Chapter Six

“You think she’s a bit touched in the brain?” Clayton asked as the cousins watched Ashleigh pace back and forth over the old rug in the middle of the living room. Her hands were flying and she seemed to be in a debate with herself. The winner of said debate was hard to determine, since she could only be fighting the evil verses good sides of her personality. Either way, all those in the room might as well be watching a tennis match the way their heads followed the blonde haired melt down mumbling about statutes and morals. “I mean she did make out with Miles, so her mental stability is already in question.”

“True that,” Monty added.

Ashleigh stopped her motion making them all get a crook in their necks in response.

“Made out,” Ashleigh bit out. “You have a sorry idea what making out is if you think—”

Miles let out a sigh, then scooped her up in his arms once again, to shut her up in the best way he could. Just like before, she protested his mouth on hers for approximately point one second. Once she softened against his body, he set her feet back on the ground and let his hands slide down her body coming to rest on her hips.

“Quit doing that,” she whined exposing a bit of a twang, he hadn’t caught before as her hands warmed his belly while they rested on his abs.

“You need to calm down. We aren’t used to the spastic behavior around here.”

“At least, outside of the bedroom,” Monty replied.

Miles leaned his head, so he could see around Ashleigh and give him the side eye.

“What? I’m not the one playing tonsil hockey with a woman trying to put me away for life.”

“My first mistake was not letting you fall down the stairs as a child.”

“You know Miles,” Monty said as he plopped down in a recliner. “I understand you haven’t done much in life, but we all know you left that baby gate open. You were really covering your own ass.”

“Can we please talk outside?” Ashleigh asked with a little less frenzy she’d been showing so far.

“It’s alright,” Uncle Clevon said. “We still need your daddy here anyway.”

Miles held the door open and Ashleigh’s pale green eyes crinkled at the edges before walking through the opening. Why was she mad at him? Seriously, she asked to go outside.

Settling down on the railing that circled the front porch, Miles kept his hands on either side of him.

Ashleigh stood with her arms crossed and one hip popped to the side.

It made it hard to concentrate with the way her jeans were painted on her hips and hung low. The blue lace of her top accentuated the breasts that, although they fit her, seemed a bit large for her petite frame.

“The kissing has to stop,” she stated plainly.

The problem with this was he couldn’t help looking at her full lips and licking the corner of his own to capture the taste of her once more. Not the way he wanted to, instead he tried to figure out if he could go for it one more time. Probably not. At least not now.

“Well? Aren’t you going to say something?”

“Have you noticed when I kiss you, the stick in your ass starts to inch its way out.”

Ashleigh’s jaw dropped at his description.

He pushed off the railing and stepped so he was right next to her, hip to hip. Leaning his head next to hers, he whispered in her ear, “I bet if you and I were alone for an hour, you might loosen up enough to have it drop out completely.”

“You’re not as irresistible as you think you are.”

“You’re the one who used the word irresistible, not me.” This time, he made sure to let his lips brush the top of her ear. “I just suggested I have the ability to make you relax. What about me made you say irresistible?”

“Miles Long—”

“Good, you do know my name,” he said as he backed off and noticed her face was filling with a light rose blush. “Let me tell you what I think about you Ms. High and Mighty. I think you’re the reason the whole tie ‘em down crowd is rushing to the bookstores lately.” She began to speak, but he held his hand up to silence her. “You’re the type of woman who needs to be tied down because you don’t feel worthy of a good orgasm. Any proper gentleman you’ll fight tooth and nail with until he gives up and moves on. I hate fighting. I’ll do anything to not have to raise my voice to a woman. So woman, if you’re gonna keep coming after me to make me the enemy when we both know the only reason you’re doing it is because you’re afraid I might actually bring you to a climax and treat you like a lady when I do it…well, fuck you. Next time, you try to tell me what I can and cannot do on my ranch, I won’t kiss you into submission. I’ll just leave you standing there waiting.” He stepped closer. This time, eye to eye so their lips brushed as he silently spoke his final words on the subject, “And that ache you’ll have between your legs will just have to wait until you find yourself one of those tie down freak mother fuckers because if I get my rope, you won’t see the sun for three days.”

