None of the above. They were breaking each other’s hearts, a truth he felt with each painful beat of his pulse. He cleared his throat and met Briscoe’s hard gaze. “With all due respect, sir, that’s between me and Carina. She’ll tell you what she wants you to know.”
He snatched up his pen again and tapped it restlessly against a leather-bound ledger. “She doesn’t talk to me, especially not now. This sham marriage you two agreed to turned her ornery and standoffish. I’ve never seen her like it before. And I don’t know what to do.”
She talks to me. Why in the world had he been so willing to give that up? To send her out to California alone? Why had he kept pretending that being a ranch foreman was still his dream when the only dream he had for his future now was being with the woman he loved? How had he let himself get so close to losing everything?
“Sir,” he croaked. “I have to go.”
But Briscoe didn’t seem to hear him. “Never met a more private person in my life, to where you can’t barely get a read on her. Do you have any idea what it’s like raising a child like that? Where you can’t figure out what to do with them or what to say to them? I know she loves to work and she loves this ranch. That’s our language, me and her. That’s what the two of us had. I want that back.”
Decker had seen Ty Briscoe’s eyes well with love before, including when he’d walked Haylie down the aisle, and heard him talk with fatherly concern, but only about Haylie. Everything was always about Haylie. This was the first time Decker had seen a glimpse of that same caring toward Carina and it threw him off. Maybe the old man really did care about losing his daughter after all, and not just an employee.
“You should tell her that.”
With a grunt that seemed to mean he didn’t buy in to Decker’s advice, Ty stopped tapping the pen and gripped it so hard it looked like he was trying to strangle the ink out of it. “Since you’re not giving me the straight story on whether Carina’s going with you, you’ve put me in a position, Decker. Because either way, I’ve got a raw deal. Either I’m disloyal to Carina by vouching to Murray for the man who’s planning to break her heart, or I’m vouching for the man who’s planning to take her away from me. What’s a father to do?”
Decker gaped at him, feeling like he was seeing the man for the first time. Spending the rest of his life devoted to Carina meant he’d be a part of the Briscoe family. He’d have Ty Briscoe as his father-in-law, and it was only a few short months ago that Decker had pitied Wendell for that fate.
“Son, I can see your wheels turning, so spit it out. What say you?”
It took a couple tries for Decker to kick his voice in gear. “Did you talk to the county clerk yet about destroying the forged marriage license?”
Ty’s eyes narrowed. “No. He’s on vacation until after the first of the year. Why?”
For the first time, hope bloomed inside Decker. He leapt to his feet. “I have to leave. Right now.”
“And go where?”
He paused at the door. “Fort Worth.”
Ty’s shouted questions and demands for Decker to “get on back in here” followed him out the office door and down the hall, but Decker was a man on a mission and nothing or no one was getting in his way of reclaiming the life and the woman he’d almost lost.
Chapter Eleven
Carina was marching toward her dad’s office, preparing to quit her job, when she saw Decker at Ty’s door. She’d considered joining Decker there, letting him bear witness to her standing up to her father and quitting, but he launched right into telling her dad about his own plans to quit.
She sank to a chair at an empty desk, wallowing in heartache as she listened to Decker outline his plans for his future. He was more than ready for change, to see his and his father’s dream through to fruition. She was so proud of him and all he’d accomplished, but that didn’t make his choice—or her choice—any easier to bear. And it didn’t make it any easier to hear that he was counting on her father to vouch for him.
A small, insecure part of her wondered if getting in good with her father was why Decker had agreed to the marriage deal in the first place, but she shoved that idea out of her mind immediately. Even if that had been his initial motivation, she knew all the way down to her bones that he cared about her now. Heck, as she heard her father point out to Decker, he had threatened her father with bodily harm in defense of her just a few short days ago.
The memory touched a place inside her, overwhelming her with love for Decker and sadness for their future. Propping her elbows on the desk, she dropped her head to her hands, listening to Decker and her father’s conversation and trying not to break down any further.
“Hey, uh, are you okay?”
She looked up see Cord McGraw standing over her, his eyes shifting anxiously between her and her dad’s office. She wasn’t keen on acting emotional and unprofessional in front of employees, but seeing as how she was about to quit her job, she found it difficult to care about her boss-like appearance anymore.
She smiled at him through watery eyes. “I will be soon. Thank you for asking.”
“ ’Cause, I mean, I don’t want Decker to come out here and think someone made you sad or something. Maybe I can get you some water or some tissues?”
He said it as though he was afraid that Decker would blame him, of all people, should Carina be upset, which didn’t make the least bit of sense. “That’s not necessary, but thanks anyway.”
“Okay, but, uh, will you let him know that I offered? I mean, let him know that I’m looking out for you like he told me to?” He squeezed his eyes closed. “Crap. I wasn’t supposed to mention that to you.”
Decker told Cord McGraw to look out for her? Why on earth would he do that? Then it all came back to her, the rumors that Emily’s sous chef had told them about Decker making threats to Cord in defense of her honor. Maybe the rumors weren’t so outlandish after all.
