Page 43 of Magnetic Temptations
“Ma,” Myles says, using the tone of voice that usually lets him get away with causing havoc.
“Yes, baby?” Mom asks, her tone cooing. I turn my back so she doesn’t see me roll my eyes at her. As the baby, Myles gets treated differently than Maverick and I do. She babies him and all but spoon feeds him. He’s a spoiled little shit, maybe him coming with us is a good idea. It’ll force him to grow up and find his balls.
“Mav and I wanna go with Mason back to Texas. How mad would you be at me if I went with him?” Myles bats his eyelashes at her which has Mav snickering.
“This is what you wanna do? Are you sure, baby boy?” Now, I’m snickering behind my hand because the man is in his twenties and she talks to him like he’s two.
“Yes, Ma,” Myles replies.
“What am I? Chopped liver? Are you even gonna ask me what I want?” Maverick whines.
“Of course, Mav. But you’ve been independent all of your life, I know you can take care of yourself. If you didn’t want to do this, you wouldn’t,” Mom reasons.
“You’re right,” Mav says, puffing out his chest. “I’m not a baby and I don’t need my mom making my decisions for me. I’m a grown ass man unlike somebody.” His eyes stray to Myles who’s now the shade of a beet.
“I’m grown, asshole,” Myles argues.
“I’ve changed my mind, they can stay here with you, Ma,” I murmur.
“Shush, you,” Mom admonishes me, leering at me from beneath her eyelashes. “If your brothers want to live by you, you’ll let them.”
“Yeah,” Myles scoffs. “What she said.”
“She has a name,” Ma harrumphs, then starts waving her pointer finger at him. “It’ll do you good to address me properly, young man.”
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry, Ma,” he apologizes.
“That’s better,” she muses. “Now, I’m relieved in a way that y’all are wanting to forge a path for yourselves because the only reason we haven’t fully retired and sold the ranch is because we were saving it for the three of you.”
“What are you saying?” I inquire, noticing how old and tired they’re looking these days.
“We were going to discuss one of you taking it over,” Dad adds. “But if this isn’t a dream for any of you, we’d like to either sell it or find a manager to run it.”
“Manny and Estefano could manage it together,” I offer as an opinion.
“One of their families could move into our mobile home and we could buy another one to put near it. That way this house is available for us to stay when we come to check on things,” Maverick states.
“I don’t want to let the ranch go, not completely,” Myles mulls over. “It’s our legacy, our inheritance, and if we have kids one day, one of them may be drawn here and want to make it their future.”
“I agree,” I acknowledge. “I trust those two as much as I do one of us. They know the ropes and even pitch in with inventory and other paperwork. They know how to keep it running and if they run into an issue, we’re only a phone call away.”
“Is that what y’all want to do?” Dad asks. “It’s a family decision, but what you three have come up with was our other alternative to selling it if none of you wanted to take it over.”
The three of us glance at each other and come to the same conclusion, but I’m the one who voices it. “That’s what we want.”
Mom and Dad are meeting with the men later today, but since they’ve given their blessing for Myles and Maverick to make this move, there’s no putting it off. My brothers want to come with us when we leave. It was a little sudden for Mom and Dad, but they understand how excited my brothers are for this next phase of their life. Outside of a few shed tears from Mom, they promised to come for a visit once they get things organized at the ranch.
Everyone pitches in, and four hours later, other than the kitchen essentials and furniture, Myles and Maverick are packed up. Mane and Ella went behind us and cleaned the rooms thoroughly so the mobile home was ready for someone to move into it.
“Are you sure you don’t want to bring any of your bedroom furniture or televisions?” Mane asks them as we load the last of the boxes in the back of the pickup trucks. I borrowed the farm's hauler and strapped my bike down to it.
“We’re sure,” Mav answers. “These things are replaceable. They’re almost as old as we are and needed to be put out of their misery years ago.”
“They’re actually in really good shape,” Mane argues.
“Maybe,” Myles says, shrugging his shoulders. “But this way, Manny won’t have to go buy anything for his kids to sleep on. Plus, they have this old box set for a television. I'd like to give them ours since they’re an update and will give their kids more options for gaming and whatnot.”
“You’re leaving your consoles, aren’t you?” I ask the two of them.
