A Ranch Between Them, page 6
“But hasn’t been developed yet?” Katie asked. The sarcasm went straight over Mellie’s head.
“Exactly.” Mellie spread her hands in a graceful gesture. “We’re revitalizing a block of High Street. Even though the wedding is still eight months off, we went into partnership with my parents.”
“That’s the street where my grandmother’s new shop is located.” Even though she didn’t want to see Gavin change too much, revitalization might be a boon to her grandmother’s business.
“Yes. Maybe you can talk some sense into her.”
“Excuse me?”
“We’ve purchased the entire block, with the exception of Gloria’s old house. We’ve offered top dollar—more than the house is worth. It’s silly not to take the offer and buy up. They could get a much nicer place downtown. Why...the old grainery is for sale.”
“I don’t think my grandmother wants to live in a grainery.” Not when she was half owner of a beautiful Victorian in a perfect part of town.
“That building is an excellent investment. It just cries out condo.”
“Why don’t you guys buy the grainery?”
Mellie’s mouth flattened ever so slightly. “Because we bought the houses on High Street, with the intention of building a business there.”
“What kind of business?”
“I’m not at liberty to say just yet.”
“Has the planning commission approved your plan?”
“We have it on good authority that they will once we procure all the property. The last time we spoke to Rosalie and Gloria, they became defensive and, frankly, a little unhinged.”
Katie had to work to keep her tongue under control. Unhinged? If anyone was likely to come off as unhinged in an argument, it would be the perfectly dressed woman in front of her. Also, why hadn’t her grandmother told her about this offer to buy? Had she told Nick and Cassie? And should she drive back to the shop and ask her what the heck was going on?
“Can you talk to them?” Mellie asked in a conspiratorial tone, oblivious to the change in Katie’s demeanor. “Make them see the sense of selling and buying elsewhere? Jace’s offer is more than generous.”
The Katie who worked in human resources would have come up with a tactful response that offended no one and allowed all parties to move forward to address the problem before them. That Katie was officially unemployed, however, so the Katie who’d put up with Mellie and her snotty ways in school was free to say, “Maybe you guys should have made certain everyone on the block was interested in selling before starting.”
Mellie’s mouth opened and then closed with a snap. Katie allowed herself a faint smile.
“Don’t mess with my grandma,” she said mildly as she reached for an apple fritter.
“As if—”
“I mean it.” Katie was dead serious, and judging from Mellie’s incredulous expression, it showed. Fine. The woman needed to understand that whoever messed with her grandmother messed with her—and her siblings. “So, it’d be best if you and Jace figured out a way to work around my grandmother and Gloria.”
“Or what?” There was a spark of battle in Mellie’s eyes.
Katie gave the blonde a long hard look and had the satisfaction of seeing the woman shift her gaze uncomfortably after a few seconds. The Katie that Mellie knew would never have stared her down. Corporate Katie had developed skills, and they weren’t all the warm and fuzzy kind.
“I guess you’ll find out what happens when you tangle with the Callahans.”
CHAPTER FIVE
YOU’RE GOING AT this all wrong.
Brady stopped forking hay as the idea took hold. He’d felt edgy and jumpy all afternoon, wondering if Katie was going to stop by his house after returning from town, just as she had this morning when she’d offered to help feed if he was still having issues with his foot.
He assured her he was not, taking care not to put any weight on it as they faced off at the door. She didn’t ask about the state of his injury, didn’t push to be allowed to help, but after she’d left, he’d been twice as tense as before he’d answered his door. He couldn’t stop thinking about her and this was not how he wanted to spend the next several days, weeks or months.
He lifted another fork of alfalfa and pitched it into the weathered wooden feed bunk, where the bulls threw it in the air as they went for the leaves, which were far tastier than the stalks.
If he continued to avoid Katie, this jumpy feeling was going to continue dogging him, but if he didn’t avoid her, if he met the situation head-on, then maybe the tension would dissipate, and maybe he’d stop fixating on her.
The truth was, judging from the way he couldn’t stop thinking about her, he was afraid of falling for Katie all over again, at a time when he was busy scraping himself up off the rock-bottom level of his life, and that had made him defensive. He needed to rethink tactics.
After tossing the last of the hay into the feeders, he jammed the pitchfork into a bale, then started limping toward the house. Due to his swollen foot, he’d worn his driving moccasins to feed the bulls and the few cows he’d kept in, and now hay pricked his skin through his socks. He couldn’t wait until he got back into his boots.
The sound of a truck brought Brady’s head up. Katie was home, which meant it was decision time. How should he play this?
He’d play it by ear.
He walked through the large open bay door and headed for Katie’s truck as it rolled to a stop. She opened her door and dropped to the ground, then gave a violent start as she saw him coming around the back end of the vehicle.
“Oh.” She pressed a hand to her heart. “Hi.”
“I didn’t mean to startle you.” He was surprised he had.
“Aftermath of the mugging,” she said lightly, reaching into the truck to haul out a bag of groceries.
His insides went still.
“What mugging?”
