Chapter Two

Colton stared at the overpriced lawyer sitting behind the oversize oak desk.

“What do you mean, we are required to stay on the ranch for a year?” Colton felt like he had been kicked in the teeth.

Surely, he had misheard. Had to have misheard.

The lawyer, Rich Patterson, blinked at him twice behind gold wire-framed glasses before turning his attention back to the papers in front of him.

“The will stipulates that the three sons shall inherit the ranch and the surrounding property provided you all live on the ranch for one year.” The man shuffled through the papers with long, knobby fingers. “The year will start as soon as the will is read. Which is—” he dropped the papers back onto his desk “—today.”

The overstuffed bookcases, files, and furniture made the room feel cramped and tight, and the air smelled stale. Colton felt like he barely fit in the space along with all the furniture and the other three men as the will and his father’s last demands were read out loud.

Colton shifted to the edge of the uncomfortable leather chair and leaned closer to the lawyer who was in the process of destroying his careful plans to return to San Francisco and prove to his father, even in his death, that he wasn’t some loser. “What if we have jobs that we can’t abandon?”

“Colton…” Ty’s tone was clear but firm.

“What?” he snapped. “Our father is trying to manipulate us, even from the grave, and I’m not falling for this bullshit.”

Wasn’t it enough that Beau was a distant father that never wanted anything to do with them? He left Montana because of the man, and now he was being forced to stay home? No way. Not in this life.

His company. He was going to lose his company and his condo. Farm to You focused on contracting with small farms to provide fresh organic produce to restaurants. His job was to build relationships internally and externally and make sure the clients were happy and that contracts were being executed. Farm to You prided themselves on building strong, in-person relationships. He headed out to the farms to look at crops and fields and to network with the farmers. He went into the restaurants to learn what the owners and chefs were looking for. While his company had a decent number of clients, they were still barely getting by. What if they lost clients because he couldn’t continue building the relationships in person?

His throat felt tight as he stood. “I’m supposed to fly out tomorrow, and you’re telling me that I need to call my company and tell them I won’t be back for a year? I don’t think so.” His father was going to be the man that forced him to fail. Again.

He looked over at Ty, but his younger brother only stared straight ahead, the corners of his mouth tight. Jace, on the other hand, looked like he was trying to bore holes through the lawyer with his eyes.

“What if we break the will? Is there a period of time that we can leave for and not break the will?” Colton asked and stared down the lawyer.

The older man steepled his fingers and looked over his glasses. “I did have that conversation with your father. You can leave for a month, at most, during this one-year probation period. The remaining eleven months will prove that you own and are invested in the place. All time away must add up to a month or less.”

Colton pulled at the ends of his hair. “There’s no way in hell I can miss work for more than a month. This happens in the middle of peak summer season. I need to be home for that. I need more than a month.”

“If you leave for longer than a month, you forfeit your right to the inheritance, and the estate will be donated to the University of Montana’s agricultural department. And, before you think you can just disappear for a month and no one will notice, your father requested that I check in intermittently once a month to make sure that no one has forfeited.”

Colton forced himself to pick up his jaw.

“So, stay here or lose it all? Couldn’t we just divide the land three ways?” His voice was tense, strung tighter than barbed wire on a new fence. He could use the cash. His small business was struggling right now. A cash reserve would make sure his employees were paid as they got through their rough patch, and the small farms they contracted with could continue to depend on Farm to You as a source of reliable income.

“This can’t possibly be binding,” Jace added. He sounded dazed, like he, too, was trying to figure out how the hell he was going to stay in Montana.

“There is to be no division of the land. I understand it is the Hartman legacy to not divide the land,” the lawyer droned on.

They had their great-great-great-grandfather William Hartman to thank for that.

“We aren’t interested in our legacy. Is there no alternative?” Colton demanded. “I have responsibilities back in San Francisco, and I’m supposed to sit in Montana, twiddling my thumbs?”

“Speak for yourself,” Ty suddenly snapped. Colton glanced over at his brother, who had been silent up until now. “You aren’t the only one whose life is impacted. We all have jobs that require us to not be at the ranch.”

