Chapter 1

Damn it! You have fucking got to be kidding me.

Hitting the steering wheel hard didn’t get the rusted old farm truck started, and, of course, it was the worst possible time for it to break down. The weatherman on Country 102.5 predicted a roaring blizzard that wouldn’t stop until tomorrow morning. The weather update had been different when Dean started out on this trip. Hoping for an early start, he’d left Hot Springs at four in the morning. Now, just a few hours later, he had this mess.

Great. Just great.

Dean pumped the gas three more times. Then he turned the engine, but got nothing in return.

He’d known it was a bad idea to drive down to Laramie in October. The weather turned on a dime, and traveling the desolate backroads alone wasn’t the smartest move either. He should never have listened to Randy. Randy and his wife Rebecca were expecting their first child anytime now. With Rebecca a few days away from labor, Randy couldn’t leave her to check on the land himself.

Fuck, Dean should have checked the weather again before he left.

He couldn’t blame his brother for not traveling with a baby on the way. Dean had laughed when Randy insisted, due to the price drastically dropping, that they needed to grab it while they could, even though it had been for sale for more than a year. Randy knew Dean well enough to know he needed a change, a purpose.

They both worked extremely hard on the ranch back home, but Randy, being the older brother, took his responsibilities to the extreme at times. They’d raised and trained horses from when they were teenagers living on their grandpa’s farm. Their dad, a no-good bastard and a deadbeat, had left them at their grandparents’ home when they were twelve and fourteen years old. Although their grandparents struggled to take care of them, the love was what really counted.

Back then, the ranch had been just a small farm, but as Randy and Dean got older and worked harder, they made it into the ranch it was always meant to be. Too bad their grandparents weren’t around to see the success. They expanded the herds of Angus and added some Herefords as well, but now their main bread and butter came from the horses they trained. Although he liked to think they saw everything from where they were, Dean wished they could see the ranch now. It mattered to Dean and Randy to keep the legacy going, and Randy having a child to someday work the land with him made it even more worthwhile.

Dean, on the other hand, didn’t want to think about it. He just wanted to get this deal done and start an expansion of their ranch. With this prime land, they’d be able to do that and more.

Thinking of his grandparents always made Dean smile. He and his brother had been a handful when they first went to live with their grandparents, but they learned through love and discipline what family should be. Now they would all live on the ranch.

Dean couldn’t wait to build his own home. Neither Randy nor Dean ever wanted to leave the ranch or Hot Springs. The ranch gave them a family and a future, but sometimes Dean would think about the future and what it held for him. Was he meant to be alone? Dean wondered if this expansion could be his chance to see what else was out there for him. The ranch house they shared now was a sprawling five-bedroom home, with cathedral ceilings and rustic posts and beams. Splashes of color accented the dark wood stain around the living areas. Each bedroom had its own comfortable feel but blended well with the country ranch home. The new house had been built after a wildfire took out half the town. They’d been lucky to get out alive with their livestock loaded and evacuated to his grandfather’s friends in Alton.

Luckily, his grandfather had tons of friends and acquaintances who were all too glad to take in his family and livestock. But Dean’s grandpa wasted no time with clearing the land and rebuilding, and they were in their new home within a year. He’d been a sturdy man, with work-worn hands and a weathered smile. Dean had always looked up to his grandpa. When he passed away many years ago, Dean and Randy strived to make the ranch what their grandpa always envisioned. They expanded the original house and added their own charm to it. As for this old farm truck, neither Dean nor Randy could part with it. It was the truck they learned how to drive in, and they swore they would fix it until the day it finally died. It looked like today was the day.