And just like that, they were both cheerily dismissed.
Eight
They rode down in the elevator in silence.
They walked out of the hospital in silence.
Ford walked Callie to her car and blurted out, “How could you give her hope about decorating her house like that?” All of his frustration boiled to the surface, and he hated that she was the one to make that happen.
“That wasn’t what I did, Ford! We were sitting and talking about school, and then she asked about the cottage, which led to talking about the ranch. She asked if I had seen the work you were doing, and then she was the one to bring up what she would like to see done with the house! Believe me, I’m not so insensitive that I would bring up something that would upset her.”
And the thing was, he believed her. He raked a hand through his hair as he let out a breath. “I meant what I said up there. If what she wants is to move back home, I’ll get her the live-in help. I can’t stand the thought of her being forced out of her home by her own son.”
Callie reached for his hand, and that instantly soothed him. “I’m sorry that all of this is happening, and I’m sorry if I somehow added to everything that’s going on. That wasn’t my intention.”
He shook his head. “I know, and I’m sorry that I jumped on you like that.” He sighed and looked at her helplessly. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“Tell you what, let’s go home and have some dinner and we’ll talk about it. I’m an impartial party, so you can bounce ideas off of me and maybe together we can figure something out that’s best for everyone.”
It sounded reasonable, but he knew he was going to come off as some sort of villain here, because he’d been unwilling all this time to come home and take on the responsibilities that his grandfather had wanted him to. And it killed him to know how much he was disappointing him.
But, maybe talking to Callie would help. Although he kind of had a feeling that she was in the same league as his grandmother and had the potential to get him to do things he never thought he would.
Like consider moving back to Eagle’s Ridge.
“Ford?”
Oh, right. Dinner.
“That sounds good,” he said, and leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll see you back at the house.”
He watched her drive away before walking over to his truck. He was about to climb in when he spotted his uncle Vincent and aunt Laura walking toward him. As much as he wanted to get home to Callie, he knew he couldn’t be rude to his relatives.
“Ford!” Aunt Laura said as she walked toward him, carrying a plant. “How are you?” She kissed him on the cheek.
“I’m good, and you?” he asked, and then turned and shook his uncle’s hand.
“We’re fine, just fine. Did you see Margaret?” she asked.
Nodding, he replied, “I was just up there. Some of her friends from her senior group, I think, showed up so I decided to head out.”
“How’s work going on the house?” Uncle Vincent asked. “I hear you’re going to be doing some extensive renovations.”
No doubt his father had told them that. “Um…I’m doing some. We haven’t decided on how much. But basically, we repaired all of the damage from the tree falling and now I’m working on doing some upgrades on the interior—plumbing, electrical, flooring, that sort of thing.”
“The house certainly needed it,” Aunt Laura commented. “I don’t think your grandparents did any updates to the house in more than twenty years.”
Ford shrugged. “The house is very sturdy and it worked for them,” he said casually. “Of course, new owners wouldn’t find all of the outdated décor appealing, but we’re working on that.”
“I’m sure you’ll do a fine job. You’re incredibly gifted with building and carpentry, like your grandfather was, and I know it must mean a lot to Aunt Margaret that you’re here doing the work.”
“Thanks,” Ford murmured, a little embarrassed by the praise.
“Ryder mentioned how it was all a little more intensive than you’d originally thought. How long do you think it will take for you to finish?” his uncle asked.
“I think I’ll be done by the first of the year,” he said, forcing a smile. “After that, it will be cosmetic stuff that I’m sure my folks will want to do to stage the place to sell it.”
“Sell it?” Aunt Laura asked, looking mildly dismayed. “I didn’t realize that was the plan.”
The last thing Ford wanted to do was talk about this right now. Not with Callie waiting for him. “Listen, um…I hate to be rude but…I’ve got dinner plans and…”
“Say no more,” Aunt Laura said with a smile. “It’s good to see that you’re going out and socializing, and we don’t want to hold you up.”
Out and socializing? Seriously?
She kissed him once more on the cheek and then his uncle shook his hand and they wished him a good night. Rather than stand there and analyze the comment, Ford got in his truck and made his way back to the ranch.
On the drive, he considered taking Callie’s suggestion and talking about options for his grandmother, but he kind of felt like it wasn’t something he wanted to do. Not tonight. He made a mental note to call Ryder tomorrow and see if they could get together. His cousin was levelheaded like he was, and Ford had a feeling that if they put their heads together and talked things out, he’d come up either with a solution that would please everyone—or at least come to grips with disappointing everyone.
Because seriously, those were his two options at this point. It was an all-or-nothing kind of situation. At least from his point of view.
No, talking to Ryder was the way to go right now. Callie was a little too emotionally close with his grandmother, and as much as she claimed to be an impartial party, he knew she had a soft spot for his grandmother and the property, so…his cousin was the right choice.
The remainder of the drive was spent thinking about all the ways he was going to seduce Callie after they ate…remembering their original agreement of him being able to have whatever he wanted for dessert.
