by Merry Farmer
“If she’s getting her PhD this summer and Howie wants her for our team, shouldn’t we already have gotten her to sign on the dotted line?” Laura asked.
“Howie has been courting her for a year,” Will told her. “She’s trying to decide between us and NASA.”
“You’re kidding.” Dennis blew out a breath. “I guess that means we’re in the big leagues now.”
“We are,” Will said. “And wooing Miss Jones is going to be one of our top priorities this spring. Howie is even thinking of sending one of us to Atlanta to seal the deal.”
The entire conversation was buzzing in the background of Scott’s thoughts. What he really needed was a way to reach out to Casey, to see if he could seal the deal with her. Or at least find out what the deal was. He frowned and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He still wasn’t sure what had set Casey off, no matter how many times he replayed their argument in his mind. Her upset over the sale of part of her family’s ranch was nothing new, but he couldn’t seem to convince her that he had honorable intentions toward the land. Continuing to make plans and think positive in spite of the city council’s threats didn’t seem like something to get upset about either. He was still convinced that the whole thing was some sort of Bonneville ploy, and there was no love lost between Casey and the Bonnevilles.
“What do you think, boss?”
Dennis’s question caught him off-guard. With an embarrassed flush, Scott sat straighter and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, I drifted off there. What are you asking?”
His team, Linus, and the two representatives from other teams, Hayden and Natalie, stared at him from around the table. Will still stood by the screen where his presentation was projected, his arms crossed.
“Uh, Dennis was just asking whether he could be the one to make the trip to Atlanta to convince this Miss Jones to join our team,” Laura said, her lips twitching up in a grin as she did. “But it looks like whatever you were thinking is far more interesting.”
Scott squirmed in his seat, second-guessing Howie’s rule about treating team members as family instead of coworkers. There were times when he really didn’t need a sister butting in.
Then again, maybe Laura, or even Natalie, would have some insight into the Casey situation. Under any other circumstance, he would be a thousand percent against discussing relationships at a technical planning meeting, and he hated the idea even now, but he hated the idea of things with Casey continuing on in limbo even more. Still….
“It’s nothing,” he said. “I had a little argument with Casey is all. It’s on my mind.”
“Aww.” Laura gave him just the sort of sympathetic look he needed. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“Teach me how to interpret mixed signals?” Scott suggested.
“Does this have anything to do with your building plans?” Will asked.
Scott sent him a look that was half confirmation and half apology for letting his problems take over Will’s presentation. “Yeah,” he admitted with a sigh.
“Well, it’s obvious what’s going on,” Linus, of all people, said.
“Exactly.” Laura nodded. “She’s afraid that you’ll give all of your attention to building your house and that you’ll put her second.”
Scott blinked and tilted his head to the side as he considered it. He hadn’t even thought of that. If that was part of what was bothering Casey, he could easily fix it by getting her involved in the construction somehow.
“That’s not it.” Linus interrupted Scott’s swiftly-moving thoughts.
“How do you know?” Laura frowned at him.
“Because this is Casey Flint we’re talking about,” Linus replied to Laura, then looked up the table to Scott. “It is Casey Flint, right?”
“Yes,” Scott said.
Linus shrugged. “Then the answer to what’s bothering her is obvious.”
Scott wasn’t so sure he liked the idea of another guy knowing more about his girlfriend—if he could even call Casey that anymore—than he did, but he wanted answers. “How so?” he asked.
Linus leaned forward, resting his forearms on the conference table as if they were discussing a problem with their propulsion system instead of a girl. “If I had to guess, I’d probably say it’s two things. The Bonnevilles—” He held up one finger. “—and her mom.” He held up a second finger.
Scott suddenly felt as if he’d been hit by a brick. “Her mom,” he murmured, mostly to himself. He rubbed a hand over his face. “She told me right then and there that the other day was the anniversary of her mom’s death.”
“Yep,” Linus said. “I saw her, Ted, and their dad out at the cemetery that day, and they all looked rough.
Scott squeezed his eyes shut. “I asked her what was wrong, and she flat-out said she was sad about her mom.” Although that didn’t explain why she had flown into a rage a few minutes later. Then again, if her mood was already fragile due to grief, anything could have happened.
And here he’d spent the last few days frustrated and angry over everything she’d said and done wrong when he had been so boneheaded he couldn’t pick up on something she’d told him flat-out.
“Don’t discount the Bonnevilles’ place in this whole thing, though,” Linus went on. “They’re a shifty bunch. I heard about that presentation you gave the other day.”
Scott adjusted his glasses then let his hand fall from his face. He stared down the table at Linus. “What did you hear about it?”
“That Ronny and Mayor Rich lit up like kids at Christmas when people started questioning some of the things you were saying about the house.”
Scott shrugged. “Why would anything I had to say or any questions people raised get them so excited?”
Everyone else around the table looked just as confused as Scott felt. Only Linus looked as though they were all missing the gorilla in the room. Then again, he was the only lifelong Haskellian present.
