Not that he’d ever owned a business before. He had no clue if he could actually do it. But he wanted to try. Just wasn’t sure if he wanted to take that big of a risk.
“No problem,” he said. “Was talking to Clay some anyway. Don’t suppose you know if Reina’s been taking cooking lessons, by chance?”
Angela stopped organizing the papers on her clipboard and tilted her head. “No?”
“Never mind.” He could laugh about Reina’s total inability to cook, and he was pretty sure Reina would still be laughing as well, but talking about her when she wasn’t around was pretty close to gossip, and he didn’t want it getting back to her in the wrong way, so he shut his mouth. “You gonna show me where you imprisoned my nieces?”
She chuckled, as he thought she would, and led the way down the stairs.
Chapter 2
Angela took a deep breath. She had a lot to make up for and even more to live down, but she was trying as hard as she could to be real—the person she was and who she was becoming.
Mack didn’t seem to hold anything against her. Which she really appreciated.
She’d apologized to Clay and Reina and also to Boone. She hadn’t blamed her parents, either, although she did feel like the fault might be somewhat theirs. But she needed to take responsibility for her actions.
She’d never really paid attention to Mack because of her focus on Clay, but Mack was good-looking and funny. She could be friends with him. But she definitely wasn’t interested in a cowboy-type farmer, so her flirting was all in fun.
Paul, who lived down the street and did something in IT, would be a great guy for her, except he was a little old. She’d really like to have children, and he was over forty at least.
One step at a time. She needed to rebuild her reputation without her parents manipulating her. She’d done everything they wanted her to, even getting married to the man they chose. For all of three days.
She’d let the girlfriend she’d discovered the day after their wedding slide.
The first time he hit her, she walked. The girlfriend she could admit to. The fact that he hit her wasn’t information that she had mentioned to too many people. Even though she’d left him, she hated to ruin his reputation. She knew it shouldn’t matter and the jerk deserved to be punished, but no one would support her and she needed to get away.
Sweet Water was the only place where she knew people, other than her hometown and pastors of various churches, who would surely think she should go home to her parents. Maybe she should, but she chose Sweet Water.
Now she was going to make the best of her new start.
She nodded and smiled at her new friends Louise and Ames, who were picking up their children from junior church and the nursery, and led Mack to the side door.
“There they are. They look happy.” She waved her hand, indicating Holly and Ashleigh who were batting balloons up in the air with another boy and girl their size.
“Sure do. Thanks a lot. See ya around.” He gave her a grin, and his brown eyes twinkled.
She tried to smile back, but her lips kind of froze, because his eyes had caught hers and her stomach did an odd twitch and flip.
She cleared her throat and looked away, but he had already turned and was moving toward his nieces.
That was...strange.
Almost as strange as how she’d felt when she’d tripped earlier. Putting her hand on his chest had been like balancing against a wall. Except that wall made shock waves run up her arm and pinch at her heart. Definitely strange.
Walking back through the hall, she nodded and greeted people as they passed her, but no one stopped to talk, and a few minutes later, she’d shrugged into her heavy coat, grabbed her bag with her teaching material and information for the Christmas festival, and walked out the lower door alone. It wasn’t far to her boardinghouse. Just a five-minute walk or so.
She needed it to clear her head. Although she was a little sad that she was going home alone. It was fun at first, to be her own boss, finally, since she’d lived with her parents all her life and having no one care what she did was a novelty.
Now, she could admit she got lonely at times.
Like now.
At her parents’ house, they always had people over for Sunday dinner.
Here, she’d have people over, but it wasn’t her house. She had a room that was hers, of course, and use of the kitchen and living room, but they weren’t solely for her. Therefore, she didn’t feel comfortable inviting people over.
Maybe she should just suck it up and invite them anyway. Mr. Swanson, her landlord, hadn’t said she couldn’t.
She stomped the snow off her boots and walked in the back door to the enclosed porch. Mr. Swanson would be just finishing up lunch. Which was fine. She’d made herself a plate of leftover food from the diner where she worked and would heat that up and take it to her room where she’d eat it while working on the Christmas festival stuff.
Busy trying not to feel sorry for herself because she was alone, she didn’t open the door far enough. Her bag caught on the handle, jerking her back and making her lose her balance, and as she grabbed for the wall to steady herself, she slipped on a bit of ice and her bag flipped, dumping the contents everywhere. Thankfully she was able to catch herself on the doorknob and didn’t faceplant into the wall, but it was close.
The second time that day she’d tripped. She was getting clumsy.
She had to take her gloves off in order to pick her papers up, and it was a good ten minutes before she had everything collected and her winter things hung up and out of the way. Some of her things had ice on them, but she’d wait and spread them out in her room.
Still, she was in a bit of a hurry, and she was through the door, closing it with a bang, and into the kitchen before she realized that Mr. Swanson had company.
Mack.
She stopped short.
Their conversation died as they both looked at her.
“You don’t have your nieces.” She felt like an idiot. Was that the most intelligent thing she could think of to say?
“No. Clay took them home with him, so I could see about getting us living arrangements.” He spoke slowly, like he was surprised to see her there and was answering by rote.
