Chapter 17
“You’re not planning on staying, are you?” Rodrigo finally asked the question.
Beckett had known it was coming. The longer they’d watched the thoroughbred, the more Rodrigo glanced at him, clearly waiting for Beckett to say something about his plans for the ranch.
Beckett twirled the piece of hay in his mouth. “Reckon you know as well as Sunshine that I’m not happy to be here.”
Rodrigo’s shoulders slumped. “Was hoping you’d see all that we’ve done and decide the ranch was worth another chance.”
“From everything I’ve seen and heard, you’ve done mighty fine work.” While greeting the vaqueros and their families, Beckett had heard nothin’ but the highest praise for Rodrigo. The fella was hardworking and required everyone to follow his example. He was also fair and yet firm when necessary.
He’d built up the herd with new breeding practices, reduced the number of cattle being rustled, started new building projects, dug additional water wells, and enclosed some of the ranch with barbed-wire fencing.
Rodrigo hopped down from the top rail of the corral so that he was standing beside Beckett. “My mighty fine work won’t amount to anything if we put Sargeant’s nephew in charge of the ranch.”
That’s what Beckett had feared all along. “What else have you heard about Richard? Does he know anything about ranching?”
“Nada.” Rodrigo’s brown eyes were grave. “He’s aiming to raise horses and build a racetrack here.”
“That’s what Sunshine mentioned in a letter.”
“We recently got a report back from the private investigator Sunshine hired to get more information on Richard Turner.”
“Reckon it wasn’t good.”
“You reckon right. He’s done nothing but live off his father and accumulate debt.”
Beckett blew out a tense breath. “So it’s possible if he comes here, he’ll just drain the ranch drier than a whiskey bottle.”
“Sí. Muy posible.”
“Blast it all. Why did Sargeant put the fella in the will?”
Rodrigo hooked his thumbs into his suspenders. “You want to know the truth, or should I tell you what you want to hear?”
“Is that your way of telling me not to get mad?”
Rodrigo offered him a ghost of a smile.
“Tell me the truth.”
“Sargeant suspected you’d never come back if he just gave you his portion of the ranch in his will.”
Sargeant hadn’t been wrong, but Beckett wasn’t going to admit that. “So he came up with this ridiculous plan to involve the nephew in order to force me to come here?”
“Something like that. He figured if he could get you back, you would see the ranch again and realize it’s a part of you that you can’t give up.”
“I can give it up, no problem.” The hot words rushed out.
“He was counting on the fact that you care too much about the people and the land to let it fall into his nephew’s hands.”
“Well, he counted wrong.” It would serve Sargeant right if Beckett allowed the nephew to come and oversee the ranch and run it to the ground.
Yet deep down, Beckett knew that the only people who would get hurt were those men and women he’d shaken hands with today—the people who depended on the ranch for survival for themselves and their families. He’d hurt Rodrigo and Paloma and their children. He’d probably hurt Sunshine too.
But he couldn’t let Sargeant win and pressure him into staying, could he? He was going back to Colorado and his new life there. That’s what he’d planned on doing, and he had to stick to it.
Besides, Hyacinth would never agree to living in Texas, so far from Violet. Who was he kidding? She’d never want to stay here with him. Not with how mad she was from earlier when he’d suggested the annulment.
Was she mad because she wanted to stay married? Did she care about him more than she’d let on?
Or was she upset because he was leaving her in a lurch?
After all, just because he might not need to be married to her any longer, didn’t mean she wanted to go back to living with her sister and father at the Noble Ranch.
She’d counted on him providing a life for her.
Course she’d be mad that he wasn’t following through on their bargain.
He slid a glance toward the house on the rise above the barns. He hadn’t seen Hyacinth over the few hours since they’d arrived, and a part of him missed being with her. It was probably because he’d spent so much time with her over the past couple of weeks that he was used to being around her.
Whatever the case, he’d made a mess of their relationship—the one thing he was an expert at doing.
“La esposa won’t want to live here?” Rodrigo was watching him and had probably realized Beckett was thinking about Hyacinth.
“I might be able to convince the wife to stay for a few months, but not for five years.”
His brother nodded. “Sargeant expected five years to turn into forever.”
“Reckon he was wrong about that too. Whether now or in five years, I’m not hanging on to the ranch.”
“Guess Sargeant was right when he said you were still running scared from everything that happened.”
“Scared?” Beckett’s voice dropped into a growl. “You calling me a coward?”
“That was Sargeant’s call, not mine.”
“But you agree?”
“Does it matter?” Rodrigo pinned him with an intense gaze.
“I’m not a coward.” The word, as always, was one Beckett loathed.
“You never were. Not even when Pa made you believe it.”
Beckett’s angry retort stalled. Pa had called him a coward often during that last year, and everyone had heard it, including Rodrigo.
“You know why he called you that so much, don’t you?”
“He thought I was a spineless, weak son-of-a-gun.” Those were the names Pa had called him, among many.
Rodrigo shook his head. “He knew you wanted him to like you and that you needed to prove you were strong and fearless.”
Prove he was strong and fearless to his pa?
Beckett almost scoffed, but a deep part of him suspected Rodrigo might be right.
After the years of never getting attention from Pa, Beckett had done the things his pa had asked him to, hoping to earn his approval, hoping to earn his praise.
But it hadn’t worked. His pa had only been all the more critical of him.
“I hated the man.” The low words reverberated deep inside with bitterness.
“Most people did.” Rodrigo’s expression held sorrow. “The problem was, Waverly Thorpe wasn’t ever strong and fearless. He was the weak coward who got everyone else to do his dirty work.”
Yep, Pa had roped Beckett into doing things he’d regretted, things he still regretted and had nightmares about, things he didn’t want to think or talk about, things he wished he could forget.
“You weren’t a coward then,” Rodrigo continued, “and you aren’t one now either. So I guess that means it’s time to stop running away from your past and face your future here like the fearless man you are.”
Beckett’s gut hardened. “I don’t have a future here.”
“I pray to God that you are wrong, mi hermano.”
Beckett didn’t want to be wrong. But what if he was? He took a step back from the corral, ready to be done with the conversation. Without another word, he pivoted and stalked up the path toward the house.
With each step he took, his heart pounded out a rebuke. He shouldn’t have gotten married and come to Texas. Because a part of him knew Sargeant and Rodrigo were right. Now that he was here, he wasn’t sure how he could leave.