by Jillian Neal
Chuckling at that, he put his arm around her. “I definitely need to see your newborn photos.”
“You suggest that like I haven’t spent the last twenty years hiding every last one of them.”
“No hug for your big brother?” Maddox pretended to be offended.
“I don’t know,” Meridian came right back, “are you covered in shit?”
“You better not be,” Leigh commented as she scraped mashed potatoes into a serving bowl.
Jack sprang into action. “Here, let me hold that for you.” He took the pot, allowing Leigh to scrape more effectively.
“Thank you, sweetheart. I appreciate that.”
“Of course.”
They sat down to eat at a scrubbed wooden table covered in a stained checkered tablecloth. Jack knew his mother would’ve scoffed and ridiculed, but he loved every square inch of not only the tablecloth but the family that surrounded it.
Meridian laced her fingers through his as they said grace. A warmth and peace that Jack had never felt at River Chase soothed the rough patches and scrapes they’d endured the last few days.
This was the way life was meant to be lived. The food was simple and delicious. It filled him in a way he hadn’t known he could be filled. This was how he wanted to live his life. This was all he’d ever really wanted.
Gentry cleared his throat. “Now, Jack, where would you say you see yourself in ten years?”
Meridian gave her father a dramatic eye roll. “Daddy, is this really necessary?”
“It’s a fair question,” Gentry insisted.
“He has two college degrees from Duke and is the youngest district attorney Holder County has ever had. I’d say he’s been more than successful.”
Jack patted her leg. “May I?” Gentry Holder was not the kind of man impressed with degrees and accolades. He was impressed with heart, and Jack knew that.
“Fine,” she begrudged.
“I’ve been enamored with Meridian for years now, sir, and I don’t think any amount of time into the future is going to change that. If anything, I would say I’ll only grow more fond of her. I come from a family that’s able to buy and sell the world, and they’re miserable. All of them. If I learned anything from their misery, it’s that I don’t want to buy or sell the world. I only want to hold a very small part of it, and I want to share it with her. I want to use what we have to make the world better.”
Leigh was dabbing her eyes with her napkin. “That is just the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Wow,” Meridian whispered in his ear.
He took a chance and kissed her cheek. Her father didn’t seem to mind so Jack took that as a good sign.
Gentry also didn’t seem to have a rebuttal.
After supper, Jack helped Meridian’s mother serve bowls of peach cobbler and Blue Bell ice cream. He sat down beside Meridian on the front porch to enjoy their dessert. She stared out at the lands that had raised her and the five generations of Holders that had come before her.
There were dozens upon dozens of acres between them and the high gates of the ranch. Nothing could touch them as they shared bites of cobbler and watched the indigo of night seep into the orange sunset, until the sun ceded its power.
“I love it out here,” she whispered as Jack wrapped his jacket over her shoulders.
“I love watching you out here.”
It would’ve been the perfect moment had the chug of an approaching truck motor not broken the peaceful spell of the lowing cows and the stillness of night.
Meridian sighed and then hollered toward the screen door, “Daddy, Uncle Barrett’s here.”
Thoroughly enjoying the whole of the evening, Jack even delighted in how the Holders frequently showed up at each other’s houses without invitation. It was so informal. He found it utterly charming, but the warmth of the evening took on a hardened chill when Jack saw the look on Barrett Holder’s face as he approached the porch lights. Phil Cloats, a prominent realtor in Holder County, walked beside him.
Meridian stood. “What’s wrong?” launched from her mouth before Jack could get to his feet. “Is it the mustangs? Is one of them in labor?”
“Simmer down, sweetheart. The mustangs were fine when Wes checked them before supper. Where’s your daddy?” He lifted his hat to Jack, but it wasn’t in Barrett’s typical friendly way. Something was definitely wrong.
The third helping of potatoes Jack had indulged in solidified in his stomach. Gentry and Leigh made their way out onto the porch.
“Phil just brought this over. I wanted to talk to you about it. I didn’t know you had company.”
Jack had seen enough real estate offer contracts to recognize them even in the shaded light of the porch. Dread clawed under his skin with jagged nails. He pled with any deity willing to listen for this not to have anything to do with his family. He somehow knew he wasn’t that lucky.
Gentry scowled. “Guess you weren’t lying about your family thinking they can buy and sell the world.”
“What?!” Meridian jerked the offer from her father’s grasp. She spun and pierced Jack with a furious glare. “Your father is trying to buy our ranch,” she seethed.
Making certain he wasn’t going to vomit if he spoke, he managed, “I’m so sorry. I’ll take care of this. I had no idea.”
Barrett spoke with heavy-handed authority. “You can let your father know that we don’t sell Holder land to anyone, and we never will. If this is your idea of some grand gesture to get Meridian’s hand, I am not impressed.”
“No, I swear.” Jack could barely breathe. “I had no idea he was planning this. I would never.” This wasn’t working. He had to do something. Yanking his phone from his pocket he called his father’s cell. He got his voice mail three times. Asshole. “Give me your phone,” he demanded of Phil.