Her.
He wanted her for dessert.
He grinned all the way home, and by the time he climbed out of the truck and was walking toward the cottage, he was pretty confident that this was going to be another amazing night.
* * *
And it had been.
Now, as he sat in a booth at No Man’s Land waiting for Ryder, Ford knew he was grinning like a fool just thinking about it.
“It’s barely noon. Please tell me you haven’t been drinking already,” Ryder said as he slid into the opposite side of the booth.
Ford chuckled softly and shook his head. “Nope. No drinking here. Why?”
“That goofy grin on your face. Normally you’re all sullen and moody when you’re out in public. The fact that you’re smiling leads me to believe you’re drunk.”
“Very funny,” Ford murmured.
They took a few minutes making small talk about the progress on the house and Ryder sharing news about what was going on over at the airport before they ordered their food. “I swear, coming into this place is a bit like stepping into a time warp, but there’s something comforting in that,” Ford admitted. “Although I was surprised you asked for us to meet here rather than at Bailey’s.”
“The Blue Moon certainly is a lot nicer and is officially my favorite place to eat now…”
“But…?”
“Well…there’s a reason why I opted for us to meet here instead,” Ryder said, and then he had a grin on his face. “But first let’s talk about you. You sounded a little off when you called. What’s going on?”
“Everyone wants me to take over Garrison’s,” he said flatly.
“Um…yeah. I know. Everyone knows this, Ford. It’s hardly new information.”
He rolled his eyes. “No, it’s…it’s more than that. Technically, I already own Garrison’s.”
Ryder stared at him blankly.
“When my grandfather died, he left it to me, but with certain…provisions…so I wouldn’t have to take it over right away.”
“So you mean…you’ve been an absentee owner all this time? How is that possible?”
Ford shrugged. “There was some sort of stipulation in his will, and my father has been overseeing things along with some lawyers, and on top of that, there’s an account in place and they’ve been depositing money into a trust for me.” He sat back and sighed loudly. “Now what am I supposed to do?”
Ryder studied him for a minute and then leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Why are you fighting this so hard?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…all of it. You love construction. You loved working with your grandfather. You now, apparently, own a construction company. This is all a no-brainer, Ford. Why would you go back to work for someone else when you own a company?”
Good question.
“It’s not as easy as that, Ryder, and you know it. This isn’t just about taking over the company—”
“Okay, fine. Let’s look at all the things this is about then,” Ryder said with a bit of annoyance. “But I have to tell you, this is all starting to get a little old.”
“Hey!” Ford snapped.
“Look, you’re my cousin and I love you, but…” He huffed with frustration. “You’re kind of coming off like a bit of a jackass right now.”
Ford almost choked at hearing that. “A jackass? Seriously? Where the hell is that coming from?”
“For all of your talking about not wanting to live here in Eagle’s Ridge, you come back quite often. Doesn’t that get old? And expensive? You live on the other side of the country and I’ve seen you come back to visit almost at every opportunity. If you don’t want to be here, then don’t be here!”
“For starters, I don’t come home at every opportunity. I pick and choose when I can and when it’s something that I want to do.”
“You came home to build stairs for Adam, Ford,” Ryder stated. “Stairs. And you were in and out in forty-eight hours. You’re telling me you were so excited to build some steps that you felt the need to fly across country?”
“I was helping a friend,” he argued.
“My grandfather’s birthday,” Ryder threw out there.
“Respect for a great man.”
“Halloween?”
Okay, his cousin had him there and all Ford could do was grin. “Better candy?”
Ryder relaxed back against his seat. “Fine. Let’s move on. You’ve been back here for over three weeks. That’s a record for you. And I have to say, this is the first time I haven’t seen you chomping at the bit to go back to Virginia. Is this all because of your grandmother?”
“She’s part of it. The house is keeping me busy, and now with all of the extra work…”
“What extra work?”
Ford explained about the plan his parents had for his grandmother and the ranch.
“Oh, man. Are you serious? That’s…wow. That’s a lot.”
Nodding, he replied, “Exactly. So the repairs from the tree going down are all done. Now I’m pretty much doing an entire remodel on the interior to get it ready for them to sell.”
“That’s got to be more than a little hard on you too.”
“It is.”
“I always thought…” Ryder paused and waved him off. “Never mind.”
“No, come on. What were you gonna say?”
Ryder looked directly at him. “I always thought you’d live in that house when your grandparents were gone.”
“Seriously?”
“I did.”
“Why?”
With a shrug, Ryder reached out and moved his place setting around a bit. “That house is as much a part of you as it is your grandparents. You’ve worked on that house with your grandfather since you were a kid and…I don’t know…I just always envisioned you living there.”
“Yeah, well, I hate to think of anyone living there that isn’t Grams. I offered to get her a live-in nurse or something if she really wanted to stay in the house instead of letting my parents bully her into a nursing home.”
