Page 16 of Wild As Her
“Yeah, he’s good with it. You know how Tucker is. Pretty much goes with whatever we want,” he says. “Plus, it didn’t hurt that he was at The Black Dog the other night with Jenna when she had a meeting and saw pictures of the contestants. He said in his words that they were ‘all babes.’”
“Jesus,” I groan.
“Yeah, Jesus isn’t coming to save the ranch, Jack. We need cash, and Jenna just saved our ass,” Weston says matter-of-fact.
“What happens if I say no?” I ask.
“You could. But, she’s worked really hard on this. She’s some sort of producer on it. This can help her career out a lot, too. So, we’re not just saving our asses, but hers as well.”
“By pimping out her brother?” I say dryly. “This is weird.”
“You don’t have to do it, but I mean, why wouldn’t you? There’s a lot of money at stake here that can really help the ranch. You’d be crazy not to just do it.”
“And I’d be crazytogo along with it,” I add.
“Look, I’m going to tell you what she explained to me. Most of the reality shows are staged. They’re not real. You don’treallyhave to marry someone. Unless you want to,” he adds.
This sounds…awful. Like it’s going to be a lot of showboating and fake nonsense that I want nothing to do with.
I groan. “I’ll think about it.”
“Speaking of money, the Wilder Ranch sale is almost final,” he tells me as I hear him shuffling papers on the other end of the line.
“Good. And you set up the trust?”
“I did. As much as our family battled with theirs, there was some weird clause on their ranch with the bank that they couldn’t sell to anyone without offering it to us first. Apparently, it was some sort of gambling debt that Clay Kendrick had with our dad. Weird as hell. I had never seen anything like that before, but apparently, it was legit, so I could bypass all the other offers. And there were others, Jack.Somany developers wanted to get their hands on that ranch. Our father was an asshole, but apparently, he did one thing right with protecting the boundaries of our ranch. He at least ensured they couldn’t build a mall or something next door.”
Relief fills me as I realize Cami and Ollie’s family ranch will be safe. “How much did this set me back?”
“It’s not pretty. It wiped out your entire inheritance from mom’s estate. Since you’re thirty now, you can access your portion, but Jenna and I have a few years to go, yet. Another reason why we need to do the show and get the money. I know you have this crazy, weird attachment to Cami and Ollie, but spending your inheritance on a woman who seems like she hates your guts doesn’t seem smart.”
“It is the right thing to do,” I say gruffly. “But it’s for sure adone deal?”
“Yes. You said you wanted to keep it to yourself for right now. right?”
“That’s right,” I say adamantly.
“I’ll finish up the details and get everything over to you.”
“Weston?” I ask, my voice lowering. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, brother. Things are different now for all of us. He can’t touch us. We’re doing things our way. No more bullshit.”
“No more bullshit,” I add with relief.
Except this show? It feels like a lot of bullshit.
I glance at my watch and realize I missed my morning ride with Cami. “Shit,” I mumble as I get up and head to the barn. I’ll ride fences anyway just to keep an eye on things. Ollie’s stayed the past few nights, and I’ve been busy at the ranch.
I make my way to Pesto’s stall, and he’s not in there. “Where’s my horse?” I call out to the other wranglers.
Nothing. Crickets.
I look around at a few of the wranglers and notice that Jace, a wrangler who usually takes care of the horses, is missing. None of them meet my eyes and ignore me.
“Jace!”
“He’s not here,” one of the wrangler’s named Anson calls.
