had he been ten? What a time to dredge up all those memories, right when he had so many things on his plate.
“How’d you come to have those?” Iris nodded toward the letters in Maverick’s hand.
“Our mother is dead?” Maverick asked.
Pax cocked his head to one side. “How did you get these again?”
“Like I said, I was going through her stuff. She never was one to save anything, not money or anything else. Not even my high school diploma or pictures of me through the years. As far as money, it was all gone after I took care of her medical bills. I found a bank deposit key in a shoe box that only had pictures of her taken through the years of her life. When I went to the bank, those letters were in it with a few other things. Here’s the next thing I want you to see, but it belongs to me. I knew you’d need proof, so I brought it and some other documents with me.” He handed a legal paper to Pax.
“It’s a birth certificate.” Pax held it up to the porch light so he could read it. “‘Landon Carl Griffin, born to Carl Griffin and Teresa Griffin on July 30, 1997.’ That makes you twenty-two years old in a couple of months.”
“And that makes him your half-brother,” Iris said. “Teresa left here with a man named Carl Griffin.”
“That’s right,” Landon said. “Carl Griffin was my dad. He died when I was ten. Mother died without ever telling me that I had brothers. Now, they are both gone and y’all are the only family I have left. I’m not here for a handout or to ask for anything other than a job. I sold my car for enough money to get here. I recently graduated from college with a business degree. I had no idea that Mother had spent every dime of the money Daddy left for me until she was gone, but that was her. I loved her, but she liked to live above her means.” He stopped and blinked several times.
“You got any ranchin’ experience,” Maverick asked.
“Little bit,” Landon answered with a nod. “Mother hated anything to do with ranching, but she sent me off to summer camp every year from the time I was five. When I was ten she let me choose which one I wanted to go to, and my friends and I picked a working ranch. Maybe she hoped that I’d get my fill of cowboys and hate it. My friends certainly did, but I loved it. When I got to be sixteen, they hired me as a counselor, and I got to work with underprivileged kids. I’m talking too much, but yes, I do have a little bit of experience. I’ll work for room and board only if you’ll have me. I’ve got no place to live or to go until I find a job where I can use my degree. I guess y’all don’t need a business manager, do you?”
Pax knew he was staring at the fellow, but he couldn’t stop. The young man had the same green eyes that he and Maverick had inherited from their mother. That’s why those eyes had looked familiar when he met him at the park. Now that Pax had heard his story and seen his birth certificate he had no doubt that he was Teresa’s son. The wide, full lips and shape of his face both were like hers.
“I wanted to tell you who I was back in town when you caught me following you,” Landon told Pax, “but it didn’t seem like the right place, and besides, I wanted to tell both of you at the same time. If that ride into town still stands, I might take you up on it, now. I’ve got a room for one night at that little Cowboy Motel. The rest of my stuff is there.”
“Nonsense!” Iris said. “He’s your family, and we don’t turn family out in the cold. Me and the girls all were plannin’ on stayin’ over at the Bar C when they get here, anyway. I’ll call Alana to come get me, and I’ll go on over there tonight. I know she won’t mind, and Landon here can have my room.”
“Thank you,” Landon said. “I meant it when I said I’d work for room and board. You guys are my half-brothers, but you don’t owe me anything.”
“Tell us about our mother.” Maverick’s voice sounded more than a little hoarse.