The Last to Know

by Michel Prince

  “Not that money, the money old Gareth promised me.”

  “He did say you’d want some money, but I wasn’t to disperse it until we went over the trust. It will be at least a week before we can officially read it and the will I made him set up.”

  “That wasn’t the deal I made.”

  “Life sucks for you then.”

  “Are all lawyers assholes?”

  “It comes with the degree. That and Conrad was a personal friend of mine and I’m not really excited to have to deal with a rude child of his.”

  “Rude? I never knew he existed. Who wasn’t following Emily Post on this one?”

  “Your father was killed following an illegal land issue.”

  “That and fifty cents gets me what?”

  “You get his land, about fifteen thousand acres. There are cattle there, some outbuildings and the house.”

  “What am I going to do with a cattle ranch? The only time I ever put on cowboy boots was when I worked at a western bar for a week and a half.”

  “The cattle are all set to be slaughtered due to contamination. You’ll have to cover that cost.”

  Savannah balked. She knew she hadn’t won the lottery when she suddenly discovered she had a father. But damn, she wasn’t about to take on a strangers debts just because his swimmer won the race twenty two years ago. “I’m supposed to kill cows just for fun?” she asked.

  “No, you have to have them disposed of properly. I’d say try to sell them to a dog food company, but that would lead to more lawsuits later on.”

  Savannah would ask why the animals needed to be killed but what did she know from cattle or animals in general. Then again what did she know about running a ranch. “Do I have to go there or can I just sign papers and get it off my back?”

  “Go out there, check it out. You might just like the home.”

  “Wait…I have a house that’s all mine? Free and clear?” She’d had apartments, but a home of her own. She’d never had anything but a car growing up. That still has twenty four payments before it was hers.

  “Nothing is free and clear. Your dad had a few mortgages and no life insurance.”

  “You made me come here to try to trap me with debt,” Savannah accused.

  “No, I made you come here, hoping you’d go out the ranch and fix up the place. I’d also like to be your legal representative against Federated Gas.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “The company that broke EPA regulations and destroyed your ranch.”

  “Can it be saved?” Why she was asking? It’s not like she knew one damn thing about being a rancher.

  “You remind me of your dad, just don’t make the same mistakes he did.” Dean tossed a file to her. “The ranch is in Tender Root, at the edge of the county really, but Tender Root’s the closest town. It’s beautiful.”

  “Just all the cow’s milk glows in the dark.”

  “They’re beef cows.”

  “My point exactly. I’m not a cowgirl.”

  “Go to the ranch. Meet your aunt and uncle. Spend a few days. Maybe you’ll change your mind.”

  “I have no money. No job. And no interest in livestock.”

  “You’re a Winston, it’s in your blood.”

  “My last name is Georgio, I have marinara in my blood.”

  Savannah rolled her eyes as she remembered the disgust she’d felt as she stomped out of that office. Now, she tried to focus to see how far ahead the chocolate cowboy’s truck was.

  Clay slowed his truck and turned into a ranch with a sign over the top. Long Ranch. He pulled to the side and let down his window. “You’ve got about another fifteen minutes, but it’s down that road. It’s the next ranch on the right. Drive slow, it turns into gravel in about a mile.

  “Sorry about earlier,” she said. If for some strange reason she ended up staying around, the last thing she needed were enemies. If only she weren’t so good at making them.

  “You’ve had a handful of shocks, I’ll give you a little leeway. Just know we’re your neighbors and around here that means we help each other.”

  What a foreign concept. She stared at his deep mahogany eyes and saw…truth. Was this why Dean wanted her to come here? To meet the people and somehow, decide this was the life for her. Obviously, he had no idea how stubborn and stupid she could be. Even if this place was a palace, all she could do was destroy it, like she did everything in her life.

  Chapter Two

  Pulling up to the ranch, she wasn’t sure what to think. The house appeared run down, an adobe style with rotten logs sticking out of a pergola. To the side were a few outbuildings. Barns, sheds, and something that looked like a railcar. As she got closer to the adobe home, she saw a cracked bay style window.

