Somebody Like You by Lynnette Austin Page B

mind.”
    Cash sighed, took off his hat, and raked his fingers through his hair. “This whole thing is beyond ludicrous. I don’t think any of us understood how jumbled Gramps’s mind had become.”
    “Rosie tried to tell me,” Hank said. “Even before Vivi. I didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want to believe Leo’s mind was going.”
    “None of us did.”
    “You know,” Hank said, “in some twisted way that must have made sense to him, he was only givin’ you a nudge.”
    “Well, I don’t want to be nudged.” Cash jammed his hands in his pants pockets. “And this is a hell of a lot more than a nudge. A hard shove off a rocky cliff is more like it.”
    “Your grandpa was right about one thing. Time you settle down. Start a family.”
    “Did you put this stupid idea in his head?”
    “No, sir, I did not. Wouldn’t do anything to give the new missus a bit of ground. Your grandpa might have been willin’ to bet with the ranch, but not me. No siree.”
    “I won’t get married, Hank, not even to keep the ranch. Marriage shouldn’t be a bargaining chip.”
    “I understand that, but I sure as hell don’t want to work for Vivi. That gal wouldn’t know a stallion from a heifer! And you. What’re you going to do?”
    Cash rubbed his chest. “She’ll have half interest. That’s it. You’ll still be working for me.”
    Hank muttered something under his breath.
    Cash ignored it. “I’m gonna tell it to you straight, Hank. Stipulating I had to be married by the time I’m thirty or I share the ranch with Vivi? Big mistake. I’m not gonna be manipulated. I’m not getting married. End of discussion.”
    “So you’re gonna turn your back and let that gold digger steal the homestead?”
    “No.” Cash shook his head. “I’m gonna let my grandfather’s widow inherit the house she’s living in. If she leaves, according to the will, she walks with two hundred thousand. She knows her half interest is worth way more. So I offered her three times that, but still no dice.”
    “Over half a million. Not bad for eight months with one of the nicest men God ever put on Earth. Too bad about all of it. You, your Gramps,” Hank groused.
    “I’d have to agree. On all counts.”
    Hank let loose with enough curses to turn the air blue. “She hates it here. Why doesn’t she take the money and run?”
    Cash shrugged.
    “It ain’t right!” Hank spit tobacco juice into a can, then shot a glance at Cash. “Don’t tell Rosie I’m chewin’ out here.”
    “What happens in the barn—” Cash spread his hands.
    “Yeah, yeah.” Not done yet, Hank said, “It ain’t only the house, and you know that. If that was all she’d get, maybe I could stomach it. But you’ve worked your ass off on this ranch. Ever since you finished that degree of yours, you’ve devoted yourself to Whispering Pines. Hell, even before that, you spent every weekend your daddy didn’t need you over here helping Leo.”
    “Yes, I did. And it seems that was a mistake.”
    “You could contest the will.”
    “We’ve been through this, Hank. I’m not going there.”
    “Whispering Pines is your birthright.”
    “Gramps owned it. He could do what he wanted with it.”
    “Yeah, and if he’d been in his right mind, he’d have left it to you. Wouldn’t have married Vegas in the first place.”
    “But he did.”
    “What about that new house you built for yourself down by the lake?”
    “I’m gonna dicker with Vivi a little. See if maybe she’ll sell me the piece of land it’s on free and clear. Separate it from the rest of the package.”
    “Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.”
    “There’s nothing else I can do.” His voice rose in frustration, and several of the horses shifted uneasily, including the one Hank worked with.
    Hank ran a hand over the mare’s flank. “Easy, girl.” His face tightened. “Never took you for a quitter.”
    Cash’s own face darkened. “Careful.”
    “You got options.”
    “I’m not marrying