4. Ryan

Dust billowed up off the dirt road as an unfamiliar truck made its way down our long driveway. I shifted my gaze to Quinn, whose narrowed eyes were focused on the unexpected guest. He met my eyes, and we both nudged our horses forward at the same time, moving toward the house.

"Expecting someone?" Quinn asked.

I shook my head as a prickle of unease worked its way down my spine. I looked to my right, gripping the reins in one hand and shielding my eyes with the other, scanning the horizon for the little house next door. When I found it, everything looked quiet. I breathed out slowly, a mixture of relief and disappointment washing over me.

Quinn shot me a sympathetic look. Years ago, I'd confided in him one drunken night about my past with Maddox. At least he'd stopped pressuring me to go out and meet someone for the most part. The parts of Quinn that were damaged from growing up gay in a tiny town in the bible belt understood how flawed I was deep down inside, so he didn't push me.

"I don't think it'd be him, Ryan," he said quietly, voicing and crushing the hope I'd had all in one sentence.

I squared my shoulders and straightened my spine, hardening my heart again. I kicked myself for feeling hopeful in the first place. How many times would I get my hopes up only to be crushed again and again? Maddox was never coming back. I doubted he even remembered me. I couldn't blame him. It wasn't like this was a happy place for him filled with sunshine and rainbows. I'd like to think I was a bright spot in an otherwise shitty childhood, but the way he left had me thinking otherwise.

"I know he's never coming back. Maybe one of these days, my head will tell my heart to knock its shit off, huh?" I smiled sadly.

"He never deserved you, and someday, when you're ready, you'll find someone worthy of all your amazingness," Quinn promised. "Until then, you're mine."

I giggled at the way he waggled his eyebrows at me, my spirits lifted in a way that only my best friend could. "Race you!" I yelled, kicking my heels into Storm's side as he took off, his hooves thundering along the dirt. Daisy's gallops rumbled behind me, but Storm was faster. With my head start, Quinn would never win.

My heart was light, and I laughed as I rounded to the front of the house, pulling the reins to slow Storm to a stop, Quinn and Daisy hot on my heels. I laughed breathlessly and hopped down off of my stallion's back. "I win!" I cheered, pumping my fists into the air.

Quinn flashed me a dirty look. "You cheated."

"You're a sore loser," I countered.

The car we'd been watching pulled into the driveway behind my dad's old Chevy truck, coming to a stop. Shielding my eyes from the windshield's glare, I tried to see who was inside, but it was useless. Quinn stepped up beside me and threw his arm over my shoulder. "Who do you think it is?" he asked.

"No idea. Guess we'll know soon enough."

A youngish man in a charcoal suit exited the car and moved toward Quinn and me, a grim expression on his face. "Are you mister and missus Knight?" he asked us.

I shook my head. "I'm their daughter."

"That'll work," he declared, lifting a thick manilla envelope I hadn't noticed he was carrying and holding it out for me to take.

"What's this?" I eyed the envelope warily.

"Just read through it. Everything to answer your questions is in there. Consider yourselves served. Good day," he said airily before turning on his heel and walking back to his car.

My stomach twisted uncomfortably. I didn't like any of this, and that creepy unease I'd been feeling earlier returned in full force.

"What the actual fuck?" Quinn asked, looking down at the envelope held in my shaky hands.

"We better go inside and see what this is all about." I spun on my heels and stomped up the stairs onto the porch, slamming the screen door open. I was scared, and it was manifesting itself as anger. I knew I should rein it in, but this was going to be bad news. I felt it in my bones. I just didn't know how bad.

Quinn pulled out one of the dining chairs, and I sunk down into it. He plopped down next to me, and I slid my finger underneath the sealed flap of the envelope, my heart beating wildly in my chest.

"Do you think we should wait for your parents to get home?" Quinn wondered.

Shaking my head, I slid out the stack of papers inside. "What if they're hiding something? My dad's been a little cagey lately when I've brought up some of the changes I want to make for the ranch."

Quinn leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "Fuck, this could be bad."

"I know." I turned over the papers, scanning the print quickly. The more I read, the more my stomach dropped, and I started to feel lightheaded. Quinn could read me like a book and tensed next to me.

"What is it?" he asked.

Wordlessly, I handed him the papers so he could look them over. I watched as his eyes ran down the length of the page. "Fuck," he whispered, his hazel eyes lifting to meet mine.

