Chapter 28
Asher
Idon't hear my brothers coming. I feel them.
I’m sitting at the kitchen table, the old folder still in front of me, papers spread, a map of everything I've tried to hold together. The coffee in my mug's gone cold. The house holds its breath, waiting for something to break.
Finn comes in first, jaw tight, eyes set on me as if he's already got the whole fight built and ready to swing. Zach follows slower, quieter, but he doesn't look any softer.
"You got a minute?" Finn asks, though it isn't really a question.
"Always," I say, and it's half true.
Zach shuts the door behind him. "We need to talk."
I knew this was coming. The silence between us these last days has been louder than a gunshot. Closing the folder, I sit back in my chair, bracing for it.
Finn folds his arms. "We've been thinking about what happened. About her."
Kassi. He doesn't say her name. He doesn't have to.
"I'm not apologizing for caring about her," I say before he can get any further.
He exhales hard, the kind of sound a man makes when he's trying not to start shouting.
"That's not what this is about. It's about the fact that you didn't tell us anything.
You went behind our backs while we were fighting to save this land, and you let someone from their side into the middle of it. "
"She wasn't on their side anymore," I say.
Zach shakes his head. "You don't get to make that call alone, Ash. You brought her into this house. Risked the ranch. You risked all of us."
"She risked more," I shoot back. "You think it was easy for jeopardize her job, the way she supports her daughter? She could've kept her head down, pretended she didn't hear a damn thing, and walked away clean. But she didn't. She came to me."
Finn's voice sharpens. "And you fell for her."
I meet his eyes. "Yeah. I did."
The words hang there. For once, I don't feel the need to take them back.
Zach rubs a hand over his face. "You don't make it easy to side with you, you know that?"
"I'm not asking you to side with me," I say. "I'm asking you to understand."
Finn leans forward, both hands on the table. "Understand what? That you chose a woman you barely knew over the brothers who've had your back your whole damn life?"
"That's not what I did."
"Feels like it."
His voice cracks just enough on the edge of that sentence to make it hit harder. I see it then—the hurt under the anger. The fear. He's not just mad. He's scared of losing the thing that's kept us going. Each other.
Pushing back my chair, I stand. "I didn't betray you and I didn't betray this ranch.
Everything I've done, every call I've made, has been to protect what we built.
But I can't pretend she didn't change me.
I can't stand here and act like I didn't fall for her, because I did, and I'm not sorry for it. "
Zach looks between us, eyes narrowing. "You love her?"
I swallow hard. "Yeah. I love her."
It's the first time I've said it out loud, and the sound of it lands heavy in the room— the truth has a weight of its own.
Finn stares at me for a long time. "Then you’d better pray to God she's worth what it's going to cost you."
"She already is," I say quietly.
The silence that follows is thick enough to choke on. Zach looks away first, jaw working like he's biting back words he doesn't trust himself to say. Finn finally shakes his head and reaches for his hat.
"You're too deep in this to see straight," he says. "I hope you're right, Ash. For your sake and ours."
He turns to leave. Zach hesitates at the door. "You're still my brother," he says. "That doesn't change. But you need to fix the mess between you and us before you go chasing something else."
In that moment, I decide to tell them everything. Beginning with the call with Willy and his brother on the mineral rights, the talks with the lawyer, the information, and finally about the maps Kassi brought us.
I explain how I felt I needed to shoulder it all as the oldest, how I needed to protect them and us. It's a start to what I hope will be better communication.
When they're gone, the air feels colder.
I stand there for a long time, my hands pressed against the table, staring at the spot where the folder sits.
I've fought droughts, banks, and wildfires.
I've fought men who wanted to take what wasn't theirs.
None of it felt like this—like trying to breathe with something heavy pressing down on my chest.
The sound of tires crunching on gravel pulls me out of it.
I walk to the porch just as a familiar truck comes up the lane. It's Jenna's.
She parks crooked, jumps out, and doesn't even bother shutting her door. She looks like she's been driving fast, hair pulled back, sunglasses pushed up on her head.
"Asher," she calls, voice tight.
