The Cattleman (Sons of Texas Book 2) (35 page)

“Oh, Mandy loves the place, I think, although she hasn’t been there much lately.”

“You wouldn’t have to live there, but you’ve got to be somewhere nearby. You could remodel—” Drake stopped himself. “Forget that shit. Kate and Troy both have their own places. I’ll never return to the ranch to live. As for Mom, she left there by her own choice. She shouldn’t be able to dictate what goes on there. If you and your wife lived in the ranch house and Mom couldn’t stand to be around her, whether it’s Mandy or somebody else, Mom would have to stay away.”

On a sigh,
Pic sat back and rubbed his brow with two fingers. “This is just one of the things that gives me a headache every time I think of the future. The day’s never gonna come when Dad’s not trying to get Mom to come back. I think he honestly believes it’ll happen.”

Drake shook his head and got to his feet, walked over to a bank of bookshelves and opened the bottom doors in a lower cabinet, revealing a small refrigerator. He pulled out two bottles of Pellegrino. “He might believe it, but I don’t.”

He handed Pic a bottle and returned to his chair, opening his own bottle. “Why would she go back? She’s got the best of all worlds. She lives in a damn nice place convenient to downtown Fort Worth. She does anything she wants to, travels anywhere she wants to. Answers to nobody. She has a generous allowance for her personal needs. If she needs or wants a big-ticket item, Dad steps up and pays for it, like with the new car he bought her in April. And she doesn’t have to put up with him and his peccadilloes. She couldn’t get a better property settlement than that even if she wanted to divorce him.”

“Are you gonna tell him that?”

“I have told him that, but he doesn’t listen.”

Pic set his bottle unopened on the lamp table. He didn’t like the taste of Pellegrino. He saw nothing wrong with plain water. “You know, there have been plenty of times when I’ve wished they would get a divorce and be done with the whole thing.”

Drake shook his head. “Not happening. I didn’t know it until Mom told me this past Christmas, but when she left the ranch eight years ago, she did intend to get a divorce. But once she sat down with a lawyer, it didn’t take long for her to see that doing it could kill the golden goose and she could be tied up in court for the rest of her life. She wisely chose not to go down that path.”

Pic harrumphed. “One thing you can say for our mother. She might be high-strung, but she’s not stupid. Do you think she’s always known about the layers of corporations and trusts Grandpa set up?”

Drake shrugged. “According to Silas Morgan, Grandpa wouldn’t let Dad marry her until he got all of that put in place. Grandpa was a shrewd old guy. Ruthless, too, even with his family.”

Pic chuckled, remembering how controlling their grandfather had been. “That’s probably why Mom was six months pregnant before a wedding took place. If they hadn’t got their act together, you could’ve been a bastard, Brother.”

Their maternal grandparents hated the Lockhart side of the family. Pic was sure that their teenage daughter’s pregnancy and the delayed wedding was the fundamental reason. Add to that, Mom had been forced to quit school and hadn’t gotten a high school diploma via GED until after she had given birth to two kids.

Drake laughed, too. “I wonder if they would’ve let that happen. No doubt Grandpa took a hard look at what’s gone on with the old big spreads around Texas, and didn’t want to see the Double-Barrel follow. Some of them have been in litigation since the thirties.”

“Goes to show you what can happen when you get multiple generations of wives and girlfriends and mistresses and legitimate and illegitimate kids all squabbling over an estate. Case in point, our neighbor on the north side. I ran into him at a cattle sale a few weeks ago. They finally got a court ruling on that part of their place that woman from Houston sued them over. They didn’t have the cash to pay the settlement the court ordered, so they were forced to sell land and cattle. They had to let go of some mineral rights, too. Cody didn’t want to say it, but I think it’s just a matter of time before the XT goes on the market or goes under. I hate that. McAlisters have been around a long time.”

