Chapter Thirteen
U nable to shrug off his disappointment or make sense of Sloane’s “See you around,” Jonas stared at the computer screen. What if he didn’t want to break off their engagement? Okay, supposed engagement?
He’d been momentarily out of his mind and rash when he’d taken the bull by the horns and announced to everyone that he and Sloane were engaged without first asking the lady if she would be willing to play along.
His excuse—not a good one—had been to get Julieann to accept there was no him and her.
Thinking back on his reckless action, the only thing on his mind was keeping Sloane.
.. and Clara... close and under his wing, so he could take care of them.
Sloane was so independent, she wouldn’t have gone for that. The only time she’d let him help her was when they thought Clara had run off.
He loved Sloane, but if he told her that, she was mad enough after his stunt not to believe him.
Jonas focused on the screen. She couldn’t possibly mean she didn’t want to see him at all. If that was true, how could he change her mind?
Frustrated, Jonas stepped away from his computer and went down the stairs to grab a soda from the fridge. He couldn’t risk losing Sloane. For the first time since the sixth grade, it felt like they weren’t on the same page. Had he missed something along the way?
A note waited for him on the kitchen counter by the coffee maker.
Blake is joining us for breakfast tomorrow morning to talk about our plans for the rodeo. It starts in a week. He’ll be here at eight. ~Nathan
He tossed the piece of paper back on the counter.
If he wanted to maximize every reasonable opportunity to save the ranch, he had to keep to the plan.
If they could pull off a win in the barrel racing event, Duke would make a name for himself, and they could count on getting other ranchers raising Rangerbred horses to show an interest in the Triple L’s breeding program.
After all this time, it had to be Sloane who made his heart ache. How could he have not known that she was just as important as the ranch?
He rifled through the mail Nathan had left next to the note, checking to see if he’d gotten a response from the DNA lab, and came up empty.
They couldn’t register Duke with the Colorado Ranger Horse Association without DNA proof that he was a direct descendant of one of the two foundation stallions, MAX#2 and/or PATCHES#1.
And without his sire, Duke’s Pride’s, pedigree papers, the only route of proof open to them was the DNA results.
He had a backup plan. His brothers wouldn’t like it, but he had a suspicion that Blake did too. Nathan’s plan was Duke. Always had been. Or maybe Bella and Duke’s foul if it was a colt. The problem with that was the little one wouldn’t mature fast enough to save the Triple L.
That left the rodeo competition and the DNA testing and somehow merging them.
His dad had given up a lot when he let his gambling debts become more than he could handle. Jonas stared out the kitchen window at the ranch he loved. He would never risk everything like his father had.
That included Sloane and Clara. He’d made his mistakes along the way—not understanding that his feelings for Sloane ran deeper than mere friendship, not staying when his mother needed him to be there for her, kicking Blake off the ranch, then taking sixteen years to bring his brother home.
That was not any different from his dad’s gambling habit. Both caused the people they loved pain.
He’d thought his brothers were crazy for being slow about acting on their feelings for the loves of their lives. And now, here he was making a mess with Sloane.
He slapped the mail on the counter where he’d found it and took the stairs two at a time up to his room. He would fix that. All he had to do was come up with the right words to change her mind.
Turning on his computer, he went straight to her profile page... and got an error message. He tried again. It was still gone. She’d deleted her page.
From experience, he knew that once Sloane’s temper fired up, it took a whole lot to bring her around.
Like the time when he’d promised to take her to a musical play for her thirtieth birthday.
He’d been busy with a case and somehow forgotten what day it was.
When she got there, she’d walked into the middle of a pop-up poker game at his apartment.
She’d turned right around and headed back to the hotel she usually stayed at when she came to Denver.
Nothing he said could stop her. He remembered her disappointment as she stared at him and said, “It’s not so much that you forgot, Jonas, it’s just that... maybe one of these days you’ll get your priorities straight.”
It had taken a bunch of her favorite flowers delivered the next morning and trading the tickets in for the next night to get into her good graces again. This time, he probably needed more than daisies and tickets to a play to make things right between them.