  Perfect…Manure filled the air and the property wasn’t much better. Stepping out of her car, she placed her sunglasses on, but still held her hand over her eyes to look out and see further. In the distance, it did look like there were some cattle roaming beyond a metal fence. She sighed and turned to see the barn wasn’t in much better shape than the house.

  Congrats Savannah, your dad was a loser too.

  “Can I help you?” a woman called as she stood at the door to the barn.

  With a brown cowboy hat obscuring the woman’s face, Savannah tried to make out anything recognizable in the woman. She may be related to her in some distant way. “I’m Savannah Georgio, I was told this ranch was mine.” The surety in her voice sadly didn’t make it to her heart. Fake it till you make it, she’d spent more years faking than making, eventually the saying would fit.

  “Connie’s bastard,” the woman sighed and tossed a set of reins to the side. “I guess that makes me your Aunt Teddy.”

  “Did my grandparents not understand the difference between boys and girls?” she said as she approached the woman with no illusions of some long lost child being found with joy.

  “Theodora.” Aunt Teddy smirked as she met Savannah half way. “And no, I’m sure Patty, Kelly and Bobbie would agree with you. I’ll let you find out which are your aunts and uncle.”

  Savannah now had a clear view of her aunt and discovered the home of her blue eyes. The woman was taller, at least five nine, although she was wearing boots. The heels weren’t severe, but they did give her at least a half inch. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail tight to her neck. Removing her hat, she ran her work gloved hands over her sweaty forehead and pushed back the strands that had fallen from the bindings. “You’re a bit of a surprise,” she confessed. “Knee jerk reaction to finding out my brother had a secret life.”

  “It was a secret to me too.”

  “He never talked to you?”

  “Never even knew his name.”

  “Are you sure he’s your dad?”

  “Never said he was.” Savannah crossed her arms as gooseflesh tingled down her spine. “Some man in a suit told me I had to come here, it wasn’t my idea at all.”

  “Mom,” a kid that looked about ten whined from the front door of the home.

  Both women turned to stare at him.

  “How much longer?”

  “When Uncle Patty gets here.”

  “When’s that?”

  “When it happens,” Aunt Teddy replied. “Get back inside.”

  “That’s one down,” Savannah sighed.

  “Huh?”

  “Uncle Patty, I’m assuming Patrick.”

  “Yep, we tried Pat, but it never stuck. That’s my oldest, Marshall.”

  “Not Marsha?”

  “I wasn’t trying to keep with my mother’s tradition of not putting us in a box.” Aunt Teddy held her hand out toward the house and Savannah followed her lead to the home. “My brother ran this place with our dad until he died… I guess they both died here. He took on the responsibility none of us wanted. But like most things, we’re stuck cleaning up his mess.”

  “How’s that? The glow in the dark cows?”

  “To say the least.”

  T
hey walked into the kitchen and it reeked of a bachelor pad, once a family home there was wallpaper with yellow and blue flowers on the wall. Now peeling and faded, she was sure Connie wasn’t about to waste time freshening up the place.

  “Like the extra person no one knew about.”

  “You’re the least of our issues.” Teddy grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and passed one to Savannah. “I’m sure when Connie filled out his will he thought he’d be leaving you something that he couldn’t provide when you were little. Instead, this place is a pile of debt covered in toxic waste.”

  “Lucky me.”

  “We couldn’t do that to a stranger, family or not.” Teddy took a long swig of the cool water then rested her arms on the counter. “Marshall has school starting soon and I need to get back to work. There were five of us, so we’re going to be taking shifts coming out here to help you. At least that’s the plan.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it wouldn’t be right to leave you to handle this on your own.”

  Right? Savannah didn’t even understand that concept. She’d always handled her shit piles on her own. It was what she did. Her mom could only help her so much and as the years progressed, she learned to do for herself. Why would these strangers not be leaving Savannah to fend for herself? What are their names? How do people function in a family larger than three? “Since when does right matter?”

