Taking Charge

by Ruth Cardello

  She walked over to one of the boxes the postman had delivered and rested a hand on top of it. Am I an idiot to think I can do this? Or that I should do this? My mother would say she raised me better.

  But she left me, too.

  Sorry, Mom, you forfeited the right to lecture me.

  She ripped one of the boxes open and took out the tablet that rested on top. After researching the profit margins of many online franchises, she’d come across a start-up that had been looking to partner with a woman willing to market their inventions. The opportunity had everything she was looking for. There was very little up-front investment required; it had substantial potential for large monthly earnings, depending on how well she marketed the items; and the orders would be filled directly from the company. She would be both a partner and a salesperson working on commission. The goal of the company was to be cutting-edge, revolutionizing the market, and to gain a strong following of female clients.

  Lucy picked up a bra that had been fashioned to look like a remote control for a video game. Both sides hosted colorful controls that looked functional as well as decorative. She held it to her chest and tried to imagine not slapping a man’s hands away if she actually wore it during sex. A laugh erupted from her, but more from nerves than humor.

  I can call Ted and tell him my grief confused me. He’d probably take me back.

  Or I can do this and prove to myself that I am the person I was back in New England.

  I’m smart and I am not beaten yet.

  Not by a long shot.

  She replaced the bra and took out a set of glow-in-the-dark dildos. Assorted colors and sizes. She read the label. Three settings for light options: “Constant,” “Flashing,” and “Disco”?

  Disco?

  She shook her head and tossed the package back in the box. Then she picked up the tablet.

  If I leave this ranch, it will be because I choose to, not because I don’t have what it takes to hold on to it. You hear that, Mom and Dad? I might not have been the daughter you dreamed you’d have, but you always told me to get up when I fell down. Well, this is me getting up.

  She turned the tablet on. An icon for Technically Anonymous Pleasure filled the screen. Lucy scrolled through the table of contents: Company History, Company Contacts, Tax Forms, Product Description.

  She took a deep breath and pressed the link to the last section. If I’m going to sell high-tech sex toys online, I’d better figure out what the heck people do with them.

  Lucy shook her head at her own thought.

  Of course I know what they do with them; I just need to learn the particulars of how.

  David led a quarter horse through the center aisle of a barn and handed him off to Lucas, who was trying to hide a smile but wasn’t quite succeeding. “Lucas, an intelligent man knows when his thoughts are best kept to himself.”

  Revealing his youthful overconfidence, Lucas tipped his hat back and looked his boss in the eye. “Just not sure why we bother saddling horses when we know they won’t be ridden.”

  David didn’t answer the question because he didn’t have a polite answer. He liked Lucas. Over the years, the young man had proved himself to be both reliable and good-natured. David’s present situation, however, was too much for even those who respected him to contain their amusement. “I’ll be in my office.” David walked away, retreating into the small, hot barn office he now considered a haven of peace every Thursday.

  Life had changed drastically on the Double C Ranch in Fort Mavis. In years past, the ranch had been closed to all outsiders. Tony Carlton, the man who owned the ranch, had purchased it as a place to hide and drink himself to death. After taking over as his ranch manager, David had talked him out of the second part of that plan, but it had taken a sweet Yankee to change Tony’s stance on the first part. The pair had married and participated in a variety of high-profile fund-raising events that had opened the doors of the ranch to people of all walks of life. On paper, it sounded like it was for the best, but in practice it had put David into more uncomfortable situations than he cared to reflect on.

  A few of the public events had involved Kimberly Staten’s father. Regardless of how civil he was, there was nothing pleasant about looking into the eyes of a man who had once fired David for trying to protect his daughter from the horse that ultimately—even being trained by Tony—had killed her. Funny how life tended to circle back to something, no matter how much a person didn’t want it to.

  Facing Kimberly’s father had felt a bit like the first time a reporter had asked him how he’d come to training horses as a career. David had given a vague answer that had satisfied the reporter temporarily, but the question had resurfaced within his circle of friends. He’d told them there was nothing to tell about his life before he’d taken the job with Evan Staten, and then he’d changed the subject. He preferred not to think about the past.

