Dancing Queens & Biker Kings: Sweet & Rugged in Montana

by Dallen, Maggie

  Which was why Dax’s statement had shocked the speech right out of him.

  Alice had dished out a mean lasagna and the four of them had just finished. Dax was there at the head of the table, as was right. He’d given up the role of head of family long ago. Besides, Dax looked the part. He was the spitting image of their dad with his light brown hair and grim expression. Everything about him from his flannel buttoned down work shirt to his skin that was permanently tanned and weathered from working in the elements all day—it all spoke of hard work and dedication. Exactly like their father, a man the townsfolk always referred to as salt of the earth.

  That was Dax. Salt of the earth. A good guy. Solid, dependable… everything Cole was not.

  Alice sat beside Dax, her heart-shaped face taut with anxiety as she looked between them, waiting for Cole to respond. Only James, sitting to her left, looked unperturbed by the tension in the air.

  James was younger than Cole but older than Dax. The son of a local ranch-hand, he’d been hanging around the Twilight Ranch since he was in diapers. As soon as he was old enough to hire, he’d become hired help, living in the little makeshift apartment over the garage that he’d largely built himself. James was practically family.

  Cole supposed it was that “practically” that had him looking so at ease right now. Well, that and the fact that James never got riled. He was as laid back as they came. Heck, if talk of selling the ranch didn’t make him flinch, nothing would.

  Cole rubbed the five o’clock shadow on his jaw. He couldn’t believe they were really having this conversation. He hadn’t known what Dax had wanted to talk to him about—after nearly a year of no communication with his younger brother, he’d come a runnin’ when he’d gotten the terse email saying they needed to have a family meeting.

  His mind had raced with possibilities as he’d driven his bike back to Montana. He’d made it as far as Tennessee, stopping along the way to work for cash, fixing bikes and working on cars. He hadn’t had a destination in mind, just a goal to get as far away from Lulu as possible.

  On the way back home, he’d come up with countless theories—maybe someone was sick, maybe Alice had fallen in with a bad crowd at college, or maybe they needed an extra hand to keep up with all the work…

  Not once had it crossed his mind that his younger brother might want to discuss the possibility of selling their home, and the land that had been in their family for four generations.

  Dax tapped his fingers against the old table, which had also been in the family for generations. Solid and tough, like his ancestors. Like Dax. Heck, even like Alice. Beneath that sweetheart exterior, his little sister was as tough as nails. A Deckland through and through.

  He watched Dax as he took a deep breath, trying to think of the appropriate response. He had to be careful. Like most conversations between him and Dax these days, how Dax ran the ranch in his absence was a sensitive topic.

  “I’m surprised you’d consider selling,” he said. That was an understatement. Dax lived and breathed this ranch, and always had. He’d been the one to follow their father around as a kid, pretending to be a cowboy as he slowly but surely learned the ins and outs of running an operation the size of the Twilight Ranch.

  Cole, on the other hand…. Well, he’d made a game out of getting out of his chores. He’d never had an interest in playing cowboy, let alone actually becoming one. As soon as he was old enough, he’d gone to his father with a proposition, that he be let out of his ranch duties if he could earn a paycheck on his own.

  His father had agreed—Cole was certain that his father knew even before he did that he wasn’t meant to be a man of the land. He’d always joked that Cole was destined to be their rambling man.

  He’d been right.

  Cole had gotten a job fixing cars for old Marty Lancet at the town garage and had never regretted it. Horses and cattle made him nervous, but cars spoke to him. He could sit in a garage all day tinkering with engine parts and never get bored. But put him out on the open range and he’d be bored to tears in twenty minutes.

  Dax looked down at his hands as he appeared to be thinking over his answer. Cole’s heart sank. His brother might be unreadable to some, but he knew him better than anyone. Cole saw the strain around his mouth and eyes. The way his eyes had flickered to Alice while he’d been talking, like he was considering his words carefully for her sake.

  His stomach sank along with his heart. How bad was their situation if Dax was considering selling?

  Dax kept his head down but his eyes shot up to meet his. “It’s a good offer, is all,” he said slowly, with that lazy drawl that reminded Cole of their father. “I wanted us all to talk about it.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal, as if he summoned the family together every weekend to discuss monumental, life altering decisions.

  “But why would we sell?” Alice asked. Her blonde hair fell to her chin and it bounced around her face now as she looked back and forth between them, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “What aren’t you guys telling me?”

  When she looked to him, Cole shrugged. He honestly didn’t know. They both turned to Dax. “Come on, little brother,” he said, watching with just a hint of amusement as Dax stiffened at the use of the old nickname. “Time to spill. What’s really going on here?”

  Dax looked to James before turning back to them with a sigh. “The ranch… isn’t doing well.”

  There was a brief silence as he and Alice exchanged a look. Alice was the first to respond. “What do you mean, ‘it’s not doing well?’ How badly is it doing?”

  When Dax didn’t immediately answer, she turned to face James as if he might have the answer.

  He probably did. Their hired help might be quiet, but he saw everything, and Cole knew that Dax worked closely with him when it came to running the books and keeping up with accounts.

