Page 12 of The Maverick

Jake shook his head. “Nope, but I want to learn. Being out here in the wilds of Colorado, as my father called it, I figure I need to learn how to ride a horse so I can make friends.”

Rachel turned and gazed at Nick. “I think if you can teach him to ride, that would be a good thing.”

Nick chuckled and looked at Jake in the rearview mirror. “I’ll have Smitty teach you to ride. He teaches my daughter, Bailey, and he’s a great teacher. But I think you’ll find that most of the kids in school don’t know how. Very few of them live on ranches or farms.”

“How far out of town are we?” asked Rachel.

“We’re about thirty miles northeast of Denver. I have a security team. No one can get onto the ranch without my permission.”

Rachel placed her left hand on Nick’s thigh. She was so thankful that he was taking such care of her and her son. “Thank you, I have to admit, I was worried about what to do. I still have to get someone out there to at least board up the door and wash the wall. Then I’ll have to go take care of the living room...”

Nick turned his gaze toward her and covered her hand with his. “Don’t worry about that now. I’ll go with you and help you. I’ll have some of my security team with us, so you won’t have to worry about Greg.”

“Thanks. I feel better already.” She sighed and took a deep breath. “Tell me about your family. You have a daughter, what about a wife? And how are your brothers and Megan?”

“I’m divorced and I have custody of my daughter, Bailey. The rest of the family are all good. Adam runs our company, Kincaid Holdings, which not only holds all the rights to our video games but buys and sells other companies, too.” Nick returned his eyes to the road. “Ray is in the tech business like me, plus he has a thoroughbred racing stud. Both Adam and Ray have done just as well as me. Cole is into oil. I guess you’d call him an oil tycoon. Peter is an artist and does the initial artwork for the games we write, plus his art hangs in galleries all over the world and commands millions per painting or sculpture.

“As a matter of fact, all of us are billionaires now, even Megan. We each took the money Mom and Dad gave us and turned it into successful businesses. And we all have ranches in the area.”

Nick scratched the right side of his nose. “Megan’s turned her love of cooking into an empire. She sells cookware, bakeware, cookbooks, and has a cooking show. She also operated bakeries which she sold, along with her special recipes for those bakeries, for a ton of money, kind of like Mrs. Fields did.

“I’m surprised you haven’t seen her show. It’s syndicated all over the world. She has a ranch out here, too, and raises quarter horses in a joint venture with Peter. They’ve done well and have had several winners that are now in the stud portion of their business.”

“I probably have seen it and didn’t realize she was the Megan Kincaid I know. What kind of tech do Megan and Peter do?”

He kept his hand on hers. “They went into providing specialized software to the military. The system has something to do with their planes, but I don’t know what it is. It’s Top Secret and I don’t have clearance any more than they have the clearances to know more about my chips for the guidance systems. You know how much we all liked developing computer programs. And then we developed some games, and well, it finally paid off for all of us, just in different ways.”

To think I knew all these wildly successful people most of my life. I just can’t believe it.She nodded. “I remember. You tried to get me interested in it, but I just couldn’t see the potential, I guess. I’m so happy for all of you. You deserve it, and I knew you would succeed even all those years ago.” She looked in the backseat to check on Jake.

He was busy with his tablet again, playing his game and totally ignoring their conversation.

“What about you, Rach? How have you been, really?”

She pulled her hand back. “I told you most of it. I was so excited to get the Chief of Staff position at Colorado General Hospital. It’s what I’ve always worked toward despite what Greg wanted. And now that I’ve got it, I wonder if it’s really what I want.”

“I’m sorry you went through that with him. But why would you be questioning your choices now?”

“I just wonder if this is what I really want or was it something Greg convinced me that I want.”

“You probably should decide that before you start the job.”

“I know you’re right and that is exactly what I intend to do.”

Nick kept his speed steady and slow.

“Why are you going so slow? That’s not like you. You always used to speed down these roads.”

“Animals. I don’t need to hit a deer while I’m on my way home. To change topics, I’m eager for you to meet my daughter. Her name is Bailey and she’s eight now, too.”

“What happened to her mother? And why didn’t Bailey join us for dinner?”

“Janet left just after Bailey was born. I know her decision to divorce was post-partem depression for the most part, but she didn’t want to come back until the company started making a lot of money. Then she decided the divorce was a mistake, and we should get married again. I didn’t fall for it. I knew she hadn’t changed. She still didn’t want to be an actual wife and mother. She only wanted the money. As to dinner, the ranch was too far away to get her, come back and go to dinner, then get her home by her bedtime.”

He pulled up to the gate and lowered his window.

A burly man who could have been The Rock’s double stepped out of the guardhouse. Then bent over to see in the car. “Are you back in for the night, Nick?”

“We are. Earl, this is Rachel Foster-Bennett and her son Jake. They will be staying with me for a while.”