Abandoning her on the front porch, Miles went back inside. Giving his sister-in-law the side eye, he crossed through the living room.

As he headed into the kitchen he gave Harper a little suggestion, “You might want to go mop up that puddle out on the porch.”

* * * *

The door didn’t snap shut when Miles went back inside. In fact, if the heat hadn’t left her body from his absence, she wouldn’t believe he was really gone. Leaning against the outside of the house, she tried to stay upright. Damn that man.

“Holy hell.” The sound of Harper’s voice made Ash’s eyes flutter open. “He said he left a puddle outside and damned if he didn’t. Is he that good at kissing?”

“We didn’t kiss,” Ashleigh replied as she let out a breath of air and found her way to a rocking chair on the porch.

“You know Miles doesn’t say much.” Harper sat next to Ashleigh. “I barely know him. Even after living out here for months.”

Ashleigh’s insides were all bundled up and parts of her did ache, the bastard and his hard words that were so right in the moment. “He’s…He’s wearing an ankle bracelet and is out on bail. I’m supposed to help put him away for life.”

“Are you talking to me?” Harper asked.

Ashleigh couldn’t focus enough to deal with Harper’s craziness.

“Alright, I’ll just leave you to process.”

Process? What would she be processing? The fact that every word Miles said was more accurate than Robin Hood’s arrow. She’d been using Sierra as an excuse for years. A handful of second dates and never a third. Her time was limited and the men she met weren’t the kind that would make room in their life for a woman who would be raising her sister for the rest of her life. Then there’s Miles, accusing her of stifling her sister. What did that dumb ass cowboy know about what she’d gone through? Staying up late as a fifth grader because her parents couldn’t deal with a fussy baby. If the stories were true, she had been a calm baby. One who consoled herself unlike her sister.

Glancing to her side, she saw Harper rocking gently as she rubbed circles on her belly. “I thought you were abandoning me?”

“I said I was leaving you, so you could process. Sorry, babe, you’re stuck with me.” Harper cracked one eye open. “You figure everything out?”

“Life, the universe and everything?”

“Isn’t that a book?” Harper continued to rock, but opened her eyes fully as the sun began setting in the west. Across from them, a clear night sky began to appear. “Look at it this way, you don’t have to worry about commitment issues with Miles. He’s pretty much stuck to this ranch until you put him away for defending me.”

“You’re not helping the situation,” Ashleigh bemoaned. “He told me he hates to fight. How can a man who hates to fight gun down two others?”

“Hating to and having to are two different beasts.”

“Motherhood is softening you. I’m gonna need you to stop.”

“Ash, you can need all you want, but I always listened to both sides of a case and if you don’t think I’m going to nail Federated’s ass to the wall, you have another think coming.”

“What about Mr. Connelly?” Ashleigh asked in a solemn tone. “He is still technically my boss, in a way.”

“Mine too, until I get rid of my last few cases, but what he was doing wasn’t legal. He had people prosecuted, just because they couldn’t afford the right lawyer to get them off. If Jason’s name hadn’t come up in rotations for legal aid, we might have never caught on. I was working bigger cases and Hamilton couldn’t tell a set up from a hole in his ass.”

“Which end of him is the ass?” Ashleigh laughed. “Because sometimes, I can’t tell which end is up on that man. You should hear some of his arguments. I’m beginning to wonder if his law degree was printed at an all night Kinko’s.”

“Of course, it wasn’t. Just his bar card.”

The two women let out a laugh.

“Tell me something, Ash, if Miles wasn’t indicted for murder—”

“I don’t deal in what ifs.” Ashleigh saw Sunshine walking Sierra back to the house. “What ifs lead to dreams and dreams lead to heartbreak. All I can focus on are the facts laid before me.”

“I bet Sierra has dreams,” Harper reasoned.

“Sierra can.” Ashleigh leaned against the pillar for the front porch and smiled at her sister. “You ready to head home?”

“But Sunny says I can stay for supper.”

“It’s getting late,” Ashleigh reasoned.

