My Country Home

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 4

After Amelia arrived back at the ranch, she found Wyatt and Luke grappling on the front step of the porch as Wyatt flipped Luke over and pinned him down with a knee to the chest.

"Don't forget, big brother, I wrangle broncos for a living!"

"Oh, you wanna play that game now?"

She looked around frantically as the two of them continued to square off and decided to turn the hose on full blast at them as she grabbed a nearby hose. Hearing all the noise, Clint charged out of the house.

"What in tarnation is happenin' out here?"

He took one look at both Luke and Wyatt who were soaking wet and started laughing.

"That's one way to break you two up, wish I'd thought of that years ago. Now, Wyatt sit over here and Luke over there."

Luke and Wyatt reluctantly sat on opposite sides of the porch without saying a word to each other.

"So, which one of you is gonna tell me what in the world is going on here?"

"Luke been talking to a lawyer about selling the ranch."

"He's doin' WHAT?!"

"I just wanted to put some feelers out there in case we have to, uh, go down that route."

"That route is not an option!"

"You're a traitor to this family, Luke."

"I'm the only one looking out for this family!"

"So, um, this might not be my place to say but Luke shouldn't have kept it a secret."

"You're totally right, it's not your place."

"Don't talk to Amelia like that, especially when she's just pointing out the obvious."

"Let's not get sidetracked, okay? This is serious and we know the ranch is in financial trouble."

"It is?"

"And if we don't pay the bank the $12,000 we owe them by the end of the month, we're screwed."

"We still got time to pay the loan back, we don't have to jump straight to sellin' the one place that we mostly still have left!"

"And how do you expect we earn that kinda money when we can't even keep our farmhands?"

"What's this about our farmhands?"

Wyatt and Luke shared a look and then Wyatt cleared his throat.

"Eva left this morning, she's working for the Hernandez's, now."

Clint's whole body trembled as his face turned bright red.

"Those damn Hernandez's! I'll never let Silvia be the last one standing! No way, no how... they can take Eva, Max, and whoever else we got, but we ain't goin' nowhere and I'll make sure of that."

"Look, we'll handle this, Dad. Everything will be okay, don't get worked up."

"Yeah, remember the last time so let's just take a step back and discuss things."

"Fine, we'll go inside and talk privately."

Clint glared at Amelia as he went inside the house with Luke as Wyatt threw her an apologetic look.

"Sorry about all this, Amelia but I'll come find you when we're done, okay?"

"Good luck."

Wyatt followed the others inside, leaving her on the porch so she wandered over towards the pasture and ran into Max who was clearly trying to eavesdrop from around the corner.