He wasn’t more surprised than she. But why wouldn’t he stay there if he needed a place? She wasn’t sure why she was so shocked.
She cleared her throat, a little nervous, conscious that she’d interrupted their conversation. “I’m off to my room. Mr. Swanson is a great landlord.” She gave a smile that felt way more perky than the situation warranted and practically skipped out of the kitchen.
Well, she couldn’t say she was disappointed that Mack was moving in. Actually, she thought maybe she liked it.
MACK HADN’T BROUGHT anything for lunch, and of course, Mrs. Stryker and her daughters and daughters-in-law wouldn’t think of allowing him to help with the dishes, so he’d ended up out at the barn with a fifty-pound sack of feed slung over each shoulder, following Mav, Clay’s youngest brother, to the feed trough. Thankfully the muck in the barnyard was frozen, since he hadn’t thought to wear anything but his good cowboy boots.
“Where I come from, we don’t put the guests to work,” he said, with only a little grumble in his voice. Mostly because his cowboy boots had zero traction in the snow, and he’d have worn his Wolverines if he’d known he was going to be feeding.
“Where I come from, guests don’t invite themselves to lunch and not bring anything.” Mav spoke with a smirk in his voice, but he didn’t turn around. The muck was frozen, yes, but it was frozen in the dips and ridges that cow hooves churned mud and manure into anyplace they congregated to feed, and with two fifty-pound bags of feed on his shoulders, Mav would be asking to break an ankle if he didn’t watch where he was going.
Mack ignored him, watching his own footing, made worse because of his unsuitable footwear. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Lark, Mav’s younger sister who was out of school b
ut still living at home, and Gina playing with Ashleigh and Holly. Actually, they weren’t really playing; Lark was giving them goat rides. Holly had already fallen off once. The ground was hard, but the goats weren’t very tall, and apparently riding trumped crying, because Holly had popped up and demanded to be put back on.
He hoped she didn’t get hurt. He had no idea how to get a hold of her mother if she did. He also didn’t know how he was going to get the girls to leave the farm. The room he’d rented at the boardinghouse wouldn’t be nearly this much fun.
Mav stopped in front of the feed trough. “Bull’s at the far end.”
Mack jerked his head, sure they wouldn’t keep a mean bull but knowing it was always a good idea to know where it was. They were unpredictable, and smarter men than he had been crushed because they’d let their guard down.
He walked to the second trough. “Both go in here?”
“Yep.” Mav pulled his glove off to take hold of the string that he’d pull to open the bag.
Mack imitated him.
“Saw you talking to Angela today at church,” Mav said in what sounded like a casual tone, but it put Mack on guard instantly. He’d worked with Mav enough to know the kid could be depended on in any type of situation, but he loved a good joke, too. Something told Mack a joke was coming.
“She’s the Sunday School teacher for preschool. Be kinda rude to ignore her.”
“You back in preschool?” Mav balled the string up in his hand so the cows wouldn’t eat it, then dumped his bag in the trough.
“Was today. Appreciated the view more than I might have a couple of decades ago.”
“Humph. I bet. Don’t forget what she did.”
“Haven’t.” Mack dumped his bag, and the Angus heifers pushed closer. He shoved his string in the empty sack and folded it before picking up the second bag, shoving the hungry black heads out of his way and being careful not to slip on the iced-up muck.
Mav pulled the string on his second bag. “How do you feel about a little challenge?”
“Not good,” Mack said honestly. Whatever Mav was cooking up, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t want anything to do with it.
“I heard you and Clay talking, figured you might want a partner in the business. You know, someone to go halves with you.”
Mack stopped with his bag about to tip. Really? He’d love that. The risk of dumping all that cash out and having everything riding on him kept him up some nights. He knew it was a sound investment, but he wasn’t used to dealing in figures that big. And Mav might be a prankster, but he’d work and he was honest.
“What’s the catch?”
“I want to go halves with you on the business, but I have a condition.”
A big black head butted his arm. Mack grinned and shoved her head out of the way with his hip. “Hang on. I’m getting to it.” He dumped the bag, making sure the whole trough had feed. “What’s your condition?”
“I’ve got a quarter of what you’ll need, and I’ve got a piece of undeveloped ground I can borrow against for the rest.”
“Yeah. What’s the condition?”
“I wanna make a bet with you.” Mav shoved his second bag and string into his first and held his hand out for Mack’s bags.
“What?” He didn’t like the sound of that.
Mav stepped out behind the cows and waited for Mack to catch up. “I bet you can’t make Angela fall in love with you.”
“No.” Mack slapped his glove against his knee before getting smart and putting them back on. “No way. Not interested.”
Mav’s lips flattened. There weren’t too many times over the years that Mack had known him where he’d looked more serious than he did right then. “After what she did to my brothers, I’d like to see a little revenge. Nothing serious. Just a little game at her expense.”
“Nope. Not doing it.” Mack started walking toward the gate.
“If you do, I’ll go half with you. You know I’m good for it. I’ll work my butt off to make the business successful, and between the two of us, if it’s possible to succeed, we’ll do it.”