“Your sister’s right,” Sunshine replied and gave both women a nod. “You should be listening to her and not some dumb old cowboy.”

“You’re not a dumb cowboy,” Sierra said. “But you do need to switch your hat.”

“Hey now,” he teased. “Don’t be tellin’ a cowboy ‘bout his hat. That’s a sacred talisman.”

“But black hats are for bad cowboys.”

“Not always kiddo.” He tussled Sierra’s golden hair and her face lit up. “Then again, you may have somethin’ there. Right Harp?”

“Maybe, I wouldn’t waste your time in there.” Harper tilted her head to the door. “Family meeting.”

“Why aren’t you in there then?” he questioned. “You’re legally bound to the family now.”

“Not enough for voting power.” Her hand circled her belly. “This one though, will be primed to vote by the time they’re eighteen.”

“If there’s still something to vote about.”

The mood sobered on the porch and Ashleigh took in her best friend. How hard must it be to become part of a family now caught in a myriad of drama? If not one thing, it is another and no matter how much she wanted to have Miles kiss her into oblivion, she already needed to figure out if she had to recuse herself. When it came to the right and wrong in her world, it was becoming muddled and she couldn’t handle anything but crystal clear. “It’s a long drive back to Las Cruces, Sierra.”

“Let me drive then.”

Ashleigh let out a cleansing breath. In theory, she knew her sister probably could handle a car. At the center where she goes a few older Down’s kids had been studying after one of the boys got his license.

“Not a chance, but you keep asking.”

“I’m old enough to make my own decisions and live my own life.”

“As long as you’re living under my roof—”

“Well maybe, I’ll just move out here and sleep in the barn.”

“They wouldn’t take you,” Ashleigh spat as their voices raised and she knew she’d need to get her sister under control soon, or she would have a full on meltdown. “Your snoring would keep the horses up all night.”

“I don’t snore,” her sister retorted. “You fart.”

“That’s the best you got for me little sister?” Ashleigh crossed her arms and stared her sister down.

Sierra’s face contorted and twisted in anger.

“You want to live on your own you have a lot of growing up to do and quick.”

“At least, they let me here.” Sierra stomped her feet as she marched into the house.

Ashleigh’s face heated up in embarrassment. “I guess we’re staying for dinner.”

“I’m sorry Ashleigh,” Sunny said with his thick drawl. “I didn’t mean no harm. I assumed ya’ll were stayin’.”

“It’s fine, she’s…” Ashleigh walked to the far edge of the porch to avoid being seen crying. Taking in the expanse of the ranch from the side of the porch, she could only imagine the fun that could be had here. On this side of the porch, she could see the pinks, purples and yellows of the sun as it set behind the mountains miles away. The land seemed so peaceful and quiet. Ashleigh rarely had those types of moments. Ones where she could get away from her thoughts and decompress. Turning her head, she looked over her shoulder at Harper. “Would it be okay for me to go in the barn by myself?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t it be?”

“Will you watch my sister?”

“She’s not five, but sure.”

“I don’t want her to be a burden on the Longs.”

“Not that type of family Ash.” Harper pushed up from the rocking chair and headed inside.

Ashleigh wandered toward the barn. She had too much on her mind right now and even if she were sitting in another room, Miles Long would be too close for her to be able to focus. As long as he didn’t follow her into the barn, she’d be good because right at that moment, all she could think about was hay getting stuck in her hair as Miles explored every inch of her body in an empty horse stall.

* * * *

Around the kitchen table, the Long family sat with the stern faces he’d never seen at a family meeting before. How did he miss Melody and his father showing up? They must have come in through the kitchen door. There wasn’t a Long that didn’t shiver when they saw her. Even with her attacker behind bars, since the moment they pulled up on Sunshine giving her CPR, none of them could get the site of her beaten and battered face and body drenched from the stream. Even though she no longer showed a scar on her caramel skin, the men had discussed that it may be years before any of them could see her as they had a year ago.