“Okay, this is top secret town information, and you can’t let any of it out of this room,” Linus went on. All eyes immediately snapped to him. Even Will sat down, giving up his presentation for the moment. “My Aunt Patty works in Richard Bonneville’s office. She does a lot of bookkeeping for the town, but Bonneville gets her to do personal work for him now and then. Leaving aside the fact that there’s a huge ethical dilemma in using a public employee to do your personal work, Aunt Patty has mentioned more than once that Bonneville is interested in buying up land.”
A sharp, itching sensation spread down Scott’s back. From day one, Casey had been beside herself about the sale of part of her ranch. This whole time he’d been assuming she was overreacting for some reason he couldn’t fathom, but could she have a real concern about her family losing the whole thing?
As if Linus could read his mind, he went on with, “There’s over a hundred years of bad blood between the Bonnevilles and some of the old families in town, and if you ask me, nothing would give Richard Bonneville more pleasure than manipulating things so that some of the old families would be forced to sell to him. And the Flints are one of the more vulnerable ranch families around here.”
Silence followed.
“Those sons of bitches,” Dennis muttered.
“Yeah, welcome to Haskell,” Linus said with a wry laugh.
“So, Casey is still mourning her mom and she has to worry about a bunch of jerks about to attempt a hostile takeover of her ranch?” Laura asked. She shook her head, then looked up the table to Scott. “Good luck with that.”
Good luck was exactly what Scott needed. He blew out a breath and rubbed a hand over his face again. “Okay, we really can’t take company time to discuss my love life or town drama.” He nodded to Will, who stood to resume his presentation, and straightened in his chair. “But I appreciate all of your input in this, and if you have any ideas of how I can make things right with Casey—”
“Chocolate,” Natalie spoke up from the end of the table. “And wine.”
“Talk to her,”
Hero added. Scott was glad the one married man on his team was finally speaking up. “Or rather, let her talk to you. When Denise gets upset about things, she always feels better if we just sit on the couch and I let her talk until she’s said everything she needs to say.”
“Thanks.” Scott nodded at him. “I think I’ll take that advice. But for now, Will? How about those plasma-based engines?”
His team and the others at the meeting laughed, and the tension of his situation was broken, their energy redirected. Will picked up from where he’d left off, discussing the basics of the ideas that were in Miss Angelica Jones’s paper and why Howie wanted her on their team.
Scott still found it hard to focus on work, though. Linus had given him too much to chew on. Casey was hurting because of her mom, and he’d totally missed it. Worse still, she might just be totally within the realms of good sense to be worried about her ranch. As soon as he could, he’d have to get to the bottom of things.
Chapter Thirteen
If only it were as easy to bring a plan to fruition as it was to come up with one.
Scott spent the next several days wracking his brain to come up with the most romantic way he could to let Casey know that he understood at least part of what she was going through and wanted to support her. But the crisis between them came in the middle of a tricky time at work. The best he could do at first was a phone call.
“Hey,” he said, brimming with hope, as soon as Casey picked up.
“Hey,” she echoed. The tension in her voice was palpable.
“How are you feeling?” Scott asked. He was making the call from the couch of his room at the Cattleman Hotel, but his neck and shoulders were as tense as if he were standing on her doorstep, waiting to see if she would let him in.
“I’m okay,” came Casey’s stilted reply.
“Are you sure? You sound a little down still.”
She paused. “I’m just tired. There’s been a lot of extra work on the ranch these last few days. Looks like a virus of some sort is going around the herd.”
“Ugh. That sounds like a handful to deal with.” He took off his glasses with one hand and rubbed his eyes.
“Yeah, we had to call Doc O’Donnell from Culpepper to come over and help administer antibiotics. And now that we’ve given those to some of the herd, we might not be able to sell them as soon as we’d hoped. The antibiotics have to completely clear from their system and then some before they can be used as beef,” she explained.
“Interesting,” Scott said, cringing as he did. This was not what he wanted to talk about with her. But there didn’t seem to be any smooth way to steer their conversation around to the two of them without sounding like he was putting her on the spot. “Do cattle get viruses often?” he asked instead, hoping he didn’t sound stupid.
“Depends,” Casey said, then was silent.
Scott could hear her breathing on the other end of the line. He could practically feel the tension around her. If she was there with him, he would give her a back massage to get her to loosen up. Or maybe he’d take her straight to the bedroom and make her feel better that way. Relationships were a piece of cake to navigate in good times compared to the stiffness and pain of bad times, but he wasn’t going to give up.
“I’m sorry I didn’t pick up on what you were saying about it being the anniversary of your mom’s death,” he blurted, then immediately winced, knowing it had come out all wrong.
“That’s okay,” Casey answered in a small voice. “You didn’t know.”
“You told me,” he said. “I asked you what was wrong and you told me, and for whatever reason it didn’t hit home.”
“Probably because I was a jerk and attacked you two minutes later,” she said.
A ghost of a smile flickered on his lips. “Now I understand why.”
“Why?” she echoed, gloomy and quiet.
“Because it was an important, sad event, and you had a lot to deal with.”
