Kisses for Christmas by Marie Higgins

Author:Marie Higgins [Higgins, Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-11-18T06:00:00+00:00

SIX

“I want to sell the ranch.”

Rafe paused, waiting for his cousins’ reactions. Both Blake and Luca had shoved a bite of stew into their mouths, but then froze. Their eyes were wide. Luca even had the audacity to stare at Rafe as if he was half crazy.

After a few seconds passed without his relatives saying anything, Rafe cleared his throat. “Did you hear me?”

“Yeah.” Blake set his spoon on the table and leaned toward Rafe. “You said you want to sell the ranch.”

Rafe sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Right.”

“But you didn’t say why,” Blake continued.

Rafe folded his arms across his chest. “We all went to college and got a degree. Right before my dad died, I’d received several offers to join medical teams. I put them on hold to help run the ranch, but I don’t want to do this any longer.” He nodded to Luca. “You have a business degree. And you,” he switched his attention to Blake, “can be an engineer. So why haven’t we pursued our degrees? Did we pay all that money for college, just so we could run the family ranch for the rest of our lives?”

“But... but,” Luca frowned, “this is what we know. This ranch has been in our family since our granddad’s granddad first built it.”

“True, but they didn’t have college degrees, either. They were raised to be cattle ranchers. If our fathers wanted us to continue in their footsteps, they wouldn’t have allowed us to go to college.” Rafe pushed away from the table and stood, taking his empty bowl to the sink. “Don’t you guys want a better life than this? I know I do.”

Blake and Luca exchanged glances. Rafe wished he could read their thoughts now. He’d been postponing saying anything to them for quite a while now, but lately, he’d just been irritated over everything, and he just couldn’t hold his tongue anymore.

“When are you going to sell it?”

Rafe raked his fingers through his thick hair as he met Blake’s questionable stare. “I was thinking of putting it on the market early on in the new year.”

“What will we do?” Luca whined.

Rolling his eyes, Rafe moved back to the table and sat. “It will take a while before the right buyer notices and makes an offer on the ranch. I’m sure we’ll all have plenty of time to look for jobs. But I wanted to say something now so that we can be prepared when the time comes.”

Luca stared at his half-empty bowl of stew for several quiet seconds until he shook his head, slowly at first, and then faster. His gaze lifted and met Rafe’s again.

“No. I don’t want to move. I like living here. I like my room. I like the free open space. I like riding my horse.” His eyes watered. “I won’t let you sell the ranch.”

Sadness crept over Rafe. He really hated making people upset, but he understood his cousin. “Then do the two of you want to buy it from me?”

Luca glared.

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