It was Colton.
“Stay at Jared’s,” he said. “You can park your car around back. Nobody will be able to see it. The code’s easy. Can you memorize it?”
Harley nodded. She wasn’t sure she was going to do what he was saying, but she needed to get away from the house before her boss came out here. And she had paid for Jared’s house for the night, so it seemed silly for her to pay for a hotel room or try to drive all the way home.
There was also the question of why Colton had the code. Did he have it all along? If so, why hadn’t he handed it over? But she didn’t have the energy to deal with that right now.
He recited the code and Harley committed it to memory. “Thanks,” she said, stepping away.
“Hey!” Colton called out.
After a quick glance over his shoulder, probably to make sure nobody was coming, he descended the steps to stand in front of her. She braced herself for some apology on behalf of his brother. She’d tell him it was no big deal, don’t worry about it.
“I want to talk to you about the ideas you told me about at the diner,” he said. “About turning this ranch into a business. I think there could be something there.”
After Clay had stepped out to get fresh air during their lunch, Harley had unloaded all her great ideas on Colton. She’d been surprised at how interested he’d been. Although he loved the ranch as much as his brother, she could tell he had more personal distance from it and was able to see it a little more from a financial standpoint than Clay.
Harley nodded numbly. She might be heading back home without a job, but she still cared about this ranch. She wanted to see Clay and his brothers keep it. If there was something she could do to prevent them turning it into a subdivision, she was all too willing to help.
“Don’t let him sell to Mr. Cutler,” Harley said. “Keep your land.”
“That’s my plan.” Colton flashed a big smile. “I’ll stop by to see you in the morning.”
Harley weighed his offer as she got in the car. If she went home, she could still help Colton. They could talk by phone or she could track him down through social media or something. She didn’t have to stay in Jared’s house to do that.
But she still found herself climbing the fence and walking straight to her car, which was parked where she’d left it when she’d arrived just over twenty-four hours before. She’d move it to the side of the house, then check into the cabin and hide until morning.
Sleep. That was what she needed. She’d get a good eight hours, get up and shower and get ready, and head back to Seattle with a fresh perspective. Throw in a quick meeting with Colton over coffee in the morning and all would be fine. Clay didn’t even have to know she was still here.
16
“You did what?”
Clay couldn’t believe his own ears. His younger brother, the one who had been his right-hand man on just about everything from the time he was old enough to talk, had gone behind his back and invited Harley to stay on the property.
But that wasn’t all. Right there, at the table last night, Colton and Reilly had both overrode his authority, sending Mr. Cutler on his way.
Okay, so Clay was a little relieved at that. But he still didn’t like the fact that the two of them were huddling without him. They seemed to have a plan they weren’t sharing with him.
“She’s in the cabin,” Colton said. “I told her I’d stop by and talk to her this morning.”
Clay had been trying to get the cobwebs out of his head with a cup of coffee when Colton had come strolling in. It was a Saturday, so Colton didn’t have to be at work. Usually, he pitched in and helped out around the ranch on his two days off, as did Reilly.
“You didn’t tell me,” Clay pointed out, turning to face his brother.
“No,” Colton said. “I didn’t. She seemed like she needed some distance. Plus, I was shielding her from her boss. The last thing she needed was him throwing his weight around.”
And throwing his weight around was exactly what Harley’s boss would have done. He hadn’t taken their rejection well. He’d thanked them for ‘wasting his time’ and stomped off, presumably to drive his fancy car over to some way-too-expensive hotel for the night.
But Clay had spent the night tossing and turning, wondering if he should do something to get Harley back. The thought of never seeing her again had jolted him awake every time he’d even started to fall asleep. Knowing he could see her again this morning might have made all the difference.
“She’s probably going to wonder why I had the code,” Colton said.
“Why did you have the code?” Clay shot back.
“Jared gave it to me in case something came up with the cabin. Mom’s orders. We all wanted to see how things panned out here.”
“Mom’s orders? What were the orders?”
“To keep her in your house,” Colton said. “We’ve been playing a bit of…matchmaker.”
Clay contemplated that as he took a long sip of coffee. He was going to need a heck of a lot more caffeine for this.
“Mom knew about it from the start. In fact, I’m pretty sure she’s the reason Jared gave a fake code in the first place. She thinks you could do with a good woman around the house.”
Clay rolled his eyes. “She’s trapped in the 1900s. I’m fine here.”
“I don’t think it’s that you need a good woman. I think it’s that you haven’t seemed very happy this past year. And it’s about more than the ranch.”
“It’s one hundred percent about the ranch.” Clay knew he sounded defensive, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t like people interfering in his personal business.
“Then how do you explain that spring in your step you seemed to have soon after your guest arrived?”
Clay set his coffee cup in the sink and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against the counter. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“I haven’t seen you this happy in…well, quite a while,” Colton said. “Even now, you seem to be alive. Not that zombie I’ve seen moping around here since you returned home.”
