or that he cared about, and he was king in his world.
“We were going to start the inventory this afternoon,” Kate said to Juliette hesitantly, “if that’s okay with you. I don’t know when the girls will be back, and I’d rather do it when they’re here. The estate taxes would be due in nine months, and we’ll have to get an appraisal.” She wanted to know if there was anything her sisters wanted, but there was nothing of great value in her father’s home. It was all comfortable furniture of little worth. It was warm and cozy, with well-worn pieces he had had for years, and neither he nor Juliette paid much attention to the décor. Their life was mostly outdoors.
“The girls can have whatever they want,” Juliette said easily. She wasn’t attached to material things, and Jimmy hadn’t been either, although their home was friendly and welcoming. Kate glimpsed a hat stand in the hall, with her father’s battered hats on it, and it tugged at her heart a few minutes later when she hugged Juliette and left. She found her sisters back at her house, making a salad for lunch.
They had been reading the will and noticed that their father had left Thad a very generous bequest, in honor of Thad’s long years of dedication to him. It would allow him to buy a house somewhere if he wanted, or make an investment in a small ranch of his own. As with the bequest to Juliette, both Caroline and Gemma thought it was fair, and didn’t begrudge it to him. Kate was happy for him, and knew he deserved it. He had been her father’s right-hand man for nineteen years, and had helped him improve and grow the ranch in countless ways.
“What about you guys?” Kate asked them over lunch, before they went to their father’s house to start the inventory. “We own the ranch together now. How do you feel about that?”
“Fine, as long as I don’t have to live here, and you run it,” Gemma stated clearly. It would be a major windfall for all three of them if they sold the ranch. The ten thousand acres their father had accumulated over the years were worth a fortune now. And their livestock auctions were very lucrative. But neither of them was desperate for money. Only Kate had neither husband nor career, all she had were her years of service to her father on the ranch. “You could buy us out, if either of us ever want to sell,” Gemma said, smiling.
“If I have the money,” Kate reminded them. “Dad always plowed everything we made back into the business, or used it to buy more land,” she said. “Dad invested in bonds,” which was how Juliette and Thad would probably get their bequests. “We never have a lot of loose cash, except from the auctions. I’d have to sell bonds and some of the land to buy you out,” and she would hate to do that.
“I’ll have to talk to Peter about it,” Caroline said vaguely. She consulted him for all decisions, even the contracts for her books. Kate always thought that she had traded their controlling father for her husband, but would never say it to her. She just hoped that Peter would never push Caroline to sell her share, and want Kate to come up with the money for some other hot investment, and impact the ranch to do it. He had no great loyalty to her family or the ranch, and had never liked her father. He expected his wife’s first loyalty to be to him once they were married, and it was.
“You should come down with the kids now,” Kate suggested. “You never use the house Dad built for you.” It stood empty all the time, and had for years. “All it needs is a little furniture. You could furnish it in a day at Ikea. You don’t need anything fancy here.” They had expensive modern furniture in Marin, and had used a decorator to achieve the right look to impress their guests with how much they’d spent, particularly on art. Peter had a showy side to him that Caroline didn’t, and had grown up with fine things.
Gemma’s home in L.A. was filled with French antiques that reflected her taste. Life was simpler on the ranch. Jimmy had never liked showing off, and used the old Texan expression “All hat and no cattle” to describe people who did, but