  “It does to the Winstons, and you’re a Winston.”

  “Don’t I need a test first?”

  “My brother’s word and your eyes seal the deal for me.”

  Had this woman never seen an episode of Maury? Does she not know the phrase mama’s baby, daddy’s maybe? Savannah’s mother never told her about her father. How Conrad Winston came to believe he was her father was still a mystery to her.

  * * * *

  “There’s one thing I’ll never understand,” Clay said as he saddled his five year old paint, Buck.

  “Only one?” Sunny joked. “I’m impressed.”

  “How are you still alive? Seriously, I swore Uncle Henry was going to kill you when he found out about you and Mel.”

  “Truthfully…” Sunny laid the blanket on Merlin, the fourteen year old appaloosa. “…I figured he wouldn’t kill me because it wasn’t worth the jail time, but I wasn’t sure I’d still be a man.”

  “Is there something you want to confess to me?”

  “Your uncle wants grandkids.” Sunny gave Clay a wink. His cousin’s boyfriend had been a part of their family unofficially for years. Having grown along side the Long kids, Sunshine Parker might as well of been a brother—that is until he started dating Melody secretly, of which he’d apologized profusely to the whole family. A big step from him since he usually just backed away until the fire was out before approaching again. He might actually be growing up.

  Clay hoped that wasn’t catching. The last thing the youngest of Clevon’s kids wanted to do was grow up. “He has been jealous of dad since Walt started spitting out kids like it was a sport.”

  “Isn’t it Tina that does the spitting?” Sunny asked with his crooked grin before placing his black cowboy hat over his shock of white blond hair. “Speaking of which, how moody does she get when she’s pregnant?”

  “Trouble in the big house hoss?”

  “Before you answer, think about that fact you’re discussing the woman I love.” Walt’s voice rumbled through the barn as he approached the men who’d finished saddling their horses. “She’s not pregnant.”

  “Maybe I should’ve asked you instead of Sunny,” Clay teased his oldest brother. “Having issues with the old ball and chain?”

  “Only that she still won’t let me kill you.” Walt stopped in front of Buck and ran his hand down the gelding’s nose. “I heard Conrad’s will can finally be read.”

  “We saw a girl at the Hard Root heading out to the Winston’s,” Sunny said as they both led their horses out of the barn. “Clay talked to her more than I did though.”

  “You think she’d be up to sell?” Walt asked.

  “I think right now, she’s trying to sort out the loss of her dad.”

  “She didn’t know him. The Winston’s didn’t know she existed.”

  “One of them did,” Clay countered. “Why are you interested in them selling the land? Wondering about pricing because even if we were all full of cancer and dying, dad and Unc wouldn’t let you sell.”

  “I’m not interested in selling our ranch, I want to expand it.”

  “With bad land? I thought you were the smart one of our family.”

  “Why I want it is none of your business. Not yet anyway.” Walt removed his hat and ran a kerchief over his tight fade to remove some of the sweat. “You guys going to move the herd to the south pastures?”

  “That was the plan unless you want me to track down the grieving daughter.” That idea wasn’t too bad in Clay’s mind. He had to admit Savannah had peaked his interest. Not to full mast, but full enough he thought a few more minutes or the right brush against her skin could get him there.

  “I think Hope might have a problem with that.”

  “You overestimate my relationship with that one.”

  “I don’t think so.” Walt laughed. “I’ll see ya’ll later.”

  Clay and Sunny mounted their horses as Walt opened the gate to let them through. As the youngest of his brothers, he had to admit he had an easier time than JT and Walt ever had.

  Walt was born in the soil. He lived and breathed the ranch. His blood pumped the red clay dirt that covered the land only letting the stiffest of grass to grow.

  JT was the wind blowing across the land. Always moving onto greener pastures. Maybe he’d finally found a place to land.

