Texas Orchids (The Devil's Horn Ranch Series)

by Samantha Christy

  “Suit yourself,” Granddad says. “You’re going to miss a fine pot roast.”

  “Nice to see you again, Gerald.”

  Granddad turns to me. “Something happen between you two? He doesn’t seem like himself. Don’t have that sparkle in his eye.”

  “He’s preoccupied with his horse. It’s the first one he’s ever owned.”

  “Hmmph. If you say so.”

  Before we can go inside, a convoy of trucks pulls onto the property. Only one man in town travels with an entourage. “What do they want?” I glance at Maddox, knowing he won’t be happy.

  Maddox leaves the arena. Granddad and I stop and wait, out of curiosity if nothing else. Joel and Jon get out of the first pickup. Several broad-shouldered men exit the two others.

  “He’s not welcome here,” Maddox says, gesturing to Jon. “And he damn well knows it.”

  “Hold on there,” Joel says. “This is a friendly visit.” He turns to Jon. “You gonna behave yourself, son?”

  Jon leans against the car with a sneer on his face.

  “He says yes,” Joel says.

  Maddox puts himself between them and Granddad and me. Owen and some of the others wander over. “Why are you here?” Maddox asks.

  “Word is Jenkins had himself an accident.” Joel shakes his head like he’s sad about it, but we all know he’s not. “A shame. Old guys like us don’t heal as quickly as we used to. Heard he’ll be out of commission for months, maybe longer. I’m guessing that means the ranch is up for sale again.”

  Owen says around a piece of straw in his mouth, “Rumor is that was no accident. His tire was shot out.”

  Maddox and I look at each other in surprise.

  Joel laughs. “Now where’d you hear a crazy thing like that?”

  “Two people ridin’ horses nearby said they heard a few gunshots right before they came upon the accident.”

  “Oh, they heard gunshots, did they? They see a gunman?”

  Owen shrugs.

  “It was the tire blowin’ out,” Joel says. “You ever hear a tire blow out? Sounds damn similar to a shotgun. Happened to me once. Scariest thing I ever lived through. Shame about his mare.”

  “And you thought you’d swoop right in and buy this place?” Maddox says. “What makes you think we’d sell it to you?”

  “Doesn’t look like you have much choice. You talk to your daddy yet?”

  “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

  Joel chuckles. “I’ll take that as a yes. You tell him I’m ready to negotiate when he is. The competition has dwindled, and I imagine I can get this place for a song now.”

  Granddad moves toward Joel, furious. “You backstabbing murderous bastard.”

  Jon pushes off the truck, scowling. Joel shakes his head, and Jon backs down like an obedient dog. “Maybe you better watch what you say, Gerald,” Joel says. “I might have to sue you for slander.”

  “We both know that’s a crock of manure after the things you’ve done. Blown tire, my ass. Which one of your men did the dirty work this time?”

  Joel grabs Granddad’s arm. “Watch yourself, old man.” He glances at me. “If you know what’s good for you and yours.”

  Maddox intervenes. “Take your hands off him, or you’ll have me to deal with.”

  Joel backs away and laughs. “You and what army?”

  Owen and half a dozen others move up behind Maddox and cross their arms. Joel’s guys do the same behind him. My heart races, wondering who will be the first to do something stupid.

  I pull Granddad toward the guesthouse, out of the line of fire, but he resists.

  Maddox and Joel exchange a few more words and then Joel flicks his wrist. His men retreat to their trucks and leave.

  We join the others. “You think Joel had something to do with Jenkins’ accident?” Maddox asks Owen.

  “He wants Devil’s Horn Ranch. I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  “Me neither.” Granddad taps on his phone. “That family is toxic, and somebody best do something about it.”

  “What are you doing, Granddad?”

  “Ordering me one of those Uber things.” He kisses the side of my head. “Apologies, pumpkin. Can’t stay for supper.”

  “Why not?”

  “I ain’t hungry. Remembered something I need to take care of.”

