Silver River Romeo (Western Cowboy Romance) (Rancher Romance Series #1) (2 page)

              “I’m going to get the truck.”

              “It’s my truck!” Cole said indignantly. “You’re just scared of the hayloft.”

              “I am not scared of the hayloft! It’s just that I know construction isn’t exactly Darrell’s thing.”

              They both carefully eyed what had been the hayloft and what was now the second floor of Darrell’s “house”.

              “Well, hell,” Cole finally said. “He lives in it. It can’t be that bad.”

              “So go on,” Marshall prompted with a gesture toward the stairs.

              “You go on.”

              In the end, they both shouted for him at the same time and eventually they heard footsteps moving across the floor. He didn’t speak, which wasn’t unusual but he did give them both a malevolent glare as he stumbled for the coffee pot.

              “If you wanted coffee, you should have woken up earlier,” Marshall said.

              Darrell poured water into the pot without answering.

“Or, we could get coffee in town,” Marshall pointed out.

              Darrell continued ignoring their suggestions as he plugged the coffee pot in and reached into a cabinet for a cup.

              “Guess we can get coffee right here, too,” Cole said with a grin.

              He couldn’t help it. He loved both his brothers, but Darrell was his favorite. For somebody who never talked, Darrell said a lot. Marshall sighed and held his hand out. Cole shrugged and dropped his keys into Marshall’s palm.

              “Careful with her,” he cautioned. “I’ve been meaning to get her tuned up.”

              “I’ll treat your truck like a lady,” Marshall assured him somewhat sarcastically.

              “Not too much, though,” Cole said as Marshall walked out. “I seem to remember it’s been awhile since you’ve been out on the town!”

              Marshall’s only reply was the slamming of the barn door. A ghost of a smile flickered over Darrell’s face.  A few moments later, he handed Cole a cup of coffee. Cole opened a cabinet door and frowned.

              “Where’s the sugar? Honest to God, Darrell, you rearrange stuff more than anyone I’ve ever known.”

              “Over there,” Darrell said, after he’d swallowed his own sip of black coffee. “Don’t use it much. No reason for it to be in front.”

              “This is your way of saying you don’t value my company, isn’t it?” Cole pretended to be hurt.

              “You don’t come out here much,” Darrell said seriously as Cole added several spoonfuls of sugar to his coffee. “That’s too much sugar.”

              “That’s not possible,” Cole said, pointing at his younger brother as he took a sip. “It’s just right.”

              “Might as well drink pancake syrup for breakfast,” Marshall said as he stepped back into the barn. “Now, if Darrell has forgiven me for the unpardonable sin of waking him up, can we get a move on?”

              “You really do need a tune up, don’t you?” Marshall said when the grinding noise in the engine and the loud pop as the truck backfired shattered the quiet morning.

              “It’s not that bad.” Cole defended his truck as they bounced along the rutted track. “Just the shocks mostly.”

              “What about the backfiring?” Darrell asked from the small back seat.

              “Nothing wrong with calling attention to a good truck like this. Anyway, that only happens when you start it up. And I don’t see either one of you volunteering to drive.”

              “I’d have driven if you wanted to ride in the bed of the truck,” Marshall said. “Might have been quieter.”

              “Very funny.”

              The store was pretty deserted when Cole pulled his truck into the parking lot.

              “Nobody here,” Darrell grunted as he got out.

              “The store’s open,” Marshall said defensively. “There’s nothing wrong with an early start. Cole and I do it every morning. We’ve spoiled you by letting you sleep in every morning and miss the milking.”

              “Rodeo runs late,” Darrell said as he defended himself.

              “You weren’t at a rodeo last night,” Marshall pointed out.

              “Okay, come on,” Cole said. “Let’s not argue. Parking lots are supposed to be happy places.”

              Darrell gave him a half smile and headed for the store.

              “What’re you picking on him for?” Cole asked as he fell into step with his older brother.

              “Hell, I don’t know,” Marshall admitted. “I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I guess.”

              “Great,” Cole muttered as Marshall lengthened his stride and walked into the store. “Maybe I picked the wrong day.”

              He didn’t have a choice though. There wouldn’t be another day, and he needed to step up and take some ownership of Silver River before he lost his mind with boredom. He hurried to catch up.

              “So, I was thinking…,” Cole started.

              “Good for you,” Marshall answered when Cole didn’t go on. “How’s it working out?”

              “Bite me,” Cole responded jokingly. “I was thinking that we might plant something different this year.”

              “Yeah,” Darrell chimed in. “Because wheat and hay are useless.”

