by Jeannie Watt
“Well, if he’d put money into the ranch instead of get-rich-quick schemes...” Jolie let out a breath, apparently realizing that she was preaching to the choir. “Anyway, it may be a while until we can swing the indoor arena.”
Dani bit her lip as she studied her cup, then raised her eyes to meet her sister’s gaze. “There’s that other option.”
“Selling?”
“Yeah. I’ve spent some time online looking at what we could purchase outright with our share of the sale. We won’t have as much land, but we could get a nice place with enough land and it won’t be all run-down. We’d have our arena. People wouldn’t be afraid to let us keep their animals on the property...” Jolie frowned and Dani explained, “I heard via the grapevine that Marti has been using the condition of the property to warn off prospective clients.”
“That bitch.”
“She wouldn’t be able to do that if we had a newer, cleaner, shinier place.”
“Dani—”
“Sometimes a person has to go with logic rather than emotions. This would solve a lot of problems, Jo.”
She hated that her sister looked as if she was about to cry. Angry tears, mind you, not sad. Angry tears were always more dangerous when Jolie was involved. The café door swung open and Jolie’s eyes went wide.
“Speak of the devil,” she drawled, her gaze hardening. Dani turned, then groaned inwardly. Kyle and two other deputies were taking seats at a booth near the door. “If that jerk had just done as he’d promised, then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
The server breezed up just then and smiled at them. “Anything else, ladies?”
“Do you have a lengthy rubber hose?” Jolie asked. The server blinked as Dani kicked her sister under the table. “Never mind.”
The woman set the ticket on the edge of the table and moved off to her next station, a confused expression on her face.
“Let’s get out of here,” Dani said, gathering her purse. She set a twenty-dollar bill on the ticket and scooted out of the booth. Jolie got up, too, but instead of heading toward the nearest exit, she sauntered over to the door closest to the deputies. Dani debated, then gave in and followed her sister, who paused near the deputies’ table.
“Jolie. Dani.” Kyle greeted them with exaggerated politeness, a smug expression on his face, although for the life of her, Dani couldn’t think of one thing he had to be smug about. Scoring the armoire?
“Kyle,” Dani said trying to edge Jolie to the door, but her sister was having none of it.
“Long time,” Jolie said sweetly. “How’ve you been?”
“Can’t complain.”
“We can.”
“What about?” Kyle asked.
“The utter state of disrepair you left that ranch in. Seeing as Allie was the breadwinner for five whole years, that place should be looking a hell of a lot better than it is now. We had to pay a buttload of money to fix the fences you refused to maintain and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Red started creeping up Kyle’s neck, spreading from his collar to his cheekbones. Dani took hold of her sister’s arm, but Jolie wasn’t budging.
“That’s bull,” Kyle sputtered and Dani decided to take a swing of her own.
“Then why did all the standpipes you installed break around the same time? All I can think of is shoddy workmanship,” Dani spoke mildly before giving her sister a serious push toward the door.
Jolie gave in, nodded at the other smiling deputies, pushed the door open and exited, Dani close on her heels.
“I just couldn’t let him sit there all smug,” she said. “Allie would have wanted us to confront him.”
“I just hope no more standpipes break,” Dani muttered as she got into the car.
“Meaning?”
“Allie and I think he broke the standpipes because he was pissed at her.”
“What?”
“Yeah. And I just kind of had to let him know that I know.”
“That’s...” Jolie let out a breath and marched back to the café. Dani made no move to stop her. A few seconds later she got back into the truck and said, “Let’s go to the hardware store.”
“Why?”
“Because I told him we had cameras and if he set a foot on the place we’d know.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Therefore, we’d best get at least one camera.”
“You just announced that?”
Jolie simply shrugged.
Dani’s temples were throbbing as she put the keys in the ignition, but maybe this was the way to handle Kyle. Make sure he stayed the hell away. She drove straight to the hardware store.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
BUYING A CAMERA and installing a camera were two different things, but with Dani reading the instructions and Jolie manning the tools, they got the job done. Dani firmly believed that they’d just spent money that could have been used elsewhere, but Jolie had pointed out that they could write it off their taxes and it was a selling point when they kept other people’s horses.
“So would bringing those horses to a ranch in better repair. Like, say, a new ranch...”
Jolie leaned back against her car, studying the ground for a moment. “Let me think about it, all right?”
“No pressure.” Dani meant it.
“Mel and Allie would be in favor if they knew.”
“They would.”
“So even if I held out, the majority rules.”
“I won’t do that to you,” Dani said. “It’s all or nothing.”
Jolie smiled. “No pressure.”
Dani reached out to take her sister by the upper arm. “We all agreed to all or nothing. Even Allie.”
“I’ll give you a call later in the week.”
“No hurry.” Although Dani had a feeling that this offer wouldn’t last forever, she really wasn’t going to pressure Jolie. As it was, they had a lot of land that would only increase in value. It was just that they had so much to do to get it back into proper shape, and now that she’d been spending time with Gabe and wasn’t totally focused on the ranch, she found that she could probably be happy anywhere. All she needed was to feel at peace with herself and the world.
