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Arien glanced over at his brother’s RAM parked there next to his. Their father got them matching TRXs, Kellan’s red and his blue, like they were still five, when Grams used to dress them in identical outfits for school.
“For your birthdays?”
“Yeah.” Turning his head, he leaned over, barely an inch of space separating them. “I s’pose you wanna ask me about that.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Your dad was the same age as you when you were born, right?”
“Yeah, ’bout that.”
“And guys your age are…you know.”
He sniggered. “Got us all figured out, huh?”
“Hardly.” Fingertips grazed his cheek. “But I am the girl who was conceived at a drunken frat party, remember? Anyway, who am I to judge?”
With a subtle dip of his chin, Tanner covered her hand with his, holding her fingers to his face. She was so close he could kiss her. He wanted to. But he didn’t.
Ten minutes into their drive, Arien turned away from the scenery she’d been staring at out the window. “How far is town?”
“We’re almost there.”
Both hands waved circles in the air. “All of this is ranch land?”
“Yup.” Tanner threw her a grin.
“It’s hard to put half a million acres into perspective.”
“Have you ever been to New York City?”
Arien shook her head. “No.”
He’d never been to the Big Apple either, not that he had any real desire to go. “How about Disney World?”
“Once, when I was eight.”
His dad and Aunt Kim had taken him, Kellan, and Emily there on a family trip after his uncles were killed in Afghanistan. She was only four at the time.
“Well, the Disney property is almost twice the size of Manhattan. Imagine twenty-one Disney Worlds put together and there you have it. Eight hundred and forty square miles tucked between two national parks and two national forests.”
“That’s mind boggling,” she exclaimed, fingers at her temples. “And you own it all.”
“Everyone in Brookside has an equal share of everything. That’s the way it’s always been.”
“Oh, like a co-op?”
“Yeah, you could call it that, I guess.” He pulled into an empty spot that fronted the quaint shops on Main Street. “See, back then people had to come together to build a community that could sustain itself and survive. They did, and we’re still doing it.”
Not only did Brookside survive, it flourished and grew. They heeded the words of a sage mountain man and prosperity, that continued to this day, had been granted to all of them.
Opening the passenger door, Tanner took her by the hand. “Everyone has a say and everyone does their part. Doctor, teacher, working the ranch, running a store. Doesn’t matter. Equal share.”
“Didn’t they try that in Russia?”
“That’s communism, pretty girl. Not the same thing here.” He chuckled, holding her to his side as they walked.
