The Cattleman (Sons of Texas Book 2)

by Anna Jeffrey

  “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 pay 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.”

  His brother’s head lowered. After a pause, he said, “Yeah. Lost years.”

  “I wasn’t criticizing. I guess we all have to find our own way of growing up. I admit I was a dumb kid when I married Lucianne. I just don’t want to be dumb adult now. So how about it? You know Mandy. Do you think I really need one of those prenuptial agreements?”

  Drake’s mouth quirked. “We never know anybody as well as we think we do. And unfortunately, we can’t know what the future holds. A pre-nup is no big deal, really. It’s document based on mutual trust. It can never be perfect, but the most important part of it is, in the event of divorce, no one gets killed. A messy divorce and demands on the ranch could throw things into chaos for the whole family.

  “You have to work out the details between you. Negotiate, even. You’re talking about a partner for life and the mother of your children if you’re going to have any. Don’t forget that the way things are set up, if you do have kids, they become automatic heirs to the Double Bar L Cattle Company. If Mandy is the one you’ve chosen to be their mother, you have to approach it as if it’s going to last forever. But the agreement is to make life easier in case it doesn’t. For her and your kids as well as you. Just remember, after the smoke all clears, it’s a contract and any contract is only as good as the people who make it. Somebody can always find a reason to go to court.”

  Pic shook his head, nervous again. “God, I just don’t know, Drake. How did everything get to be so damn complicated?”

  Drake leaned forward, his forearms braced on his thighs. “Look, Pic. it’s not that complicated. It’s not like you’re asking a woman to cut off her arm. All you’re doing is asking her to respect what generations before us built. You can agree to give Mandy anything you want to out of your personal capital. But the corporation and the ranch have to be protected. It’s that simple.”

  For the next half hour, they discussed the possibilities in a pre-nuptial agreement. “After you figured it out with Shannon, how did you handle it?” Pic asked.

  “I tried to be cool about it, but I was nervous as hell. I didn’t even bring it up until after she said she would marry me. And I didn’t demand that she agree to it right away. Or at all. As it turned out, coming to an understanding about the family corporation was a non-issue. She has an innate sense of fairness.”

  “So she signed an agreement like that, then?”

  Drake’s shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Shannon’s a professional in a business where she’s seen the unexpected things that can happen when people divorce or die.” Smiling, he, too leaned forward. “The truth is, Little Brother, if we hadn’t been able to work it out and she hadn’t married me, I would’ve been an extremely unhappy guy. With the baby, both of our lives would’ve been a mess from now on. I would’ve insisted on being part of my kid’s life. Without a marriage license, we could’ve had all kinds of shitty problems. I know a few guys caught in that nightmare.”

  Of all the things Pic and his brother had discussed over time, having kids wasn’t one of them. He, too, smiled. “I had no idea you felt that way about kids.”

  “Neither did I. But when you’re suddenly faced with the fact that you’ve made one, things change somehow. I can
’t explain it. This whole thing with Shannon and the baby has made me a different person. And I’m happy about it, by the way.”

  “But how did you go about discussing it with her?”

  “We went down to the coast, had dinner at a quiet restaurant. Over dessert, I handed her the agreement I had already signed. It showed her in writing what I had planned for our future and what I was willing to contribute. It was a generous blueprint. Apparently more than she expected.”

  “You didn’t talk about the details?”

  “Sure, we did. I even told her to take it to her lawyer.”

  “Did she?”

  “I don’t know. She’s never told me and I haven’t asked. I’d like to know, but I’ll never ask.”

  Pic nodded. “Actually, Mandy’s got a lawyer. She had to hire somebody after her dad died to do the probate. I’m not sure, but I think she might have gone back to see him when she thought Mom really might cause her to lose her job.”

  “She was thinking about suing? God, I would’ve hated if it that had happened.”

  “You can’t blame her, Drake. But she’s getting over it. She didn’t get canned, so that fire has died down.”

