“You told her what?”Dillon asked.
Three of Landon’s brothers were gathered in the kitchen, putting together dinner while he reported on his conversation with Kitty. Dillon was home for the weekend and had momentarily stopped chopping tomatoes to send Landon an incredulous look.
“Turning in his grave,” Jaxon repeated as he added taco seasoning to the hamburger. “Sounds like something I would say and then you would yell at me for.”
Jaxon and Dillon might be identical twins, but their personalities were far from similar. Jaxon had always taken advantage of his looks—dark hair, blue eyes, and easy smile—to get him into trouble with women and out of trouble with everyone else. Dillon was more serious and responsible. He had to be in order to be a banker, Landon supposed. These days he was more comfortable in a suit than in a pair of Levi’s.
“You were supposed to build bridges,” Dillon said. “Not burn them.”
Preston, the youngest, snorted. At seventeen, he was still the shortest of the family but gaining fast. Nearly six feet tall. He had dark hair like the twins but was the only one of the brothers to inherit their father’s brown eyes. “Well, what did you all expect? If you wanted to sweet-talk the woman, you should have sent Jax over.”
“True,” Jaxon said, flashing his trademark grin.
Landon grabbed a handful of silverware to set the table. “I thought Kitty’s parents would answer the door. And besides, Jaxon already had a stint sweet-talking Kitty. As I recall, it didn’t turn out very well.”
The statement earned another grin from Jaxon. “That all depends on your definition ofvery well.”
Preston’s gaze bounced between Jaxon and Landon. He’d only been ten at the time of the infamous cattle drive and hadn’t been there. “Oh? What happened?”
Jaxon winked. “One night, Landon caught us kissing.”
“She was fifteen.” Landon plunked silverware near a plate and moved on to the next. “I had to keep Cal from killing you.”
“Didn’t do a very good job,” Jaxon said. “I was eating dust as drag rider for the rest of the drive, and after he talked to Dad, I had to clean Cal’s stables for months.”
Landon finished with the silverware and went back for glasses. “This time, just do us all a favor and stay away from the girl.”
“Why so touchy?” Jaxon asked.
Landon didn’t have an answer for that. He had no reason to feel protective of Kitty anymore, so he just took the glasses from the cupboard and ignored the question.
Dillon dumped the chopped tomatoes into a bowl. He was still dressed in his banker clothes and his tie kept threatening to swing into the vegetables. “We’ll just have to make the Bentons an offer they can’t refuse.”
“You mean rough them up?” Jaxon nodded as though taking the idea into consideration.
Dillon loosened his tie to remove it. “I mean offer them enough money to put thoughts of receptionists dressed as old-time barmaids out of their heads.”
How much would that be? Landon pulled tortillas from the fridge. “Can your bank loan us the money?”
“Actually, no,” Dillon said. “It’s against the bank’s policies to make loans to family members. We’ll have to apply somewhere else.”
More hoops to jump through. Landon suppressed a groan. “We’ll need to figure out how to make the payments on a huge loan.” It would be better to put down as much cash as possible. They had over a million in stocks and bonds, money they’d gotten from their parents’ life insurance policies, but even that wouldn’t be enough. “What’s the emerald necklace worth these days? Maybe it’s time to sell it.”
Besides the ranch, their parents had left one thing of value: their great-grandmother’s necklace. Their mom wore it every year on her anniversary and birthday. It was a Wyle tradition. But with their parents gone, maybe it was time to sell it.
Dillon shook his head. “We can’t sell a family heirloom.”
“It’s just a necklace,” Landon said. Keeping the ranch watered was more important than a piece of jewelry.
Dillon took the bowl of tomatoes to the table, still shaking his head. “We’ll have to get a loan regardless, and Mom wouldn’t want us to sell it. She wanted our wives to wear it on special occasions like she did.”
“Dillon’s got a point.” Jaxon took food to the table. “Audrey’s already looking forward to the day she’s old enough to wear it on her birthday.”
Landon dropped the package of tortillas on the table with the defeated thud. How could he argue with that sort of loyalty to their mother’s memory? Each of his brothers had their own way of grieving their parents’ death. Ethan, their oldest brother, had stayed away from the ranch, and Landon had thrown himself into the work there, not giving himself time to dwell on the loss. Evidently, part of the twins’ grief involved attaching meaning to their mother’s wishes about the necklace.
“Fine,” Landon said. “We’ll look into other options. After the funeral, I’ll talk to Mr. and Mrs. Benton and see if we can convince them to sell.”
Hopefully, Landon would be able to meet their price.