“I’m game for that. I’ve worked with you, and I know we’d make a great team, but I don’t want it to involve Angela.”
“I’d do it myself, but I’m too young, and she’s not the slightest bit interested.”
“She’s not interested in me, either.”
“Looked like she might be today. Plus, you’re a charmer. You could do it.”
“No.” He’d really like to have a partner, and he’d love to not have to borrow as much money. It wasn’t worth it, though. Sure, maybe Angela hadn’t been the best person ever, but he didn’t want to hurt anyone.
“She led Clay on for seven years, never really interested in him, but let him think she was. Then, when she realized he had money, she almost destroyed what he and Reina had in order to get it. Not to mention how brutal she was to Boone. I don’t want to destroy her or anything, just want to play a little joke on her.”
“That’s mean.” The kids yelled from where they were still riding the goats, and Mack checked to be sure his nieces were doing fine. Spencer, Boone’s son, who was Gina’s age, had joined them, and Boone and Clay were walking across the frozen yard toward the corral and him and Mav.
“Sounds like she’s tricked you, too,” Mav said, sounding a little bitter.
“She seemed nice today. I don’t think she’s tricking anyone.” Mack stopped at the gate as Boone and Clay arrived. They both put a boot on the bottom rung and leaned their arms on the top rail.
Mack imitated their position from the other side, and Mav joined him.
“You two looked like you were talking about something pretty serious,” Boone said with a good-natured grin.
“I tried to bet Mack that he couldn’t get Angela to fall in love with him, but he’s scared to take me up on it.”
Boone snorted.
Mack bristled. “I’m not scared. Just don’t see any fun in leading a girl on for a bet.”
“You’d lose anyway. She’s not interested in cowboys. She wants someone a little more sophisticated.” Boone shoved his hat down farther on his head.
“Someone with money,” Clay said, sounding as relaxed and even-tempered as he always did.
Mack pressed his lips together. His friends were right. There wasn’t much chance of Angela actually falling for him. And Mav didn’t say she had to, just said he had to try to get her to. It wouldn’t hurt anything if she didn’t really like him.
Still, the idea didn’t sit well.
“It’s the principle of the thing,” he finally said.
“What? That you don’t want to be unkind to a woman, even if she does have the reputation of a conniving witch?” Mav asked, somewhat sarcastically, as he clasped his hands and let them hang over the top rail of the fence.
“I try to avoid unkindness in general, no matter what someone’s reputation is. People can change.”
“Agreed,” Boone said.
“That’s true,” Mav said. “But I don’t think Angela has changed.”
“Why do you have such a big vendetta against her anyway?” Mack asked. “Those two are the ones who dealt with her,” he added, nodding at Boone and Clay.
“I’m sticking up for my brothers.” Mav turned his head to Clay. “I told Mack I’d go partners with him in buying the harvest business if he agreed about Angela.”
Clay nodded, seeming thoughtful. “You and Mack would work well together. You’re not afraid to take a risk while Mack’s good with numbers.” He gave a last, big nod. “Yeah. That would work.”
“Only it’s not going to because I’m not taking the bet about Angela.”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing her getting a little of her own medicine, but I don’t want to be the one to give it to her.” Boone looked over at the kids, a little smile on his face.
“That’s kinda how I feel.” Mack followed his gaze, grinning as Spencer fell off the biggest nanny goat. None of the kids were attempting
to ride the billy. Even kids didn’t want to stink that bad.
Mack waited for Clay to agree. He always had a level head on his shoulders, and Mack respected his opinion.
But he didn’t say anything.
Mav said, “I have half the money I need in the bank, and I could put my property up for the rest, giving us clear titles.”
“Are you really going to make that contingent on Mack taking your bet with Angela?” Boone asked, his brows drawn like he couldn’t really believe it.
“Sure. There are other opportunities that will come along, but Mack’s the only one that might be able to get a little revenge on Angela.” Mav shrugged.
Mack knew he was serious. Mav had a weird sense of humor, but he was also pretty relaxed. It would be easy for him to walk away from a business deal.
Would it hurt for Mack to take him up on it?
“You haven’t said anything, Clay. I assumed you agreed with me.” Mack tried to read Clay’s face as he studied his gloves.
Clay didn’t answer for a full minute. He stood still, just staring at his hands, and Mack assumed he wasn’t going to answer.
Finally, Clay seemed to come to some kind of conclusion. “You know,” he said, his lips pressed together and his head nodding. “I think that might actually be a good idea.” He slapped his hand on the top rail before pulling his boot off the bottom and opening the gate to let Mack and Mav out. “I think you ought to take him up on it. Put an honest effort into it.”
“Might as well,” Boone agreed, although Mack was busy trying to figure out what Clay was actually saying, because he was almost sure, no matter how Clay actually felt about Angela, he wouldn’t wish harm on anyone.
Boone continued, “It’s not like she’s going to fall for you anyway, and it’d be a diversion for the rest of us to watch. Winter can get boring.”
Cowboys Don't Stand Under the Mistletoe (Sweet Water Ranch Western Cowboy Romance Book 10) Page 2
