cantaloupe. “Six weeks or so.”
“Well.” Steve’s favorite word, apparently. “If you gather the others, I suppose we can do the reading in Granville’s office. Unless...” His gaze swung to Deanna’s. “You’d rather do it elsewhere?”
“The office is fine.”
It didn’t take long. Her dad had left modest bequests to various people in the community who’d be notified in a few days. Gus got an annuity, Dad’s old Caddy and the right to live in one of the guesthouses as long as he wished. Since Dad had already given Josh’s parents a house in town after Sam’s retirement, his gifts to them now included a few stocks and bonds and a small Thomas Moran landscape painting Sam had always admired...and which Deanna knew was worth big bucks. Then, aside from a modest savings account which went to Deanna, there were a few disbursements to various charities Dad had always supported, particularly ones that worked with the local Native populations.
“And now,” Steve said, peering over his glasses at Deanna, then Josh, before clearing his throat. “‘I leave my ranch, known as the Vista Encantada, including the house, the land, any and all outbuildings and whatever livestock on said land at the time of my death, equally to my only daughter, Deanna Marie Blake, and my employee Joshua Michael Talbot.”
A moment of stunned silence preceded a dual “What?” from Deanna and Josh.
“Congratulations, kids,” Steven said, angling the will toward them so they could see for themselves. “You’re now co-owners of one of the prettiest pieces of property in northern New Mexico.”
“But I don’t want the ranch,” Dee said later, after everyone else had left so she and Josh could ostensibly hash things out. She shifted in the corner of the tufted leather couch in the office, clearly miserable. Physically and emotionally, Josh guessed. “I never did. And Dad knew it.”
Leaning his butt against the edge of the Depression-era desk, Josh crossed his arms. He’d initially assumed her shock had been because Gran had left half the ranch to him. Apparently not. “You told him that?”
“Yes!” Then, rubbing one temple, she sighed. “Or at least I thought I did. In any case—” her hand dropped to what was left of her lap “—I never made a secret of how much I hated being stuck out here. Why on earth would I want the place?”
“And what’d you think he was gonna do? You’re his kid, Dee. The ranch was his most valuable asset. Of course he’d leave it to you. I’m only surprised he didn’t leave you the whole thing.” Because she hadn’t been the only one in shock there. Truth be told, Josh still was. And would be for a good long while, he suspected.
Dee’s eyes lifted to his before she shoved out another sigh. “I can’t...this isn’t my home anymore, Josh.”
“Well aware of that.” His forehead pinched, he glanced down at the floor, then back at her. “But it’s been mine all my life. And the breeding operation...sure, I was only an employee and all, but your dad hadn’t had a hand in it for some time. He’d left all the decision making to me—”
“I know, Josh. I know.” She paused. “He obviously trusted you. And it’s not as if you don’t deserve it. But—”
“Look, you don’t want to stick around and help me run the Vista, I completely understand. We can still be partners, if you trust me enough to handle things on this end, and we can split the profits. There’s money to be made with the cabins, too, plenty of hunters would be happy to fork over the bucks during elk season. You know Steve’ll look out for your interests, make sure I’m not screwing you over—”
“It’s not that,” she said, sagging into the couch’s deep cushions. “It’s...” Her mouth thinned. “Okay. It’s not as if I’d really given this much thought, since I didn’t figure it’d be an issue for a long, long time. But since he did leave me half the ranch...oh, Lord. I can’t even say it.”
Josh’s veins iced over. “You want to sell it.”
A long moment passed before she said, “It’s more that I need to.”
“You sound like you’ve got gambling debts.”
She almost smiled. “No. But I do have a baby on the way. A baby who’s going to be applying to colleges eighteen years down the road.” Her mouth twisted. “Would be nice to have one less thing to worry about. Sure, the place might be profitable now. But there’s no guarantee it’ll stay that way. Not in this economic climate. If we sold it...”
Birds in the hand and all that. Yeah, he got it. Josh sighed, realizing he could hardly argue with her. About that, at least. God knows plenty of ranches went under, through no fault of their owners. And he’d be a fool to guarantee her that the Vista wouldn’t. Also, out of curiosity Granville had had the property appraised a couple years back, information he’d apparently shared with Josh because he’d been too stunned to keep it to himself. Even taking into account normal fluctuations in the real estate market, the figure was staggering. To somebody like Josh, at least.
Still, for him, it wasn’t about the money. It was about the ranch itself. It was about home.
“What about her father? I know you said you’re not together, but—”
“He’s not even part of the equation,” she said quietly, then heaved herself to her feet and walked over to the window facing the mountains. “For reasons I’d really rather not get into right now.”
Anger spurted through him. “Or ever, right?”
A frown crumpling her brow, she turned. “My situation is really none of your concern—”
“You want to sell the only place I’ve ever called home, Dee. A place I’d never, ever in my wildest dreams thought might be mine someday. So now that I’m this close—” he held up one hand, finger and thumb a quarter inch apart “—to seeing those wild dreams come true, you want to yank it from me. So tell me how the reason behind that isn’t any of my concern?”
Her arms folded, Dee pivoted back to the window. “You could always buy me out.”
“Seriously? Like I’ve got that kind of cash lying around. For a down payment, maybe, but no way in hell would I ever qualify for a loan big enough for the rest of it—”
“But if we sold it and split the proceeds...” She faced him again, a thin ridge between her brows. “You could buy your own place, right? No, it wouldn’t be this big—”
“It wouldn’t be the Vista.”
“—but you don’t need this much acreage to start up your own operation. And you’ve already got a great reputation, I’m sure everybody knows it’s you behind the breeding business. It’s you who’s won all the rodeo titles. And besides, then it’d really be yours. Yours and Austin’s. And who knows? Maybe someday down the road you can buy the Vista back from the new owners. Especially since you know as well as I do how few outsiders stick around once the romance of owning a ranch wears off. And you can take whatever livestock you want, nobody’s talking about selling the horses. Only the property.”
“Except I know for a fact there’s
