Free Tracie Peterson - [Heirs of Montana 04] by The Hope Within

the neighbor in harvesting, but we can’t expect that to continue.” Hallam began to cough. Cole reached for a glass of water at his bedside and helped his father to sit up enough to drink. The coughing subsided, but it was clear his father was weak—in no condition for debates about what needed to be done with the farm.
    “When you feel up to it,” Cole said, replacing the glass on the nightstand, “I’d like you to meet my children and wife. I’m mighty proud of all of them.”
    “I’d like that,” his father acknowledged.
    They were silent for several minutes. Cole wiped sweat from his brow, as the heat of the room seemed unbearable. “Are you too warm?” he asked his father, hoping for an excuse to open a window.
    “No. I’m cold all the time. Doctor says it’s because my heart isn’t working properly.” There came another silence, but then Hallam pressed the issue of the farm again. “I need you here, son. It’s a good farm. Good ground. You can grow most anything in river bottom land. It’s what I’ve always wanted,” he explained. “To leave you something of value—something of me.”
    Cole was torn. Dianne would never approve of living in Kansas. She was already longing for the mountains. She hadn’t said as much, but he knew it nevertheless. “I’ll think on it, Pa, but you need to remember, I have a ranch to run.”
    “That’s your wife’s property, isn’t it? I’d be giving you this as an inheritance. It’d be yours.”
    Cole hadn’t expected his father to hit the one nerve in him that kept him from complete happiness in Montana. He constantly felt as though he were tending other people’s land and property. At least the freighting business had been his own, and it had done well. He was proud of his work there. Of course, he’d been proud of his work at the ranch too, but now that George and Koko were back at the Diamond V, and Koko’s son, Jamie, was nearly a man, it seemed only fair to let them run the ranch. Of course, he knew Dianne didn’t see it that way.
    She realized her uncle’s ranch would have belonged in full to Koko and her children had they not been part Blackfoot, but Cole knew too that the land had won her over. Dianne’s heart was in Montana. It wasn’t here in Kansas, nor was it likely to be.
    “I’ll think on it, Pa” was all Cole could manage. He wanted to offer the old man comfort in his time of sickness, but he couldn’t lie to him. There would be no easy way to convince Dianne to live here—even if Cole desired it for himself.
    “Your ma isn’t doing all that well. She isn’t dealing with my sickness as I’d hoped. She’s afraid, and I can’t die in peace knowing that she’s fearing her future.”
    “She’ll always have a home with me; you know that.”
    “But her home is here. I moved her from one place to another all our married life. I want her to have a place to call home. A place she can grow old in. Cordelia and Laurel are both here with the grandchildren. She won’t want to leave them.”
    “Maybe she could live with one of them—or else they could come here.”
    Hallam shook his head. “I wouldn’t count on that.”
    “Pa,” Cole pleaded, “I have a family. Dianne loves Montana, and her family and friends are there. I love it there too. I can’t say that I would easily trade it for Kansas.”
    “Please consider this for me. I know I haven’t always been the best father, but now I finally have something to leave you—an inheritance.” His words were growing more faint.
    “You rest now, Pa. We can talk more about this later.” Cole leaned over and pulled the covers up around his father’s shoulders. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    That night Cole couldn’t talk to Dianne about the conversation he’d had with his father. He knew she would be upset, and because Cole had had so little time to process the request and consider the situation, he decided not to bring it up yet.
    The next day seemed no easier, as his