And that was the way Gabe made her feel.
* * *
GABE PACED TO the window and stared out across the field toward the Lightning Creek. So how much longer was Dani’s sister going to stay? If he went up to the loft, he could see her red pickup truck parked in front of the house and he seemed to be making the trip up the stairs several times a day.
He didn’t think Dani was in any way ashamed of him or their relationship—he thought that she didn’t want to answer pressing questions about a situation they were both figuring out. This was totally new territory for him, this feeling of wanting to protect and care for someone. He’d cared for women before, deeply, but he didn’t tell them all his secrets. It was almost as if he’d feared judgment. Yes, he’d feared judgment from Dani, too, but he’d risked it, because he knew deep down that if she didn’t know everything about him, they wouldn’t be able to have the type of relationship he wanted.
There was only one secret he was carrying now and it was eating at him, no matter how many times he talked himself down. Logically, his big crime was not telling Dani who his “friend” was before the papers were signed. He wasn’t lying. He wasn’t dealing under the table, but he still felt dishonest.
There was really only one solution. He was going to have to tell her the truth. The whole truth. Risk the word getting out to Jeffries. He owed Stewart, but he loved Dani.
He loved her.
The realization struck him hard.
He loved her, and that was why he had to tell the truth. All of it. They couldn’t move forward in an honest way until he did.
Gabe rubbed a hand over the tight muscles at the back of his neck, then let it drop loosely to his side.
Life had just gotten more complex.
Gabe spent the next hour trying to draft, but couldn’t focus. Finally h
e gave up and threw a hamburger on the grill. He wasn’t hungry, but he hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was now approaching dinnertime.
He’d just sat down with the burger and a glass of merlot when the sound of an engine caught his attention. It was just gnarly enough to be Dani’s truck and he was aware of the fact that his heart had started to thump just a little faster when he pulled the door open and saw Serena getting out of a ’56 Ford that was going to give Neal a hard-on.
“Surprise,” Serena said as Gabe started down the walk. “I was passing through Missoula and decided to detour south and see you. Neal can wait a couple more days for his surprise.”
“He’s going to love it,” Gabe said, running a hand over the shiny hood. He glanced over at her and she smiled as she brushed her silvery blond bangs out of her eyes.
“I hope so,” Serena said, focusing back on the car.
Gabe wanted to ask what was going on, but since he never asked those kind of questions, he didn’t. He just hoped that it worked out, since he liked both Serena and Neal very much. Or maybe because for once in his life he was feeling some contentment, he wanted everyone else to feel that way, too.
When in the hell had he gotten so sappy?
Easy answer there, but he wasn’t going to dwell on it.
“I just cooked. You want half my burger?”
Serena laughed. “I just ate. I know better than to show up at a bachelor pad hungry. But I wouldn’t mind a bed for the night.”
“There are quite a few empty bedrooms,” Gabe said with a smile. “You’ve arrived during the off season.”
“Will there be an on season?” Serena asked as she pulled her bag out of the backseat.
“It’s looking hopeful,” he said, reaching out to take the bag from her.
“And that’s it?” Serena asked after a brief pause. “No details?”
Gabe shook his head and gestured toward the walk. None that he wanted to share, although he was probably going to admit at some point that he and Dani were seeing each other. But not now. He didn’t want to share just yet—not when everything was still so new and...hopeful.
“Did you have trouble finding the place?” he asked as Serena stopped just inside the door and surveyed the interior with a critical eye.
“GPS,” she said absently. “Good bones,” she added, referring to the house.
“I like it here.”
“Even though it’s isolated?” she asked, obviously remembering one of their earlier conversations.
“I’ve found ways to spend my time.”
“Working your ass off?’ she asked, stepping over to his drafting table.
“No. I’ve actually slowed down, started doing other stuff.”
“Yeah?” she asked, turning and leaning back against the table. “Like what?”
“Well, I’m horseback riding.”
“Neal said you’d gone through with buying a horse.”
“And, really, it was for you...or at least that was the story when I began, but now I’m kind of thinking about keeping her.”
Serena gave a soft laugh. “And here I was looking forward to stabling a horse in a high-rent area. If you want to keep her, she’s all yours. The question is, where’s a guy like you going to keep a horse?”
“Here.”
“You won’t be involved with this project once it’s online.” She tilted her head as if trying to get a better look at him. “Will you?”
He shook his head. “Once the Brodys have made a decision, my work here is done. But that doesn’t mean I can’t visit.”
“Why do I have a feeling it’s more than the scenery bringing you back?”
Gabe shrugged. “No idea.”
Serena gave a tiny smirk, then pushed off the table. “I’d love a glass of wine.”
“You’re in luck. I have half a bottle left.”
Gabe and Serena talked for over an hour before she finally found her way to a guest bedroom. He kept the conversation focused on her—the so-called vacation, possible new projects, her ideas on the possibility of providing some decent competition for Timberline—despite her attempts to steer it back to him. She gave him a wry smile as she said good-night, along with a look that clearly said, “You aren’t fooling me. I know something is up.”
