After a half hour of what-ifs and if-onlys, Raney turned to her with tears in deep-set eyes so like her own. “Is that what you want, Mama? To sell?”
Coralee twirled the stem of the wine goblet in her fingers and watched the dark liquid swirl up the sides. “No. I don’t want to sell. I love the ranch, too. I love having it in our family. But I don’t want the responsibility of it anymore. Seems I’ve been tied to this piece of land forever, and I’m ready to try something different while I still can.”
Solemn faces stared back at her.
Coralee wondered what they saw. An aging mother suffering an identity crisis? Or an energetic woman not ready to give up?
“You could date,” Len suggested. “Maybe you’re just bored and looking for something to do. Why not start going out again?”
“I bet old Westbrook would give you another go,” Joss said.
Coralee almost shuddered. “Esterbrook. And I wouldn’t go with that man across an icy street in the middle of a hailstorm!”
“Why not? He seemed nice enough.”
“He’s strange.”
“Strange how? Like he cries at Hallmark movies?”
“Oh, I love Hallmark movies,” Joss said.
“Or strange like he keeps a shed full of doll heads and a shrine to his mother?” Raney had the most peculiar sense of humor.
“Why would he have doll heads? That’s creepy.”
“Laugh if you want,” Coralee scolded. “But the man has issues.”
“Like what?” KD asked.
“He’s too . . . touchy-feely.”
Joss nodded in understanding. “I get that a lot, too.”
“It’s been nine years,” Len reminded her. “Maybe you’re just out of practice.”
Coralee sighed. “I thought that, too. And I tried. I truly did. But it was awful.”
Joss reached over and patted Coralee’s hand. “Maybe you need drugs. Or props. I read that—”
“Stop!” Raney shouted. “I’m calling an audible. Let’s get back to the matter at hand. Joss, do you want to sell?”
“No. I love the ranch. I loved growing up here and it’s a great place to raise babies. It’s been an island of tranquility in my turbulent life.”
“Good God,” KD muttered under her breath.
Lennox laughed. “Sounds like a line in one of her songs, doesn’t it, KD?”
Joss’s brown eyes lit up. “I know! I just thought it up. Do you like it?”
“Can we please get this settled?” Raney cut in before they wandered too far again. “Do we sell the ranch, or not?”
Lennox raised her goblet high. “I say we keep it, have Raney run it, and give Mama the best send-off ever!”
Joss seconded that. “Yay, Mama!”
KD held up her glass. “I’m in. Assuming Raney wants to keep running it.”
“I’ll have to think about it,” Raney said hesitantly. At their looks of surprise, she burst into giggles. “Of course I’ll run it! I’d love to run it!”
“Then it’s settled.”
“But . . .” Raney held up a hand. “Before we make it final, there are some changes I’d like to make. If y’all agree.”
“Such as?”
“Fewer cattle.” She explained that beef futures were unpredictable and hard to forecast, especially with all the Canadian beef coming in. Plus, the trend was toward organic, which meant lower weight and higher losses to disease. “I’d like to trim the herds and concentrate on a breeding program. AI is the only way to go, and prize-winning, proven bulls are money in the bank.”
Joss looked confused. “Artificial intelligence?”
Raney rolled her eyes. “Artificial insemination.”
“The gift that keeps giving,” KD said with a snicker.
“Turkey-baster ranching. It sounds so . . . festive.”
More giggles.
Coralee decided not to open another bottle.
Raising her voice over the laughter of her sisters, Raney continued, “And I also want to focus more on horses. Cutting horses.”
“No surprise there,” KD said.
Raney lost patience. “Do you know what a champion stud can earn? Maybe a million dollars. One horse. Think of what a stableful would bring.”
That sobered them up.
“We’d have to invest in young stock with strong bloodlines. And good trainers. But the sale of the cattle would cover most of that. What do you say?”
They liked it. While they discussed appropriate names for these champion stallions and mares Raney would breed, Coralee sipped from her glass. A mother’s pride added to the warm tingle in her throat as she watched her daughters laugh and tease and make plans for a future that seemed to stretch forever. She had done well. They were all good, strong women. Charlie would have been proud.
Her gaze swept over their lovely faces, each different from the other, and each beautiful in her own way. Lennox, so smart and chic and forgiving—she’d had to be with a husband like Ryan. Raney, the son they’d never had, capable and efficient and so beautiful she still had men trailing after her like lost puppies. Little KD, destined for a life Coralee could only imagine. And Joss, the family wild child, chaser of rainbows and butterflies, heading into the greatest adventure of all.
How she loved them.
As if sensing her mother’s gaze, Joss turned and looked at her. “What?” When Coralee just smiled, Joss’s puzzlement gave way to a grin. “You know.”
Raney looked from one to the other. “Knows what?”
“Why Joss wasn’t drinking tonight,” Len answered.
“Joss wasn’t drinking?”
“How did you know?” Joss asked Coralee.
“She always knows,” Len said. “She knew about both of mine before I did.”
Raney gaped at her little sister. “You’re pregnant?”
“Almost four and a half months! I’m surprised you couldn’t tell!”
“I thought you were a little curvier,” KD said. “Not surprising, considering the amount of food you put away at dinner.”
“I’m eating for two,” Joss said defensively.
“And doing a damn good job of it.”