  “You’re scaring me.”

  “Nothing for you to be worried about. Everything will be fine.”

  Maddox says, “Gerald, you can’t go after him. You’ll never win. Not even if everyone here joined you.”

  “I don’t plan on going after Joel—not in the sense you’re thinkin’. I just need to take care of something that’s long overdue.”

  For the next fifteen minutes, I beg him not to go. I have no idea what he’s planning, but if it has anything to do with the Thompsons, it’s a mistake.

  Granddad’s ride pulls up. “You stay close to Maddox and the other folks here at the ranch. Promise me.”

  “Only if you promise you won’t go after Joel.”

  “I promise.”

  “Or Jon.”

  “I promise that, too.”

  “And you’ll call me tomorrow?”

  “Sure thing. How about you put your pot roast on ice, and we’ll get to it then?”

  “I’ll pick you up. No more wasting your money on rides, okay?”

  “It’s a date.” He turns to Maddox. “You’ll come to supper too, won’t you?”

  Maddox glances at me. “I suppose.”

  “Whatever bugs you two got up your butts, work ’em out by then.”

  He gets in the car, and it drives off.

  “Where do you think he’s going?” I ask.

  “Beats me. Does he own a gun?”

  “Not since he moved into the retirement home.”

  “Well at least there’s that.”

  “There is no way I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”

  “I could keep you company.”

  “You mean after giving me the cold shoulder all day, you want to entertain me tonight? No, thank you. There are things I need to do.”

  “Things like figuring out if you’re moving to Wyoming?”

  “It’s not that easy, Maddox. In fact it’s pretty complicated.”

  He kicks the dirt. “You’d really consider moving?”

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do. There’s a lot to think about.”

  “We were supposed to look at houses tomorrow. Is that still happening?”

  “I don’t know. Actually, yes. I want to keep all my options open.”

  “Options.” He laughs sadly. “So Bobby is still one of them.”

  “I don’t see anyone else offering.” Oh, god. Did I just say that? “I have to go.”

  “Andie,” he calls after me.

  I’m embarrassed. “Forget I said that. Today has been weird. Let’s meet at noon tomorrow, like we planned. Don’t read too much into anything.”

  “Don’t worry about your granddad. He’ll be okay.”

  There is a twist in my gut. I feel strongly nothing will be okay.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Maddox

  Sitting on the porch, drinking my morning coffee, I gaze at the guesthouse. Is she considering Bobby’s offer? He had some nerve coming down here after this long, thinking he could swoop her up and live happily ever after.

  I contemplate bringing her coffee. It would be an excuse to see where her head is. I’ll be seeing her at noon to look at houses, but I’m not sure I can wait that long. I sit not-so-patiently and wait for her to emerge, checking the time every few minutes. She’s usually up by now. That she isn’t might mean she was up late thinking.

  Beau looks at the guesthouse and moans unhappily. He, too, seems to know her schedule.

  Glowering, Owen strides across the yard. “Aaron stay in the house with you last night?”

  I stand abruptly. “No, why?”

  “He didn’t sleep in his bunk. Nobod
y has seen him since supper.”

  I rub my temples. “The last damn thing I need right now is another crisis.”

  “Want me to send a few guys out?”

  “Not yet.” I set down my cup, put on my hat, and head for the barn. “My guess is he’s out at the airstrip again. I’ll take a four-wheeler.”

  He accompanies me across the yard. “Not to make a bad day worse, but you talk to your dad about Jenkins yet?”

  “Called him last night.”

  “And?”

  “I’m not sure what to tell you. There aren’t many options left.”

  His shoulders fall. “Thompson’s making sure of that, isn’t he?”

  “I hate it as much as you do.” I scan the equipment when we get to the barn. “One of the ATVs is missing.”

  “You let me know if you need help with Aaron. We’ve always got your back.”

  “Thanks, man.”

  I drive away, thinking about what he said. He and everyone else on this ranch might be about to lose their jobs, but they still have my back. What a difference from the world I came from, where it’s every man for himself.