Gabe sat up for another half hour, sipping what was left of their second bottle of wine and staring across the room, debating about what he was going to do if Dani and her sisters sold, what he was going to do if they didn’t. Either way, he was going to come up with a way to keep close contact with Dani—at least until he had a clearer idea just what their relationship was going to be. He wasn’t ready for a huge commitment, but he was ready to cautiously trek along the outskirts of the territory.
Serena was up well before him the next morning. He looked through the packet she’d brought, signed a few papers, then helped her load her bag in the car.
“You want a tour before you go?” he asked, running his hand over the top of the car.
“Want to drive?”
He grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
For the next hour Gabe showed Serena the sights. She was familiar with the opposite side of the valley, where Timberline was located, having worked on the initial building project, so Gabe concentrated on what would be Widmeyer’s side of the valley, driving up the road to the closed ski lodge, where they had an excellent view of the valley below.
“Perfect for a golf course,” Serena murmured as she studied the fields of the Lightning Creek Ranch. “That house will have to go.”
“I’d like to move it, actually. It’s got some nice features.”
“You’ve been inside?”
“Dani and I are neighborly.”
Serena merely nodded, her gaze lost in the distance. “This really could shape up into a better place than Timberline.”
“Competition, anyway. All Stewart wants is a piece of their pie.”
“Bull. He wants to crush Jeffries.”
“That, too.”
Serena turned to give him a long speculative look. “Damn, but you’re mellow. What’s the deal? You seem, I don’t know—relaxed.”
Gabe shrugged. “Must be the air.”
“The air, my ass.” She twisted her mouth sideways. “You’re getting laid.”
His eyebrows rose slightly. “None of your business, Serena,” he said mildly. And there was the problem with your assistant being a friend in addition to an employee.
She leaned her elbows on the fence and stared out over the valley again. “No. It’s not. But I might be just a little jealous.”
“You’ll get yours,” Gabe said, then laughed as she gave him the evil eye.
“Pun intended?”
He wasn’t touching that one again. “You want to get some breakfast before you hit the road?”
“Sure.” She pushed off from the fence and tidied the long scarf wrapped loosely around her neck. “I have a long drive ahead of me. Sustenance would be a good start to the day.”
Gabe drove to the café, the one place he knew they’d have some quiet since it was after the breakfast hour. Sure enough, the lot was empty except for two sheriff’s office vehicles, and as he and Serena crossed the lot, the deputies came out the front door—two guys he’d never met before and Kyle. Always Kyle. He was just glad that Dani wasn’t there.
He nodded pleasantly as they walked by, knowing that Kyle’s double take probably meant he was going to tattle to Dani that he’d seen Gabe out and about with an attractive blonde.
“Have you had a run-in with the law lately?” Serena asked in an amused voice. “Because that guy gave us one long hard stare.”
“We’ve had a chat. He’s the ex-husband of the oldest Brody sister.”
“Ah.” Serena slid into the booth just as Gina approached with the coffeepot and menus. She, too, was giving Serena a questioning once-over and Gabe decided it was time to clear the air before Dani’s phone started ringing full-time.
“Hi, Gin
a. This is Serena. She works with me.”
“I’m his long-suffering assistant.” Serena held out a hand, which Gina stared at in surprise before taking it in a brief handshake. “I was on my way across the country and thought I’d stop and see if my boss was really taking a vacation.”
“And is he?” Gina asked with a hint of a smile.
“As near as I can tell, no.” Serena turned her attention to the menu in front of her. “I’m starving. What’s the best thing you offer? And no fair saying everything.”
“Well,” Gina said, cocking a hip. “That depends on whether you eat like a rancher or an urbanite.”
“I see...well, if I said urbanite, what would you recommend?”
“We have an egg-white omelet or fresh melon, berry and yogurt parfait.”
“Rancher?”
“Steak and eggs, or hash and eggs.”
“Steak and eggs,” Serena said, slapping the menu shut. “Any chance of getting a Bloody Mary to go with that?”
Gina laughed. “We can’t serve alcohol.”
“And you’re driving,” Gabe muttered.
“It was a hypothetical question.”
Gina turned to Gabe, still smiling. “The usual?” she asked and he nodded.
“Which is?” Serena asked once Gina had gathered the menus and left.
“Fresh melon, berry and yogurt parfait.”
“You weenie.”
“You’re talking to your boss.”
Serena blew out a breath, then reached across the table to pat his hand. “And my friend, whom I might come to for advice someday.”
“Please tell me it won’t be about your love life.”
She lifted one shoulder in an eloquent shrug. “No promises.”
Gabe simply shook his head. “Really?”
“I can’t help it. I love him.”
“Take it slowly,” he said. It was the only thing he could think of to say that didn’t sound like a platitude.
“I’m not going to ask you if Neal has ever talked to you...”
“Neal doesn’t talk.”
She let out a short breath. “I know.”
And that, Gabe suspected, had been part of the problem in their relationship. Neal appeared to be a wide-open guy, but the things that mattered most to him, he kept to himself. Serena needed to know those things, share those things. Perceived secrets didn’t do well in a relationship.