Colton blinked at his brother. It wasn’t for Ty to say. As the local vet in the area, he didn’t have to risk an impact to his business.

“The legacy is ours, and I don’t want to just throw it away,” Ty added.

“You don’t plan to keep the ranch, do you?” Colton glanced over at Jace, who was staring straight ahead.

Ty’s chin jutted out. “The ranch is ours, and I don’t think we should make any rash decisions about it.”

Colton stared at his brother. Ty may want to keep the ranch, but there was no way he was going to be away from his company eleven months of the year.

“I’ll fight this,” Colton hissed at the lawyer. There was no way in hell that his dad was going to force this on him. Even if he needed the cash, even if it wouldn’t hurt to see Ty again, there was no way he was going to live here a year. The state his father called home would never again be home to him.

Ten minutes later, the lawyer finished reading the will, dividing the remainder of his assets between his brothers and his mother. The cash was to be used for ranch repairs.

The second it was over, he marched out of the office.

“Colton,” Ty called out to him. “We need to hash this out.”

“There’s nothing to hash out. I’m not sticking around. I can’t do this. I have to go back to California.”

“Then we lose the ranch,” Ty snapped. “Do you really think Jace is going to stick around as well? That ranch is our legacy. The least we can do is carry it on.”

“Ha! Our legacy? A bitter man lived there and ran it into the ground.”

Ty looked like he was ready to blow steam out his ears. “Look, we all know Dad wasn’t the greatest, but that doesn’t mean we should throw our history out. William Hartman started it six generations ago. It’s ours, well and truly.”

“I don’t want to deal with this now. I’m heading back to the ranch.”

“Always running,” he heard Ty mutter behind him as he headed back to his rental, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t owe his brother a reason.

On the trip back, he managed to get enough cell service to run the details by his lawyer and forward him a copy of the will.

Twenty minutes later, he pulled his car in front of one of the bunkhouses. The cloud of dust from the dirt road had barely time to settle before he was out of the car and pacing around in front of the buildings.

The ranch was an absolute pit. Hard to believe that a few decades ago, it was a full-blown operating ranch with hundreds of head of cattle and ranch hands to help keep the operation going.

Now it felt like a ghost town. The graying wood of the buildings was drier than any bones, and the fence posts leaned in every direction.

There was no way that they could stay here for a year, much less sell the place, without fixing the buildings. Everything was old, sagging, fading, or peeling. The ranch was like a faded photograph of what the place once was.

The land was beautiful. The prairie-land fields of Paradise Valley nestled between the towering Absaroka and Gallatin ranges were ready to be planted. Green blades of grass peeked out of the yellow fields, and the air smelled rich with soil and coming rain. A small herd of cows lulled in one pasture, and a few horses and a half dozen yearlings lazed in another.

He could see why his ancestor George Hartman had settled here in the early 1800s to stake a claim on gold and ended up starting a cattle ranch. Each generation after added land to the property, expanding it until it was one of the largest ranches in the area. His father was probably the first who hadn’t.

Ty and Jace pulled up seconds later. Ty looked ready to explode.

Hailey stepped out of the house and headed toward the group.

“How did everything turn out?” she asked as she tipped her head back to kiss her husband hello. Jace, who was quick to glower at everyone else, beamed down at her.

“Sounds like we may be living here a year,” Jace muttered, which caused Colton to turn and stare. “We can talk about it later.”

“A year?” Hailey stepped back and looked at all of them, her dark eyes wide.

“We can’t live here for a year.” Colton gestured toward the bunkhouse he had been staying in. The roof was slowly giving up the fight with gravity, bending inward under its own weight. It would be a miracle if it survived the winter. He didn’t even want to think about what was living in the bunkhouse with the broken front door.

“Hard to believe you guys grew up here.” Jace looked at the place with a mix of disbelief and pity. He looked like he wanted to say more but was doing his damnedest to hold it in.

