Suddenly Mike was there. Grabbing hold and pulling them apart. Gabe went willingly, his father not so much.
“Enough, Ben, calm yourself.” Mike spoke firmly, dragging his brother out of viewing range of the horses.
“His fault. Should never have come back. Nothing is right because of him.”
Gabe was still struggling for words when his uncle defended him.
“You’re not thinking straight. Gabe works as hard as you do to keep things going on the ranch.” Mike glanced at Gabe, as if willing him to step back. “You need to stop this fighting.”
“Works hard? Only at what pleases him.” Ben tore himself free from his brother’s grasp and turned to glare at Gabe. “You think you’re so smart? You have all kinds of wild ideas about improving the place? You just want to tell me I’m wrong with nothing to back it up. So, shut up. You couldn’t do any more than I have. Tear the family apart, turn us out on our asses—”
“I could run the place a damn sight better than you do,” Gabe blurted out.
His father laughed. “You’d like to think so. You and that woman, and your fairy-tale ideas of making money magically appear. It doesn’t happen like that. It’s impossible.”
“It’s not possible because you’re clinging to old-fashioned ways that are going to get us tossed out. You stubborn fool.”
“Enough.” Uncle Mike’s command cut through the tension for all of a second before the volume rose again.
“Fine—prove it,” Ben shouted. “You think you can do better than me, it’s on your head. Payments are due end of the summer. Find a way to make your pot of gold appear in time to stop us from losing everything.”
“With you blocking me at every turn?” Gabe kept his voice low, but it didn’t stop his anger from coming through. “You’d hang me without a reason, and then blame your own incompetence on me.”
“Run the show. Do all the stupid changes you’ve been itching to try. I won’t stop you. I’ll do my part in keeping the work done, but when we have to beg for an extension come September, you admit you’re the cause and get the hell out of my life for good.”
“Jesus, Ben. Think about what you’re saying,” Mike warned. “Gabe’s done nothing wrong, and that’s not a fair challenge. No way in hell can he turn things around in that short a time, not even if his ideas are good.”
“I accept.”
The words burst from him like a bullet. His father had no idea what Gabe wanted to try. Ben had no ideas, period, and that was the trouble. Working hard at losing propositions still meant you lost.
Uncle Mike shook his head. “Gabe, don’t.”
There was little chance he could win the challenge, but it was his only choice.
“I accept,” Gabe repeated. He stuck out his hand, not really expecting his father to take it.
The man hadn’t touched him in years except in anger.
Ben glanced glassy-eyed between his son and brother then walked out without another word, his boots hitting the barn floorboards with a muffled click like the ticking of a time bomb.
Gabe took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He thought through all the reasons he had for doing this, shoving aside the desire to stick it to his father. Instead he concentrated on his ma, and on Rafe. On the feeling of riding over the land in all the different conditions—sunshine and rain, cutting cold and sweltering heat. It was worth fighting for.
He opened his eyes to see Mike staring, concern written on his uncle’s face.
“Your father is drunk. You don’t have to do this.”
It was an out if he wanted it, but Gabe had secrets Ben had no idea about. All his planning and working behind the scenes? It might not be as far a reach as his father hoped to make the payments, at least if they could get moving. “I have to do this.”
“It’s not possible.” Mike stepped closer until his firm hand rested lightly on Gabe’s shoulder. “This isn’t about you, it’s his ghosts. His…hurts.”
“It doesn’t really matter why, does it? The truth is we need to change or die. He’s willing to lie down. I’m not. The challenge stands. You’re a witness if I need it once he’s sober.”
Mike didn’t say anything for the longest time, then nodded.
Gabe glanced back toward the horses. “You’ve done a lot of things differently over the years. You’re seeing the benefit of it now. Maybe I can’t catch us up in the short time, but if I can get us on the right track, it will be worth it.”
Mike sighed. “He’s not the man he used to be. Not an excuse, just a statement of fact.”
They stood in silence for another moment before Gabe dipped his head and strode from the barn.
They didn’t need to talk about it anymore—it was well known to everyone when Ben had changed.
Only Gabe knew exactly why.
Chapter Eleven
The silence stretched between them. At first Allison hadn’t really noticed, just accepted his hand, said her goodbyes and let him lead her to his truck. They had already spoken that morning about stopping at her mom’s for dinner. She leaned back on the seat and into his side and relaxed after the chaos of the Coleman gathering.
The lot of them made a ton of noise when together, and the quiet in the truck cab was soothing.
Only there was tension in his body. Pressed against his side, she finally noticed it and wondered if she’d done something wrong.
Allison thought through the afternoon, but in terms of their deception, nothing had gone south. It was well accepted she and Gabe were together. Not that she forgot this was temporary—although thinking about what exactly would happen over the coming year was something she deliberately avoided.
Moving ahead with her life meant losing Mom. How could she even begin to prepare for that event?
But something was definitely going on in Gabe’s head. She didn’t have the right to ask what had upset him. Walking the line between friends and a more intimate relationship—they were only people passing each other for this short time. He could tell her what was wrong if he wanted to.
She ignored the tiny part inside that was saddened by that realization.
“You enjoy the picnic?” Gabe asked.
“Mostly.” Allison stretched her arms forward and rotated her neck to loosen up. “The food was great, and the conversations—well, your Uncle George trapped me and told me a long story about a cold cellar that I never quite understood the punch line.”
Gabe nodded absently, staring at the road ahead of them.
Allison sat forward and looked into his face. Now for sure she knew something was wrong. Normally he would have laughed. Told his own story about his uncle. Gabe always did what he could to make her comfortable.
All he did was flick a glance her direction. “What?”
She couldn’t ask. She leaned back. “Nothing.”
The silence stretched uncomfortably. She had to work to keep from squirming in her seat.
Five more minutes and they’d be at her mom’s house, and the business of helping, and hiding her concern, would distract her from the worry she currently felt for Gabe.
He pulled off to the side of the road, down a narrow lane that didn’t lead anywhere close to her mom’s house.
“Where we going?”
Silence answered.
A moment later they stopped, truck bumper tight against a guardrail that was the only thing between the end of the road and the bend of the river. Gabe got out and didn’t wait for her, just stepped up to the edge of the embankment and stood there, arms folded, staring down the ten-foot drop.
His face in profile was expressionless.
Shit.