“Well, if you do not love Andi, then let her go. Let her find a man who will love her as she deserves to be.”
“What man?” Mac demanded, leaning over the table. “Is there some guy in town with his eye on Andi?”
Rafe blew out a laugh. “Any number of them, I should imagine. She’s a lovely woman.”
Scowling now, Mac snapped, “You’re married to my sister, so you shouldn’t be noticing things like that.”
“I’m married, not dead.”
“That could be arranged,” Mac muttered, but Rafe only laughed.
“It seems to me that for a man who claims to not be in love, you’re very territorial.”
“I don’t share,” Mac grumbled. “Doesn’t mean anything more than that.”
“And so she should make herself available to you as your assistant, your mistress, your companion?”
Mac scowled again and couldn’t find the appetite for more of his damn lunch. “Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?”
“I am,” Rafe assured him.
“Doesn’t look like it from this side of the fence.”
“I’m only trying to make you see that Andi deserves more than being your convenience.”
“Never said she was convenient. A more argumentative woman I’ve never known. Except for my sister,” he amended.
“I will agree that my wife is very opinionated.”
Mac snorted a laugh. For all the times Rafe had made him furious over the years, for all the trouble he’d tried to stir up when he first blew into Royal, he was surely paying for it with the woman he loved. Violet had never been an easy woman, so Mac knew that Rafe’s life was colorful, to say the least.
But Violet and Rafe were a team.
As he and Andi were. Or could be. If she would only see that he was right about this.
“You’re walking a fine line here, Mac,” Rafe said, taking a sip of his coffee. “If you step wrong, you could lose everything. I know.”
Worry flickered in the back of his mind, but Mac quashed it fast. There wasn’t a damn thing Mac McCallum couldn’t get once he’d made up his mind.
And his sights were set on Andi.
“I’ll watch my step,” he said, and picked up his sandwich again. “I know what I’m doing.”
“I hope so, my friend,” Rafe said with a shake of his head. “I do hope so.”
Nine
Andi had never really planned to stay for so long, working for Mac.
When she started, it had seemed like a good place for her. After growing up in Royal, she’d left town, gone to college and, with her business degree, she’d headed to California. Working in LA had been exciting; living there had been less so. The crowds, the noise, the inability to look up at the sky and see more than a small square of smog-tinted blue had eventually begun wearing on her. At her core, she was a small-town girl and when she accepted that truth and moved back to Royal, things had fallen into place for her. She’d reconnected with her sister, found a fast and true friend in Violet and fallen stupidly in love with her boss.
“Okay, so not everything worked out,” she muttered, setting some of her books onto the built-in shelves along one wall of her tiny living room. The house was coming together, the two weeks with Mac would soon be over and she had to do some thinking about her life.
The job with McCallum Enterprises had been good for her, though. She’d loved the energy, the rush of helping to run an international company with a great reputation. But it wasn’t hers. Just like Mac, that company would never belong to her, and Andi wanted something of her own. To build a life and find what she was missing. To build a business from the ground up and watch it grow. She just didn’t know what.
“Thank God you had tea made,” Jolene said as she came into the living room carrying two tall ice-filled glasses with a small plate of cookies balanced on top of one of them. “I swear, summer’s coming along too early for me.”
“It’s not that hot.” Andi reached up to take the cookies and her glass of tea.
“Not in here, bless the air conditioning gods.” Jolene eased down to the floor, maneuvering her belly as if it were a separate entity. “Oh, I should have gone shopping with you and Vi. It would have been much more relaxing, not to mention cooler. That baseball field will kill you. Blazing sun, the shouting, the crying—and that’s just the parents...”
Andi laughed.
“Good,” Jolene said with a brisk nod. “You can still do that.”
“Of course I can. It’s just, there’s not a lot to laugh about right now.”
“I could get Tom to go over and kick Mac’s butt for you.”
“No, but thanks for the thought.”
Jolene shrugged. “Just as well. Tom really likes Mac.”
“So do I.” Andi grumbled as she bit into a cookie. “That’s the problem.”
“Damn it, I was so sure that once you’d had sex with the man it would either shatter your illusions or make him realize just how great you are. Numskull man.”
“It’s not his fault, Jolene,” Andi said, taking a cookie she didn’t really want and biting in, anyway. “I’m the one who fell in love.”
“That’s not a crime.”
“No, but stupid should be.”
“Honey, there aren’t nearly enough jails if stupid turns out to be a crime.”
“True.” Taking a sip of her tea, Andi looked at her sister. “How did I live without you when I was in LA?”
“Beats hell out of me.”
Andi grinned. “I was just sitting here thinking how glad I was that I moved back home. I’ve got you and Tom and your kids and I’ll be here for the new baby’s birth...”
“You bet you will. What if Tom gets called out to a fire? You’re my backup.”
Smiling still, Andi finished, “California just wasn’t for me.”
“No, but you figured that out, came home and found a job you loved. You’ll do it again. As soon as you’re ready.”