“We spent more time at our mom’s before she moved to Idaho,” Ty clarified. “Dad was too hard to be around to spend that much time on the ranch.”

That was the case for Ty. He, on the other hand, was always at the ranch, always trying to prove himself, and always failing. The only thing he did well was break horses.

“It looked better ten years ago,” Colton admitted grudgingly.

The roof of the barn was losing shingles, but otherwise was in decent shape. Next to the barn, the small herd of yearlings walked over and leaned against the fence that Colton himself had built years ago. They nickered in greeting, no doubt hoping their trough would be filled soon. The horses used to be his favorite part of ranching.

He turned away from the herd. “Either way, you weren’t missing much.”

Jace snorted, his face turning red. His brows slashed down over his eyes. “Right. I only missed out on two younger brothers and a father I knew nothing about.”

Colton flinched at the word “younger.” The word didn’t fit. Like putting on a too-small jacket and having your shirt bunch under your arms. He had spent his whole life as the oldest brother—the responsible one, the one paving the way.

“Our dad was a jerk. Honestly, you lucked out,” Colton explained.

Jace shook his head, turned on his heel, and headed toward the house.

Hailey shot Colton a sympathetic look. “He’s having a hard time taking this all in. Don’t take it personally.”

“He didn’t miss out on much,” Ty added, his voice soft.

“Give him some room to figure that out. Your father left him and stuck around for you two. Think about it,” Hailey said pointedly before following after her husband.

Great. Now he felt like an asshole on top of being angry.

“He was abandoned, and we both got scars. Which is better?” Ty asked, kicking at the gravel.

Neither. But he didn’t voice that as he walked up the three worn wood steps and pushed open the front door to his bunkhouse. It creaked open. The place smelled old, musty. It was fine for a couple nights, but not many more.

The front door to the main house slammed shut, and a few minutes later, Jace joined them. His face was dark, and his hands were shoved in his pockets, like he had been forced out against his will. “This place is a dump.”

“Agreed,” Colton said shortly.

“As much as I would like to offload this as soon as possible, I think we need to repair the buildings,” Jace said.

“We could fix the ranch up and manage it,” Ty countered. “This is our legacy; I’d like to see it restored.”

“I’m not keeping this ranch,” Colton deadpanned.

Ty glared at them. “You guys are both assholes.”

“I’m an asshole that needs the revenue,” Jace said in a cut-and-dry way that Colton found himself appreciating. “I’m here for the year. I’ll learn about this legacy of ours, but my life isn’t here. After a year, I will head back to Houston. I could start a new sustainable building with that income.”

“I could pay my employees with it,” Colton added. His company wasn’t big, just a few additional people to help out, but they were good people who had lives and families they needed to provide for. The last thing he wanted to do was lay them off.

Hands on hips, Ty glared them both down. “Even if you don’t want the legacy, the least we can do is restore it to something the Hartman men would be proud of. Let’s call a contractor and get this place fixed up. It’s the least Dad would have wanted.”

Colton flinched. If he was going to fix the ranch up, it wasn’t going to be for his father. It would be to help Ty. And to prove his father wrong. Ironic how nothing he ever did on the ranch was ever good enough when he was growing up, but it was his father who let the property fall into disrepair.

“I’m okay with fixing the place up. I think we can all agree on that.” He looked around the worn bunkhouse. “How long do we estimate this will take?”

“Depends on the contractor.” Jace leaned out the front door and surveyed the ranch. “Eight months? Well within a year.”

“That will give us time to put it on the market, and we can all sign the papers at the end of the year and never see this place again,” Colton said.

“Maybe I’ll just buy the ranch,” Ty offered.

Where Ty was going to get that cash, Colton didn’t know. But he refrained from bringing it up.

“Let’s get it fixed up first and then discuss a possible sale,” Jace said.

“Hire Jones Construction.” Ty pulled on the brim of his hat.

Colton froze at the name. Hiring Jones Construction meant one thing—they’d be hiring Gus.

Gorgeous, curvy, determined Gus.