  His expression was kind but impassive as he met her gaze.

  She let out a little sigh of annoyance. She, like Cole, didn’t have the kind of patience or calm demeanor that James and Dax shared. She turned to Dax. “We have a right to know, Dax. And we need to know if you expect us to make an informed decision.”

  Cole caught himself before a laugh could escape. Laughter now wouldn’t help the situation, but it was hard to not be amused watching his little sister stand up to Dax. While he and his younger brother were exact opposites, Alice fell somewhere in the middle, which was probably why she managed to get along with both of them while they could barely stand to be in the same room with each other.

  That hadn’t always been the case. Once upon a time they’d been close. Maybe even friends. But when their parents died, everything had changed. The dynamic between all the siblings had shifted for better or worse as they’d dealt with not only the grief of losing their parents, but with the responsibilities their deaths left in their wake.

  Over the past five years he and Dax had gone in separate directions, metaphorically and literally. Dax had taken over running the ranch and Cole had started to stay away more and more, not wanting to deal with the friction his presence seemed to cause. The blowout this past Christmas had been the last straw. Not long after, he took off for good, doing what he’d always wanted to do but never felt he could without letting down his family.

  He’d left their home, the ranch, and Montana once and for all.

  Until now.

  And now another Christmas was approaching, and this time he aimed to be here, whether he was wanted or not. This was where he belonged. It was home.

  At least, it was home for as long as it remained in their family.

  “Alice is right, Dax,” he said. “If you really want our input in this decision we need to know the full scope of the situation.”

  Dax’s nostrils flared but he kept his cool. Cole could only imagine the kind of retorts his brother wanted to make. No doubt he’d love to remind him that he’d been away, that he’d left the ranch and all its responsibilities up to him.

  He’d have been right t
o throw that in his face, even though they both knew that Cole being out of the picture was the way Dax had wanted it. Their parents hadn’t expected to die so young or both at once—but then tragic car accidents weren’t typically expected. So while they’d left the property to all three children, no provisions had been made for who did what or how it would be run.

  After several years of struggling to find some sort of balance, it had become clear that Dax was the one who wanted the role of running the ranch, and he was the one who deserved it as well.

  He’d worked his butt off—for his father when he was alive, and then by himself after his death. While Cole and Alice had done their best to help out, Dax had taken the lead and Cole’s attempts to help almost always ended in a fight.

  They had different styles, different priorities. They hadn’t been able to agree on anything. Eventually Cole had ceded his rights as co-owner and officially made himself a silent partner. Alice had already become a silent partner when she’d gone off to college in Bozeman, which was nearly two hours away. She came home on the weekends but her focus was on her studies, as it should be.

  So that had left Dax running the ship alone. He’d had James’s help, along with the seasonal help, but all decisions had been his.

  Cole felt for his brother now. “Look,” he said as gently as possible. “No one is blaming you here—”

  “Of course not!” Alice interjected.

  Cole shot her a quick smile before turning back to Dax. “We just want to know what’s going on. I know I speak for Alice when I say that we appreciate the way you’ve been running things.” He had to clear his throat before he could continue. He’d had nine months to think about their last fight and all the ways he’d been wrong. Now seemed like as good a time as any to set the record straight. “I was a fool last time we spoke.”

  Dax’s brows twitched up—not much of a reaction for most, but for Dax it was the equivalent of shooting up out of his seat in surprise.

  Cole cleared his throat again. Apologizing had never been his strong suit. “I don’t know the first thing about running this place and I had no right to try and assert control.” He shook his head, a rueful smile tugging at his lips. “I guess it’s just hard to take orders from my younger brother.”

  Dax gave him a small smile in return. “Your ideas weren’t all bad.”

  Cole let out a short laugh. That was the highest compliment he’d get from his brother, and he’d take it.

  But Dax surprised him. Cupping his mug of steaming coffee in his hands, he stared down at it. “Who knows? Maybe if I’d listened to some of your ideas we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  Cole stared at him, a whole new wave of apprehension making it difficult to speak. He’d never seen Dax like this. So… so… not confident.

  Alice’s expression was a mirror of his own. She was staring at Dax in open-mouthed shock.

  It was James who finally broke the silence with a snorting sound. “Dax is being melodramatic,” he said. Leaning across the table he covered one of Alice’s hands with his own. The two had always been close and he gave her a small grin now. “He’s also being modest. Your brother did everything he could to keep this place afloat....” He stilled, as if realizing just how much he’d revealed.

  “We’re bankrupt?” Cole asked.

  Dax ran a hand through his hair. “Not quite. But we’ve overextended our credit.” Shaking his head, Dax let out a groan. “We already had some heavy debts when we inherited the place, but the last two seasons haven’t been kind to us. The price of beef is down and our closest competitor has been undercutting us. I had to take out a loan to replace some broken machinery and….” His voice fell off with a sigh, as if weary just hearing himself speak.

  “Who’s the potential buyer?” Cole asked.

  “The Murdochs.”

