“He does. He was all over it. Rick left him a nice chunk of cash, and he loves his job. He’s—he’s going to head to California in a few years, I think.”
“California?”
“His daughter and grandbabies are there.”
“Hm. That’s…good for him.” Connor cleared his throat and stood. “I’m going to see if there’s coffee. Would anyone like some coffee?”
He shook his head, but his dad nodded. “Please.”
As soon as Connor escaped, Pop leaned forward. “You okay, son?”
“I don’t know. Jesus. The ranch? Me? No one was going to warn me? I mean,Jesus!” Someone should have warned him, dammit.
“I was sure you’d see it. Demming’s close to retirement, and I’m…too old for ranching. Who did you think would be able to run it? You’re the natural choice, and you’re who he wanted. Rick wanted that place to be yours. He told me so a million times.”
“Daddy, what am I going to do? Connor… The boys…” God, the boys would love it as much as he did.
“It’s a big, wonderful place, son. But I can’t tell you what to do. I can see it’s going to be complicated and you’re just going to have to make some choices.”
He whispered low. “I’ve wanted to live there my whole life.”
How was he going to be able to walk away?
“I know. So did Rick. You’re a cowboy.”
“Mommama left a pot of coffee and a note. She’s taken the boys shopping.” Connor came back in with two mugs of coffee and handed one to Daddy.
“She’s just looking for an excuse to spoil them.” Daddy chuckled.
“Of course she is.” She didn’t want to be here for this conversation, and Early knew it.
Daddy sighed. “Well, I think I’m going to take my coffee and the paper and have a little lie down. It’s been quite a day.”
And that was Daddy escaping now. Dammit.
“It’s not even noon, Daddy.”
“I know.”
Dammit. Early stared at his husband. “He left me the ranch.”
“I heard.” Connor held out his hand, offering him a cookie. “Snickerdoodle?”
* * *
So…Early now owned a ranch.
The thought that Rick might leave it to Early had occurred to Connor just that morning, but he’d decided to keep it to himself. On the face of it, this was a good thing. Early loved that place, had many happy memories there, and from what he could tell, Early actually wanted it.
So Connor was trying not to panic, because the reality of owning it was far more complicated than just loving it.
Early couldn’t run a ranch from a house in Denver. Period. With some work, he could hire people, he could turn it into a self-sustaining operation, sure. But Connor had seen the look in his husband’s eyes as he watched those mustangs run, and he knew Early wasn’t going to want to trust it to someone else.
He knew it as well as he knew Early.
He also knew Early was as stunned as he was, probably more, and he was going to have to tread carefully.
“Mommama makes good coffee,” he said, totally avoiding the subject, and stuffed a cookie in his mouth so he couldn’t say anything more than that. This whole situation had been engineered to drop the bomb in their laps and leave them to it.