“I think I am. Ready, I mean,” Andi said as her idea solidified in her mind and settled in to stay. “But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this and I don’t want a job, Jolene. I want my own business.”
“Really? Great! What’re you planning?”
“I’m going to be a professional organizer.” It had been bumping along in her brain for a few months now and she’d toyed with it, even while she worked for Mac. She supposed that a part of her had realized that she couldn’t stay at McCallum Enterprises forever, and her subconscious had been busily at work plotting her next move. She was going to organize people’s homes, their businesses, heck, garages. She was great at finding order in chaos, so why shouldn’t she make a living doing what she was so good at?
“That is the most brilliant idea you’ve had in years.” Jolene had a wide smile on her face as she lifted her tea glass in a toast. “Honestly, I’ll be your first customer. I’ll expect the pregnant sister discount, of course, but you could come through and get my kids’ bedrooms straightened out. Do you know I found an overlooked Easter egg in Jacob’s room last week? I probably would have found it sooner, but I thought the smell coming from there was just from his discarded socks. Like usual.”
Andi laughed. “Jacob’s room may defeat me, but I’m willing to try.”
“Then there’s my kitchen and, God help you, Tom’s workshop.” Jolene reached out, took her sister’s hand and squeezed. “It’s a great idea and you’ll be a huge success at it. Guaranteed.”
“Thanks, I think I will, too. And God knows I’ve got the time to pour into it.”
“But not like a workaholic again, right?” Concern shadowed Jolene’s eyes briefly. “You’re not going to turn into a stranger again while you bury yourself in work, right?”
“Absolutely. I want my
own business,” Andi said firmly, “but I want a life, too. And I’m going to find one, Jolene.”
While her sister talked about the possibilities, Andi thought about the night before, being in Mac’s arms, the magic of the moment. A whisper of regret echoed in her heart, for all the hopes and dreams that would never be realized. Then she deliberately erased those images from her mind because it was time she started training herself to have that life she craved so much.
Without Mac.
* * *
The following day, Mac took her horseback riding.
She tried to regret agreeing to finish out the two weeks they’d originally decided on, but it wasn’t easy. Because their remaining time together was really a gift to herself. When this time was up, Andi would have to walk away for her own sake, no matter what it might cost her. And in spite of what his sister might think or hope, Mac wouldn’t follow her again. He didn’t like losing.
These two weeks were his attempt to win her back. When that failed, Mac would move on—as he had so many times before.
Dumping him as Vi had suggested wouldn’t work. And even if it would, Andi wasn’t going to play games. If she had to trick Mac or trap him, he wouldn’t be worth catching, would he? The heck of it was, Andi knew that if she told him the truth, admitted to loving him, it would throw him so hard, he’d walk away long before the two weeks were up. He wasn’t interested in love.
But even knowing that she would be free of him if she just confessed, Andi couldn’t do it. She still had her pride and damned if her last memory would be of Mac looking at her with pity shining in his eyes just before he turned away from her.
Those worries were for later. Today, they were here together, riding across open ranch land as if they were the only two people in the world. The Double M was a huge ranch, stretching out for miles. A stand of wild oaks straggled along the river and Mac led her in that direction. The sun was heating up and in another month, this ride would be downright miserable. But today was clear and just warm enough to remind you that summer was coming.
“You’re thinking again,” Mac said from beside her. “I can hear you from here.”
“You’ve something against thinking?” She pulled the brim of her borrowed hat down lower over her eyes to cut the glare from the sun.
“On a day like today, while it’s just us and the horses? Yeah, I do.” He gave her a brief smile and nudged his horse closer to hers. “You know I didn’t bring my phone with me?”
She laughed, delighted. So this time with her had changed him—if only a little. “I’m so proud.”
“You should be,” he said. “Without you, I’d be hunkered over in the saddle, checking stock reports, catching up with Tim and making sure Laura sent out the contracts due to be mailed today. Instead, thanks to you, I’m spending time on my ranch alongside a beautiful woman. And at the moment, I don’t give two damns what’s happening back at the office.”
She smiled; how could she help it? The man was charming and darn near irresistible. Sadly, he knew it.
“So, are you going to show me where they set up the last water tank?”
“Interested in ranch life, are you?” The twinkle in his eye sparkled in the sunlight.
“Interested in seeing the tank I had to get road clearance approval on to bring in,” she countered.
Ranchers kept huge water tanks stationed around their property to be filled by rainwater or, in times of serious drought, by water trucks brought in for that purpose. There were stock ponds, of course, natural watering holes for the animals, but they could go dry in a blistering hot Texas summer and you had to be able to refill them when necessary. The tanks were one sure way of accomplishing that. But several of them had come down during the big storm, and Mac had had to replace them. Now they were in place, only waiting to be filled before the start of summer.
Thankfully, they’d already had a good-sized storm at the beginning of the month and more were being predicted. In fact, she thought as she peered up at the sky to see gray-and-black clouds huddling together as if forming an attack strategy, it looked like another storm was headed this way so fast, Andi and Mac might get wet themselves before this ride was over.