"Fuck's right. Do you think they were going to tell us?" My thoughts were scrambling around in my head, and I couldn't make sense of what I'd just read.

"I don't know, Ry. But we need to talk to them as soon as they get home. This is really, really serious."

"Let's talk to them over dinner. We've got chores to finish and not a lot of daylight left to do them." I stood up, stuffed the papers back in the envelope, moved to my bedroom, and left it on my dresser.

When I got outside, Quinn was already on Daisy's back, ready to finish our tasks for the day, but he didn't look happy. I didn't feel happy about it, so I couldn't blame him.

"We better get this done," Quinn said quietly.

I nodded and pulled myself onto Storm's back. Despite the hundred and five degree weather, chills rolled down my spine. Pushing Storm into a trot, I was tempted to gallop across the pastures and into the sunset. That sounded like a better prospect than sitting over dinner and confronting my parents about how we were about to lose our farm.

My heart slammed against my ribcage, and I couldn't catch my breath. I caught Quinn's eye as he lowered himself into the chair next to me at the table. His eyes were wide, and a light sheen of sweat had broken out across his forehead. He looked about as freaked out as I felt about confronting my parents.

Looking at my mom and dad, you'd never guess anything was amiss. My mom cheerfully hummed as she brought the food to the table, and my dad was telling Quinn a joke he'd heard today. Once my mom finally sat down, I waited until everyone dished up their food before clearing my throat.

Quinn reached under the table for my hand, lacing our fingers together and squeezing. I took a deep breath, his support giving me the strength I needed to have this conversation. Both of my parents turned toward me, and their curious stares bored into me. I just wasn't sure what to say to start the most awkward conversation I'd probably ever have in my entire life.

"When you guys were out today, Quinn and I had an interesting visitor," I started.

My mom's eyes darted to my dad before shifting back to me. "Oh?" she asked.

Nodding, I continued. "Yep. A man came by to drop off some papers." I pulled the envelope out from under my chair, setting it down on the table and sliding it towards my dad. "About the ranch."

My mom paled and reached for her lemonade glass, her shaking hand making the liquid slosh around as she brought it to her mouth.

My dad's shoulders slumped, and he let out a long sigh. "We thought we could fix it before it would ever get this far, kiddo. We never wanted you to have to worry about it. You've already done so much for us."

I rubbed my temples. I could already feel the beginning of a stress headache forming. I'd held onto one last shred of hope that they'd tell me this had all been some terrible mistake or they'd fixed it before I'd ever found out. But that clearly wasn't the case.

"What are our options at this point?" I questioned, looking at my dad.

He avoided meeting my eyes, playing with his napkin instead. "We've tried getting another mortgage, getting a loan, and requesting a payment arrangement to pay off the debt, but we've been denied every step of the way. The ranch isn't as profitable as it once was, and we don't have the money to invest in new technology."

Tapping my fingers on the table, I clenched my jaw and took a few deep breaths to calm down. An entire tornado of frustration was blowing its way through my body right now, so I held as still as I could to let it pass. Quinn grabbed my hand again, rubbing soothing circles on my wrist with his thumb. I didn't know what I'd do if he wasn't here right now.

Finally, I opened my eyes. "I've been trying to tell you for months about changes we could make to streamline things and save money while not having to invest much, and you refused to listen, dad. You refused to even consider any of my ideas. If things were so bad, why the hell wouldn't you have tried what we could to fix this? Now we're going to lose the ranch!" I yelled, my voice rising more with every word. My chest was heaving. I'd never yelled at my parents before, but I was so angry and frustrated and scared.

My dad sat up straighter, folding his arms across his chest. "I thought I could handle it myself." Ah, now it made sense. My dad was a proud man, and since his accident, he'd felt useless, like his best years were behind him and like he couldn't contribute to the ranch anymore. This ranch had been in his family for generations, his grandfather and father both lived their lives here, worked the land, and raised their families. Now it was his turn, and he'd been too stubborn to ask for help before it was too late.

Waving my hand around at nothing in particular, I said, "Clearly not. We've got a month to try to fix this."

My mom spoke up. "Honey, it's too late. There's nothing we can do."