  The entire way to the airstrip, I wonder what I’m going to tell Uncle Griffin and Aunt Skylar. They expected planting Aaron at the ranch would shape him up, teach him values, but it’s not working. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news. I’ve done enough of that lately.

  There’s no one at the airstrip. I don’t know whether to be relieved or worried. I can’t call him; he doesn’t have a phone. If the Thompson kid picked him up, I’ll have to deal with Karen or even Joel. My stomach curdles at the thought.

  Following a hunch, I drive to the hunting lodge and see the missing four-wheeler. I pull up next to it and run inside. Aaron is sitting on the grand staircase next to an almost-empty bottle of whiskey I recognize as one of mine.

  “You swipe that from my cabinet?”

  “What do you care?”

  “Are you still hungover?”

  He holds up the bottle and takes a swig. “Still drunk.”

  I march over and take it from him. “What the hell are you doing, Aaron? Do you want to screw this up and end up at military school? You don’t realize how easy you have it here. This place is fucking amazing if you think about it for two seconds. The people here—they have your back, yet you’re doing everything in your power to leave.” I glance in the room where Andie and I first made love. “And all I want to do is stay.”

  “There’s a big difference between you and me, cousin. You think my life has been easy? Gracie is the goddamn golden child. She can do no wrong. She gets bad grades in school, and my parents blame the teachers, but the first time I get in trouble, they ship me here.”

  “The way I hear it, it wasn’t the first time.”

  “You don’t know shit. How could you? Your parents actually wanted you.”

  “What in the hell are you talking about?”

  “I was never supposed to be my mom’s kid. Did you know that?”

  “We all know.”

  “My dad didn’t want me either. Did you know that too?” I stare blankly. “I didn’t think so. Erin was the only one who wanted me. After she was gone, my parents had no choice. Gracie’s always been the wanted one. I was the one they had to deal with.”

  “Bullshit, Aaron. You can’t sit here and pretend your parents don’t love you. I’ve seen it. Birthdays, holidays, Sunday brunches. Gracie is younger, so she gets more attention. It’s the same for my sisters. And they’re girls—things are different for them. But don’t mistake that and think your parents love her more.”

  “You have no idea,” he says. “I found letters about six months ago.”

  That was when Uncle Griffin said Aaron had started acting out. “Letters?”

  “Erin wrote them to my parents. Your mom and Uncle Mason held onto them, with instructions to give the letters to my parents under certain circumstances. One of those circumstances was if my dad ran away. Before I was even born, he decided he didn’t want me.”

  “He’d lost his wife. Maybe you could cut him some slack.”

  “And my mom? She was never supposed to be my mom. She wanted to give me away. She had to be convinced to keep me.”

  I sit next to him. “You’re fifteen. Life seems all black and white to you, but it’s not that way. Things happen. Life throws you curveballs. Sometimes you end up places you never thought you’d be. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be there.”

  “You can’t possibly understand.”

  I laugh. “Oh, really? Maybe you’ve forgotten my story. I spent the first seven years of my life thinking I had a deadbeat father who wanted nothing to do with me. You think I never thought about how my mom got pregnant with me when she was eighteen? That’s the last thing she wanted. Does that mean I shouldn’t be here? Does that mean I should be mad at her? No. She may not have wanted a baby at such a young age, but guess what? She was the best damn mom I could have hoped for. Just like your mom is the best. We both hit the jackpot where parents are concerned, and I’m in no way talking about money. Our family is amazing, Aaron. Our mothers and Aunt Piper are about as close as three sisters can be. Our dads are best friends. We grew up with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who love us fiercely. All of us. If you stand back and look at the big picture, you’ll see you have two parents who love you so much, they’d fucking die for you.”

  “Yeah, they sent me here because they love me so much.”

