by Mia Ross
“So this was my fault?”
“No, it’s mine,” he quickly corrected her, holding up his hands in surrender. “I’m just saying that what I did came from the heart, not any intention to hurt you or undermine your relationship with them.”
She chewed on that for a few seconds, and he hoped that she might be coming around to his way of thinking. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Again.
“And Washington?” she spat, as if the word tasted bitter to her now. “Was that your sneaky way of loosening me up so I’d be more likely to go along with this little scheme of yours to weasel your way into my family?”
His patience was quickly wearing thin, but he took a breath to calm his voice before speaking. Considering the frame of mind she was in, one wrong word could shatter the fragile trust he’d been working so hard to build. “You know me better than that. I’d never do that to anyone, and especially not you.”
Because I love you, he was tempted to add, then thought better of it. Not because it wasn’t true, but because it wasn’t the right time to tell her. She might view it as another attempt to manipulate her feelings, and then he’d be right back where he was the first day he showed up in Mustang Ridge. One thing was still the same, he realized morosely. She didn’t trust him, and he was on his knees, begging for her forgiveness.
His mind raced for something else to say, to convince her that he’d meant no harm and just wanted the connection with his daughters that he’d been missing. But he acknowledged that there was nothing more he could do, so he waited for her to decide how she felt about him exposing their secret.
“Tell me something,” she finally said in an eerily calm tone that made his skin crawl. “Do you break a lot of your promises, or just the ones you make to me?”
Ty felt as if he’d gotten the wind knocked out of him, and he struggled to meet that cool glare evenly. “I don’t give my word lightly, and when I do, I try my best to keep it.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
Man, she’s good, he thought, convinced that if he checked later on, he’d have welts from the sharp words she was flinging at him. Each one hit its mark, and he suddenly understood that she’d been waiting to lash out at him for a long, long time.
With that insight, he tried a different tack. “I deserve that.” When he paused and she didn’t argue with him, he took it as slight progress and forged ahead. “But I hope you’ll believe that I never wanted to hurt you. When I left seven years ago, I honestly felt it was the best thing for both of us.”
“And today?” He didn’t answer right away, and she pounced like a ravenous cougar. “You’d do it again, wouldn’t you?”
Suddenly tired of eggshell walking when it came to their daughters, he abandoned the apologetic route and took his own shot. “Yeah, I would. Maybe not the same way, but I’d want to tell them the truth about who I am. I’ve been waiting for you to do that for weeks now, but you wouldn’t. I guess I got tired of wondering when you’d finally decide it was the right time.”
“I would’ve gotten there.”
“When? At their high school graduation, when they were confused about why a guy who’s just a friend of the family was so proud of them? At their weddings, when they needed someone to walk them down the aisle? When, MJ?”
She scowled at him, anger glittering in her eyes while she considered his question. And then, without warning, she spun on the heel of her boot and simply walked away.
Fine by him, he thought angrily as he turned and stalked in the other direction. The woman was all the handful she’d ever been, and more. With a sharp mind and a tongue to match, even on a good day she’d always had a knack for driving him straight to the edge of his sanity. Just because they were neighbors didn’t mean they had to talk to each other. The pastures separating them were more than wide enough to give them both plenty of space.
But as he went past the riding ring where he’d given Allie and Hannah their lesson, he paused in his mental rant. Leaning on the rail, he could picture them on their patient pony, following his instructions and gaining in confidence with each circle. The breeze picked up a bit, and he took off his hat, dangling it over the fence while he stared at the ground.
Now that he’d had a chance to cool off, he was beginning to see things from Morgan’s perspective. It occurred to him that, unlike his past mistakes, this one involved more than just the two of them. It affected innocent children who didn’t deserve to be put in the middle of two people who couldn’t manage to agree on much of anything. His ongoing problems with Morgan made him uncomfortably aware that they fought almost as much as his parents had, and if they were meant to be together, then it certainly would have happened by now.
So that was it, he realized as he put on his hat and picked up his heart from where it had fallen. Trudging toward home, he was forced to admit that he’d gone over the line with Morgan once again. Just when they’d managed to put the past aside and started building something new, he’d acted impulsively and destroyed it.
Apparently, he hadn’t changed that much, after all.
Chapter Ten
“I’m sure we’ve done this one before,” Jessie complained, flipping over the page she was filling out by hand.
“We did, but it disappeared into the legal system never to be seen again,” Morgan told her. She heard the bitter edge on her voice but wasn’t in the mood to do anything about it, so she willed her younger sister to let it go.
Fat chance.
“Morgan.” When their eyes connected across the table, Jessie set down her pen and crossed her arms over the jumble of papers she’d been working on. “You’ve been out of sorts for days now. What’s up?”
“There’s just a lot going on. Sorry to be cranky.”
“Is it Mom? I mean, Dad seems a lot happier now that the divorce paperwork is in process. He even asked Sharon Grainger to go to that auction with him today.” Pausing, she laughed. “I can’t believe she went, but it was cute how he changed his clothes three times before leaving.”
