Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(45)

Hayden and Tanner threw back the rest of their coffee and stood at the same time. “See y’all in half an hour. Where do we stow our extra stuff?”

Sophie looked up with a question on her face.

“We came to beg for a job, so we came ready to stay. Figured we could haul it all back home better than we could make a five-hour trip to get it if y’all said you could use our help,” Tanner said.

“How much extra stuff?”

“Don’t know until we see the bunkhouse. We’ll keep as much as we can out there,” Hayden said.

“Use the balcony in the sale barn,” Elijah said. “It won’t be used again until next year. By then maybe we’ll have some other living arrangements in order.”

Sophie cut her eyes around at him.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’ve got lots of plans, and we can discuss them now or later,” he said.

“Right now!” she said and motioned for him to sit down.

Hayden and Tanner made a hasty retreat outside, leaving Elijah and Sophie to fight about whatever plans he had already made without talking to her first.

“OK, spit it out,” she said.

“This week’s or this month’s worth of plans?” Elijah asked.

Sophie rolled her gray eyes at him. “Start with this week and proceed from there.”

“How long you got?”

“It’s nine thirty. I reckon I’ve got about twelve or thirteen hours. That long enough? If not I could stay awake until midnight.”

He grinned.

“If it’s going to take longer than that, then talk fast.” She set into the rest of the omelet before it got really cold.

“OK, this week, tomorrow, we take their offer unless you think we should counterbid and start negotiations.”

She shrugged. “The price is fair. The ranch I tried to buy to get you off the Double Bar M was a thousand dollars an acre. It did have a house, but it also had lots more mesquite to deal with.”

Elijah raised an eyebrow. “So you tried to kick me off for a ranch of chiggers and mesquite?”

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You didn’t budge, did you? We going to argue or plan?” she asked.

Elijah glared at her.

She glared back.

He chuckled.

Her eyes twinkled.

“OK, so neither of us is budging. You got any dreams about this ranch?” he asked.

Her head slowly went from side to side. “Not one thing. Just figured I’d keep on doing what Aunt Maud did, but I reckon it’s either grow or get swallowed up, ain’t it?”

“That’s the truth in a nutshell. I’d kind of figured the same way when she wrote and said she was leaving me half the ranch,” Elijah said.

Sophie held up a palm. “Whoa, partner! She left you the ranch?”

“Well, yes. It certainly didn’t come from Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.”

“I thought Uncle Jesse wanted you to have half.”

“He did, but he left the actual doing of it up to Aunt Maud.”

You sneaky devil, Sophie thought. Where are you right now? You were all ready to give me advice a while ago but now you are silent? Did you think I’d never find out that you deliberately brought this man onto the Double Bar M? What in the devil were you thinking, Aunt Maud?

But Aunt Maud must have been off in a corner somewhere telling St. Peter all about cattle ranching in Texas because she didn’t have a thing to say to Sophie.

“So,” Elijah went on. “According to our bank records, we have enough to buy two more tractors this fall. Both of those places already have steel fence posts, so we just have to take care of that around our original land. I figure our original crew can put up new fencing, and Hayden and Tanner can begin to clear off what mesquite didn’t burn and get the other two sections ready for a winter wheat crop. As we have time, you and I can begin to hit the sales and buy some new blood for the cattle line.”

Sophie looked at the figures he had written on the edge of the paper. They looked solid. He’d left a healthy account in the bank in case of disaster. A good rancher never used up everything down to the last penny or else something would come along and he’d have to start borrowing. And Aunt Maud said that was the downfall of the small-time rancher.

“Used or brand new?” she asked.

“We talkin’ cattle or tractors?”

“You know exactly what I’m talkin’ about. First rattle out of the bucket has to be tractors. If we don’t have land to graze the new stock, then we might as well not buy them.”

“Used. There’s a sale over in Abilene on Friday night. Auction on a couple of ranches that are selling out. I saw the sale bill in the Dairy Queen, and Theron mentioned it yesterday. They’ve got a couple of John Deeres that look good, and Theron thinks they’ll go for a reasonable price. They’re also offering a really good used Dodge Ram truck that’s only three years old with good mileage that I thought I’d buy, but that’s personal, not ranch money.”

“OK, now go on,” she said.

“You going with me to the sale?”

“Well, I’m not staying home,” she declared. “You might not buy the right tractors, and besides, there might be something else for sale that we’ll need, like rakes and plows.”