“
We all have to be cognizant of that danger and see that nothing like it ever happens to the Double-Barrel. At least our ancestors weren’t as prolific as the McAlisters. And Dad has never changed one thing that Grandpa did. A few things he could’ve changed, but he chose not to. He solved a lot of future problems when he took Troy in and accepted him as an equal heir. McAlisters could have remedied some of their problems if somebody had had the foresight to do something like that.

“And Dad has branched out. He’s been a much smarter investor than Grandpa was. In the thirty-five years since he and Mom got married, the value of the Double Bar L Cattle Company has quintupled.”

“That brings me to one of the other things I came up here to talk to you about,” Pic said. “I gotta ask, Drake. I know it’s none of my business, but I gotta ask. Did you insist on Shannon signing one of those prenuptial agreements?”

“This is what’s kept you from popping the question to Mandy?”

“Not the only thing. Until today, I wasn’t ready.”

“What happened today?”

Pic related the incident with Zochi at the old homeplace.

Drake made no comment until he finished, then all he said was “Wow.”

“It’s like I had this damn epiphany,” Pic said. “Standing there in that old house, surrounded by all of that history, what you said to me one day about Mom counting on me not being able to keep my pants zipped kept coming back to me. Maybe that, as much as anything, was what stopped me from grabbing Zochi and fucking her blind when she was so willing. Mom might believe I’m a lowlife, but I don’t want to think that about myself.”

“Mom doesn’t believe you’re a lowlife, Pic. She worships all of her kids. I don’t know what’s going on in her head. I’ve wondered if she needs to be seeing a shrink or something. Maybe dealing with Dad has finally pushed her over the edge.”

“Do you think she sent Zochi to the ranch on purpose? Would she put Zochi or any woman up to doing something like that?”

“I’m afraid to guess,” Drake answered. “She’s done things that a few years ago I would never have believed. I haven’t told anybody, but she did
something similar to me that she just tried to do to you. Figuring I wouldn’t able to keep my hands off Tammy McMillan, she brought her back into my life after her divorce.”

Pic’s eyes widened. “No shit? I hadn’t heard Tammy got a divorce. Or that she’s back.”

“She’s in Fort Worth, working for her uncle. She has two kids, but they’re back in Arizona with her ex. Anyway, after I didn’t fall into that trap, Mom hired the PI to snoop into Shannon’s life.”

Pic shook his head.
“I guess since Mom has success using sex to get what she wants from Dad, she thinks that will work getting her kids to do what she wants them to do. With the way Mom and Dad fight, I can’t believe they’re still sleeping together. And he’s such a sucker. I see the shit she pulls on him. Every time she wants something expensive, she gets together with him. It’s embarrassing. After your wedding, he spent several days at her house. Then all of a sudden, he bought her that new Cadillac.”

“I know. Mom probably feels like she’s earned it. I’m glad not to be as close to it as you are. So this Zochi is a real vamp, huh?”

Pic nodded. “Playboy centerfold.  And she’s kind of helpless. Reminds me a lot of Lucianne. Not in the looks department, but her personality. In a way, I feel sorry for her. It’s just weird how Mom picked out somebody who could push my buttons.”

Drake smiled. “You’ve always been a soft touch, Brother
and everybody knows it. I told you you’d better watch your step. How long did you say she’s going to be there?”

“Don’t know. If getting me into the sack was her purpose and that didn’t work out, maybe she’ll decide to go ahead and leave.”

“You did the right thing, Pic. If you fucked around on Mandy, you’d regret it for the rest of your life.”

“That’s what I realized. Jesus, I was standing there in a remote place with a
hot naked woman—a
gorgeous
naked woman—and a hard-on. But I kept thinking that if I did anything about that, it would hurt Mandy. I think she’s gotten over me marrying Lucianne, but I doubt she’d get over it now if I cheated on her.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. But at least the picture-taking expedition is over. I told Dad at supper that I’ve had it.”

“I meant what are you going to do about Mandy?”

“I don’t know that either. She talks about having kids and running out of eggs and her biological clock and all of that female stuff, but…” He shrugged.