“No, it’s not that. I’m glad he’s moving on, since that was the whole point of him going to see Mom in Helena.”
Jessie gave her a long, suspicious look. “Then it’s got to be Ty. I haven’t seen him around here at all lately. What happened with you two?”
“Nothing.” That’s the problem, she added silently. Just when she’d started trusting him again, he’d gone and let her down in the worst way possible. Betraying her trust, getting their daughters excited about having their father in their lives. Whenever she thought about it, she could feel her blood pressure skyrocketing.
“Allie and Hannah keep asking when he’s coming over, and you always put them off. That’s not nothing. Now, spill it, or I’ll keep guessing till I get it right. You know how annoying I can be,” she added with a little-sister grin that would grate on the nerves of a saint.
“Fine. I’ll tell you, but you have to promise to keep it to yourself.”
“Deal. Now, ’fess up. You’ll feel better if you tell someone.”
Morgan laid it out for her, keeping her voice low to prevent it from traveling into the family room, where the girls were occupied playing the latest round of their favorite board game. When she was finished, she sat back and sighed. “So, that’s what happened. Happy now?”
Jessie hesitated, as if she was trying to frame her response just right. That usually spelled trouble, and Morgan cautioned herself to be patient. It wasn’t easy.
“You probably won’t like what I have to say,” Jessie finally began, toying with her pen to avoid looking up. “But I’m gonna say it anyhow.” Lifting her eyes, she said, “I get where Ty’s coming from. They’re his daughters, too, and it’s obvious he really loves them. He has a right to be part of the picture.”
“He did,” Morgan countered, “before he broke his promise to me. I’m their mom, and I get to decide who sees
them and who doesn’t.”
“I know he agreed to your conditions, but it really wasn’t fair of you to expect that to go on indefinitely. They’re great kids, and he’s proud to be their father. I know he hurt you terribly, but that was a long time ago. From what I’ve seen, he’s done everything he can to mend fences with you.”
“And then he broke them again,” Morgan announced firmly. “That’s his problem.”
“And the girls,” Jessie pointed out somberly. “They just found out that their father is the guy next door, and they’re not allowed to see him. That’s really sad.”
Morgan was digesting that when a knock sounded on the back door. Brooke Hamilton, the conservancy’s lawyer, stood on the porch, framed in the screen and smiling. Morgan had never been so glad to be interrupted in her life.
“Come on in, Brooke,” she called out, waving her in. “We could use some good news right about now. I hope you’ve got some.”
“Very good,” the young attorney replied, sitting in an empty chair next to Jessie. Pulling a thin stack of papers from her briefcase, she beamed. “The judge granted our temporary stay. Cartwright Energy is blocked from doing any more prospecting in Mustang Ridge until all these conditions are met.”
Fanning out the pages, she showed them the lengthy list of demands the conservancy had compiled. The judge had ticked most of them and crossed out a few others. But it was the front page that interested Morgan the most.
“‘Cease and desist,’” she read with a surge of pride for what their little group of crusaders had accomplished. “My new favorite phrase.”
“Mine, too,” Brooke agreed enthusiastically. “When I was in law school, I dreamed about using what I was learning to really make a difference someday. Beating back a greedy corporation like this makes me feel like Robin Hood.”
Standing, Morgan fetched three glasses from the dish drainer and took a pitcher of lemonade from the fridge. After filling the glasses, she raised hers. “To the Mustang Ridge Conservancy. May this be the first victory of many on our way to booting Cartwright Energy back over the Bridger Mountains where they belong.”
While they toasted and drank to their success, her conversation with Jessie was still echoing in Morgan’s mind. Thinking about Ty—and what had so nearly almost been—left her with a pang of regret.
He’d done so much to help make this happen, from lending his celebrity to the cause, to bringing Craig Barlowe in on the effort, to hours of helping her craft and hone her pitch to the committee in Washington. If things hadn’t gone so far awry, Ty would have been here, celebrating with them.
But he wasn’t. And she honestly couldn’t envision how they might bridge the gap he’d created to find their way back to where they’d been during their DC trip. Normally, Morgan faced reality head-on and accepted situations for what they were.
This time, she just felt sad.
* * *
One morning, Perry rushed into the feed store as if he was being chased by an angry bull. “Ty, did you hear about the Connors place?”
“No,” he replied, concerned by the urgency in his boss’s tone. “What happened?”
“Frank and Sally have been trying to sell their extra acreage for years, but they could never find a buyer for their property. Kailani heard through the grapevine that Cartwright Energy made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.”
Morgan.
It had been two weeks since their last—and apparently final—blowup, but how she’d react to this news was the first thing that came into his mind. “The mustang herd crosses that spot to get to the river and up to their summer grazing on that swath of public land. Morgan has a permanent right of access for them to use it.”
“Only as long as the Connors own it. If that changes—” Perry shrugged.
“There has to be a way to stop this.” After a few seconds, he asked, “Did they sign the papers yet?”
“Not as far as I know.”
“Can I take an early lunch?”
“It’s eight in the morning,” Perry argued, then grinned as the reason dawned on him. “You’re gonna stop the sale, aren’t you?”
