Surprise flooded me. “Mrs. Lange already moved out?”
A breath escaped him. “Yeah, last week. All her things are cleared out—place is ours.”
“Damn, Cays. That’s great.” I was happy for him. Happy for the way his life had changed so drastically. Going in the direction it always should have.
“Wanted to talk to you about that,” he said after a moment, tone softer.
“Figured letting Emberly spoil the hell out of my animals isn’t the reason y’all are here.”
A muted laugh left him, but he fell silent. Elbows on his knees and hands clasped tight.
“You need money?” I asked when the silence stretched on.
He jolted back, his head snapping to the side to look at me. “What? No—fuck, why does everyone keep thinking that?”
“The hell did you expect me to think? You said y’all were about to start fixing up the house and wanted to talk to me about it.”
A sigh burst from him as he considered that. “Sorry, man. Not that—it’s the opposite.” He dragged a hand over his face and forced out another sharp breath before turning to fully face me. “I wanna buy in.”
I studied his confident expression and the way he held himself like he didn’t have one damn hesitation in this when I had so many.
Not for me or the business, but for him.
Because if we suddenly started losing money, then I would do what was needed to figure it out. If we suddenly lost all our trees, I would figure it out, but I would be okay. But I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I did that to Cayson when he and Emberly were starting a family.
Not to mention, I didn’t have a damn clue what Cayson currently made. If it was astronomical, I couldn’t promise him that.
“You told me to think and talk to Emberly. I did that. We thought it all through.” He gave me a pleading look. “I need to be here with her—with them. I need to be here for the house renovations and moving us in. Because knowing her, she’ll try to take all that on herself. I just . . . I need to be here.”
“And that means buying into a business?”
He stared at me for a second before his head shook. The motion slow as if he wasn’t sure what I wasn’t understanding. “Where else would you expect me to go? If I’m in Amber, then I’m here with you.”
My head dipped at his unexpected words and loyalty. “And what if the money isn’t enough to—”
“Yeah, I’ll stop you before you go into that.” A hesitant sigh left him. “I don’t know what y’all think I’ve been doing for the past ten years, but I make good money. Great money. I also haven’t really had anything to spend it on because half of my life is on a rig, so a good portion of it is just sitting there.”
He gestured off to the side. “Taxes on the house. Renovations. The baby. I know you’re going to bring them up—I understand. I’m not gonna pretend I’m prepared for the last, but I am prepared for the first two, and that’s without factoring in Emberly’s income. Brewed does really well, but I’d rather us survive off of me while we can and save everything she makes.”
A grunt of surprise and respect rumbled in my chest.
“And if I’m here, we’ll have a house and cars that are paid for. I won’t be going back and forth to Port Arthur. Depending on your price, I might be paying off a loan for a while, but I can handle that.”
“So, you’re saying you’ve thought this through,” I drawled slowly, long seconds after he’d said his piece.
A stunned laugh fled from him. “Yeah, Hunt. I want this—Emberly and I want this.”
Amusement pulled at the corners of my mouth before a groan left me. “She’s gonna be spoiling my animals all the time.”
Cayson’s next laugh was louder, freer. “Speaking of, she had some ideas.”
“No,” I said, my words all a muffled grumble, “Isabel spoils them enough. They don’t need any more food.”
“Not that. Emberly was researching what she could feed them and read that your goats have some of the best milk.”
Hesitation billowed from me as my stare darted to where Emberly was sitting in front of the barn. Her laugh echoing in the early evening air as my three Nigerian Dwarf goats mauled her. “Yeah, but I don’t use it.”
“She was thinking you should. On the way here, she brought up making soaps and lotions to sell—or just selling the milk.” When my gaze snapped back to Cayson, he slanted his head and gave a little shrug. “Called Dixon Farms, not Dixon Peaches.”
A hum of consideration worked up my throat.
“And do you use half the eggs you get from your chickens?”
At that, a laugh left me. “Trying to turn me into a store, Cays?”
“Just thinking out loud. There are options in expanding now that the business is in the best place it’s ever been.” His shoulders lifted lazily. “Or you leave it how it is. But if you wanted to try any of that out, you wouldn’t have to take that extra stress on if you didn’t want to. You could focus solely on the orchard, and I could figure out the rest. Mrs. Lange sold off the last of their animals a couple years after her husband died, so all we have right now is land. We could put it to use if the idea turns into something more.”
My head bobbed subtly as his suggestions moved through my mind and hit a wall that was built up of Madison and Isabel—just as every other thought had these past two weeks.
That mental block getting stronger with each day that passed.
“How much of a partner were you thinking?” I asked distractedly before focusing on him.
“Forty-nine.” His response was immediate and sure and forced a shocked huff from me.
“That’s specific,” I said after a moment, “and more than I was thinking you were gonna wanna be.”
“If we’re doing this, I want it. You can counter or tell me to go to hell, that’s why I’m here.”
A mischievous smirk edged at the corner of my mouth. Not that I would’ve, this was always supposed to be a family business. It was what I’d always envisioned for it—before I’d found out what all our dad had done.
But even though the family now knew about Dad, Cayson was the only one who truly understood. Who had lived it.
“Why not fifty?”
“Would you give me half?” he asked, a hint of a tease weaving through his tone.
“Hell no,” I said with a soft laugh that came out louder when he shot his leg out to kick me. “Just wondering why you came at me with forty-nine.”
He studied me for a second before looking away, eyes distant. “Because you took what Dad ruined and saved it. Protected it and built it back up. I wouldn’t disrespect you by trying to be an equal partner after everything you did.” His mouth curled into a wry grin as he met my stare. “But I’m also serious about making this my future . . . so, forty-nine.”
Before I could respond, the sound of tires on gravel had us looking down the driveway at the familiar truck coming our way. Too fast. Too aggressive.
I stood, and Cayson followed, my brows drawing close together as I pulled my hat low over my eyes. My heart kicking up as worry swarmed my chest.