Although his first instinct was to argue, Clay knew there was some truth in what Colton was saying. Things had felt all wrong since he returned home, and he couldn’t put his finger on why. First, he’d assumed it had to do with recovering from his broken relationship. Then he’d thought it was just that his parents weren’t here. Then he’d become so absorbed in saving the ranch, he hadn’t really had time to think about anything else.
But, yes, he’d basically been just getting through the day for as long as he could remember. One day turned into the next and soon it was the weekend, then summer, then fall, and next thing he knew, they’d be celebrating the New Year with nothing to really be all that happy about.
“That’s not why we kept Harley here last night, though.” He walked around Clay to get to the coffee pot and mugs, and while he made his coffee, Colton talked. “Harley has some good ideas for saving this ranch. She and I talked about it. We don’t have to sell the land to make this place profitable.”
Clay sighed with a hint of exasperation. “The events barn? I told her it would take too much money to make that place suitable. Besides, what would we do with the supplies?”
“Huh? No.” Cup of coffee in hand, Colton turned to face his brother. “The fall festival, complete with hayrides and one of those corn mazes. It’s a huge thing these days. We could sell tickets and run things with the workers we already have. Once we become profitable, we could even bring on some help.”
“She mentioned that,” Clay said. “Also, horseback riding, commercial dude ranching… I just don’t—”
“It’s not what you think,” Colton said. “Our back’s against the wall here. We can’t survive another winter, especially if we lose any livestock.”
Clay knew what his brother said was right, but that didn’t make it any easier. “Mom and Dad would never go for that.”
“Mom and Dad don’t have to know at first.” Colton
looked invigorated as he set his coffee mug down and put his full body into voicing his thoughts. Talk about coming alive again. Clay hadn’t seen his brother like this since college. “This is what we do. Fall’s coming, which makes it the perfect time to try out a fall festival. We set up a hayride, maybe get some games for the kids, a petting zoo. There’s no end to the things we can do. But we’ll need a pumpkin patch. That’s the most important part.”
“Yeah, just one problem,” Clay said. “Corn mazes are pretty much the most important part and, in case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have corn.”
“But we do have hay. We’re up to our ears in hay. Stack some hay bales all around and, poof, instant maze.” Colton grinned, pleased with the idea.
Okay, Clay would bite. “Exactly how much could we charge for something like that?”
“I’ll crunch some numbers and do some research,” Colton said. “I’d guess at least ten bucks a head. Maybe we could do some discounts for families, spread some coupons around the community. We’ll have to calculate our own overhead and make sure we turn a profit.”
“I just… Let me think about it.”
Things were happening so fast, Clay needed time to think. He wasn’t sure how his father would feel about the ranch being open to the public. He could see him grumbling about it being like a three-ring circus around here.
Colton pinned him with his stare. “No time. Harley’s leaving. We need to tell her we’re buying in before she leaves town.”
“What does Harley have to do with it?” Clay forced a look of confusion to his face, but he actually felt a little hopeful. Any way they could continue to loop Harley in was fine by him.
But should he feel that way? No matter what happened here, she was checking out today and heading home. He could find a reason to stay in touch with her, but she’d be in Seattle. That was her home.
He had no reason to believe she wanted to stay in touch anyway. After all, she’d stormed out last night, mad at her now-former boss. But her expression had been so icy when she’d thanked him for his hospitality, Clay was pretty sure she was done with him.
“Let’s go have a talk with her and you’ll see,” Colton said, giving his brother a wink. “I have a plan.”
Colton didn’t wait around to see if Clay was going to follow. He was out the door and halfway across the yards separating the two houses before Clay was even on the porch. He was determined, Clay would give him that. But Clay needed at least a few minutes to gather his thoughts and decide if he was on board with turning this ranch into an amusement park.
“Where’s her car?” Clay asked, looking at the spot where it had been parked yesterday. He’d checked last night to confirm it was gone, but from his windows, he had a limited view of Jared’s cabin. He could see where guests parked and part of the house, but not the extended parking area off to the side of the house or the rest of the land surrounding it.
“Around the side of the house,” Colton called back.
Clay winced. His brother hadn’t bothered to lower his voice, which meant Harley would have warning they were coming. That would give her time to decide she needed to send them on their way.
Colton was standing at the door, already having knocked. Clay wiped his hands on his jeans, suddenly aware of just how nervous he was. Why was he so anxious about seeing a woman he’d spent only a day and a half with?
“She’s not answering,” Colton said after he’d knocked a second time and nothing happened.
It was only then that Clay’s nervousness turned to worry. Not worry that something had happened to her but worry that she wasn’t in there at all.
“Just a sec,” Clay said, descending the stairs and heading around to the side of the house. Sure enough, no car. Did he have to go around to the back to make sure it wasn’t there?
No, he didn’t. She was gone. It was already mid-morning. He was guessing she’d gotten up pretty early and hightailed it out of there before anyone could stop her. There was really no reason for her to stick around. The deal wasn’t going through. She’d lost her job. Not to mention, her vacation rental expired that morning, so she had nowhere legitimate to stay.