  I slap the hardwood stair. “That’s exactly why they sent you here. Tough love, Aaron. Sometimes it’s a parent’s last resort. If they didn’t care about you, why not let you drop out of school? If they didn’t love you, why would they be worried about you smoking weed or hanging with the wrong crowd? Parents who don’t care are happy to have you out of the house.”

  “If they loved me, they would let me find my own way.”

  “I wish I could record this and play it back to you one day. At your age, everything seems like the end of the world. It’s not. You don’t have problems, Aaron. Look around you. This place we’ve worked so hard to restore, it’s probably going to be mowed down. Those horses you’re caring for will be gone—boarded at other stables that may not be as good for them. Or they’ll be auctioned off for horse meat. All those guys you’ve been bunking with these past weeks? They’re about to lose their jobs, and who knows where their next paychecks will come from. Where will they go? Will they even have roofs over their heads? Those are real problems.”

  He rubs a knot in a stair baluster. “What do I do now? I kind of fucked everything up.”

  I hand him my phone. “Call your parents. Tell them the truth. Things will get better if you do.”

  He takes the phone but doesn’t make the call.

  “It’s time to man up, Aaron.” I stand and go to the door. “I’ll wait outside.”

  I pace the porch, gazing at the old rusted cars beside the lodge. I wanted to haul them off, but Aaron thought they gave the place character. He might be right. But at this point, I’m not about to lift a damn finger to improve this place if Thompson is going to replace it with condos.

  Ten minutes later, the door opens, and Aaron hands me the phone.

  “So?”

  “Dad is booking a flight tomorrow. Says he’s clearing his schedule to come spend time with me.”

  I smile. “That hardly sounds like a father who doesn’t love his kid. He’s a busy man.”

  “Mom wanted to come, too, but Dad said we needed some father-son time.” He places a hand on the porch railing. “Do you think he’d want to help me finish restoring this place?”

  I want to tell him not to bother, but I don’t. “I think it’s a fine idea.”

  “Are you going to tell him I got drunk?”

  “I’m willing to keep it between us if you promise to give him and your mom a chance.”

  He nods.

  “Let’s go, then. I have something important to do at noon.”

  Twelve o�
��clock comes and goes without any word from Andie. Her truck never left the ranch, so I wander through the stables. When I can’t find her, I call Matteo. “Is Andie out in one of the pastures?”

  “She’s not typically here on Monday mornings. She should be at Thousand Acre Ranch.”

  “I know that, but her truck is here.”

  “Maybe she’s taking the day off. She didn’t seem in good sorts last night after her granddad left. You check her house?”

  “On my way there now.”

  I knock on her door and wait. I knock again. I get out my phone.

  Me: Are you at home?

  I sit on her porch and wait for a reply. A few minutes go by, so I text again.

  Me: Where are you? It’s almost one o’clock. We were supposed to meet at noon.

  A minute later, I send another.

  Me: Andie, what’s going on?

  I get a terrible feeling in my belly. Did she decide to leave with Bobby? I run back to my place and get the key to the guesthouse.

  “Andie?” I yell as I enter and look around. Everything appears to be in order except for the half-full glass of wine on the table and the open bottle next to it. The master bedroom door is open, her bed perfectly made. I check the bathroom and see her things on the counter. I peek in the closet and her clothes are still there. Part of me is relieved. Then again, where is she?

  I sit on the bed and text her again.

  Me: Andie, just tell me if you’re with Bobby. You’re beginning to scare me.

  On the way back to my house, the phone rings. I’m overjoyed when I see Andie’s face. “Hey. Are you okay?”

  “Uh… yeah.”

  She sounds muffled, and I can tell a man is with her, but I can’t hear what he’s saying.

  “Andie?”

  “I’m here.”

  “What’s going on? You didn’t go to work today, and your truck is here. Where are you? Did he pick you up?”

  “I… I need time to think.”

  “With him? You need time to think with Bobby? Don’t do it, Andie. He blew you off. He only wants you because he saw you with me. That’s how our brains are wired. Come back, and we can talk.”