Priorities. Six years later, he still didn’t have it together. The same way that his dad hadn’t been able to keep on top of his impulses. He was just like the old man, something he never wanted to be. Yet, here he was.
He did not sleep easy that night.
See you around sounded too dang final, but it could also mean that he could show up unexpectedly, bearing her favorite chicken burrito from the food carts. If Sloane wouldn’t come to him, he would go to her, bearing gifts she couldn’t refuse.
And there was Clara. Sloane hadn’t said he couldn’t be friends with her sister or that he couldn’t still handle the kid’s court case. That, at least, was something.
Before starting breakfast for his brothers, he texted Sloane. “What are you doing today?”
“Working.”
Okay. “I’ll bring your favorite burrito for lunch.”
“Thanks, but I won’t get a lunch break today. Too many cars to fix.”
Before he could text back, Nathan and Blake came in, and their breakfast meeting was on.
They were halfway through the stack of pancakes he’d made when Blake said, “I got an offer on the Sedona house.”
“You’re not thinking of selling it, are you?” Nathan asked, laying his fork on his empty plate, the tines swimming in the maple syrup that was left.
“Maybe. We”—Blake indicated the three of them—“can use the money.”
Blake’s backup plan. Since they were going there, now was the perfect time to disclose his own. Nathan wasn’t going to like it. “I’m putting my condo in Denver on the market.”
“Let’s take this discussion into the living room.
” As Jonas expected, Nathan pressed his lips into a disapproving line.
Carrying his coffee, he led the way and sat in the overstuffed chair closest to the fireplace.
“I don’t approve of you guys pouring tons of money into the ranch.
If we had no other choice, I guess that would be one thing.
And yes, the Triple L is still teetering on the edge of financial viability, but we’re getting close to making the ranch pay for itself. ”
Knowing that all three of them were their mother’s sons—decisive, fiercely independent and loyal, tough enough to fight their way through the worst—Jonas hadn’t been able to tell Blake and Nathan before he moved back to Strawberry Ridge, especially Nathan while he was healing from his injury, that he’d intended all along to sell all his assets in Denver if that’s what was required to keep the property in the family.
He would have had a humungous fight on his hands.
Moving property was typically too slow. Selling real estate wouldn’t necessarily be the immediate answer to their cash flow problem, depending on how much they came away with, but it was a place to begin.
He couldn’t force Blake and Nathan to use the money he might make from the sale of his condo. He knew his brothers. They would insist on matching him dollar for dollar. If he were in their boots, he would feel the same.
He made his argument, anyway. “Consider this,” he said to Nathan. “All the years when Blake and I were gone, you were here, working the ranch. I sent money when I could, but you can’t tell me it even came close to being a living wage for you. You never took a salary. You just made do.”
“I’ve done okay,” Nathan said in a defensive tone that did not encourage any argument. He grumbled at Blake, “You need the Sedona money for your family.”
Blake came right back. “Don’t you worry about my family. We’re fine.”
Nathan had already sunk every penny he could find into the Triple L.
Jonas didn’t want to poke at his brother’s slow-simmering anger by suggesting he and Blake bail them out.
Mostly because there was no guarantee he and Blake, even with his current offer, could sell their property in time to pay off the bank loan.
Blake leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and stared at Jonas. “What are you thinking?”
He sighed heavily, eyeing his brothers steadily.
“I don’t want to leave the Triple L.” Despite everything at the end, he would bet their dad hadn’t wanted to sell off parts of the place, either.
“And I know you guys don’t want that, either.
We’re awfully close to pulling the ranch out of the hole.
If we let it ride for now and stick to the plan, we could come out of this with the Triple L above water.
But if our plan doesn’t work, Nathan, you have to promise you won’t let your pride get in the way. ”
Nathan gave a sharp nod. “We won’t lose the ranch. We’ve come too far to lose it now.”
“I agree,” Blake inserted. “What’s next?”
“We wait to hear from the lab,” Jonas said. “We probably can’t rush them, but I’ll call tomorrow to see where they are in the process.”
Blake rose to lean on the fireplace mantel. “And if we don’t get the results by the time the rodeo starts?”