“It’s this way.” He tugged on the reins and his horse moved in that direction. Nudging Apollo into a trot, Mac looked back to make sure Andi was following him. She was, and waved to him in reassurance. The gelding she rode was in no particular hurry, which was just as well. It had been a couple of years since she had been riding and she knew her muscles would be screaming by tomorrow.
Despite the heat of the sun, a brisk breeze blew, bringing the scent of the storm with it. Andi pulled her hat down hard so it wouldn’t blow away and followed after Mac, determined to keep up. It was another twenty minutes to the stock pond and the water tank that stood alongside it.
“The pond looks good.” She dismounted with a quiet sigh of relief.
“It’s early yet,” Mac said, squinting into the sun, watching a few lazy cattle meander down to the water’s edge for a drink. “But yeah. Last year, the water level was only half as much at this point in the season. A couple more good storms,” he said, checking out the sky, “and we’ll be set. Tanks and ponds.”
“It’s a lot, Mac,” she said softly, letting her gaze sweep across miles of grazing land. Cattle dotted the countryside, and here and there a few horses were sprinkled in as added interest. “Running your business, and the ranch, it’s a lot. Do you ever want to hand the reins over to someone else? Step back from it?”
For a second, it looked as though he might give her a wink and a grin and the kind of quick, smooth answer he was best known for. But then his features evened out and he took another long look around him before turning back to her. “No. I don’t. Though I’ll say, if I ever had to make a choice—either the business or the ranch—the ranch would win hands down.” He bent over, scooped up a handful of dirt and grass and then turned his hand over, letting it all drift to earth again. “I love this place. Every blade of grass and clod of dirt. Every stupid steer, every irritation. The worry about not enough water, too much water, calves being born, losing some to coyotes...” He stood up again and shook his head. “It’s McCallum land and I guess it’s in me.”
She heard it in his voice, saw it in his eyes. The business he’d taken over when his parents died was something he’d built, defined, expanded because he’d needed to prove something. To his father. Himself. Maybe even the world. But this ranch was the soul of him. What kept him going, what drove him. His love for the land and the continuity of caring for it.
Her heart turned over in her chest as he looked at her, and Andi wondered how much more she could possibly love him. How could the feeling inside her keep growing, filling her up until she thought she must be glowing with it?
He tipped his head to one side, stared at her. “What is it? You’ve got this weird expression your face.”
She smiled and walked toward him. Just when she thought she had come to grips with everything, he threw her for a loop again. Seeing him like this, standing tall and arrogant and proud on land his family had owned for generations, made her want to tell him everything. Confess her love, let him know what she thought and felt. She couldn’t, though, any more than she could turn from him now and pretend she’d heard and felt nothing.
“You just...surprise me sometimes, that’s all,” she said, walking close enough that she could reach up and cup his cheek in her palm. Heat flowed from his body to hers and back again. “You’re kind of wonderful.”
Pleasure shone in his eyes. He covered her hand with his and, as their gazes locked, she felt a shift in the emotions charging around them. Passion burned just beneath the surface, a reminder that what was between them was powerful, difficult to ignore or deny.
“If I’d known it would have this effect on you,” he whispered, “I’d have brought yo
u out to the water tank before.”
She laughed and shook her head. “You’re also impossible.”
“So it’s been said.” He pulled her in close until she had to tip her head back to look up at him.
“What am I doing here?” she murmured, more to herself than to him.
He took her hat off, smoothed her hair back from her face, dipped his head and whispered, “Driving me crazy.”
Lightning flashed in the distance and thunder rolled toward them like an approaching army. Then he kissed her and the storm erupted around them, pelting them with rain they didn’t even notice.
When the storm rushed in and lightning began to slash at the ground much closer to them, they broke apart and climbed onto the horses.
Drenched and laughing like loons, they outpaced the storm, rode up to the ranch house and turned the horses over to the stable hands. Then racing for the house, Mac and Andi ran into the kitchen and gratefully took the towels Teresa offered them.
“Couple of crazy people is what you are,” she muttered, with a half smile tugging at her lips. Her short, gray-streaked brown hair hugged her head like a cap. Her lipstick was bright red and her nails were painted to match. She wore jeans, boots and a long-sleeved blue-and-white-checked shirt. “Could have been struck by lightning out in this storm. You’re lucky you’re just half-drowned instead.”
“Thank you, Teresa,” Andi said, running the towel over her hair and toeing her boots off one at a time. “We’re messing up your floor. I’m so sorry.”
Mac glanced behind them and saw the muddy footprints and small river of water that had followed them in. He cringed a little and added his own apology. He might own the house, but Teresa ruled it, and everyone on the ranch knew it. “We gave you more work to do, didn’t we?”
Impatiently, Teresa waved that away. “Don’t have nearly enough to do around here to keep me busy, so don’t worry about that. You two go on up now and get out of those wet clothes. I’ll throw everything in the dryer as soon as you do.”
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