A Gambling Man // Ryan x OC

56

The two turned to see Ryan cheering them on. 

"You're back early," Mae grinned as Evie ran over to him and he picked her up, throwing her in the air and catching her again. 

"Yeah we have a problem, you're dad wants to speak to you," Ryan told her and she frowned. 

"What's wrong?" Mae asked. 

"We uh found stillborn bison in the South pasture," Ryan explained and Mae sighed. 

"Shit. Okay, I'm quickly going to grab everything I need to run the Brucellosis tests. Then I'll talk to my dad. Can you take her back to Charlie?" Mae asked and Ryan nodded before quickly placing a peck on Mae's lips. 

Mae grabbed everything she needed before running over to her dad, who was talking to Rip and Kayce. They were kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. If one of the cows tests positive, the state kills the entire herd and refunds them not nearly what the herd is worth. If they don't test positive then those pastures are useless to the ranch until they are cleared of any signs of the disease and the fence is closed off so that no more bison from the reserve can wander in. They also had the problem that most of their other pastures were dry and wouldn't be full until after the winter again. In John's eyes, they were fucked from all sides because they couldn't afford a lot of other options. 

"I'll do the test and if they're not positive, I'll handle it," Mae told John as she walked up beside him. 

"Sweetheart-," John started but Mae shook her head at him. 

"I can call down to the four sixes. We can probably get a better price there than anywhere else. You don't have to worry about the money because I did something a while back," Mae smiled nervously as she fidgeted with her hands. 

"What did you do?" Kayce asked. 

"Those horses you bought and sent with Travis, Daddy?" Mae asked as John looked down at her in question, "I paid for them and used the money you would have used to invest in the Ranch's name. Beth helped. We also used some of our own money every month to increase the investment. We almost tripled the initial investment. We kept it quiet because Beth didn't want Jamie to find out. We can use some of that money to cover the lease." 

"And neither of you told me about it?" John asked as he looked at his youngest in shock. 

"You told me to always watch out for the ranch and I saw an opportunity, so I took it and it paid off," Mae shrugged. 

John shook his head at his youngest, "I'll go make the calls. Finish the tests please." 

"I'm proud of you. He is too, he's just in shock," Kayce told his sister as he kissed his sister's cheek before walking away. 

"You know I'm going to need a team when I go down there, right?" Rip asked as he walked up to her, "A team I can trust and we'd be away for a year." 

Mae bit her lip, knowing where this was going but didn't say anything to let Rip continue, "If you tell me right now not to pick Ryan, I won't." 

"I want to say not to, so fucking bad because I can't imagine this place without either of you but I can't deny him of this. This is what cowboying is all about, it's every one of their biggest dreams and if you want him by your side, then I'm not going to stand in his way. Besides Beth and I will be visiting you all so much, you'll never even have a chance to miss us," Mae smiled softly up at him as she fought the tears threatening to fall. 

Rip reached out and pulled her into a bear hug. He was incredibly proud of the woman she had become. Sometimes he still saw that little girl that followed him all over the ranch but now in front of him stood an independent and successful woman that can bring the world to its fucking knees, just like her sister.