“Do it,” Barrett ordered. That did it. Phil handed over his phone.
His father answered on the second ring. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” Jack’s fury echoed over the fields. “This ranch is not for sale. Are you incapable of letting me have anything good ever? What? I walked away from your corrupt business so you’re just going to punish me for the rest of my goddamn life.”
All of the Holders took a step back and did at least look impressed.
“Everything is for sale,” Palmer scoffed. “The offer is at least one and a half times what it’s worth.”
“No, Dad. Not everything is for sale. This land, these people’s lives, my life, those things are not on the block for the highest bidder. Did you really think that you flashing cash in front of them would have them selling land that has been in their family since before Oklahoma was a state? Surely even you are not that stupid.”
“Fine, I’ll double my offer.”
“Can you for one minute actually listen to me? This land is not just land, it is their hard work and blood and sweat and tears. It is every cow that has been born here and then raised and marketed. It’s every horse that’s ever galloped here, every barn that’s been built to endure winters. Every field that’s been burned and risen back green. This is their life, Dad. My god, it’s their souls. It is not for sale for any price!”
“That girl is a loose cannon, Jackson. I can’t have that. She’s a threat to our company and our way of life. She made that more than apparent. You can find some other cowgirl to fuck if that’s what you think suits you. But either they sell me that ranch so that I have some control over what she can say and do, or you end your relationship with her.”
It had been a very long time since his father managed to shock him, and yet he did. Jack shook his head in abject disbelief. “The fact that you still can’t get it through your thick skull that you have no say over me has clearly driven you insane if you believe you can threaten me. You can take your offer and shove it so far up your ass you spit dollar bills when you whistle for all the fucks I give. The Holders will never sell to you, and if you ever so much as think of them again I’ll have you arrested
for criminal harassment.” He ended the call and handed Phil back his phone.
Adrenaline continued to surge through him. He could no longer remain still so he started walking.
“Jack?” Meridian tried but he couldn’t even face her. My god. How could he ever face them again?
“Meridian, honey, go after him. No one should have to work through something like this alone,” he heard her father urge.
She took off and had caught up to him by the end of the front yard. He didn’t even know how to discuss this yet, but she walked steadfastly by him until he finally found words.
“Why would he do this? He doesn’t know anything about ranching. He’s never even been past the Mississippi.” Jack already knew the answer, but it helped to hear himself ask it out loud.
“You said he wants control. Maybe he thought this would somehow lure you back to Denton Distilleries.” They made it another hundred paces before she spoke again. “You were amazing back there. Dad’ll probably want to book the church for this Saturday.” She was trying so hard, but Jack was too angry and too hurt to respond.
So they walked on, never reaching a gate or even a barn. Eventually he understood that she’d guided him to her house. She led him inside to her couch where she curled up beside him.
“My first year in law school I was nominated by two of my professors to compete in the National Appellate Advocacy Competition. I was the only woman on the team. But we were a team, or at least that’s what I told myself even when I wasn’t told about practices or when I was given the wrong moot cases to review. I refused to believe what was right in front of my eyes because we were a team. I thought that meant something. When we arrived at the competition, I walked up on the stage and”—her voice cracked and Jack wrapped his arms around her in an effort to soothe the fractures—“uh, I gave the opening statement for the case I’d been told we were appealing. It wasn’t the actual case. They lied to me. That’s how badly they wanted me out of their law program. I had better grades, better elocution scores, and I was a helluva lot smarter than any of them, and those were the reasons that they needed me gone. They were willing to throw the entire competition to get me to leave. I know it’s a million times worse when it’s your family that sets you up. I can’t imagine what that must feel like, but I need you to know that I get what it feels like to know that the people who are supposed to be on your team are the ones trying to erase you. You are allowed to take up space anywhere that you want to exist. The Holders will be your family. You don’t need them.”
As touched as he was by her vow, Jack shook his head. “If I ever meet any of the assholes that did that to you, I plan to let them know exactly what I think of men like that. But there’s more to this than my family trying to erase me. My father doesn’t take no for an answer. Ever. I have no idea what he’ll come up with next, but it terrifies me.”
“No one can make us sell our land, and I never take no for an answer either. If he wants to take on the Holders, he’s going to find himself in a match he can’t win.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
The next morning, Meridian drove Jack out to see the mustangs before she took him back to her parents’ to get his truck. “It should be any day now,” she explained.
“Now that your uncle has reported them to the Bureau, I don’t see how Marsden’s case has a leg to stand on.”
“You know, it wasn’t supposed to work this way.”
Intrigued at that declaration, Jack scanned the herds. “What wasn’t supposed to work what way?”