  Betsy had been his first love, not his first girlfriend or lover by far, but there was something he lost when he chose to hit the rodeo circuit with Sunny. They both had their reasons to run, Sunny to escape his father, JT to avoid being theirs.

  Then there was Clay, with an heir and a spare, he was the one who could take in the mountains and play with the calves. He didn’t have to focus on the day to day running of the ranch. Clay got to enjoy it like a visitor would. Not that he didn’t work the land and help keep it up to date with basic maintenance. He’d brand the cattle, take them to market, but he didn’t have to be by his father’s side the whole time. He got to flirt with the girls selling funnel cake and the ones trying to pretend they were going to be rough and tumble cowgirls.

  It didn’t take long before the two men had turned their lazy meandering out to the rest of the men who’d begun moving the herd into a full gallop. Soon, they were racing with their heads down, so their hats didn’t fly off. Clay’s luck would have his landing in a fresh cow pie.

  Suddenly, Sunny yanked on the reigns and pulled his animal to a stop.

  Bringing Buck around Clay went back to check on him. “What happened?”

  “Just needed to catch my breath.” Sunny gasped. It had been a few months since he’d cracked a few ribs. Sometimes, he forgot he’s supposed to take it easy. Easy, being rescuing Melody from a river that was flowing faster than forty miles an hour and fighting with guys at the Hard Root. His hard headedness was a perfect blend of his father Race Parker and spending too much time on the Long Ranch.

  “Why do you think Walt wants the Winston Ranch?” Clay asked as he leaned on the horn of his saddle and gently petted Buck.

  “Who says he wants it? Maybe he just wants to know if he’ll have a new neighbor.”

  Clay let out a laugh. “What? So, he can bring the neighbors a casserole and a pan of brownies?”

  “Seems the neighborly thing to do.” Sunny joined in the laughter. “Not a Walt thing, but a neighbor thing.”

  The men looked across the field and saw the first few cows wandering over the rise.

  “The land is poison,” Sunny said. “Even with the company starting to clean up it’s not like they can just dig up the land and lay fresh. It’ll take fiv
e years at least. Mix that with the water table…Mel said if they would have just admitted to what they did immediately and started the clean up, or even started the clean up the moment it happened, they could have contained it. It has sat too long. Now, we’re stuck with it.”

  “How is Mel? I haven’t been able to get over to Aunt Loretta’s lately.”

  “In pain, she’s trying to study for her licensing exam and refusing pain meds now.”

  “Pass ‘em my way.”

  Sunny cut his eyes at Clay.

  He rolled his in response. Clay would get fall down drunk, but drugs…not his bag. Sunny knew too many rodeo guys who were addicted to the pills. What had Clay ever done to damage his body beyond the normal school bullshit? Not a thing. Walt said he had no direction. That’s crap. He’s clearly going northwest right at the moment…maybe. Scanning the sky, Clay determined he was right. Northwest, of course he’s supposed to be going south. My bad, he chuckled to himself and yanked the reigns around keeping the cattle on track.

  It was almost seven before all the cattle had made their way down to pasture. Clay was exhausted since he had to chase down some of the younger ones, not quite sure of the path or what the ranchers were trying to get them to do.

  Sunny still couldn’t be more than a spotter since his rescue of Melody a month ago had reinjured his slowly healing ribs. He shouldn’t be on a horse, but the only thing harder than getting Sunny off a horse was pulling him away from Mel. Never in a thousand years would any one on the Long Ranch thought Sunny and Mel could be a couple, but with the exception of his Uncle Henry, it seems as if anyone else would be a farce.

  He unsaddled his horse, then wandered to the main house on the ranch going through the mudroom and toed off his boots.

  Tina turned her head enough to see him as she stopped putting supper away. “Late for dinner,” she called as she brought the roast back to the table.

  His mouth watered, as he smelled the still warm meat on the table. He knew Tina had no problem giving him food, but he was trying to be out on his own. Strange for a family so close, living on the ranch had become a forgone conclusion sometime in utero. JT had broken that step in growing up. He wasn’t sure his family could handle another defector.