She took a long time to say, “Sometimes I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
Scott clenched his jaw. It was torture to be talking to her on the phone, where he couldn’t hold her or kiss things better. Maybe they were just dating, but he’d made a promise to her in his heart to be there for her and protect her, and at that moment, it felt like he was letting her down.
“Why don’t I come over there and we can talk about this face to face? Or I’ll pick you up and we can talk about it here.”
“No.” She answered so fast that the bottom fell out of Scott’s stomach. “I mean, I’m really tired from everything around here today.”
“Are you sure?” He couldn’t help but think that being tired from work was just an excuse. Then again, her job on the ranch was a lot more physical than his sitting in an office, no matter how busy things at PSF were.
“We could do something later, maybe,” she went on, giving him hope.
“Yeah.” He smiled and leaned back against the couch. “I mean, the real Valentine’s Day is coming up on Tuesday, after all.”
She blew out a soft laugh. “I’m surprised you would still want to take me to a tractor pull, let alone a Valentine’s Day date.”
Scott’s brow flew up. “Are you kidding? One little blip on the radar is not going to chase me away.”
“It’s…not?” There was so much hesitation in her voice that Scott’s gut ached with regret for everything she was going through.
“No,” he answered gently. “You’re too wonderful for me to walk away over one fight.”
She was quiet for a long, long time, but this time Scott felt a different emotion flooding through the phone. “Thanks,” she said at last, more choked up than he wanted her to be.
“No problem,” he said. “And Casey, I know that you’ve got a lot on your plate right now, but I want you to know that you can bring it to me if you need to. Your mom, the ranch, heck, even your rodeo stuff.”
“I….” Another silence followed. “Thanks.”
She sounded so fragile that he decided drastic measures were in order. “So maybe you can tell me something,” he said, shifting gears.
“What?”
He frowned and rubbed a hand over his face. “We were in a meeting the other day, and Linus Pettigrew mentioned something about the Bonnevilles buying up land.”
She sighed, only this time the sound was not weak and emotional, but aggravated and impersonal. “That’s the rumor.”
“Linus seems to think it’s more than a rumor.” Scott sat forward, relaxing as things got down to business. “He says his Aunt Patty works in Richard Bonneville’s office, and that he’s asked her to do some work that gave her access to information about land sales.”
“Hmm.” The analytical turn in Casey’s tone was a good sign that she was feeling better. “That would make sense. The rumors have been really unspecific, but at the same time, someone has been buying up properties around the outskirts of town.”
“Are any of them the heritage ranches you’re always talking about?”
She hesitated. He could practically hear the suspicion in her voice. Those ranches—hers specifically—were the bulk of what was standing between the two of them. “One or two, yes. There’ve been other property transactions too.”
“Then the Bonnevilles are definitely up to something.” They’d talked about it briefly before, but those worries had been forgotten as things between them heated up.
She huffed a wry laugh. “The Bonnevilles are always up to something.”
“I’m beginning to see that,” he said. He paused, rubbed the back of his neck, then said, “I’m also beginning to see that maybe you aren’t overreacting to me buying part of your family’s ranch too.”
“Scott,” she began, anxious and wary.
“No, it’s okay,” he went on. “I totally get it now. You’re not being unreasonable.”
She hummed as though she might just disagree with him.
“You do have genuine concerns,” he went on. “But I’
m going to do what I can to alleviate those concerns.”
“How?” He could practically hear her frown through the phone.
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I mean, other than to keep you in the loop through every step of the house construction process.”
“If you even can construct it,” she added, and Scott couldn’t tell if she was happy about that or disappointed.
“I’m choosing to stay positive,” he said. “The city council meeting is on Wednesday. They might not decide to pass any new laws. And even if they do, that just defines whatever we need to do next.”
“We?” she asked, breathless with uncertainty. “Is…is there still a we?”
“Of course there is,” he said, hoping she could hear the smile in his voice. “That’s what I’ve been saying this whole time. Even if we don’t agree on everything, even if we’ve got things to work through, I still want there to be an ‘us’ if you do.”
“I do,” she answered quickly.
“It’s a deal, then.” He grinned. “So why don’t we seal it with that Valentine’s Day date?”
He’d hoped for an immediate yes, but there was a pregnant pause before she said, “Okay. But Scott?”
“Yes, Casey?”
She took a breath then said, “Let’s take things a little bit slower. At least until I…I sort out a few personal things.”
Scott’s knee-jerk reaction was disappointment. He was certain he could make Casey feel significantly better if he had her in his bed. But once the initial anticlimax, as it were, of no sex passed, a deeper determination to give her whatever she needed to get to the place she wanted to be emotionally filled him.
“Whatever you need,” he said. “You’re worth waiting for.”
Casey wasn’t sure if she was elated or more miserable than ever when she hung up the phone. Scott was way too good for her. And at the same time, that wretched, stubborn part of her couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a betrayal of some sort to be dating him. The fact that she was still dating him blew her mind. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t kicked her to the curb for her outburst and for all the time she’d let pass since. She would have kicked herself to the curb for sure.
