“You know something?”
“What?”
“This is the first time I’ve been here and you haven’t offered to feed me.”
So much for a personal moment. She smiled. “Let’s scrounge up food so you’re not sorting through piles and piles of papers on an empty stomach.”
He leveled that bad boy grin at her. “You are a taskmaster, McKay. But a promise is a promise, right?”
“Right. And I hold everyone to their promises.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Gavin and Rielle hammered out details on the housing situation. She agreed to her name being put on the title to the house, but they’d opted to keep their original land split. Rielle retained her forty acres; Gavin kept his one hundred acres.
He’d been prepared to deal with backlash from her when he mentioned leaving the land unimproved seemed like a waste of resources. But she’d confessed part of the reason it’d remained fallow under her ownership was she hadn’t the time, money or drive to make improvements. Since he now owned it, she didn’t much care what he did with it as long as his plans didn’t encroach on her growing space.
During the spring he’d been so busy he hadn’t revisited his conversation with Dalton about future land usage possibilities. Thinking back, Gavin hadn’t gotten the impression Dalton was scheming to undercut potential lease and land expansion for his closest McKay relatives. Now that he’d received the green light from Rielle, he needed to broach the subject with his brothers.
Ben had offered to tour the area with him, but Gavin found himself calling Quinn instead. Quinn showed up with the two horses. They saddled up and began to explore, picking their way through overgrown scrub cedar, weaving around scraggly pine trees and dodging the multitude of rock outcroppings. The piece of land was small, but it took them over two hours to forge a path to the creek.
Quinn dismounted and held the reins as he led his horse through the mud to the water. “I gotta say, you’re doin’ much better on horseback, Gavin.”
“Riding at least,” Gavin said. “Saddling shouldn’t be the hardest part.”
“Neither one would be hard if you rode every day.”
Gavin followed Quinn, and Duchess didn’t fight him as much as she used to. He just hoped she didn’t try to bolt when he released the reins to let her drink. He squinted at the stream flowing in front of them. It ran higher in the spring, so it’d be harder to cross now, but not impossible. He couldn’t tell where the land Dalton, Tell and Brandt had leased started on the opposite bank.
“I figured you’d have a horse of your own by now,” Quinn commented.
“Why would I do that when all’s I have to do is call you and you bring the horses and the tack right to me?”
Quinn laughed. “True. I’m makin’ it too easy on ya. Sometimes because of your greenhorn status I have to remind myself you’re my older brother, not younger.”
“Does it bother you that people are calling me Charlie and Vi’s oldest son?”
“No. Why would it? You are their oldest son.”
Matter of fact—that was Quinn.
“Besides, I’ve never put much belief in them rules about birth order determining anything. Bunch of mumbo-jumbo if you ask me. We’ve already broken them rules by not bein’ raised together. Would we be different people if we had? Yep. But we weren’t.”
“You never had any qualms about me just showing up? What I might want? What I might do? The problems my existence caused?”
“I wasn’t worried you’d insist on havin’ a piece of the ranch as your birthright. I’m a good judge of character and yours has always been sound. I’ll admit some…concern when we first found out about you, what level of involvement you’d have with us—but that was more concern for our folks. I didn’t want Mom or Dad feelin’ less than, if that makes sense.” He shrugged. “You’re here now. You’re part of the family. We’re all glad for it.”
“I am too.” Gavin watched Quinn urge his horse back from the creek. “Now that you’ve seen this piece of dirt, what do you think?”
Quinn pushed up his hat. Then he smirked. “Honestly? I think you probably overpaid for it. By a lot.”
Gavin laughed, but he withheld additional comment, wondering if Quinn had as good a poker face as Dalton.
“Look, I know the initial purchase of this place caused a rift between you and Ben, and I’m glad you two got it sorted out. I didn’t take sides, mostly because I never understood the big push for havin’ access to this section anyway. Probably just a McKay pride thing, since it wasn’t in McKay hands, or a competition thing between Dad and Uncle Casper. If I brought Dad out here now, he’d shake his head and consider us better off for not payin’ taxes on land we can’t use for nothin’.”
A harsh assessment. “So this section doesn’t have any redeeming value?”
“I didn’t say that,” Quinn said evenly. “It just doesn’t have value for us.” He gestured to the overgrown trees along the creek bed. “It’d take one helluva lot of work to get it remotely useable. Since it’s just me’n Ben runnin’ our ranch since Dad retired, I don’t see takin’ that workload on as any kind of long term benefit.”
“You think Ben would feel the same way?”
“Probably now he would. The time of the failed land deal he was in a whole other mindset. He’s got a different life these days and his extra time is spent with Ainsley or on his furniture business. Ben won’t wanna spend months clearing brush when we’ve already got enough goin’ on to keep both of us busy fulltime. And I’d rather be with my darlin’ wife and kids than wasting time tryin’ to improve something that ain’t gonna give us much in return.” Quinn’s eyes narrowed on him. “What’s up with all the questions?”
Gavin shrugged. “Like you said, this piece of land has been a point of contention. I thought I’d gauge your interest in it now that you’ve seen it up close.”
“Fair enough. I’d put it at zero.”
“I appreciate your honesty. Between us, Dalton and Tell have some interest so I might hear them out.”
“Be interestin’ to hear what they come up with.”
And that was that. He could discuss partnership possibilities with Dalton, Tell and Brandt without guilt.