“I’m sure gonna try.”
“Anything I can do?”
“Not that I can think of. Thanks, though.”
“No problem,” Perry said, flipping up the hinged countertop to change places with Ty. “Call if you need me.”
Ty waved in thanks as he all but ran from the store. On his way through town, he stopped in at the bank and emptied his savings of all but the few dollars required to keep the account open. It might not be close to the offer the couple had gotten already, he acknowledged as he raced along the road that led to their place. But it might be enough to stall until he could figure out something else.
Pulling up in front of the Connors’ modest ranch-style home, he swung down from his truck and hurried up the front steps. Pulling in a few deep breaths, he summoned a friendly smile as he knocked on the screen door. It seemed to take forever, but finally Sally appeared in the hallway, squinting to see who was visiting so early. Fortunately, when she saw him, she beamed as if he was a long-lost son.
“Ty Wilkins,” she greeted him, opening the door to let him inside. “It’s so nice to see you.”
Reminding himself to tread carefully, he accepted her welcoming hug. “It’s nice to see you, too. I’ve been meaning to come by, and this morning seemed like the perfect time.”
“How sweet. Come on in. I’ll let Frank know you’re here.”
Sweet, he mused as he followed her into the sunny kitchen. Morgan had called him that a time or two, before he completely messed up and lost her for good. There was no help for that now, he reminded himself sternly. But the least he could do was make an attempt to save the mustangs she loved so much.
Taking a seat at the round table, he tried to organize what he wanted to say to the elderly couple, who had every right to sell their property to anyone they chose. He hadn’t really thought about it, and suddenly it occurred to him that he didn’t have a good reason for them to change their plans. When Frank appeared alongside his wife, Ty stood and shook the man’s hand. “Good to see you, Mr. Connors. How’ve you been?”
The old farmer gave him a once-over and then, to Ty’s surprise, he chuckled. “Well, news sure does travel fast in this little town.”
“Don’t be rude, Frank,” his wife chided, pouring a cup of coffee and setting it in front of Ty. “This young man came all the way out here to see us. The least you can do is hear him out.”
“I’m guessing you know why I’m here,” Ty began, drinking some coffee to help his suddenly dry throat.
Frank sat back, folding his arms across his chest with a curious expression. “Morgan’s been after us for months to buy that land. What I can’t figure out is what you’re doing in the middle of this? Word is she hasn’t spoken to you in weeks.”
Hearing it phrased like that smarted, but Ty put his own feelings aside and concentrated on his reason for being here. “I’m here to keep Cartwright Energy out of Mustang Ridge, for all our sakes. Once you give them a few acres, they’ll use ’em as a foothold to buy up more land on either side. Before we know it, we’ll all be living in an oil field.”
“Their plans make a lotta sense to me,” Frank countered. “They’re pros, and they know what they’re doing. If they do find oil here, we’ve been assured that they’ll pump it without ruining the land around it.”
“No one can promise that,” Ty pointed out in the most controlled tone he could manage with his quickly panicking heart slamming away in his chest. Looking to Sally, he found a sympathetic face. “If they’re wrong about the impact, they can just pull up stakes and leave. We’re the ones who’re gonna be left with the consequences.”
Frank chewed on that for a few seconds, and Ty could tell the man was beginning to have second thoughts. Seizing on the
opportunity, he pulled the bank envelope out of his rear pocket and set it on the table.
“What’s this?” his host asked suspiciously. “A bribe?”
Forcing himself to sound casual, Ty replied, “A down payment. If you can stall Cartwright a few days, I’ll get you the rest.”
Interest flared in the man’s eyes. “How much?”
Ty had no clue how much they’d accepted from the developer, so he sent up a quick prayer for help. After doing a quick mental inventory of his remaining possessions, he named a figure that thankfully didn’t earn him a laugh. Instead, Frank stroked his chin pensively.
“That might be worth considering,” he agreed, giving his wife a questioning look. “What do you think?”
She thought it over and then said, “I think we should have our lawyer check over that offer for us. That could take a week or so, with him being away on vacation and all.”
Ty suspected their lawyer hadn’t gone anywhere, and that she’d come up with a clever—and believable—way to hold off to give him the time he needed. Wary of getting too excited about something that could still fall apart, he asked, “Does that mean we have a deal?”
“If you can come up with what you’re suggesting,” Frank answered, “then yes, we have a deal.”
He held out a calloused hand that had seen a lot of hard work over the years. It was a hand that Ty could respect, and he gladly shook it to seal their agreement.
“From one local boy to another,” the farmer confided, “I wasn’t too keen on selling to them, anyway.”
“Keith and Trina weren’t fans of the idea, either,” Sally added. “They want to bring their kids here from California to visit in the fall.”
“Oh, yeah?” Ty asked, leaning back to enjoy the rest of their visit. “Whereabouts do they live?”
“She and her husband live in Sacramento with their two boys, and Keith just moved there with his crew of three. He and his wife bought a beautiful new house, and he sent us some pictures. Would you like to see them?”