Carina stood and flipped the switch into manager mode. “My husband told me everything,” she said in her most authoritative voice.
Cord wrung his hands together, looking distraught. For one brief moment, she felt a little sorry for the guy; Decker must have done quite a number on him. She thought again of Alex’s words, that everyone needed someone looking after them. Decker had become that person to her, but the question now was—who was going to look after him when she moved to California?
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Decker, ma’am. I never meant no harm.”
She channeled the hard-ass Briscoe blood she was born with and leaned across the desk. “Tell me exactly what you’re sorry for.”
“For … for … starting that betting pool about whether Decker would get a raise and a promotion for marrying you or whether he’d eventually quit his job to get out of the marriage. It was stupid of me to ever conceive that maybe Mr. Briscoe bribed Decker to marry you.” Cord hung his head. “I ended the pool and returned all the money that very day. Anyone can see how happy you two are together. It just took us all by surprise and I reacted like an idiot.”
That was it? A betting pool? That was nothing, yet she could see Decker in her imagination, issuing threats to Cord much like he had to her father. “Yes, you did.”
“Can you find it in your heart to forgive me, Mrs. Decker?”
“I do forgive you, Cord. You’ve been a gentlemen ever since and I thank you for that.”
Nodding his gratitude, he started back toward the lobby.
“Cord? One last thing. Out of curiosity, who would have won the pool if I quit my job?”
“Well, no one, ma’am. Everyone knows you’d never quit this place.”
Then everybody was in for the surprise of their lives. She watched him go, a brand-new set of plans taking shape in her mind.
There was a time when Carina would have lain down and let everyone walk all over her. But standing there listening to Decker make plans to leave her life for good, she couldn’t ignore the truth that in letting him go, in choosing to take the job in Califor
nia, she was making the biggest mistake of her life in letting her career take priority over the man she loved.
She’d vowed to never again bend to the will of others at the forfeit of her own wants and needs, but somewhere along the line in the past month those wants and needs had shifted. Following her career, pretending that was still the most important dream of her life, wasn’t going to get her anywhere but alone, nursing a broken heart.
She tuned back in to Decker and her father’s conversation as Decker asked if the marriage license had been destroyed. Her pain and grief briefly surfaced at that, even though he had a right to ask and they’d agreed that was the best course of action to dissolve their marriage.
Good thing the county clerk was on vacation still, because that license was key for the plans Carina was busy reinventing. But what wasn’t in the plan was Decker walking out of her dad’s office and catching her listening. As soon as he declared he was rushing off to Fort Worth, she scrambled out from behind the desk and ducked into the copy room.
She gave him a few minutes to clear the building, then made a beeline for her dad’s office, not bothering to request an audience with him before plopping into her usual chair across the desk from him.
He didn’t seem surprised to see her at all, but tired and distracted. Rather than working at a feverish pace, as he usually was when she stopped by, she’d caught him staring out the window. “I take it Decker told you to come talk to me?”
“No. I’m here on my own.”
He screwed up his mouth like he was fixing to say something important. Carina gave him time. But all he said was, “Is everything ready for the Mistletoe Ball tonight?”
She should have figured as much. “For the most part. Two of the ovens in the catering kitchen wouldn’t heat, but we commandeered part of the dining room’s kitchen, so that shouldn’t affect the start time on hors d’oeuvres service. The doves haven’t been delivered yet, but that company has been known to run late and the roads are icy. I’m confident they’ll arrive in time. We’ve been in touch by phone.”
Her dad steepled his hands together. “All the appliances in the catering kitchen will need to be replaced before too long.”
“I know. I’ve been setting money aside in the budget so we could spring for a full kitchen overhaul next year.”
“That’s why you’re the best at what you do.” He grabbed his pen and leaned back in his chair. “Which means you probably already know that if the dove company is late, don’t pay them in full. It’ll only encourage bad behavior.”
“Yes, sir.” There was a warped comfort in talking business. It was so easy between them. But that wasn’t why she was there. After a fortifying breath, she screwed up her courage enough to start. “Daddy …”
He let his pen fall from his fingers, then folded his hands across his chest. “Are you quitting, too?”
She drew a breath in preparation to say what had been unthinkable up until a few days earlier. “Yes.”
His stony expression didn’t give anything away. “You’re following Decker to Fort Worth?”
Her gaze shifted past her dad to the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the south end of the property, at the stables and Decker’s house in the distance, the golf course to the west and acres and acres of wildness beyond it all. She loved this land and she loved this resort—but not as much as she loved Decker.
“Yes.”
Her father sprung from his chair and put his back to her, walking to the windows, his hands in his pockets. “What will you do there? You don’t have the temperament to be a housewife.”
“I’m going to open a seamstress business so I can design wedding dresses full-time.”
He huffed at that. He never did take her passion for dress design seriously. “Not event planning?”
“That was never my dream.”
He turned and pinned her with a searching gaze. “Do you love him?”
With her whole heart, in a way that left her breathless and dizzy and dreaming of forever. She stood, ready to declare it loud and proud. “Yes, I do.”