He looked around the bunkhouse. It was the same one he brought Gus over to during the summer he turned nineteen. Those hot summer evenings filled his mind. They used to make out on that couch. They barely fit on it, but were too crazy for each other to care, too desperate for any moment to touch each other. It was on this ranch, hidden in a little crevice between the barn and the haystack, that she confessed she loved him.

That long, slow, lingering evening was burned in his brain like a brand. It was the last time he saw her before his father kicked him off the ranch and he hightailed it out of Montana.

He swallowed tightly. “Is there anyone besides Jones?”

If they hired Jones Construction, there was a chance that Gus would not be the one working on their ranch. But did he really want to take that chance? Having her here every day felt like a spark in a haystack. Because as much as he wanted to deny it, he was still attracted to her.

“Jones Construction is the best construction firm in town.”

“They’re the only construction firm in town,” Colton pointed out drily.

“It’s perfect. They’re local, they’ll be cheaper than any firm from Bozeman, and Gus’s team will get it done right,” Ty said.

Colton narrowed his eyes, studying his brother. “I know it’s been a while, but even back then, I don’t remember Jones Construction getting projects done on time, and we want everything done in under a year.”

Ty rolled up his sleeves and looked around. “They’re working on that,” he acknowledged. “And half the town will tell you that Jones is better and cheaper than half the companies from Bozeman.”

“As long as they stay on track, that works for me,” Jace said.

“Cost isn’t an issue with the money left behind by Beau,” he reminded his brothers. Beau had left it specifically for ranch renovations.

Ty nodded. “I got drinks with Gus a few days ago, and she told me they are eyeing a big project. If we talk with her now, we may be able to get them to help out before that big project takes over.”

An ugly wave washed over Colton as he pictured his brother and Gus getting together to hang out. Of course, they saw each other on occasion. It was a small town, and they had grown up together.

But drinks sounded…personal. Like a date.

He rubbed at the back of his neck. He had no right to be jealous. He had zero claim on her. She was an old flame that he left forever ago.

That didn’t stop the memory of her walking across the old highway yesterday as she came to rescue him, the wind pushing her hair out of her face, swirling the strands behind her. She looked as beautiful and tempting as a desert siren coming to claim him.

“I’ll talk with Gus,” Ty continued. “See how soon they could get started.”

He stopped short of saying he’d do it. Ty clearly took some sort of ownership of the ranch. And honestly, it would be better if Ty worked with Gus. After the way he and Gus parted yesterday, there was a good chance she would turn them down flat if he asked her to work on the ranch.

“Let me know what she says.” He tapped his thumb against the counter. A habit he was never able to kick when he was stressed or impatient.

“Alright,” Ty said, looking curiously at Colton. “I’ll keep you posted.” He pulled his hat back on his head and headed out the front door. “I’m going to check on the cows. They’ll be calving soon enough.”

Jace looked awkwardly around the bunkhouse. “I need to set up an office somewhere. I have a large building in the works in Houston. I’m going to look around the ranch house and figure out where I can work best.” He looked like he wanted to add more but ended up taking a breath and shaking his head before following Ty out the door.

A few minutes later his lawyer called to confirm the bad news.

If they wanted to own the ranch, or sell the ranch, then today was the first day of an awfully long year. And if he didn’t want to push his brother away, Colton knew he had better follow through. As much as Ty could drive him up the wall, Colton did want to be there for him. They were brothers. That should count for something, especially since being a son hadn’t seemed to matter to his dad. And now there was a new brother.

Anxiety churned in his stomach. He was going to have to call his business partner, Jordan, and break the news to him. Jordan was already in the process of combing through their financial records, and he would have a good idea if they could last a year with Colton working remotely and only making a few short, but necessary trips.

Most of their clients preferred meeting in person as they started their working relationship, and Farm to You prided themselves on being down-to-earth guys who would go to the farm to see where the produce was coming from and walk into the restaurant to see where it was heading. Their clients liked having their hard work seen and appreciated. In addition, their contracts required on-sight inspections of the farm and the restaurant to make sure the food health standards were being met.