“You’re confusing me, Brother.
And I think you’re confusing yourself. You’re up here showing me a drawing of a wedding present and you don’t know what you’re going to do? If a husband and kids are what Mandy wants and you don’t intend to take on that role, you should stop thinking about swimming pools and places to live and cut her loose. It’s not fair to keep her thinking it might happen someday.”

“I know, I know. I guess I’m a coward. I just don’t want to make a mistake. If I ever get married again, I want it to be for good. And I want it to be to somebody who’s in it for the long haul just like I would be.”

“And you think Mandy wouldn’t be? My God, Pic, she’s been in love with you since y’all were little kids.”

“Well…yeah. I believe she loves me, but…”

“You’re not in love with her?”

“I guess I am. But it’s just that…It’s not like it was with Lucianne. I guess what it boils down to is Mandy doesn’t need me much. She’s got everything under control. If I wasn’t around, she’d get along just fine. Nowadays, I’m so busy that weeks sometime pass before we see each other and she does get along just fine.”

“But is she happy getting along? Mandy’s been through a lot, Pic. She’s a survivor. I see that as a good thing. Survivors don’t let emotion run their lives. But that doesn’t mean she cares any less. I’m a survivor. My wife’s a survivor. If either of us dropped dead tomorrow, the other would go on and do what has to be done.

“
Shannon didn’t marry me because she’s pregnant. She’s with me because she wants to be, not because she
has
to be. And vice-versa. And believe me, that makes it more the sweeter. You’ve got a lot of responsibility now. You need a woman capable of being a partner, not a dead weight.”

“I’ve thought about that part of it. Mandy so sharp and got so much common sense. We
’d make a good team. Looking back, when it came to the ranch, Mom never was a help to Dad. She was a good mom, but I’m not sure how good a partner she was. She was always a little scattered. Maybe that’s why he can’t give up on her, why he keeps taking care of her. Maybe he’s got his own Lucianne to worry about.”

“Who knows
? I’ve given up trying to figure out Mom and Dad’s marriage.”

“When Lucianne and I got married, I’d never heard of a prenuptial agreement. Or if I did, I didn’t pa
y attention. All I could think about was making her a permanent part of my life. I don’t remember what I was thinking about the ranch at that time, but one thing I wasn’t figuring on was Dad and the family handing the management over to me. I thought you’d be the one who ended up running the ranch. If you recall, before Lucianne came along, I was thinking about joining the army.”

“Yeah. And I was terrified, too. If you’d left Treadway County altogether, I would’ve had no choice but to take on the job you’re doing now. Most likely, I would’ve never gone to SMU, never would’ve gotten my investment business going or bought the old bank building that has turned into the foundation of my business.”

“Funny, how things happen, isn’t it. If I hadn’t met Lucianne, I probably
would
have joined the army. She kept me from doing that. Then getting divorced and feeling guilty made me more loyal to the ranch. I’ve been scared shitless of making another mistake.”

“You mean the divorce settlement with Lucianne. You were more generous than you needed to be. If you had let the lawyers handle it, it would’ve cost both you and the family less. Dad tried to tell you, but you didn’t listen.”

Pic had heard all of that before, more than once. Nobody would ever forget his marriage and especially his divorce. “Listen, you don’t need to keep whipping a dead horse here. Lucianne had me buffaloed. She convinced me that her screwing around behind my back was my fault. I was so blind and naïve back then, I didn’t see through that. But there was more to it than that. She was one of those people who had a hard time managing life, even the simple things. I imagine she still does.”

“With what we handed her, she should be managing pretty well. Do you suppose she has any of it left?”

Pic sighed. No one in his family had ever liked Lucianne. They had tagged her a gold-digger from the outset. “I don’t know. I quit keeping up with her quite a while back. I don’t want to know what she’s doing. It took me a long time to get over her.”

“And a river of whiskey.”

“Hunh. You don’t have any room to talk, Bro. I remember that summer you came back to the ranch after Tammy took off with that dude from Arizona. You were such a wild man you were practically unrecognizable. You lived in the bunkhouse a year and a half and didn’t even talk to us.”