C5 CHAPTER FIVE

chastising himself for not having her say her prayers in the first place. “You bet. Why don’t you say it?”

Dear Lord, please bless that lady at the hospital. Please bless her family if she has a daddy, brothers and sisters, or a husband and kids. Thank you for all our blessings, our home, food, the ranch, the animals, Uncle Tory . . .” She went through all the things in her life, which made it a long list. “And thank you for Daddy. Please take care of him. Amen.”

“Amen

Rossi and Kinley sat at the airport with Tory and his family, waiting for them to go through security. He could tell that Troy hadn’t wanted to leave, protesting that he had a patient in a coma, but Katy would hear none of it.

Ross agreed with Katy. “There’s always going to be something keeping you back,” he said to Troy.

“Exactly,” Katy said, glaring at her husband.

He gave her a superior look.

She threw up a hand. “Look, I feel bad about the woman, but we’ve never taken a vacation. And this one is free, so we’re going.”

“Yeah, a free vacay!” Bobby put his fist up but kept his focus on the iPad in front of him.

Kinley stood next to Bobby, staring at Ross and looking cross.

Katy gestured to Ross. “He’ll take care of things.”

Rossi nodded, wanting his brother and wife to have fun. “It’ll be fine.”

“We haven’t ever taken a vacation,” Kinley said. Her fingers wiggled in his grip.

“Hush.” Rossi squeezed her hand, hating that she was right.

Katy met his eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said to Rossi, then she bent to Kinley, lightly taking her hand. “You guys will go on the next vacation, and we’ll watch your animals. Deal?” She lifted her brows, then held her arms open.

Unable to resist, because Kinley adored her, she dove into Katy ’s arms. " Deal".

Rossi tamped down his embarrassment that Kinley was making it so hard on them. He hadn’t even thought about taking a vacation since his wife had passed away.

Katy stood.

Rossi gave her a hug. “You go. Have fun. Everything will be fine.”

Katy nodded when she pulled back. “Thank you.”

Rossi looked at Roy. “I mean it.”

Tory sucked in a long breath and blew it out fast. “Fine, but you’ll let me know when she wakes up.”

Kinley piped up. “Daddy and I could check on the lady in the hospital, Uncle Roy.”

“Would you?” Tory glanced at Rossi, well aware that Rossi wouldn’t want to do it.

Rossi wanted to chastise his precocious daughter, but he only sighed.

Kinley looked back at her father, her bottom lip pushing out.

“Of course.” Rossi cocked an eyebrow at his daughter. “No problem.”

Tory grabbed him by the arm, tugging him away from the group. “I need to talk to Rossi for a sec,” he said to Katy.

Rossi put on an all-is-well smile for his brother. “Have fun, and don’t worry about anything.”

Tory scowled.

Rossi knew it wasn’t in either brother’s nature to want to take a vacation. Their father had instilled “work, work, work” into them. He remembered two family vacations his family had ever taken growing up, and both were because his mother had insisted. “Try to have fun.”

Tory sighed and nodded. “Look, I know we’re meeting with the bank the day I get back, but I’ve thought a lot about it. If it comes down to it, we move into town. You get a house and teach, and I get a house and be a doctor.”

Tory made it sound so simple, which only fueled Ross’s anger. “Oh, right, Mr. Doctor, forget the land we grew up on. Forget the land Mom and Dad loved.”

“What do you want me to do?” Roy asked, whispering loudly and backing them farther away from their families. “I’ve reached out to multiple people for help, and no one can swing it. I don’t want to do it either. But bro, we have to face the facts: if the bank won’t refinance, then the bank won’t refinance. We can’t pay the back payments.”

Rossi knew that, and he knew his brother didn’t take all of this lightly. He shook his head, thinking about how he’d neglected to tell Troy about the latest letter. “That Jagger conglomerate group are wily buggers. They keep sending me letters, telling me they will buy if we give them the mineral rights straight out.”

“I know. They send me the letters too. I just worry they’re going to try to sneak in and buy the place out from under us if we don’t cave.”

Rossi hated that he had no control of this situation. “I know. I would just hate to see everything Dad built turn into an oil-and-mining project.”

Tory put a hand on his shoulder. “I know Mom and Dad loved the land, and we do too.” He sighed. “That’s part of the reason I came back here—to raise my kids on it.”

Rossi nodded, feeling hopeless.

“Remember, bro, sometimes all we have is two hands to rebuild whatever is taken away from us. And with the good Lord, all things are possible. We have to have faith.”

Rossi grunted. “Quoting Dad now?”

“You know that’s what the old man would say—‘go, rebuild, and build it even better than before.’”

Never say die,’” Rossi said, quoting their father too. Thinking of his father’s never-ending optimism about life actually made him feel a little better.

Tory grinned, adding the rest of the quote. “‘Never quit.’”

Their father had been military, and he had been tough as nails. It had hit both Rossi and Roy hard when their parents had passed in that car accident.