“I know she’s got to be hating the idea of that. The nursing home.”
“She is, but…she didn’t answer me about my offer either.”
“When did you talk to her about it?”
Ford hesitated and realized how ridiculous he was being. “Last night.”
“Dude, seriously? Don’t you think she’s dealing with enough right now? You can’t possibly think she’s going to give you a quick answer. Damn, I don’t think she can give a quick answer. She might not even remember the question.”
“Hey!”
But Ryder grinned at him. “Ford, come on. You know what I’m saying. Let her deal with one thing at a time.”
“But that’s just it—if I wait too long, then my folks will have her moving into a facility and the ranch will be up for sale.”
Their waitress, Mandy, came and put their drinks down and walked away. “Okay, so you’ve got the house to do and it’s keeping you busy but…I don’t know. You still seem a lot more at peace than you normally are.”
He looked around to make sure no one was really close enough to hear their conversation. “Yeah, well…I’m kind of seeing someone.”
“You mean Callie?” Ryder deadpanned. “Because we all know that already too. Old news.”
“What? How? Who said anything?” he demanded, and immediately began scanning the restaurant to see who might have ratted them out.
Ryder laughed hard for a moment and then took a sip of his drink. “Wow. Paranoid much?”
“This,” Ford said firmly. “This is why I don’t want to be here. There’s no privacy! Callie and I haven’t even been anyplace together and people are talking about us.”
With another small chuckle, Ryder leaned a little closer. “You’re forgetting that I saw you the day the guys and I all came out to the house.”
“Nothing was going on then,” Ford argued. “I had just gotten into town.”
“It didn’t matter. It was obvious that you were into her, and she was totally into you too.”
“You’re crazy. Stuff like that doesn’t happen so fast. I barely noticed her.”
Liar. Liar. Liar.
Before Ryder could comment, Mandy was back with their orders. When she walked away, they both inspected their food, since Mandy was notorious for getting things wrong, but surprisingly, everything was just as they’d ordered.
“Small miracles,” Ryder murmured before picking up his burger and taking a bite. After a minute, he looked over at Ford. “I feel like we’re chasing some of these topics around in circles and for whatever reason, you’re not ready to truly deal with them.” He paused. “Any of them. All of them.”
Ford took a bite of his BLT and looked at his cousin. “Fine. I don’t enjoy being under the microscope—around town or in a one-on-one conversation. Sue me.”
“I’ll take pity on you this time only because I have something that I wanted to talk about.”
He almost sagged with relief. “What’s going on? Things okay with you and Bailey?”
Ryder took another bite of his burger and put it down. “So…I’m going to propose to Bailey,” he said after a minute. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box.
“Ry, this is…I mean…this is kind of fast, isn’t it?”
But Ryder shook his head. “When you know it’s right, the timeline doesn’t matter. All I know is that Bailey is the woman for me, and I’m excited about planning our future.” He opened the box and showed Ford the ring. “It was my grandmother’s,” he said solemnly. “When I told my grandfather about my intentions with Bailey, well…it seemed fitting that she should wear this ring.”
“Do you have it all worked out, where and when you’re going to propose?”
Nodding,
Ryder said, “I’m thinking for Christmas. I know it’s not terribly original, but Bailey’s been working so hard with her restaurant – The Blue Moon - and I feel like the holiday will be the first time she’ll have a couple of days off. I want that time with her to just celebrate and plan and not have work interfering.”
“This is huge, Ry!” Ford said with a grin. “And I’m so freaking happy for you!”
“It seemed like the perfect time. The thought of starting a new year with the woman I love and planning our wedding just feels right.”
Ford nodded and they ate in companionable silence for a few minutes and before he knew it, he was saying things he had no intention of saying.
“The thought of leaving Callie after New Year’s is bothering me.”
Yeah. That was brand-new information.
Even to him.
“Okay…”
“Right now, none of this is…real. We’re in a weird situation where we’re living next door to each other and we’re out on the ranch and we’re kind of in our own little world. Eventually, that’s all going to end. The house is going to get finished and I’m going to have to go back to Virginia.”
“Not necessarily,” Ryder reminded him. “After all, you are a business owner now.”
Ford glared at him. “Not funny.”
“Wasn’t trying to be.”
He sighed with a bit of frustration. “All I’m saying is that I wouldn’t mind coming back a little more often for Callie.”
Ryder choked on his burger, and then quickly took a drink. When he finally stopped coughing, he looked at his cousin. “You have got to be the dumbest man I’ve ever met.”
“Why? What did I say?”
“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe Callie doesn’t want a long-distance relationship, or that she might find it offensive that you’re even thinking of one?”
“Callie knows I’m not staying, Ry. We’ve talked about it.”
“Have you talked about it since you started seeing her?”
“Um…”
Ryder’s phone beeped with an incoming text and when he looked at the screen, he muttered a curse.
“Everything okay?”
Ford: 7 Brides for 7 Soldiers Page 12