"What's wrong?"
She walks straight up the steps and stops in front of me. "You want to tell me why Kassi lost her job?"
The question hits harder than any punch. "What?"
"She got fired," Jenna says. "Because she was trying to protect you. She told me about taking the files. She told me everything."
My stomach drops. "She told you?"
"She didn't mean to. It came out when we were packing boxes. She tried to make it sound like it wasn't your fault, but I can put two and two together. To warn you, she risked her job, and now she's got nothing."
"Boxes?" I ask, my voice rough. "You helped her move?"
Jenna's mouth tightens. "Yeah. She's out of that apartment because without the job, she can't afford it. So, she had to get a new job, a new place. It's nicer, and Emma's happy at least."
"Where?"
She folds her arms. "I'm not telling you."
"Jenna."
Her eyes flash. "Don't. Don't look at me like that.
She's trying to start over, Asher. She's been through hell this week, and the last thing she needs is you showing up with more heartbreak.
You should have told our brothers before it got this bad.
And you should have told her you loved her before she walked away, thinking she ruined your life. "
The words hit with the sharp, steady crunch of gravel under my boots. "She didn't ruin anything."
"Then prove it," Jenna says. "Because right now she thinks she did. And you sitting here in this house pretending you can fix it with paperwork isn't going to change that."
I rake a hand through my hair, pacing the porch. "You think I don't want to go after her?"
"Then what's stopping you?"
"Our brothers," I snap. "This ranch. Everything we've built. I can't just—"
"Yes, you can," she says, cutting me off. "You're Asher. My big brother. You've been fighting to protect this family your whole life. You don't know how to do anything halfway. You love hard or not at all. So don't you dare start pretending you can live with half of anything now."
Her words hang in the air.
I think of Kassi standing in my kitchen, her hands shaking as she handed me proof of everything that could destroy us. Of her face when she said she loved me and walked away anyway. How quiet the nights have been since.
Jenna watches me, softer now. "She thinks you need time to fix things here first."
"She's wrong," I say. "The only thing I need to fix is her thinking I don't want her."
Jenna's expression shifts, a mix of pride and worry. "Then go show her. I'm going to make you work for it because I know you’ll figure it out."
I look past her, out across the pasture.
The sun's dropping low, painting the fields in that amber light that makes everything look touched by fire.
For a long time, that land has been my whole life.
Every fence post, every gate latch, every animal born and buried here.
It's part of me. But right now, it doesn't feel like enough.
"Thank you," I say quietly.
She shakes her head. "Don't thank me. Just make it worth it."
When she leaves, the sound of her truck fades down the road until all I can hear is the wind through the grass.
I go back inside and grab my hat off the hook. My brothers' words are still echoing, but they don't matter as much as they did an hour ago.
They'll come around.
Right now, I need to find her.
After I check the folder once more and make sure it's safe, I head out to the truck. The seat still smells faintly of her perfume, something soft and clean that lingers even after days of dust and sun. I grip the steering wheel, jaw tight.
I don't know where she went, but I'll find her. I know this town. Every back road, every place a person might go when they want to disappear, but not too far. I'll start with the people who'd help her—Candy, North, maybe even Jenna again if she cools off long enough to give me a hint.
Because I can't let her think she has to carry this alone.
She's not the enemy. She never was.
For the first time in days, I feel as if I'm moving toward something instead of away from it.
I roll down the window and let the wind hit my face.
Kassi once told me the hardest part of doing the right thing was not knowing if it would ever pay off. She said you had to do it anyway, because the world didn't get better by staying quiet.
She was right.
And I'll be damned if I stay quiet now.
Somewhere out there, she's sitting with her daughter, thinking she's lost everything. I want to tell her she hasn't lost me. Not yet. Not ever.
The wind rushes through the cab, lifting the edge of my hat. I tighten my grip on the wheel.
"I'm coming, sweetheart," I say under my breath. "Just hold on."
The road stretches ahead, long and empty, but for the first time since she left, it feels like it's leading somewhere that matters.
Not away from home.
Toward it.