  Evan Staten wasn’t the reason David dreaded Thursdays, though. No, the fault for that lay squarely on the shoulders of Melanie, Tony’s ex-housekeeper, and Sarah, Tony’s wife. The two had taken it upon themselves to cure him of his bachelorhood, although they hadn’t used those words exactly. They’d asked him if he would give riding lessons on Thursdays as a way of raising funds for the local children’s hospital. A man would have to be mighty hard-hearted to refuse such a request, so David had agreed to do it. What he hadn’t anticipated was that each Thursday his schedule would be full of women who had very little interest in the only kind of lesson he was offering.

  It wasn’t that David minded female companionship, but his heart wasn’t into dating. The women who showed up each Thursday were looking for a husband. Some were brazen enough to say it. Sarah and Melanie had practically taken out an ad proclaiming him single and financially stable, and in some parts of Texas, that was enough to cause a stampede.

  David didn’t welcome the attention. Not on Thursdays and not through the fund-raising that was now a regular part of life on the ranch. He didn’t want to be the face that was shown when the Double C promoted an event. He’d often accused Tony and Melanie of hiding out on the ranch, but truth be told, he’d withdrawn from the world himself. Life had been much more comfortable when everyone had kept out of each other’s business.

  David didn’t know how much longer he could stay if something didn’t change. Lately he’d been thinking it was time to move on. To where, though? Not knowing the answer to that question held him back. All he knew was he was no longer where he wanted to be. Something was missing.

  “Knock knock,” Sarah said cheerfully as she entered his office without pause.

  David turned and tossed his Stetson on his desk. “Not one of the women who came for a riding lesson today was interested in getting on a horse.”

  Sarah shrugged and smiled. “They paid, though. Think of the good you’re doing. Your lesson program brings in thousands every month.”

  “Thousands?” David arched an eyebrow. “How much do you charge the women to come here?”

  With a shameless grin, Sarah said, “I keep raising the price, and they keep agreeing. Does it matter? It’s for charity, after all.”

  David shook his head. “You’re misleading them, Sarah. I’m not looking for a wife.”

  “I tell them that, but they all want a chance at being the one who changes your mind.”

  David ran a hand through his hair in frustration and sat on the wooden chair by his desk. “I’ll never understand the female mind.”

  Sarah plopped onto the other wooden chair in the small room. “Speaking of women you don’t understand, I spoke to Lucy today.”

  David kept his face deliberately blank. “How is she?”

  “Single again. She said she called off her engagement to Ted.”

  David stood and frowned. If that bastard did something to hurt her. “What’d he do?”

  “Nothing. She doesn’t love him, David.” Sarah tended to blurt things out as fast as she thought them. It was something David had become used to ov
er time and occasionally appreciated. On a ranch where most people spent years avoiding talking about anything of significance, Sarah was a bubbling well of information—welcomed or not.

  David walked to the door of his office and folded his arms across his chest. “Getting engaged to him suggests otherwise.”

  David took a deep breath. It was far too easy to give in to his memories of Lucy Albright. He remembered every accidental touch, every brush of her skin against his, the way she smelled like lavender and soap, the desire in her eyes when he’d almost kissed her. Seeing her at Sarah’s wedding had been torture. They’d been forced to be in the same room often enough for him to be sure he was still powerfully attracted to her.

  She’d said at the time they met she wasn’t ready for anything more than friendship, but he’d thought he found the woman he’d spend the rest of his life with. He’d been so sure that he’d been careless when it came to concealing his enthusiasm. When news of her engagement to another man hit Fort Mavis, people couldn’t help but jabber on about it. Soon everyone in town was convinced David was a jilted soul in need of a good woman to heal his broken heart.

  But really, he was just a damn fool who’d imagined something where there’d been nothing.

