Barbara Dunlop - A Cowboy Comes Home

“You don’t know what you’re asking.”

She reached across the table for his big hand. “I know exactly what I’m asking. If you’ll just-”

“How did you find out about the will, Mandy?”

She closed her eyes for a brief second. “Fine. Caleb told me.”

Reed gave a snort of derision, pulling his hand back. “Didn’t take him long.”

“Didn’t take me long at all,” came another deep, masculine voice.

Mandy’s heart all but stopped.

She turned her head. “Caleb,” she breathed.

“Was this stunt part of some grand plan?” he asked her, not even acknowledging his brother.

Reed came to his feet.

“I found Reed,” she stated the unnecessary. “That’s what I wanted to tell you-”

“You hoped I’d follow you?” Caleb demanded.

She was confused by his statement. “Follow-”

He gave a cold laugh. “Of course you knew I’d follow you. How could I not follow you?”

“What?” she couldn’t help asking, giving a small shake of her head. If she’d wanted him to follow her, she’d have told him where she was going.

“That’s what this was all about, all along.” His blue gaze crackled into hers. “You realized you couldn’t get me to talk to him by being honest.”

What? No. Wait a minute.

Reed stepped forward. “Nobody invited you to join us.”

Mandy whirled her gaze. “Reed, no. Let him explain.”

Caleb sized up his brother. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

Reed’s voice was stone cold. “Somebody stole my ranch.”

“You didn’t stay to defend it.”

“Right. Like I’m going to hang around under those circumstances.”

“You hung in there with Wilton.”

Reed clenched his jaw down tight, and the edges of his mouth turned white. “Shut up.”

“I don’t think I will.”

Mandy was starting to panic. She stepped between the two angry men. “Reed. Listen to me. He’s giving it back. Caleb’s giving you back the ranch.”

“I’m selling the ranch,” Caleb countered.

She ignored him and continued talking to Reed, her words spilling out fast. “That’s how I found out about the will. Caleb came to Colorado to give it back to you.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Reed.

“How can it not matter?” she practically wailed.

“I don’t want it,” he spat.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Mandy. Her gaze took in both of them. “Come on, you two, quit being such-”

“You heard him,” said Caleb.

She rounded on Caleb. “Of course he wants it back.”

“Are you reading his mind?”

“I’m using logic and reason.” Her expression of frustration took in both of them. “Something that seems to be in ridiculously short supply in this conversation.”

Caleb angled his body toward Mandy, arms still by his sides, hands curled into fists. “You heard him. He said no.”

“He’ll change his mind.”

“No, he won’t.” Caleb’s gaze flicked to Reed. “He’s as stubborn as a mule.”

“At least I don’t cut and run,” Reed returned.

Caleb glared at his brother. “Back off.”

“That’s your specialty,” said Reed. “And it’s exactly what you’re doing right now.”

“I’m getting rid of an albatross that’s been around our necks our entire lives.”

“Around your neck?” Reed countered, squaring his shoulders, voice getting louder. “ Your neck.”

Caleb ignored the outburst. “I’ll send you a check.”

“Don’t bother.”

Mandy’s stomach had turned to churning concrete. “Please, don’t fight.”

“Quit it,” Caleb told her.

“Don’t you yell at Mandy.” Reed inched closer to his brother, shoulders squared, eyes hard as flints.

For a horrible moment, she thought they might come to blows.

“I’m not yelling at Mandy.” When Caleb glanced back down at her, his expression had softened. “I’m not angry with you, Mandy. I swear I’m not. But you have your answer. He doesn’t want the ranch.”

“He does,” she put in weakly.

“Are you ready to go home now?” Caleb asked.

Mandy shook her head. “I’m not going home. I just got here. Reed and I haven’t even had a chance to-”

Caleb’s voice went dark again, suspicion clouding his eyes. “To what?”

For a second, she thought she must have misunderstood. But his expression was transparent as usual. He actually thought there was something between her and Reed.