  “Thank God.”

  “I just don’t know how I could ask Mandy to sign something like that. She’s my best friend. I’d trust her with my life. I don’t want her to think I care more about money than I do her.”

  “Pic, Texas is a community property state. The way things are nowadays, it’s not logical that any of us—me, you, Kate or Troy—would not require a pre-marriage contract. The family’s holdings have to be protected.”

  “Every time I think about talking to her about it, I get nervous.”

  “You’ve known her your whole life. You’ve been together more than two years this time around. You should be able to sit down and talk about your financial future. I know you’re not a big spender, but if you’ve got money, it’s a part of who you are.”

  Dollar signs raced through Pic’s mind. Indeed, he had a few dollars that were his alone. On the surface, he thought money didn’t mean that much to him, but then, he had never lived without it. And after what he had already been through, being forced to sell land or cattle to settle a divorce wasn’t a pleasant picture. “Guess you can’t put it in a closet and pretend it doesn’t exist, can you?”

  “Not if you’re a Lockhart. It’s part of the equation and no one who’s sane can be unconscious of it. Besides, Mandy already knows most of the family secrets. She knows Lucianne put a dent in your trust fund and she’s heard the family bitch about it. She’s a sensible and honest person. I’d bet she’d understand why you feel so anxious.”

  “I dunno. Maybe. But it seems so cold.”

  “I get that. But that’s life.”

  Pic shook his head, nervous again. He glanced at his watch. It was after ten o’clock. “I better hit the road. Gotta get up early.” He got to his feet. “Thanks for taking the time for this talk. I know you’re busy.”

  “You’re my little brother. I’m never too busy.”

  They strolled to the front door where Shannon met them with Pic’s cap. Drake looped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to him. “Mandy will understand, Pic. I’m sure she trusts you as much as you trust her. A partner you can trust is a joy in life. You should marry her and take her to the ranch to live. You’ll both be happier and your lives will be easier all around. And that’s my opinion.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m thinking about it. Did you decide to come down tomorrow?”

  “Looks like we’re going to.” He looked down at his wife. She wrapped her arms around his middle and smiled up at him. Pic watched his big brother melt right before his eyes. “My beautiful spouse is pushing me into it,” he said. “But I’ll be fully armored.”

  Chapter 22

  On the way home, Mandy’s image and how he would approach her filled Pic’s thoughts. Drake had cleared some of the fog all right. A prenuptial agreement wasn’t romantic, but Pic’s logical mind knew it was necessary. After what had happened in his first go-round with matrimony, it made no sense that he would marry again without such an agreement, even to Mandy. She would understand. She was the most understanding person he had ever known.

  On the other hand, she was a woman. Occasionally she fooled him and reacted to things in ways that surprised him, a thought that made him nervous again.

  As the ranch’s gate neared, he thought of bypassing it and driving on to Drinkwell, spending the night at Mandy’s house and talking it out with her. But when the gate came into sight, fatigue and the fact that he had to be up well before daylight influenced him more than his desire to drive another thirty-eight miles.

  He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw headlights. So little traffic frequented the state highway to Drinkwell at eleven o’clock at night, he was sure Marcus or Chris was behind him. He signaled a right turn, turned in and picked his phone off his belt. In the summertime, Mandy stayed up late. He speed-dialed her number.

  She answered after one burr. “Hi. This is me.”

  “Hey, baby, did I wake you up?”

  “I’m watching Jay Leno. It’s eleven o’clock. Why aren’t you in bed?”

  “What time are you coming out tomorrow?”

  “I hear noise. Are you driving?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah. I’ve been up at Drake’s house. I had to talk over some things with him. It’s nice that he’s closer. So what time are you coming out tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know exactly. Early.”

  “Dad’s planning on getting up at three to start the pig. Johnnie Sue’s got help coming out real early, so the house is going to be too busy for us to sneak into my room.”

