I didn’t want to get into a conversation about my problems at the ranch before our brothers joined us. In fact, I wished I could put it off indefinitely. I dreaded telling Faith more than anyone else because she’d predicted the folly of trying to save this place, and I didn’t listen to her.
“How are things going down there?” I asked. “You look a little rundown.”
She touched her hair, which was pulled back in a soft headband, and I could tell she was judging her appearance on her screen. “I guess I am. I’ve had a lot going on lately.”
Her two daughters were grown and flown, as they say, with careers and social lives that kept them busy. Faith didn’t work outside the home and never had. She left college in the middle of her senior year to marry Palmer, and their daughter Vesper was born a year later. She and Palmer divorced several years back, and she refused to start dating again. Taking all of that into account, I wasn’t sure what “a lot going on” could mean.
“Tell me how I can help,” I said.
“I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me.”
I snorted. “That’s never stopped either of us.”
Faith laughed, and her face transformed into someone more recognizable. “That’s so true. We’re the worriers of the family, especially me.”
Sam showed up on the call. “Hey there! Am I late?”
“Not as late as Bowie.” I considered texting our wayward brother, but he rarely kept his phone on him.
“What did you want to talk to all of us about?” Sam asked.
“I’d like to wait for Bowie.” I didn’t want to have to tell the story twice. “Do you think he forgot?”
As if he’d heard me, Bowie logged onto the call, still pushing buttons on his keyboard. “Can you see me?” He leaned forward and squinted into his camera, his hairy face crowding the screen. “Is this on?”
“Yes, we can see you.” Sam rolled his eyes. “And you’re even later than I was for this call.”
“There is a two-hour time difference, Samuel,” Bowie said gruffly. “Plus, I had a late run last night, so I needed to sleep in a little.”
“Did you go to sleep as the prince and wake up as the beast?” Sam asked, mocking Bowie’s voluminous beard and wild hair. He got a laugh from almost everyone.
“He’s right, you’ve gone feral,” Faith teased. “But you’re still cute.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Bowie said. “I’m a hairy mess. Let’s move on. Why are we all on here today? Not that I don’t want to see you all, but this isn’t my favorite hour of the day for chatting.”
“Right.” I drew in a deep breath and tried to look like someone who wasn’t dying inside. “I need to talk to you about the ranch. The bottom line is we aren’t pulling in enough money. We’ve only had a handful more guests this summer than last, and I’m burning the staff out because we’re always short-handed. To keep this place going, we’d need an influx of cash to hire people and renovate the property, and we don’t have any money left. Faith, I should have listened to you. I’m sorry. I took on too much here.” Their silence made me feel worse, but I forged ahead. “I think we should put the property on the market, so we need to talk about pricing and how and when we want to proceed with the sale. You’re obviously co-owners of the property, and we need to think this through together.”
Maybe the money from the sale would help Faith feel more independent from Palmer. For some reason, she still felt like she had to run all her major purchases past him. Sam had been wanting to expand his practice, and he could use this money toward that end. Bowie…well, I honestly had no idea how he’d spend some extra cash because he already owned his own plane and he certainly wasn’t spending money on grooming these days. Those eyebrows were out of control.
“Think this through together?” Bowie repeated with a scowl. “Seems like you did all the thinking, and you’re telling us how it’s gonna be.”
I was speechless. The sibling who had been back to the ranch once since he was eighteen years old was the one pushing back at me?
“Go easy on him, please,” Faith said to him. “Can’t you see this is hard for Matthew?”
Bowie shook his head in disbelief. “It’s hard for me to hear that he’s selling our family’s ranch without even getting our input!”
“You haven’t been down here since the funeral,” I reminded him sharply. “You don’t know what I’m dealing with here, and you’ve shown zero interest until now. In fact, none of you have, except for Sam, who gives us free vet services. I do appreciate that, Sam. Without you, we wouldn’t even be open at this point.”
“What exactly did you want me to do?” Bowie snapped back at me. “I don’t remember you calling on me for anything. You always said everything was fine, and you had it all under control. When have you ever asked for or accepted anyone’s help?”
“I think what Bowie is trying to say,” Faith said carefully, “is that we’re here for you now. Maybe we can figure out a solution together?”
“There’s no solution,” I said. “Believe me, I’ve tried to find one.”
“Hear me out,” Sam said. “We turn the ranch into a home for aging fashion models, thirty and up. A place they can roam free and stretch those long legs.”
Faith rolled her eyes. “This isn’t the time for jokes, Samuel.”