“When the program was passed in the state senate, it was set up to help the rye farmers keep the wild mustangs off of their crops because they were destroying them. The idea was that the Bureau would round up the horses and let them come live on ranches that had adequate land and were willing to care for them. We don’t make that much money off of this program. Between food, land, medicines, minerals, all of the things we do for them, we just do a little better than break even. But there were tons of people in the senate who wanted the horses destroyed.” She shook her head. “So, they had people in the Bureau round up way more than the state even knew existed. Instead of allowing the ranches that have them to break them and donate them to farms and ranches that need horses but can’t afford to buy them, they defunded the program. Now, all of these beautiful creatures are here, and they’re happy and healthy but…” She shrugged.
“You’re always afraid that the political tides could turn, and the horses will be on the losing end of man’s greed.”
“Isn’t that almost always how it works out? One party puts together a viable, workable plan and the other sets out to destroy it by not allocating funds so they can prove that their opposition failed.”
It broke Jack’s heart to finally understand the scope of her worry over the beautiful creatures before them. “You would’ve won that competition if your teammates hadn’t been damned and determined that you weren’t going to,” he assured her. “Which means that you are the ideal lawyer to take an appeal all the way to the Supreme Court if need be, and I will fight right there beside you until we win.”
“Jack, look!” She pointed ahead and eased her foot off the brake as they drove along the fence line.
There in the distance one of the mustangs was lying on the ground. The dirt under her was wet. “Is there something we can do to help her?” Jack had never seen a horse give birth, but he was certain Meridian would be able to tell him what to do.
“Not unless she needs help. Can you take my truck back to my parents’ house and tell someone to bring the foaling kit out here? Then tell them to call Doc Halverson and tell him to be ready. I’ll stay here in case she needs help.”
“Sure.”
Jack drove as quickly as he was able across the slick morning grass. He prayed all went well with the birth and that it was a full-blooded mustang. He pulled up in front of Gentry and Leigh’s home to find Meridian’s father on the porch with the paper.
Leaping out of the truck, he raced to Gentry. “One of the mustangs is in labor. Meridian needs the foaling kit, and she wants someone to call Doc Halverson.
Gentry was on his feet in record time. “Has the water broken?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Maddox,” he called into the house, “get a foaling kit out to your sister. One of the mustangs is in labor.”
“I’ll call Doc Halverson,” Leigh answered from somewhere inside.
Maddox and Deacon both raced out of the house. “Where is she?” Maddox asked.
“About a mile due east of Wyn’s barn,” Jack explained.
“We’re on it, Dad.” Deacon climbed into Maddox’s truck and they drove the opposite direction. Jack’s brow furrowed.
“Foaling kits are in the barn,” Gentry explained.
“Sorry. I don’t know much about ranching, I guess.”
Gentry chuckled. “Well, I don’t know much about lawyering so I’d say that’s okay. I wanted to tell you I’m sorry if Barrett upset you last night. We all get a little protective of Holder land. He let his temper get the best of him.”
“He had every right to be upset with me. I’m the one who owes all of you an apology. I have no idea why my father is the way he is. I don’t understand what end he’s working for here. Why betray me? What is that going to get him?”
Gentry gave him a kind fatherly nod. “The thing about betrayal is that it can’t ever come from an enemy. Then it’s not a betrayal. It don’t hurt like it either.”
“My father only ever works for his bottom line. I just can’t figure out what this ranch would do to bolster his economic standing.”
“I ’spect you’ll figure that out in time. All that matters to me is that you decided to rise above your raising. That takes a lot of strength and a lot of smarts. And I appreciate what you said to your old man last night. You came out swinging on our behalf. I couldn’t ask for more than that.”
Jack considered what had finally triggered him to run the night before. “He
said something about needing to control Meridian. I don’t think I’ve ever been so furious with him, and he’s done a profound number of horrible things.”
Gentry’s grin expanded the width of his sun-worn face. “I think you might just be in love with her, and I think we both know that the chances of anybody controlling my little girl are between slim and none. I can assure you that slim left town the night she was born.”
“I do love her, very much,” Jack vowed.
“Then I’d say we need to teach you to do a little ranching. You ever seen a foal birthed?”
“No, sir.”
“Hop in my truck. We’ll get you set to rights. I’ll tell you this, too, there ain’t nothing that leaves its mark worse than your family betraying you, but if anybody’s got enough love and fire in her to get rid of that bruise, it’s my girl.”
Over an hour later, Jack was unable to stop smiling. Meridian was delighted with the new foal that was, without a doubt, full mustang. “She’s so cute,” Meridian stated for the fourth time on their way into the office.
“She is that.”
“And she’s full mustang which means Marsden has exactly zero legs to stand on. Other than me wanting to brand your father for what he did to you last night, it’s the perfect day.”
“We do still have to go through with the case.”
“I know. The inspector is coming out to check the horses today.”
“Good. Hopefully we can get Marsden to drop it before we take up the judge’s time.”
They stepped into the elevator, and Jack knew they’d figure out how to work together effectively and be a couple. This wasn’t even going to be difficult.
“You are forty-five minutes late for our meeting,” Mayor Jennings raged as soon as they stepped into the legal suite.
Shit. Jack ground his teeth. “What meeting?”
“The meeting you agreed to yesterday. We’re to discuss the wind energy suit at nine this morning.”