Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(22)

And she could bring dates home without having to deal with Elijah Jones. Maybe that’s what made him so argumentative. He’d been one of those military playboys who had a girl in every state and didn’t think he could date with Sophie in the house.

Why he didn’t just sell her his property and buy another ranch was a mystery. At that notion, she perked up. She thought about it for a while, then jumped out of bed and grabbed her laptop. In a few minutes, she’d found two ranches not far from Baird, up toward Albany, that were for sale. She’d up her previous offer to enough money that he could purchase either one of them. She marched out to the den to find it empty. She opened the back door and found Elijah sitting on the deck staring out into space.

“What’re you doin’ back out here? I thought I heard your girly show playin’ when I went down the hall a while ago.” He didn’t look at her. That little episode in the kitchen had sent him into a thinking spin. He needed a woman in his life, and finding one at his age that didn’t have a couple of divorces and teenage kids under her belt wouldn’t be an easy job.

“I was piddling on the Internet and found a couple of ranches for sale within twenty miles of this one.” She hoped her voice didn’t sound too excited.

“So you lookin’ to buy or sell?”

“Buy. But not for myself. The biggest one is up by Albany. I’ll buy it and deed it over to you, if you’ll give me your half of this ranch.”

“Ain’t happenin’. This has been Jones property since back before Baird was even put together. Uncle Jesse said he could prove it was Jones property back about the time that Sam Houston stomped Santa Anna’s rear end and Texas became a state. So it’s not going to be McSwain property now. You go buy that Albany ranch. It’d put you closer to your friends anyway,” he said.

“Why don’t you listen to reason? This is my ranch. I took care of Aunt Maud. I know this place. I love it. I’ll even keep the brand and the name. It won’t be McSwain property.” She would have rather snatched his ponytail right off his head than kissed him.

“No, ma’am, it won’t be. It’s goin’ to be mine, or at least half mine, until the day I die,” he said.

“And then who will you leave it to? You don’t have children that you are claiming, and you don’t want any. You think it’s going to stay Jones property after you are dead?” she asked.

“Don’t know about that. But it will be while I’m living. All I can take care of is what I do with it in my lifetime. The next generation can pick up the responsibility from there. I intend to do just what Uncle Jesse wanted me to do. Live here, run this ranch, and love it.” Elijah was glad that he’d remembered to say Uncle Jesse rather than Aunt Maud. One of the stipulations she made in her last letter was that he never tell anyone that she left him the property. It had been broadcast among her friends and family that it had been Jesse who had willed him half the ranch.

Sophie went back into the house and let him have the last word. It was beginning to look more and more like she would have to share. But by golly, she did not have to like it or live in the same house with Elijah Jones. As soon as Fancy was able, they were going shopping for a double-wide.





CHAPTER SIX


Sophie wanted to rip up the plans laid out on the dining room table. They looked like blueprints for a presidential inauguration, rather than a cattle sale party held in a barn. She and Maud had simply met with the caterers who kept plans from year to year and tweaked them to fit with that year’s ideas. According to Maud, not much had changed in the fifty years they’d had the ranch.

She stared at the five feet of paper rolled out and held down on all four corners with a steak knife. “Why did you go to all this trouble? Cleaning out the barn and getting things ready is a big chore, but the caterers bring everything else. The band sets up and we have a party. This was unnecessary.”

“We’re setting a precedent this year. Maud is gone. Buyers are going to be cautious until they figure out how we do things. We make a big splash at this year’s sale and it’ll keep the stock up, so to speak,” he said.

She cut her eyes around to look at him. “Just exactly what did you do in the service? Was it air force or army or what?”

“Air force. I did many jobs. What has that got to do with this?”

“You remind me of…never mind.”

“Small ranches like this one are quickly being swallowed up by the big corporations. If we want to stay alive, we have to put on a united front that says we are prosperous. Maud was solid as concrete. They don’t know how you and I are going to run this operation together. If they smell a drop of blood, the bidding at the sale will be low. Coyotes always go after the wounded chicken,” he said.

Sophie didn’t feel like a wounded chicken at all. She was more alive than she’d ever been, but what he said made sense. “So these plans aren’t the whole story. Spit out the rest of it.”

“Truce. We have to call a truce and be business partners at least on the side that people see. No fighting in front of anyone. They have to think that we are settling into our halves so well that it’s the same whole package that Maud gave them. Our brand is still reputable. They’re buying from a prosperous little ranch, and we are running it together,” he told her.