His attention shifted back to the view from the windows. “It’s going to be damn near impossible to hire a new event planner for the salary I got away with paying you.”
Her heart squeezed. She knew this was all he had to offer her, his way of dealing with anything close to resembling emotion, at least where she was concerned. It would have been easy to come back with a defensive comment about how he put her second to the business, about how he didn’t care about her as much as he cared about money, but she knew now, deep down, that wasn’t true. He did care about her, and this was the only way he could express it.
She blinked away tears as she walked around the desk. “I’ll miss you, too, Daddy.”
His chin dropped. “He’s a lucky man. I hope he realizes that. If he doesn’t, you come back here. There will always be a job for you at the resort.”
She stood near her dad’s back, staring at the curve of his shoulder blades beneath his dress shirt. Why was it so difficult for them to connect? Why was it so hard to reach out and hug him? Even if he didn’t hug her back, she might feel better for having done it. But she couldn’t bring herself to spoil the tender words that still hung in the air.
She touched a hand to her heart, willing him to know how much she loved him, too, though the words wouldn’t come. “Thank you.”
∗∗∗
Granite Hill Ranch was a cowboy’s equivalent of Disneyland. As far as the eye could see, white fences, stables, and riding arenas set up for every kind of equestrian discipline imaginable stretched over the land.
While Decker waited for Outweller to finish up a phone conference, he stood at the doorway of an empty room adjacent to Murray Outweller’s office within the sprawling architectural marvel of an office building that sat at the center of his empire and looked out through the window, trying to keep from glancing at his watch too much. The trouble was, time was ticking and Decker had a lot to do if he hoped to make it back to the resort in time for the ball. Seeing as how his plans hinged on him being there, he sure hoped Outweller’s conference didn’t run too long.
After a few more long minutes, Decker heard boots stomping over the hardwood floor behind him.
“That’s going to be your office right there. Nice view, isn’t it?”
Murray Outweller walked out of his office, leading with his beer gut and wearing a tall, gray cowboy hat that reminded Decker of J.R.’s from that TV show Dallas.
It truly was an impressive view, one that looked out over a wide, green fenced-in pasture for mares and their foals. The office space itself was twice the size of Decker’s office at the resort, as well as twice as nice.
Outweller gestured to an empty desk out in front of the office. “The job comes with a secretary, too, just so you know.”
Decker remembered that from before.
The grounds, the office, the salary and opportunity to perhaps someday make this ranch his own—it was all a dream come true. Decker’s old dream, as it were. Can you see this where you are, Dad? This would have been one hell of a life.
But he knew now what his dad would have told him, if he could have answered. Nothing in this world was more important than the people you loved, not even the dreams you had for yourself.
“Mr. Outweller, that’s what I’m here to talk to you about.”
Decker was shown into an office much like Ty Briscoe’s, with leather and wood, and a huge picture window that looked out on Outweller’s empire.
“Please tell me that you’re officially accepting my offer.”
It was a good thing Outweller forwent the small talk, because Decker was on a time schedule if he hoped to get back to Briscoe Ranch in time for the ball.
“Sir, I appreciate your forthrightness, but the reason I’m here is to let you know that I can’t work for you. My apologies for that. Your offer was generous, and I wish you the best of luck finding a new foreman, but my wife is taking a job
in California and I’m following her there.”
“You sure about that, son?”
“One hundred percent.”
Chortling, Outweller walked to a bar at the side of the room and splashed bourbon into two rocks glasses. “Stood up because of a woman. Well, I guess I can understand that.” He handed one of the glasses to Decker, then held up his left hand and wiggled his massive gold wedding band. “It’s because of a woman that I’m looking to retire. The wife wants me around a bit more while we’re still young enough to enjoy ourselves.”
“Thank you for understanding, sir.”
“Since I already got you here, tell me a little bit about your woman while we drink to your big move.”
Decker barely resisted the urge to look at his watch and instead took a sip of the bourbon. “It’s Ty Briscoe’s daughter, Carina.”
Outweller spewed bourbon all over his desk, then dissolved into a fit that sounded more like laughing than coughing. The laughing went on and on, long after Outweller had mopped up the spill with a tissue.
“I’ll be a son of a bitch, I didn’t see that coming. Good luck, Decker. You’re going to need it with that family.”
At that moment, Outweller’s secretary ducked her head in. “Sir? Ty Briscoe’s on the line.”
That solicited another bark of a laugh from Outweller as he picked up his phone and punched the call through. “Speak of the devil. I hear congratulations are in order because your daughter got hitched.”
Amazing. Ty really had come through on vouching for Decker with Outweller. Maybe Ty Briscoe wasn’t such a bad guy after all.
In response to something Ty said, Outweller’s eyes flashed wide in shock. “All right, here he is.” He held the phone out to Decker. “Your father-in-law would like a word.”
Decker took the phone, having no idea what Ty would want to say to him. “Hello?”
“Decker, it’s Ty Briscoe. Carina was just in my office, quitting because she’s determined to follow you.”
The Mistletoe Effect Page 17
