Beth Cornelison - Rancher's Deadly Reunion

Their father came in carrying a glass of lemonade and sized up the situation with a wry grin. “Joshua,” he said, lifting Zeke the cat off the couch and patting the cushion, “I’ve got a place saved for you right here.” Michael waved a hand, telling him to vacate the recliner. “Vamoose.”

Josh feigned affront. “Why me?”

“’Cause she’s prettier, and I like her more,” their dad deadpanned.

“Ha!” she gloated and shoved at her brother’s shoulder. “You heard him, Doofus. Move it!”

As Josh shoved to his feet, two new arrivals to the den caught her attention. Brady and his father. Piper’s heart slammed against her ribs, and she grabbed the back of Josh’s shirt, tugging him close enough to whisper in his ear. “What are they doing here? I thought this was a family meeting.”

“It is,” he said, straightening his shirt where she’d mussed it up. “But since they are key to the running of the ranch, we thought they would give us useful input.”

“Roy, Brady, thanks for coming,” her father said, offering his hand to their foreman to shake. “Come in. Have a seat.”

Piper avoided eye contact with Brady as he walked past her, sidestepping Zeke, who’d flopped on the floor and rolled on his back to stretch. Brady took the love seat across from her. But Roy Summers stopped in front of her with a lopsided smile. “Piper, it’s good to see you, darlin’.”

She stood and gave Brady’s father a hug. “You, too, Roy. How have you been?”

He heaved a sigh that smelled of beer. “Honestly? Not so good. It’s been a hard year.”

She bit her bottom lip and tightened her hug. “I bet it has. I’m so sorry about Scott and Pam.”

He pulled free of her embrace with a stiff nod. “Thanks.”

Pausing to rub Zeke’s belly, Roy moved to take his seat on the sofa next to Josh and Zane, and when Piper turned to reclaim the recliner, she found her father had stolen it. Her father gave her an unrepentant grin, and she grunted her protest. “Dad!”

Josh chortled as she searched the remaining seats for an empty spot. Her mother was in her favorite armchair, which meant the last seat left was the other half of the narrow love seat. Next to Brady. Schooling her expression to hide her dismay, she sank onto the cushions, trying not to brush against Brady.

“All right, boys,” her father said, turning up his palms as he divided a glance between Zane and Josh. “We’re all here. What is this about?”

“Yeah, um...” Josh rubbed his hands on his thighs as his eyes met his twin’s gaze. “Zane and I have come up with an idea for the ranch that we think will add enough revenue to help pull us out of the financial crunch we’re feeling.”

Piper’s stomach clenched anew at the idea that the family business—their home and way of life—could be facing a crisis large enough to threaten their future. Beside her, Brady settled back on the love seat, adjusting his position in such a way that his elbow poked her upper arm. She tried to ignore the casual contact. She needed to focus on what her brothers were saying and not on her seatmate. She bent over and snapped her fingers near her ankles, hoping to entice Zeke to come to her. The cat raised his head and looked her way but refused to answer her summons. She’d have to find another distraction from Brady’s proximity. Sending the Maine coon a thanks-for-nothing glare, she readjusted her position, trying to appear relaxed while staying as far to her side of the seat as possible.

“In looking for new sources of income, we knew that in order to make any new ventures a success, we needed to look at areas we were already skilled in,” Zane added.

“Besides the cattle business, the thing Zane and I know best is adventure sports. Rock climbing, white water rafting, rappelling and the like.” Josh’s expression grew animated as he named the high-adrenaline activities he and Zane had mastered in the nearby Rocky Mountains.

“So we thought we could share that knowledge, that love of adrenaline, with others,” Zane said, picking up the explanation in a seamless back and forth of input, the twins practically finishing each other’s sentences.

Brady shifted his position on the love seat, resting his arm along the back. Piper sensed more than saw the move, and her skin prickled with an awareness of his arm so near her shoulders. She could tell he’d recently showered. The crisp scent of his soap mingled with a more woodsy aroma of deodorant or other body product, teasing her nose...and her imagination. She struggled to focus on what her brothers were saying instead of the body heat and sultry scents that radiated from her seatmate. She sat taller, keeping her back stiff as she perched at the front of the cushion in order to avoid touching him. Even the thought of his arm brushing the back of her neck sent distracting ripples of disquiet dancing along her nerves.

“We can renovate the bunkhouse to lodge paying guests,” Zane continued, “and take people out to Grandpa’s tract of land on hiking, camping and adventure-sports outings.”

“Sorta like a dude ranch but with the focus being the sports and extra activities. An adventure ranch.” Josh paused briefly, casting his gaze around the room, clearly gauging his family’s reaction. “We’ll show people stuff about the ranch, riding horses and working with the cattle, but the highlight will be a camping and hiking trip where we rock climb, raft, zip-line...whatever.”

Zane picked up the thread, his eyes alight with a fiery passion for the idea. “The point being to give adventure seekers the chance to do the kind of stuff they come to the mountains to do in combination with the ranch experience.”

Piper caught her brothers’ excitement, knowing they wouldn’t have brought this idea to the family without having a plan to make it work. Zane, the workhorse and responsible one of the triplets, would have addressed the details, at least.

Their father knitted his brow. “Have you looked into the cost of liability insurance for something like this? Start-up costs? The advertising expense to get people to come?”

“We’ve done preliminary inquiries with a few insurance companies and have drawn up a list of start-up costs.” Zane paused for a beat, leaning down to idly scratch Zeke’s ears as the cat rubbed against his legs. Glancing up from the cat, Piper’s brother pulled his mouth into a moue of regret. “Getting the ball rolling will be costly, but Josh and I can take out a business loan—”

Their mother made a soft sound of displeasure.

Zane gave their mother a quick, we’ll-be-okay grin and continued, “And we’ll do the lion’s share of the work in order to keep the cost of salaries to a minimum.”

“Our plan is not to go full-scale right off the bat,” Josh jumped in. “We’ll do smaller, more manageable trips at first while we figure out what works and where we need to make changes.” He faced their father and included Roy with a glance and a nod. “We don’t want to cause any trouble with the cattle operations or burden anyone with unmanageable workloads.”

“Of course, we’d love to have any help or expertise you want to offer,” Zane said, “and we’ll pay any ranch staff that contributes time and skills to the effort.”

“What time frame are you looking at? When do you hope to have your first guests take one of these trips?” Roy asked.

Her brothers exchanged a look, and Josh said, “We’d love to get this off the ground as soon as possible. We’ll start the renovation work on the bunkhouse this month and shoot for our first trip in the spring. Around April?”

A meditative silence fell over the group as their parents and Roy, judging by their expressions, mulled over the idea and formulated more questions. Piper hazarded a quick side-glance to Brady, and as if he felt her gaze, he angled his head to meet her eyes. Her pulse stuttered, and a warmth stole through her. To hide her reaction to him, which she feared showed on her face, she pasted on a grin and turned to her brothers.