Pushing my shoulders back, I stood up, pulling Quinn with me by our joined hands. "I am not letting go of this ranch. Maybe you two are okay just giving up, but while I still have breath in my body, I will fight with everything I have to save this place. This is our home. No one is taking it from us."

Spinning on my heel, I marched off toward my room. "Where are we going?" Quinn asked, letting me drag him behind me.

"I need to call Charlie and Justice, and then we need to figure out what the hell we're going to do to fix this mess," I fumed. I bet if he looked hard enough, Quinn would actually be able to see steam pouring out of my ears, that's how mad I was.

He followed me into my room, and I slammed the door behind us. I grabbed my phone and dialed Justice, putting it on speaker. Pacing the room, I waited for her to pick up. "Hello?" she answered.

"Hey, sis. Do you have a minute to talk? It's important."

She shuffled around a bit on her end before answering. "Sure, what's up?"

"Hold on, let me get Charlie in on this, too," I said, before dialing my older sister and adding her to our call.

"Okay, Justice?" I asked.

"Mmhmm."

"Charlie?"

"I'm here," Charlie acknowledged.

"Quinn's here, too," I added, shooting him a grateful look. He winked at me from where he was sprawled out on my bed. I moved toward him and sank down into my soft mattress.

"Hey, Quinn," both my sisters greeted him at the same time.

"Hi, beautiful ladies," Quinn sang.

I cut in. "I called you both because Quinn and I got some disturbing news today. We confronted the parentals about it at dinner, and they admitted everything, and now we need to make a plan."

Charlie groaned. "What did they do?"

"The bank is about to foreclose on the ranch. They served us with Notice of Sale papers today. In a month, they're going to auction the ranch off to the highest bidder."

"What?" Justice shrieked into the phone. "They can't do that!"

I scoffed. "Yeah, Jus. They can, and they are. Unless we figure out a way to stop them."

"I want to help. I do. But with my rotations, I barely have time to sleep. I shouldn't even be on this call right now. I'm sorry, Ry, but the most I can offer is moral support," Charlie apologized. "If it makes you feel better, I feel like absolute shit about it, though."

Tears pricked behind my eyelids, and I blinked them back. I had to be strong right now if I had any hope of saving this place. I couldn't crumble or break down. There'd be time for that when the ranch was safe. "I get it, Charlie. You've worked way too hard for your career to slip now. It's okay."

She breathed out a relieved sigh. "I really am sorry."

"We get it, Charlie," Justice added. "And Ry, I can help with research and stuff if you need it, but I'm in the same boat as Charlie. Once I committed to the academy, they owned my ass. There's not much I can do without quitting. I can't miss any time."

I might've been pissed if I didn't love my sisters so much. But as usual, I'd be on my own for this. It had been the same when my dad had his accident. I'd been the one to step up and answer the call. To do what needed to be done. That's why it hurt so much that my parents hadn't told me about the ranch being in trouble. Charlie was chasing her dream of being a neurosurgeon, and Justice was halfway through firefighter training. But I'd given up on my life to be here, to tow the family line and be the good little daughter who carried on traditions.

I breathed out a heavy sigh. "Okay, I'm glad I got to at least get this off my chest."

"I still can't believe they didn't tell us. I'm just as mad at them as you are, Ry," Justice huffed.

"Same," Charlie said through clenched teeth.

"What are you going to do?" Justice asked.

I took a deep breath, but Quinn answered. "We don't know yet. Reading through every line of those papers is a good place to start."

"Yeah, then making dad show me the books on the ranch. I need to see and understand what's coming in and what's going out. I should've forced him to show me years ago," I added.

"That's a good place to start, babe. Let us know what you find out, and we can try to figure out a way to help however we can," Charlie said.

We ended the call with an agreement we'd talk tomorrow after Quinn and I went over everything. Suddenly weakness and exhaustion clawed their way through my body. I stood up, pulling my jeans off and throwing my PJs on. Quinn didn't bat an eye, whipping his jeans and t-shirt off until we were both ready for bed. We climbed in my bed together, and he wrapped his arms around me, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. "We'll find a way, Ry. We always do."

His reassurance made me feel marginally better as I closed my eyes, breathing in his comforting smell. Not for the first time, I found myself wishing my best friend wasn't gay because life would be so much easier if I could just move on and set my heart free. For now, I had bigger things to worry about than Maddox Everleigh's imprint on my soul.