When he sat down, he made sure he had a straight view of the front door. Harper came in with a smirk on her face. Sierra had come in a few minutes before. Ashleigh couldn’t be far behind, and yet she didn’t coming in the house. Sunny, Tina and Harper had turned on a kids movie as they all sat well within earshot with his three youngest cousins. He remembered when he hit about sixteen, he started ear hustling on the family meetings. Back then, it was just his dad, uncle and Walt voting. Walt told him to start listening like he did on the votes that happened when he was home from college.

Technically, you had voting rights when you turned eighteen, but as Miles and Clayton had been complaining about, they tended to have proxy votes done at meetings they weren’t invited to. The ranch was almost a hundred and fifty years old and this was the first generation with so many heirs, his father and uncle had to change from the standard set so many years ago by his too many greats grandfather to count.

“Tina has been working with Desert Electric Corporation for the last few months,” Walt began. “They’ve offered us three options. It’s all pretty standard from what I can tell. They only want about ten thousand acres.”

“Ten?” Uncle Clevon asked. “Ten? We have close to sixty thousand and they want ten thousand?”

“To start with. Cost per acre is about five hundred thousand.”

“And who pays that?” his father asked. “Are we expected to? That’s over two billion dollars. I’m sorry, I don’t think Federated Gas is going to settle that high.”

“Federated isn’t going to settle anything in the next ten years,” Monty added. “Not that I want to put a damper on anything.”

“Do you remember when I said we had options?” Walt’s commanding tone brought the table back in focus. “Option one is for us to pay for everything with DEC paying us for the energy used and created. We maintain the panels and construction costs.”

“That’s a pretty long term investment,” Monty the business major stated as he reached for the projections in front of Walt who snapped back the papers. “Seriously? How old are you? You know in the corporate world, they make copies for everyone at the meeting.”

“The corporate world doesn’t have a, ‘save the planet with one less printed document at a time’ for a wife,” Walt retorted. “I’ll get you the numbers. I know that’s your specialty. But can I please continue with my job? Contracts and legalese.”

If nothing else, having three kids each between his uncle and father, the kids were able to get degrees in every aspect of the ranching. Business degrees, law and his sister, the large animal vet. He was the one who had to go on what he learned growing up. A degree in literature was only good for his escapes from the ranch.

“Now, Monty is right about something,” Walt continued. “That’s a long term major investment. The positive side of option one is we already have a vendor and could start selling to them after ten acres were set up, but it is a long-term major investment. With tax incentives and grants from the federal government, we would still need a major loan from a bank, probably out of Dallas or something. Now, DEC would be willing to go half on the instillation and supply a workforce that puts these in at a dozen other spots in New Mexico and Arizona.”

“Well shit,” Uncle Clevon said. “Let me get my checkbook, a billion is a steal.”

“Actually it is,” Walt snapped. “We’re talking about most if not all of Southeast New Mexico being lit up from a handful of acres that are poisonous. The third option would have them renting our land. They are a hundred percent on the hook for the instillation costs and maintenance. They’d have access to our ranch twenty four seven without notification. We would be lease holders to their land.”

“And that would just be profit the whole way with no cost to us, makes sense to me,” Melody said.

“I don’t want another man wandering my land without my knowledge,” their father said. “This is our land. Has been for over a century. Outside of that little plot that your fiancé has to work off, it’s ours.”

“So spending a few billion dollars makes sense. I’m sorry, but how much did we get per head for our cattle that had to be destroyed? Because I doubt it was that.”

“It’s not about what we have in the bank now,” Monty added. “It’s about what will be there in the future. Can I see the numbers now?”

Walt slid the paperwork to Monty and as he reviewed the numbers, Miles’ focus wandered back to the front door that hadn’t been opened. The sun had fully set now and he was beginning to worry about Ashleigh sitting alone outside. A timer dinged and Tina popped up from the couch. The smell of some sort of Italian food had filled the kitchen, but Miles hadn’t noticed until now.

Taking out three casserole pans of lasagna had the table’s focus turning to the oven.

Harper came in to help dish up the food to the family. Of course, her husband was the only one to still be looking at the projections. Melody was trying to look over his shoulder but he slapped her away.

“Food, Montgomery,” Harper said.

