victory on her face in this moment, knowing she’d fucking crushed…crypto, or whatever the fuck it is.
“It was almost an absolute disaster,” she exclaimed, as she walked into the living room, running her hands through her straight hair, looking a little wild.
“Binance was acting erratically. The medical supplies stocks weren’t doing what I thought they were going to do.
And don’t get me started on the export market. ”
“Please, no. Please don’t let her get started on the export market,” Ethan said.
“Get to it, babe,” I encouraged her. Because when she was done telling everyone how she crushed it, I was taking her back to my cabin and I was going to make her cheeks flush in an entirely different way.
“Right,” she said, on a deep breath. “You don’t care about all of that. But it was pretty intense. There was a moment where I thought we could have lost the whole investment.”
“But we didn’t,” Harmony said. “Right?”
“No,” she smiled. “In fact, we did better than expected. I’ve already withdrawn the money. We have the cash we need to pay off the land extension, invest in the herd, and maybe…I don’t know, buy a race horse?”
“A fucking race horse,” Mac muttered, shaking his head. “Unfucking believable.”
“If you want. Or, if any of the properties need repairing? A new roof?”
“New roofs for everyone!” Harmony jumped off the chair and ran to her sister to hug her. “I knew you could do it! I did not have a single doubt.”
The two women hopped up and down, cackling like witches.
Now that I thought about it. I hadn’t had a doubt either.
She was just that good.
Sun eventually pulled away from Harmony, or Harmony let her go. She pressed her hands to her cheeks and shook her head. “That was a wild ride, but I did it. I did it! Everyone’s safe now!”
Mac and Ethan rushed in to hug her and lift her off her feet. There was laughing and a few tears. Ethan texted Carter. Harmony demanded champagne, Mac went to the kitchen to find some. I stood in the doorway and thought.
Everyone was safe. Except her. That promotion was at risk. Probably her job. Maybe her reputation as a broker. Her life in New York – all of it in jeopardy because of what she’d done for the Swinging D and this town.
Sunshine to the rescue. As usual .
But, who rescued Sunshine?
I didn’t think about it, I walked over to where she stood talking to Ethan, her arm around Harmony, and I bent and hitched her stomach over my shoulder and lifted her off her feet.
“Tag!” she cried. “What in the heck are you doing?”
“Taking you home to celebrate,” I told her. I turned to address the room. “Night, everyone.”
Mac came back in the room with champagne. “What am I supposed to do with this?” I snagged it out of his hands.
“Taggart Durham, you put me down right now,” Sun insisted.
“I put you down now, you might take a swing at me, darlin. I think I’ll wait until you’re back in my bedroom.”
“We should stop this?” Mac asked, looking to Ethan. “Do the brother thing?”
“Tag, what are your intentions toward our sister?” Ethan called after me.
“To fuck her real good!” I shouted back.
“Okay, let’s not tell Carter that,” I heard Ethan say.
“Tag!” Sunshine screamed as we walked down the foyer. “What. The. Hell?”
“Just some ridiculous cowboy nonsense,” I told her, slapping her ass to keep her still while I opened the front door.