  Alice rolled her eyes and made a disgusted sound. The Murdochs were the biggest name in ranching in the whole of the state. They’d made a career out of buying up smaller ranches and making them a part of their empire. They’d approached their father multiple times over the past decades and had always been turned down, no matter how bad things had been.

  “You can’t really be considering this,” Cole said.

  “No way,” Alice said. “Dad would have a heart attack.”

  Dax shot him a look but neither of them said what he was thinking.

  Dad wasn’t here. And Mom wasn’t here to give them some sage advice.

  They were on their own. One college kid, a rancher who should have had another ten years of experience at least before taking over a place of his own, and Cole—a screw-up who liked to fix cars.

  Dax’s lips twitched up in an unexpected smile and he raised his mug of coffee with a rueful laugh. “Welcome home, big brother.”

  Chapter Three

  Claire’s mom called out from the upstairs bedroom. “Claire, is that you?”

  “Yeah, Ma, it’s me.” Who else would it be? It was just the two of them—it had always been just the two of them. Ugh. Her bad mood had carried over and now she was mentally harping on her mother, who didn’t deserve that kind of negativity even in her thoughts.

  Her mother reached the bottom step just as she’d hauled in the last of the grocery bags.

  “You didn’t have to buy me groceries.” Ruby Geddy was the kind of mother who people said “you could be sisters” about and meant it. Her hair was a little darker and her frame a little bigger than Claire’s but they shared the same clear blue eyes and delicate features.

  She’d gotten her mother’s looks and her father’s personality, that’s what Ruby always said. Claire would have to take her word for it since she’d never met her father. But, according to Ruby, they were both dreamers. They’d both dreamed big.

  Claire wondered idly if they’d both failed or if it was just her. Her mother had lost track of the man who’d fathered her so it was impossible to say. Maybe he’d gone on to find success as a stunt man, after all. That had been his big dream, the one that had sent him running from Lulu with promises that he’d be back for Ruby and her baby when he got some steady work.

  She didn’t harbor a grudge against the guy who’d given her his DNA, if not his name. In fact, she hoped he had made it big in LA. Maybe then he’d come back and do right by her mom by giving her some child support. Better late than never, right?

  Ruby took one of the bags from her arms and followed her into the kitchen. “Seriously, hon. I appreciate the help, but I’m not an invalid.”

  Claire shrugged. This was hardly the first time they were having this conversation. “I know, but I want to help.”

  Ruby gave her that tolerant, way-too-all-knowing mom smile that drove Claire nuts. “And you have been a help. A big one.”

  She could see the “but” coming a mile away. Shifting her feet she found herself scratching at a stain on the marble countertop as if it was endlessly fascinating.

  “I’ve appreciated the help with the bar, I truly have,” Ruby said as she slipped into one of the kitchen seats. “But when you came home after the accident, you’d said it was only temporary.”

  Claire stared at the countertop so hard tears swam in her eyes. She blinked them back in annoyance, hating the fact that this conversation was making her feel approximately twelve years old and like her mother was telling her she couldn’t make her recital because she had to work.

  She was a grown up, for goodness sake. She was stronger than this.

  Claire felt her mother’s hand under her chin, tilting it up so she was forced to see her kind, understanding smile. “Sweetheart, I’m not saying I don’t want you here. It’s been amazing having you back in Lulu these past six months.”

  Claire mustered up a teary smile to match her mother’s. It had been nice spending quality time with her mom. Yet again, though, she heard the “but” coming.

  Ruby’s tone changed, whether it was because she could see that Claire wasn’t up for this conversation or she’d just gotten sidetrac
ked, it was hard to tell. Her voice turned into a lecture. “If it were up to me you’d be staying here with me in this lovely house rather than over the bar.”

  Claire rolled her eyes. They’d been through this a dozen times. “The house is yours, Mom.”

  Ruby started to protest but Claire stopped her with a raised hand. Yes, technically Claire had bought the house, but it had been a present for her mother. One she rightfully deserved after working herself to the bone at the bar for all those years to ensure that Claire got the dance lessons, costumes, pointe shoes, and everything else that went with becoming a bona fide ballerina.

  Her first big paychecks had gone toward the down payment for a small ranch-style home in Lulu for her mother so she could finally move out of the loud, dingy apartment over the bar. The neighborhood wasn’t ritzy but it was clean and well-kept. The kind of home and neighborhood her mother had always wanted.

  Since she’d returned six months ago, Claire had taken over the old apartment over the bar. Partly because she’d gotten used to having her own space and craved that kind of solitude after a long day working with customers. But also because she struggled enough with the idea of moving back home, moving back in with her mother just seemed too depressing for words.

  She looked around the nice, clean kitchen with its bright yellow paint and cheerful decorations.

  At this particular moment it was hard to see how this wasn’t a better option than the dingy, permanently dirty apartment she was living in.

  “You just missed Roy,” her mother said.

  Ah yes. That was why the apartment was preferable by far. In the apartment she wouldn’t have to deal with her mother’s tumultuous love life.

  “And how is Roy?” she asked, grateful for the change of topic as they unloaded the groceries.