  Sarah walked up to stand beside David. “Lucy doesn’t like to talk about her problems, but she has had some rough years lately. Remember how angry I was with her for changing her mind about wanting me to stay with her and her brother that summer? I wouldn’t have been if I’d known what she was going through. It was bad enough to lose both her parents, but watching her brother drink and then leave her—that couldn’t have been easy.”

  David didn’t answer, but Sarah wasn’t expecting him to. She was perfectly happy to keep the conversation going on her own.

  “She was alone and scared. Ted was there, offering her a lifeline. Who could blame her for saying yes to him?”

  David turned and retrieved his Stetson from his desk, placing it firmly on his head. “She doesn’t owe me an explanation, nor do I want to hear any more about this.”

  He moved to walk out of the office, but Sarah raised a hand and blocked his exit. “You can tell yourself you don’t care if she’s single again. You can lie to everyone and say you’re over her, but how sad would it be if your pride kept you from calling her, and you lost her again?”

  Sarah lowered her arm and let David pass. He strode out of the office, out of the barn. He marched up the steps of the bunkhouse, yanked open the door, then slammed it closed behind him.

  Only a fool reopens a wound after it’s healed over.

  Chapter Two

  A few days later, Lucy closed the laptop on her father’s old desk and stood. She’d gone to Dallas to lay the foundation of her new home business. She’d met with an accountant to create an LLC that would ensure her privacy, opened a bank account in that company’s name, and was now in the process of purchasing everything online from domain names to staplers. No one needed to know the nature of her business, and if she was careful enough, no one ever would.

  A loud knock on the front door made Lucy jump. She hastily hid a stack of paperwork in the top drawer of the desk and double-checked that the boxes were closed. She closed the office door securely behind her, then paused.

  I’m a modern woman. There is nothing wrong with what I’m doing, even if selling it from my hometown makes it feel that way.

  She gave herself a quick check in the large mirror in the hall. She’d always been on the curvy side and normally would have loved how the weight had been pouring off her since she’d been home, but there was no glow to the woman who looked back at her in the mirror. Her brown eyes looked tired. Her hair was thrown back in a ponytail instead of styled as she used to wear it in the city. The jeans, which had once clung to her, now hung loose. She’d never considered herself a nervous person, but even as she told herself she had everything under control, she could see how close she was to unraveling. What if I can’t do this alone? What if I fail just like my brother did?

  I’m not my brother, nor am I going to give up like my mother. I can do this.

  One step at a time.

  Answer the damn door and breathe.

  She did and found her father’s old foreman standing on her porch. He swiftly removed his hat to reveal his familiar face, toughened from many years of working outdoors. “I know I’m probably about the last person you want to see right now.”

  “That’s not true, Wyatt.” Lucy’s hand tightened on the door handle. He’d left along with the rest of the ranch hands when Steven had announced he couldn’t pay any of them the money he owed them. If she hadn’t known Wyatt for most of her life, seeing him again would have been humiliating. Although Ted’s loan had made it possible for Lucy to set that right, she hadn’t asked the old ranch hands to return. They’d already found alternate employment, mostly via Ted. She’d never blamed any of them for leaving. They had families to feed, and Wyatt, already in his fifties, needed to hold on to whatever work he could get. “Come in.” Lucy led the way to her living room. “Would you like a lemonade? Some water?”

  “I’m fine, Miss Lucy.” He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the side of one hand.

  “Would you like to sit?”

  “No, I’d rather stand.”

  “Okay.” Lucy braced herself by placing a hand on the back of one chair. Had Ted sent him over with a message? He might be there to collect the engagement ring. That would be incredibly tacky, but perhaps not more so than breaking up with someone over the phone.

  “Your parents were good people.”

  “I know.”

  “You heard any from your brother?”

  Lucy shook her head. He wasn’t the curious type. If he was asking, he was doing so because he cared. “He said he needed time to clear his head.”

  “What are you doing, Miss Lucy? I’ve known you since you were high as my knee. You never wanted to live here.”