  She laughed. “Good grief, Pic. Lately, we’ve been going without sex for weeks at a time. You don’t think we can last for one day?”

  “Sure, we can. But I don’t want to. Roundup has already started. Soon as this picnic ends, I’ll be taking my trailer out to set up a cow camp and God knows where I’ll be or how long I’ll be gone. It might be a long dry spell.”

  “You’re going out so soon? Will those security people be going with you?”

  “I guess so. They’re hard to stop. I don’t think I need security people. I mean, I’ve gone out on roundup since I was a kid.”

  “I know, Pic. But until now, no one was threatening everyone. And you’ll be all by yourself in isolated locations.”

  He wasn’t afraid of isolated locations. Most places on the range, he could see ten miles in any direction and he would be well-armed. The fact was, he enjoyed the solitude. If he wasn’t too tired at night, he caught up on his reading. “Look, just come out as early as you can, okay. I’ll be waiting for you in the office.”

  They disconnected. For the rest of the trip to the house, his future occupied all of his thoughts. Marriage and a prenuptial agreement weren’t the only issues that nagged at him. Mandy living in the ranch house and all of the problems that could come from that still loomed in the front of his mind.

  If Dad agreed to him and Mandy setting up housekeeping in the ranch house, since Mandy was female, would she, in essence, run the house? Would she even want to? Would she and Johnnie Sue have to figure out how to co-exist? Being occasional pals, as they were now, was different from the daily grind and whatever conflicts that might bring. But then, maybe that didn’t matter. Mandy would be the wife of the part-owner and general manager of the Double-Barrel Ranch. They could live anywhere she wanted to and the rest of the world would have to deal with it.

  Mandy’s job, on the other hand, had no easy solution. He was torn on that subject. Her career was important to her. She was dedicated to those kids. But it made no sense for her to continue working. He wouldn’t like her driving eighty miles a day to and from town. He already hated her traveling sometimes at night and on weekends to get to swimming tournaments. They had to talk about it.

  Maybe they would have a chance tomorrow….

  He drove off the drivew
ay to the office and parked. As he slid out of his truck, Marcus pulled up beside him. “Everything all right, sir?”

  “Sure thing. Did you follow me up to Camden?”

  “Only part of the way. Your brother’s team picked you up just out of Camden.”

  Pic gave him a look. He hadn’t seen Marcus behind him on the way to Camden, but then he hadn’t looked. “I’m just going into the office here to put something away. Then I’m going to drive over to the garage, okay?”

  “Of course, Mr. Lockhart. Have a good evening.”

  Pic unlocked the office door and made his way to his own office where he placed the swimming pool drawing back in the cleaning supplies closet.

  He sat down at his desk and prowled through files in the locked bottom drawer until he found the report Drake had delivered to all of the family at the semi-annual family meeting back at the end of May. If he was going to talk to the family lawyers about a prenuptial agreement, he needed to know what he was talking about.

  He studied the report, taking in the long list of assets owned by the Double Bar L Cattle Company—Three Hundred Sixty-Seven sections of un-mortgaged land, thousands of head of cattle, more than a hundred head of horses. Numerous vehicles and pieces of mechanized equipment. Two dozen employee dwellings scattered over the ranch’s acres plus three guesthouses. A hundred twenty active oil wells. The entire Double-Barrel Ranch itself sat on top of the Barnett shale gas discovery, with the Lockharts owning one hundred percent of the mineral rights. There were cotton farms and wind farms in West Texas, new oil wells being drilled on other land they owned in several West Texas counties. The value was inestimable.

  Thanks to Dake, the family owned an impressive commercial real estate portfolio in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Midland—shopping centers, apartment and office buildings, even a golf course north of Dallas that hosted a major golf tournament. In spite of the sluggish economy, the drought and the many other risks inherent in ranching, the outside assets had more than doubled since Drake had assumed management of the family’s investments. Big Brother seemed to be able to smell money.