Katie pushed windblown hair back from her forehead when she turned toward him. “It happened just before I got laid off. I still have a little bruising.”
A curse rose to his lips, but he swallowed it. “I didn’t know.”
She gave a casual shrug. “Not much you could do about it.” She reached for her purse and closed the door. There were two more bags sitting on the passenger seat, so Brady limped around the truck to get them, still working on the fact that someone had hurt Katie.
“Is the mugging one of the reasons you came home?”
“It added to the decision.” She reached for the bags he carried, but he shook his head.
She wrinkled her forehead. “Is everything okay?”
“Uh, yeah. I just...well, I’m making stew later and wanted to know if you’d like to join me for dinner.” The invitation came out awkwardly, but at least it was out, hanging in the air between them. He’d asked many women to dinner and couldn’t remember another time when he’d sounded like a junior high kid asking a girl to the big dance.
Katie’s eyes narrowed as she gave him an openly suspicious look. “You’re asking me to dinner?”
“Yeah.”
“Because of the mugging?”
“No.”
“Did my grandma call you?”
“What? No. Hell, no.” His face started to feel warm as he fought for words to explain his change in attitude. “We’re here on the ranch and it’s kind of stupid of me to assume that we’re not going to see one another and, well, I’ve rethought the Ed thing, and maybe we could just...you know...share the ranch.”
“But I can’t rescue or defend you. Are those caveats still in place?”
Brady moistened his lips. “No rescue.”
“Will you accept help?” He hesitated, and she clarified. “Will you ask for help if you need it?”
“Maybe?”
Katie bit her lip, then that smile of hers, which touched him in ways he didn’t want to be touched, broke through. He loved seeing her smile—always had—but he couldn’t afford to be attracted to her. It was okay to feel protective of a woman he’d grown up with. Not okay to allow feelings to grow that had no business in their current relationship. He was at such an iffy place in his life as he prepared to embark on another risk-taking venture, this one of a financial nature. If he failed, and Abe Jr. repossessed? Well, he’d have nothing.
Was there a place lower than rock bottom?
He didn’t want Katie there if he were to find out.
“You going to help me carry those bags in? Or just hang on to them?”
Brady scowled at her, but felt slightly less tense as he followed Katie into the house and then set the bags on the table. How many hours had he spent at that same table, eating with the family, learning to play cribbage, taking part in the occasional poker game Katie’s dad would rustle up among the locals? That was how he’d become acquainted with Will, who’d known his dad and, more than that, was willing to talk about him with Brady. He’d been hungry for information since his mom had never allowed the subject to come up. She hadn’t even kept photos of his father.
“About dinner,” he said, taking hold of his belt buckle with both hands as she opened the fridge to put milk, butter and eggs inside. “Nothing fancy. Canned stew and biscuits that pop out of the tube.”
“That sounds great.” The big orange cat sauntered into the room and threw himself against Katie’s shins. She leaned down to run a hand over the cat’s back. “What time?”
“Around six?” He had a few things to do before calling it a day.
“Sure.”
“Okay. See you then.” The words came out sounding as stilted and uncomfortable as he felt. Why was it that the only woman in the world who made him feel tongue-tied was this one, whom he’d known forever?
He let himself out into the brisk October air. The wind was starting to pick up as it often did in the afternoon. Winter was due to blow in soon, but he hoped it held off until he could get his injured foot into boots. Otherwise, he’d have both snow and hay in his socks.
He made his way across the drive to his small house with the cherry kitchen decor that must have driven dour Ed nuts. Once inside he went straight to the cupboard and pulled out two large cans of stew. He had nothing fancy to offer, and that pretty much summed up his life at that moment—not only did he have nothing fancy, he essentially had nothing, except for the down payment on the parcel of land.
But he did have that, and with it, he would build, one day at a time. A fight in a parking lot followed by an unfortunate ride on a gnarly bronc may have ended his career, but he was down, not out.
And it was important that he remember that.
* * *
IT HAD BEEN a day of surprises—first, Mellie Taylor’s bombshell, and then Brady extending an unexpected invitation to dinner. Katie had already hashed over the Mellie situation on the way home, so now it was Brady’s turn.
Why the sudden change in attitude?
Katie debated as she put away her groceries and then made a simple lunch—apples, cheese, crackers and peanut butter. It was possible that he’d simply come to his senses and realized that sharing a ranch meant teamwork.
Katie shook her head as she put away the peanut butter. That seemed too simple.
Time would tell—or more accurately, dinner tonight would tell.
Several texts came in over the course of the day from Katie’s roommates and former coworkers, checking to see if she’d landed all right. She answered all in the affirmative and as she wrote to Amanda, her closest friend and former roomie, saying that it felt good to be back in Montana, she was struck again by how true those words were. She was home and she wasn’t leaving unless it became impossible to stay for some reason.
I think I’m staying.
It’s early days. You’ve taken a beating recently. No hasty decisions.
She had taken a beating. Did she want another? Was the payoff of a corporate job enough to make up for everything else? Every time she thought about going back to the grind, her stomach tightened.