Hopefully, they could work out a strategy to keep clients happy and bring on new contracts, even if Colton was managing from hundreds of miles away.

Colton opened the tiny fridge and pulled out a beer. He didn’t know what crazy idea his father got into his head to bring all three brothers together. It was clear that Jace didn’t know what he was doing, and that Ty was the only one invested in the ranch. Why his dad didn’t just give it to Ty was beyond him. After all, Colton didn’t want it.

Call it ridiculous, but it almost felt like a test from his father—save the ranch or save his company.

He took a swig of his beer then set it down. There was a pair of worn leather gloves on the counter. They looked cracked and brittle with age. Who knew when the last time someone had used them?

Honestly, he didn’t care what happened with the ranch, but he cared that Ty wanted to keep it. Helping to restore it was the least he could do to make up for the fact that Ty had to deal with his father when he left.

One thing was for certain, he wasn’t going to sit up in Montana doing nothing. First things first, he had to sort out working remotely with Jordan.

Then he needed to figure out who his dad hired, if anyone, to plant the fields.

A knock on the door at Jones Construction echoed in the empty office, and Gus looked up to see her best friend Steph Hernandez waving through the glass.

Her friend had good timing. Her vision was starting to double from staring at their project list for too long. She was determined to find past projects they could use to try to win the park project, and so far, she’d had little success.

“Gus, you look like you could use a drink,” Steph announced after stepping inside. “Don’t worry, this burn ceremony will do the trick. We will purge both Colton and whatever happened this week from your life.”

Gus nearly choked as Steph said Colton’s name. Steph owned the only bakery in town. She saw dozens of people throughout the day, and typically that meant that she was very up on the town gossip.

There was no way she hadn’t heard Colton was in town.

Then again, Colton could be hiding out from everyone in town. Beau’s funeral was a private affair, and unless you were invited to the ceremony before the viewing, there was a chance that no one even knew he was in town.

“Today was rough.” With a sigh, Gus closed the program and turned off her laptop. “I went to the meeting for the park projects, and it was a disaster. I was late, and that company, Wood Builders—the one who’s been trying to steal our work—asked us to team up with them.”

Steph’s eyes narrowed. “And you told them exactly where they could go, right?”

“As nicely as possible,” she said. Steph snorted.

“And to top it off, I was told I won’t be taken seriously unless we get some sort of volunteer experience on our resume to make up for lack of experience.”

After years of night, weekend, and online classes, she had managed to get her degree in landscape architecture. Her mom had loved gardening, and the idea of going into landscaping felt like a way to connect with her mom, even with her gone.

Steph nodded and wandered farther into the office to plopped down on the worn gray sofa that was pushed against the exposed brick wall. “There are lots of volunteer opportunities. I know that they’re looking for recruits for the annual summer dance. Maybe the decorating committee?”

She snorted. “What does decorating have to do with landscaping?”

Her friend shrugged. “At least it’s something, right? We’ll keep brainstorming.” She shifted on the couch. “So, where do you want to do the burn? Your place or mine? You have a better fireplace than I do.”

Gus laughed. Her friend was very much into burn ceremonies as a means to move on from anything—a bad incident, an inner critic, a piece of the past you couldn’t let go.

As part of deciding to take over her dad’s company, Gus had decided it was time to take over her personal life as well. While she had dated here and there after Colton left, she always, always ended up comparing the guy to Colton. It wasn’t fair to the guy, and in the end, it wasn’t fair to her. She wanted to meet someone special, settle down, and start a family. And she couldn’t do that unless she let go of Colton and started dating seriously.

Thus, the burn ceremony. And, following the burn ceremony, she actually had a date that weekend.

Before she could answer, the door opened, ringing the announcement of someone.

She turned toward the entrance, and a man’s dark head of hair caught her eye as he closed the door.

Colton Hartman.

She almost panicked, then her eyes landed on the Wranglers, and she realized it was Ty.

“Thank god,” she muttered.