Logically, it made no sense for him to feel hurt she was gone. He wasn’t ready to offer her any type of commitment, and he’d pretty much been a jerk to her the previous night. After that kiss, he’d become all too aware that her hours here were numbered and he’d started distancing himself for his own protection.
But that kiss…
Time. That was all it would take. He’d throw himself into saving this ranch and forget about the short time he’d spent with the captivating woman from Seattle. Days would turn into weeks, weeks would turn into months, and soon he’d be completely over it. Completely over her.
“Where are you?”
Rounding the corner, Clay opened his mouth to answer his brother’s question. But he realized once he laid eyes on Colton that his brother hadn’t been talking to him. He was holding his phone up close to his mouth.
“I just passed a sign that said I was crossing over Frozen River,” Clay heard Harley’s voice say through the speaker on the phone. “Not far. I left about twenty minutes ago.”
“Good.” Colton breathed a sigh of relief, glancing over at Clay before returning his attention to the phone call. “I want you to turn around at the next exit and come back.”
That request was met with silence. Colton continued toward his brother, wondering if there was a way he could put an end to this without Harley hearing on the other end.
“Why?” she finally asked.
“My brother and I want to talk to you about some things.”
“Reilly?” she asked.
“No. Clay.”
Interesting. Her first instinct was that Reilly was the brother who wanted to talk to her. Clay supposed it made sense with Reilly and Colton working as a pair at Taste of Canyon Falls. But he couldn’t help but wonder if her leaving him out was because she wouldn’t come back if he was involved.
“Clay wants me to come back?” Harley asked.
Colton looked at Clay. This was his chance. He could just say no, he didn’t want her back. He wanted her to continue on to Seattle, going back to her old life, so both of them could forget any of this had ever happened.
It was for the best for everyone concerned.
“Yes,” Colton said. “Just get back here and I’ll explain everything.”
He expected her to pass. To just say she’d done all she could here and now that she’d lost her job, she had no reason to come back.
“I’m on my way,” she said after a moment. “It’ll be half an hour, though.”
“Take your time.” Colton stepped off the porch and headed back toward Clay’s house.
That was when Clay realized just how much he expected people to let him down. After the kiss, he’d blamed it all on her leaving in the morning, but even if she’d been a permanent resident of Canyon Falls, he would have found a reason to push her away. He was tired of falling, only to get the ‘we need to talk’ line ten months or two and a half years later.
Harley was coming back. He should be annoyed. He should be terrified. He should be trying to find a place to hide.
So why was his heart racing at the mere thought of her walking through his front door again?
17
Well, that hadn’t lasted long.
Before Colton’s call, Harley had actually been making some pretty good headway in putting Clay and Canyon Falls behind her. She’d given herself a pretty impressive pep talk. The whole experience at Cedar Tree Ranch hadn’t been a waste. Not at all. It had shown her what she wanted out of life and she was driving home, surer than ever of what she needed to do.
Seeing Clay’s passion for his ranch had shown her all too clearly what she wanted out of life. She’d been spinning her wheels working for a douchenozzle like Kurt Cutler. She didn’t need a douchenozzle to put money in her bank account. She could do this. She could.
Jus
t when her adrenaline had started pumping and she’d decided to take on the world, her phone had rung. And the sight of the Canyon Falls area code had turned her into a puddle of mush.
Come back, Colton had said, and she’d agreed like she’d always done. Some dude told her to jump, she asked, ‘How high?’ and immediately proceeded to do as he said. When was she going to learn?
Harley thought about stopping her progress toward the ranch. She considered letting Colton and Clay just wonder what had become of her. She could do another U-turn at the next exit and continue on her previous path to Seattle. If they called, she’d ignore them and maybe even block their numbers. It wasn’t like they could track her down. They could toy with some other woman’s emotions. She was closed for business.
One thing had kept her going toward Canyon Falls, though. It was a great idea. Instead of driving all the way back to Seattle and figuring out how to start over, she could flip this whole venture in her favor. She could offer her business services to the Briscoe brothers and charge a fee. Her first consulting gig. Her home was in Seattle, but most of what she’d need to do could be handled remotely. The brothers could go back to wrangling horses or cutting chickens’ heads off or whatever it was cowboys did when they weren’t showing city people around their ranch.
By the time she pulled in next to Clay’s truck, she had renewed confidence. She was going to rock this meeting. They wouldn’t even know what hit them. She just had to channel her inner goddess and remind herself, over and over, that she knew more about this than they did.
Taking a deep breath, she got out of her car, checked her immediate path to make sure no cow had marked it, and grabbed her laptop from inside her overnight bag. She didn’t have a presentation prepared or anything. She just felt like her laptop might come in handy for looking through some examples of what other ranches had done.
Plus, it would make her look like she was there for business, not to melt under Clay Briscoe’s steely gaze.
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