Monty suddenly, perked up.

Miles covered his lips from the smile. He knew that reaction. His brother was pretty damn transparent. Sprung would be an understatement and when Harper said his brother’s full name, he practically undressed her right there in front of the whole family. Speaking of undressing. “Harper, where’s Ashleigh?”

“She went to the barn for a little bit.”

“Why?”

“Maybe because she’s caught the Long tormenting bug. She needed a little air.”

“Don’t even think about it son,” his father commanded. “This needs to be settled first.”

“This is going to need to be tabled and reviewed.” Miles rested his elbows on the table and brought his hands together making sure he looked his father in the eye. “We’re talking about taking on a debt, because we all know the leasing option isn’t going to pass this meeting, so tell me when was the last time you went hat in hand to any banker?”

Never. Never was the answer. Even their too many greats to count grandfather worked and saved to buy the first part of the acreage. Living like a mountain man with a handful of cattle. Hell, if it wouldn’t have been for him finding a woman, he probably would have died on the land that way. Thankfully, he had and the house his family lived in was the result.

“He’s probably right about that,” Monty said. “The leasing option should be voted on now, because I wouldn’t recommend it. I don’t care how much the legal defense fund will be for you three criminals—”

“They are still talking about charging you,” Harper interjected as she set a plate in front of Miles. “So…four criminals.”

“Right, either way, the leasing option is the poor man’s vision. Not the successful one.”

“What if Federated builds a solar or wind farm? What are the chances they would get one up before us?” Clayton asked. “Savannah and I went for a ride the other day toward the Winston’s and there’s a lot of equipment on the other side of the river right now.”

“The government isn’t going to give them the grants they are giving DEC,” Harper said and got a group of looks that told her she didn’t belong. “Hey, I may not be a voting member here, but I’m carrying one. One that the long term plan involves, okay?”

“Jesus,” Uncle Clevon grumbled to Miles’ dad. “I told you once we let one kid in, they’ll all want a say. Now the unborn?”

Miles could tell the two patriarchs were having a problem with the failure of the ranch being on their watch. But it wasn’t some infection outbreak or a natural disaster they hadn’t protected the ranch from. This was an outside source that they hadn’t even seen as a danger. Now, the men who’d been ranching for their whole life not only had an empty ranch, but the future wouldn’t include animals. At least not for a long time.

“At this point, we need all the voices that make sense. If she gets out of line, we’ll kick her out,” the new father-in-law reasoned as if Harper wasn’t standing over him with her arms crossed.

“Federated isn’t going to qualify for any of the grants Desert Electric is. They are under indictments. It’s not the legal fees that will preclude them from competing. All they do is move imaginary money around. Without those funds from the government and the sanctions in place they are still paying, it will be a decade before they can start making a profit without Tender Root, the Winston’s or us taking a big chunk.” Harper stepped behind Monty and began rubbing his shoulders. “Also, if you take on at least part of the building costs, you can sell the energy to who you want.”

“There are going to be people on the ranch either way,” Melody reasoned. “The set up alone will take a year. What are we supposed to use for income between now and then? With all the cattle getting slaughtered, Doc Carlisle is going to retire early. He offered me his practice, but what am I taking over? Zero patients and a building.”

“Since when has this family had a problem with delayed gratification,” Miles spoke up finally. “Ranching has never been a short term, get rich quick scheme. We know what we have in the bank. Mel, you don’t need a ton of animals to keep that practice going until the ranching can come back. And those south of town haven’t been affected yet. I agree that we need to vote down option three. I want to die on the same ranch where I was born. I need this here for me if I do get locked up. No one will hire a murderer and I know it’s selfish, but if we can get the loans and grants, I’m voting for that because this is my home. Right now, I need that to keep going.”

The room stilled. Longs weren’t known for expressing emotion or showing weakness. Especially, not to each other. Their women maybe, Miles wouldn’t know because it’s not like he would see it growing up. Right now, Miles needed to get out of the kitchen. He needed to get away. It was time for him to step away before the quiet child of the family ended up sharing too much and adding to the burden on his family.