The Inheritance

Ryan's POV:

"You're really big..." I look down at the munchkin attached to my leg.

Nadira gasps, "Ester!"

I roar with laughter, stooping to pick Ester up. "I'm really big?"

"I'm so sorry, Sir—"

I chuckle, kissing Ester's cheek. "I don't mind, Nadira. Ester knows she is my girl." Ester giggles, wrapping her arms around my neck to hug me as I settle her on my hip.

"Uncle Ryan," Ester sings, simply happy to be hanging on to me as I move around the kitchen.

"Are you still looking for food, Ryan?" I look over at my twin brother with a grin.

"I'm hungry. What can I say?" I pull out a box of old crackers, sitting down at the kitchen table to eat. Ester stands up on my thighs, trying to climb up onto my shoulders.

I easily lift her behind my head with one hand, letting her sit on my shoulders. She giggles and swings her feet back and forth, nearly kicking me in the face on multiple occasions.

She pulls on my hair, using it as reins to try and make me move. I watch Nadira as she watches her daughter, looking very apprehensive about me letting Ester treat my hair like a leash.

I finish the box of crackers even though they are stale, standing up with my shorty on my shoulders still.

"Go horsey, go!" I make a sound close enough to the nickering of a horse and pony around the kitchen, holding her to my shoulders.

Ester giggles loudly in delight, very pleased with this new game. She makes me trot around the house making horse noises for a good twenty minutes, finally releasing me when Nadira gathers her for bed.

I send my shorty off with a hug and kiss goodnight. Being an uncle is really where it's at. When the kids aren't yours, you get to spoil them and no one has the expectation for you to be responsible at all.

I kick back on the sofa with Teague, sighing in comfort at the spongy couch. I forget sometimes how pampered I grew up with things like a sofa and queen size beds.

I can't speak to the bed sizes at the ranch beyond my own. Perhaps in the main house they have bigger beds, but mine is a twin. As for the sofa? At the main house only Mr. Mallory has a place to sit, there only being one arm chair for the three of them.

I'm sure Mr. Mallory shares the chair with his wife, her being of old age and no condition to be sitting on the floor, but does Mae always sit on the floor? She has to bring in one of the wooden chairs from the kitchen, right?

She may be a submissive, but that doesn't mean she should be denied simple comforts like a chair...

Mr. Mallory is very protective of his girls, he seems to take good care of them, but anytime I come over at night to drop something off or ask a question, Mae and her mother are always sitting at the foot of the armchair.

Mae and her mother wouldn't be made to spend the evenings there, would they? It wouldn't be comfortable at all and I can't think of a single thing they could do, there being no television on the ranch.

Do they just watch Mr. Mallory read?

There has to be more, right?

Sitting on the hardwood floor and watching her Pa read—to himself, not even to them—doesn't sound like the entertainment a woman Mae's age would enjoy.

Maybe Mae doesn't enjoy it and she just doesn't get a choice?

Mr. Mallory would at least give his wife something to sit on, right? Molly isn't as old as Mr. Mallory, but she by no standards should be getting up and down from the floor at her age, let alone sitting on the hardwood floor without any type of padding.

Molly is older than my parents and Dad never lets Mom down on the floor without an army of pillows to support her.

"You're a lot quieter than you used to be. I think you've adapted to life on the ranch," Teague pokes, a smile on his lips.

I chuckle and shrug, knowing he is right. I have gotten a lot more reserved. I guess I've just gotten used to it.

Only Mae and Molly talk pleasantries, everyone else pretty much keeps to themselves unless they need something, or if they are really tired of the solitude, but that's not often.

"I never thought I'd like it as much as I do. Waking up with the sun and spending the day out on the ranch? Best damn thing I've ever done."

"Have you thought about a submissive?" I look to Mom, taking note of Father's pointed look. Father doesn't usually harass me about my future sub, but Mom just wants me to have someone special and I appreciate that.

I think every dominant thinks about a submissive. There are plenty of days I long to be able to go home and be greeted by a pretty sub who's made dinner and wants to have sex.

The truth though is that the ranch isn't a place for submissives.

"Whenever I think about it, it just always comes back to the fact that the ranch isn't right for a submissive. I don't mind living in a one room quarters, but I don't think a submissive would share the sentiment.

"Submissives deserve comforts in life and I don't make enough to buy a house and tons of furniture and pretty jewelry and clothing, all that stuff."

"Well... you could just get a small house and not all submissives expect to have nice things. I didn't when I met your father—"

"Leah—" Father warns softly. She whimpers in complaint, but listens.

"She would have to live on the ranch, Mom, she'd never see me any other way. It wouldn't be fair to her. Even if we lived on the ranch and had a nice house, there isn't anyone really to talk to..."

"Doesn't your boss have a wife and daughter?" Father asks, he isn't pushing for me to get a submissive, just curious now.

"Molly and Mae? Yeah... Mr. Mallory isn't doing good, it's any day now to be honest that he... I don't know how long Molly and Mae are going to be on the ranch.

"There are a lot of things going on with who's getting the inheritance. Mae has an older brother who left a few years ago, some drug addict. He probably is going to get the ranch and everything..."

"I'm surprised he wouldn't just leave everything to Mae and Molly... It wouldn't be my first choice either because I don't want my submissive to have to rely on herself, but just giving them away to any dominant isn't the best choice either..." Father says absentmindedly, petting his lip.

"I kind of understand why he has to give his inheritance to a dominant, Molly and Mae don't deal with money besides to buy groceries. Even then, they have to get their shopping list approved and ask Mr. Mallory for money." Me and Mr. Mallory are the only ones who know the code for his safe.

Mr. Mallory doesn't like credit cards, so he keeps a safe of cash to give to the girls when they go out shopping. Just in case the girls needed something and he was working, Mr. Mallory told me the safe combination.

"He sounds very controlling," Mom says, curling into Dad's side. She seems uncomfortable with that and that's a lot coming from my mother who was raised very conservatively.

"He is... I think he's good to them though. I've never seen so much as a bruise on either of them and they don't act afraid... I think they just have old ways. Out on the ranch there isn't anyone to influence them to be more modern," I shrug.

Mom kisses Dad's cheek and he looks down at her with a confused expression. After a second, he pulls her to straddle him and they start to make out.

I make a face, still disgusted by watching my parents kiss. I know in the back of my mind that something like this led to me and Teague being conceived.

Their clothes are still on, but I don't wait for that to change. Me and Teague head to the kitchen and share a drink.