She honestly loved the city, but it had exhausted her. And her job... Lots of people worked at jobs they didn’t like all that well due to necessity. She’d been one of them. Why? Because of the way she’d defined success.
She was about to tweak that definition.
Katie didn’t attempt to protest. All that would do was further the argument. Instead, she texted, I’ll keep you posted. Don’t water the Christmas cactus too often.
She got a smiley face in return and set her phone on the counter.
After feeding Tigger just before six, she pulled her hair over her shoulder and started to braid as she headed to her bedroom to see about changing into a sweater. It was getting colder as evening approached and Ed had been notorious for scrimping on heat. She didn’t know if Brady was the same, but she didn’t want to shiver through dinner.
Brady was at the stove, stirring a pot, when Katie rapped on the door before letting herself in. He glanced over his shoulder and for a moment her breath caught. Was there anything sexier than a guy at the stove?
“Hey.” He set the spoon on the plate next to the stove, then bent down to look through the oven window.
“Hey,” Katie echoed softly before looking around. The red paint on the cabinets was worn in places, as well it should be after a good decade of use, but the cherry wallpaper was as cheerful as ever. “Thanks again for the invite.”
“Yeah.” He sounded uncomfortable, like he didn’t know what to do with her now that she was here.
“Can I set the table or something?”
“I thought we’d dish up at the stove. I’m not fancy.”
Katie smiled as she moved closer, hoping she didn’t make him jump out of his skin. “I’m not fancy, either. Nothing makes me happier than leftovers or a box of crackers, a brick of cheese and a knife.”
“I kind of like cooking.” He shrugged without looking at her. “But never had much time for it while I was on the road. And I had to watch my diet pretty carefully to stay competitive. Lots of protein. Not many carbs.”
“Now you’re free to eat what you want.” Brady’s shoulders stiffened, and Katie wished she could yank back the words. Nothing like reminding a guy that his beloved career was over and done.
“Yeah. Kind of a tough way to get dietary freedom, but now I can eat what I want.”
“I didn’t mean—”
He turned, and the rest of the sentence died on her lips. A sort of bitter acceptance played across his face. He didn’t want sympathy or help or, well, anything. The fact that he was talking at all was huge.
“I know.” He pressed his lips together, then opened a cupboard to reveal mostly empty space. There was a small stack of plates and bowls and a few assorted coffee cups, all mismatched. “Big bowl or small?”
“I’ll go small and refill if necessary.”
“Done.” He set two bowls, a large and a small, on the counter next to the stove.
“I’ll put my biscuits on the stew,” she said.
“Good idea. Fewer dishes to wash.”
“I’ll wash.”
“No, you won’t.” He’d handle his own household chores.
Brady pulled the sheet of golden biscuits out of the oven, then picked up the measuring cup sitting next to the stove and dunked it into the stew. “Pretty uptown, but I don’t have a ladle.”
“It works.”
He filled Katie’s small bowl and his larger one. Once he finished, Katie used a fork to carefully set a biscuit on top of her stew, then held her fork back over the baking sheet. “One or two?”
“Two.”
She set two biscuits on top of the stew in his bowl.
There they were, going through the motions of having a companionable dinner even though neither of them was anywhere near comfortable. Maybe because they were playacting. Pretending all was well when it was not.
After setting her bowl on the table and taking a seat, Katie set down her spoon instead of digging in. “Do you know anything about the Taylors buying up a block in Gavin to build some new business?”
Brady felt a swell of relief at her choice of topic. “I don’t, but I haven’t been back all that long.”
“Apparently that’s the block that Grandma’s new shop is on, and the only building they haven’t snapped up is hers.” Katie tore a piece off the biscuit and popped it into her mouth. When she was done chewing, she said, “For some reason, Grandma didn’t tell me.”
“Well, she either considers it a nonissue or she didn’t want to worry you.”
“It didn’t sound like a nonissue when Mellie Taylor told me about it.”
Brady gave a small snort. “Mellie Taylor likes to upset people. It’s what she does.”
His instant answer surprised her. “How well do you know Mellie?”
“Well enough. She’s of the opinion that she’s a prize and that makes it all right for her to pick on others.”
“In other words, she’s a bully.”
He gave a casual shrug and focused on his stew. “As I learned the hard way.”
An unwelcome thought formed. “Did you guys date or something?”
Now his gaze came up. “For a while, when I was training in Missoula for my second rodeo season and she was going to college there. You know how it is when small-town folk connect in a city. We had a drink together, and then...”
And then.
“Huh.” And double “huh” for the uncomfortable zap of jealousy that struck her out of nowhere. Really? Jealous of something that had happened years ago?
It was just that the idea of he and Mellie being a couple didn’t sit right.
“It didn’t last long,” he said, as if reassuring her he’d regained his senses.
“Have any of your relationships?”
The shutters dropped. Just like that. She should have known better. First of all, it was a very personal question, and second, relationships were a touchy subject for Brady. Maybe she should have kept her mouth shut.
