Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry your family had to sell so much land.”
“It didn’t hurt me or my brothers any, we never grew up with all that land, but my father did. By doing what he did, though, he was able to pay off all of the ranch’s debts and still have some left over to make improvements.
“My grandfather died of a heart attack while playing poker. During that game, he’d put up the deed to the farmhouse where his wife, my grandmother Lilith, had been born. He lost, of course. I think the knowledge that he’d gambled away the house was too much, and his heart gave out. The only thing was, it wasn’t his to gamble. It was given to his wife when her parents passed. My father thinks it was more likely he was scared to death…because if Grandmother had found out what he’d done, she would have killed him.”
“Did she lose the house?”
Ladd smiled. “No. Flint’s name wasn’t included on the deed, so it wasn’t his to give away. He died of a heart attack for no reason at all…of course, unless his heart really was that bad.”
“Or it’s like your father said, scared to death…literally.”
Laughing, Ladd nodded. “I never met him. He died before any of us were born. My father took over the ranch when he was pretty young. He had to run this place, plus take care of his mother.”
“That’s crazy. Does your grandmother still live on the ranch?”
“She lives in her ancestral cabin, the one that Flint tried to use for the poker game. It was on a ranch next to ours. When her father gave it to her as a wedding present, he gifted her the land as well, which wasn’t much since it was on the property line pretty much with our ranch. He wanted her to have a part of the ranch she grew up on. My father bought the rest of the ranch when my grandmother’s parents could no longer run it. He put it in Gram’s name along with the hundred acres that surrounds her cabin, which was once her family ranch. Grams lives in the cabin now. She has a separate entrance to her place that was the original ranch road for her family’s place, and my dad had another road built that takes her to the main ranch of River Falls Cattle.”
“I think it’s lovely that she lives in the house she was born in.”
Ladd nodded. “Grams just turned seventy-seven but acts like she’s thirty-seven. She walks every day, tends to her garden, and every Thursday, she plays cards with a group of ladies she grew up with.”
I chuckled. “I love that.”
“You’ll really like her, and she’ll adore you.”
“Why do you think she’ll adore me?”
He winked. “She’ll be the first to tell you that any woman who falls for a Wilde man is indeed a treasure from God, because we’re all stubborn and in need of a good woman to keep us in line.”
“She does not say that.”
He laughed. “I swear, she’ll say that to you!”
Ladd pulled up and parked where the road had leveled at the top of a hill and was about to start back down. You could see a huge pasture down below. Cows sprinkled the area, and I asked, “What kind of cattle do you guys raise? These look different from the ones I saw when we first drove in.”
“Those were black Angus, and these are Hereford. They’re a deep red with white faces and white markings on their bodies.”
“They are so cute. And the horses?”
“Mostly just quarter horses for now. My mother loves horses and gives riding lessons.”
“I adore your mom. Remember I mentioned that I’ve never ridden a horse but have always wanted to.”
“Yes, and we’re going to make that happen this week.”
“Are we?” I asked on a laugh.
“Nothing is more magical than riding a horse in the snow.”
I glanced out over the pastureland. “This is a gorgeous spot, Ladd.”
He exhaled. “Yeah. It is. This is where I want to build my future house. See that small cabin off in the distance?”
“Yes.”
“That’s the old hunter’s cabin, but it was the original cabin my great-grandfather built when he bought the ranch. He lived there alone for a bit until my great-grandmother Sarah married him and moved here. Lawrence was in the process of building the house that my great-grandfather Flint was born in. My father was of course born there as well.”
“So the original cabin is that cabin down there, so why is it called the hunter’s cabin?” I asked.
“After Lawrence and Sarah moved out, they only used the cabin when they were hunting this side of the ranch. It was easier to stay there rather than go back to the main house.”
I nodded. “That makes sense.”
“My father said I can live there once school’s done. It’s two bedrooms and just one bathroom, but it’ll be perfect.”