  Lucy held his eyes steadily. “People change.”

  He looked her over with a critical eye. “You looked a whole lot happier when you lived in the city. Have you thought about selling?”

  Only about a thousand times a day. “Why are you here, Wyatt?” Please don’t let it be with an offer to buy the land. I might just take it.

  Wyatt cleared his throat. “I was in town yesterday, and I heard Miles say his father is buying your herd.”

  “That’s right,” Lucy said cautiously. Selling the herd would provide her with enough cash to jump-start her new business as well as partially pay Ted back. It wasn’t enough to free her, but she had to believe her business would do that.

  “You’d get a better price for them in Abilene.”

  I would if the men here actually worked for me. They won’t do anything on my say-so. They do what Ted tells them to, how he tells them, and when. They don’t pay me any mind at all. “I don’t have the hands to do it, Wyatt. I’m grateful I found a buyer at all.”

  Rolling his hat in his hand, Wyatt said, “I could gather some men, and we could haul your herd for you.” He was a timeless country gentleman. His jeans, boots, and faded plaid shirt had all seen better days. He was a man who wasn’t ashamed to work hard, get his hands dirty, or drop to his knees in gratitude for all he had. The sun had tanned and toughened his skin, making him look older than he was, but his eyes were sharp and bright. His humble strength reminded Lucy of her father. She blinked back a tear.

  Wyatt wouldn’t say it, but he was risking his job, and they both knew it. Ted didn’t send him. “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

  “No asking necessary.”

  Lucy clasped her hands in front of her. Ted had a reputation for firing men with little provocation. He wouldn’t be happy about this. “Wyatt, Ted and I broke up. I’m not his favorite person right now. I’d steer clear of anything to do with me for a little bit.”

  Wyatt rubbed his chin. “You know I have my son and his wife living with us now, along with my grandbabies.”

>   “I heard they’d moved home,” Lucy said in a calm voice, while her stomach continued to do nervous flips.

  Wyatt slapped his hat against one thigh. “There’s something about looking into the eyes of your offspring that makes you want to be the kind of person they think you are. And my grandbabies think I put the moon up in the sky.”

  “That’s a beautiful thing, Wyatt.”

  A flash of frustration hardened his face. “Let me speak, Miss Lucy. What I got to say isn’t easy.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m relieved to hear you’re not marrying Mr. York.”

  Lucy smiled sadly. Me too. “He has been very kind to me.”

  “You mean he was right quick to take advantage of your situation.”

  Lucy’s eyebrows shot up. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it as she processed what he’d said. She remembered how Ted had sounded when she’d told him she didn’t love him. He had claimed to love her and she’d believed it, but there had been no passion between them. No reason to believe his claim to have always been sweet on her. “I’ll be fine,” he’d said. “You’re the one I feel sorry for. That ranch is as good as gone now. You won’t find anyone else willing to help you. No one besides me gives a shit about you.”

  Definitely not the words of a man who had loved her.

  Had his proposal been just about her land and not about her at all?

  Did I only see what I wanted to see? “Ted’s a good man, Wyatt,” Lucy said, but she was no longer sure.

  Wyatt held her gaze. “Lucy, I work for him. I know his character. Rumor is that one late payment from you and the ranch is his. Did you sign papers saying that?”

  “I don’t think so.” Lucy moved to sit down in one of the chairs and covered her face. “At the time, I was grateful he was helping. I don’t know what I signed.” She blinked tears back. “Oh my God. Could I have been that stupid?”

  Wyatt moved to sit across from her. He was quiet for a long moment. “It’s not stupid to believe people want the best for you, but, sadly, that’s not always the case. Your parents were the kind of people who would help someone and ask for nothing in return. They gave me a job when I wasn’t the man I am today. Not too many people were willing to take a chance on me back then. My family owes yours a lot. I couldn’t sit back and watch you lose this ranch without warning you. Mr. York wants this land, and I’m not comfortable with how far he’s willing to go to get it.”