              “I’m not saying we can’t plant wheat and hay. I’m just saying we could use the east parcel for something different,” Cole said, trying not to let irritation creep into his voice.

              Marshall looked up from calculating prices and raised an eyebrow at Cole. “Like what?” he asked.

              “Like soy.”

              “Soy.” Marshall said in an unimpressed tone.

              “Yeah, soy,” Cole answered in an attempt to defend his reasoning.

              “Why would we want to do that?” Marshall asked. “I don’t know the first thing about growing soy.”

              “I do. It’s not really that different from growing anything else,” Cole pointed out when Marshall looked skeptical about his knowledge of growing soy.

              “Is there even a market for that stuff?”

              “Yes! There’s a huge market for it,” Cole pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and pulled up the article he’d read a few days back. “See?”

              “Probably won’t last long,” Marshall said after a cursory glance at the Web page.

              Cole gritted his teeth and shoved the phone back into his pocket. “You know, when you say stuff like that, you sound just like dad.”

              “I didn’t know that was a bad thing,” Marshall stated dryly.

              “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m saying we’re a new generation of ranchers and maybe we could change with the times. So what if soy fades out? Then we could plant something else,” Cole pointed out, trying even harder to keep his tone level. He didn’t want to argue in the small store any more than he’d wanted to argue in the parking lot. There wasn’t a lot of gossip to go around in a small ranching community and he wasn’t eager to provide any. “What do you think?”

              “How expensive will it be?” Marshall asked in a long suffering tone.

              “I could check,” Cole answered. He wanted to punch his brother for the way he’d said it, but at least he was thinking about the possibility. “I’ll be right back.”

Cole hurried back to the counter before his older brother could change his mind. “Hey, Daniel,” he said as he greeted the owner of the store. “We’re thinking about planting soy. What are your thoughts?”

              “Don’t think you should,” the man answered shortly.

             
What kind of day was this going to be
? Cole wondered. Maybe he should have just stayed in bed.

              “Why not?” he demanded as he crossed his arms over his chest in preparation to defend his suggestion.

              “Don’t carry it,” Daniel answered.

              “Well, I guess someone does,” Cole pointed out.

              “That ain’t the point,” Daniel reasoned. “Silver River has always stocked up here.”

              “Yeah,” Cole shot back, “and because we’ve been such good customers I say you buy some soy.”

              “It’s a fad,” Daniel replied, still unconvinced. “ It’ll all blow over.”

              Cole held back a growl of frustration. What was with everyone lately? Darrell stepped up beside him and gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

              “You hear about the Carson ranch?” Daniel continued.

              “Saw that someone’s moving in,” Cole admitted as Darrell nodded.

              “It’s a girl.”

              “What?”

              “A girl’s taking over that ranch,” Daniel clarified with a nod. “One of Hank’s grandkids.”

              “A city girl?” Cole demanded. Everyone knew that all three of Hank Carson’s kids had headed off to the city as soon as they were able. He hadn’t had a visit from even one of them since Cole was about twelve.

              “Yep,” Daniel confirmed. “About your age, I reckon,” he went on with a nod at Cole.

              “Well, that’s just great,” Cole muttered. “What the hell makes some city girl think she can just waltz right in and handle a ranch?”

              “No stock on it right now,” Darrell pointed out.

              “And there never will be!” Cole said. “She can’t have the first clue what she’s doing up there. Betcha she won’t last a month and then she’ll sell the land and God only knows what kind of person will buy it.”

              “Nice to have a vote of confidence,” a woman’s voice said from behind him.

              Cole and Darrell spun around to see a young woman standing there with her arms crossed. Cole could have bitten off his tongue when he saw her face was red with embarrassment.

              “I’m...are you...” he began, not sure exactly what to say.

              “I’m Emma Carson,” the woman confirmed. “The empty-headed city girl who is going to be running Raven Branch into the ground and then running off as soon as I can.”

              Her voice wasn’t loud, but it carried through the small store. Cole was a little bit relieved when Marshall stepped over and held out his hand.

              “Marshall McKenna,” he said politely. “These are my brothers, Cole and Darrell. We run Silver River.”

              “The ranch beside me?” Emma didn’t exactly look pleased. If anything, she looked a little confused. “You’re the McKenna boys?”

              “Has our reputation preceded us?” Marshall asked in confusion. It wasn’t like Silver River was known for anything out of the ordinary and the only one of them who could even be considered remotely well known was Darrell for his rodeo riding.

              “Grandpa Hank mentioned you,” Emma said. “But he didn’t mention one of you was a chauvinist.”