“Hi, yourself,” Ty said, a friendly smile on his face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Almost a ghost of her past. But Colton was already out of town, she reminded herself.

“I thought you were your brother,” she admitted.

“Colton is back in town?” Steph asked, her dark eyes wide.

Ty nodded.

Steph turned to her. “Does this mean the burn ceremony is off?”

“Burn ceremony?” Ty looked perplexed.

“The burn ceremony is still on,” she insisted. If anything, running into Colton during his brief stay in Montana only made her more determined to purge him from her life.

“Do I even want to know?” Ty looked suspiciously between them.

“Probably not.” Besides, there was no way she was going to explain to Ty that the burn ceremony was because she had struggled to fully move on from Colton, even after all these years. “So what brings you here?”

Ty moved farther into the room. “I’ve got a project for you.”

She raised her brows. “For me?”

“Yep. We spoke with the lawyer yesterday, and it turns out that Dad left the ranch to all the brothers.”

“All the brothers?” she repeated. “You mean you and Colton?”

Ty snapped his fingers before clapping his palm over his fist. “And Jace. Haven’t you heard? Has the Garnet Valley rumor mill let us down? He’s my other brother. From another mother. Literally.”

Steph looked like she had hit gossip gold.

“I—” Gus licked her lips as she stared at him. “Okay, wow. That’s a lot to process.”

“Tell me about it. I think he’s still struggling to wrap his head around it too.”

Steph excused herself. “I’m going to head to your place to make brownies. You always need a good dessert for a successful burn.”

Gus waved to her friend before turning back to Ty.

“So you want to have the ranch repaired?” she asked.

“I do. I’m not sure when the last time you were out at the ranch, but the buildings are in pretty bad disrepair. Jace and Colton are looking to sell it, so it would need to be done in about a year.” Ty looked uncomfortable as he said the words.

Figured that Colton would want to sell it. He had been pretty set on getting out of the state. There would be no reason why he’d want to keep the ranch.

“A year is a tight turnaround.” Especially if she was going after the park project. Jones was already working on a larger project that took most of their staff’s time. If they took on the Rocking H, that would mean that she would need to be there, in person, working on construction.

Which was something she had been hoping to move away from as she took the reins of the company over.

On the other hand, getting a large project like that would convince her dad that she was capable of bringing in work that would help support the company, and he wouldn’t have to worry if the company would survive under her control.

She licked her lips. “Would you be the one managing it?”

It was a dumb question since she knew that Colton was likely already out of town, but she couldn’t help feeling a confusing mix of relief and disappointment as Ty nodded.

“Yep.”

“That’s the ranch house, three bunkhouses, a barn, and a shed, right?” Her voice sounded calmer than she felt. It was so many buildings. Even if they hired help, the project would take a significant portion of her time.

“Dad left enough money to help with the repairs if the cost is reasonable. Makes me wonder why he hadn’t fixed it up himself, but maybe since there was no one else to help out on the ranch, he didn’t see the point.”

She could definitely give them a reasonable estimate. But even with a reasonable estimate, this would be a decent-size project. This would give her a chance to hire another project manager to train. She would still be required to help out in the field, but it would be helpful down the road to have another trained manager. It would give her more time in the future to pursue expanding the company.

“I’d appreciate if you did it as a favor to me,” Ty finally said, laying on the friend guilt trip.

“Alright, alright,” she relented. She would have to work overtime to get the landscaping proposal together to bid for the park project. “I’ll be out first thing tomorrow to look at the buildings. If we do get started on this, we’ll want to start with the roof and walls as soon as possible so we can close up by winter.”

Ty closed his eyes, looking absolutely relieved. “Thanks,” he muttered.

She didn’t bother to ask if Colton would plan to show up during any part of construction. If the man had left just as quickly as he claimed he was going to, she had a feeling he wasn’t going to show up in Montana again.

She was in the clear. She could do her burn ceremony tonight, and then tomorrow, she would head out to the Rocking H ranch, ready to face her old memories there and rebuild. Literally.