Mandy threw up her hands. “You can’t possibly think that.”

After all they’d been through? Could Caleb honestly think that? He’d asked her three times, and she’d told him over and over that they were just friends.

“So, you’re staying here with him?” Caleb pressed.

She mustered her courage. Fine. If he wanted to think that, let him think that. “Yes, I am. I’m staying here with Reed.”

Caleb’s voice went quiet. “Is that what this was all about?”

She didn’t understand the question.

“All along? Your plan was to make me like you, worm your way in until I can’t-”

“Are you kidding me? ” she all but shouted.

Did he seriously think she’d sleep with him to get him to stay? To not sell the ranch? Had he gone stark, raving mad?

He stared at her for a long minute. “Then, prove it. Prove you were being honest about your feelings all along.”

What was he asking?

“Him or me, Mandy. What’s it going to be?”

She froze.

Caleb couldn’t ask this of her. She wasn’t leaving Reed. If she did, Reed would disappear, and this time they wouldn’t find him.

“So, it’s him.” Caleb’s voice was completely devoid of emotion.

She hated his expression, hated his tone, hated that he was putting her in this impossible position. Under these circumstances, there was only one answer.

“Yes,” she ground out. “It’s him.”

Caleb was silent, the breeze wafting, birds chirping in the trees, faint traffic noise from the other side of the building.

Finally, he gave her a curt nod, turned abruptly and stomped back into the hotel lobby.

She and Reed said nothing, simply staring at each other.

“I didn’t mean for it to go this way,” Mandy offered in a small voice, trying desperately not to picture Caleb getting in a cab or maybe a rental car in front of the hotel, making his way back to the airport, flying to Lyndon, packing up the ranch, maybe meeting with another buyer and never seeing her again.

Reed sat back down at the table, his expression implacable. “Did you honestly think putting yourself in the middle would help?”

Her chest tightened, and her throat started to close. “I…” She was at a loss for words. She’d thought it would help. She’d hoped it would help.

“Mandy, all you did was give us something more to fight about.” Reed’s words pierced her heart.

“I didn’t mean…” She’d thought it would work. She’d honestly thought once they saw each other, they’d realize they were still brothers, that they still loved each other, and they’d reconcile.

But now she was in the middle, and Caleb was furious with her. He thought there was actually a chance that she was romantically interested in Reed. And he was gone. Likely gone for good.

Her voice began to shake. “I was only trying to help.”

Reed nodded, and his fingers drummed on the glass top of the table. “I know. You can’t help being you.”

She drew back in confusion.

His expression eased. “We should get you a cape and a mask, Mandy. Swooping in, solving the problems of the world.”

“I’m not…” But then Abigail’s words came back to haunt her. Was this what she’d tried to warn Mandy about? Was Mandy substituting Reed for her own family? Had she become way too invested in Reed and Caleb’s relationship?

Had she made a colossal mistake that was going to hurt them all?

Reed’s dark eyes watched her closely while she struggled to bring her emotions back under control.

“Mandy?” he asked softly, a sad, ghost of a smile growing on his face. “How long have you been in love with Caleb?”

Mandy’s stomach dove into a freefall. “What?” she rasped. “I didn’t… I’m not… It isn’t…” She could feel her face heat to flaming.

Reed cocked his head and waited.

She couldn’t explain.

She wouldn’t explain.

She didn’t have to explain.

“I only slept with him,” she blurted out.

Reed’s lips formed a silent whistle. “And you just forced him to walk away and leave you with me? Oh, Mandy.”

“I’m not in love with him,” she managed. Falling in love with Caleb would be the most foolish move in the world. “It was a fling, a lark. It was nothing.”

Reed reached across the table and took her hand in his. It was big, strong, callused. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

“I know that now,” she admitted. She should have listened to her big sister. She should have minded her own business. Maybe if she had, Reed and Caleb would have found their way back without her.

“Go to the airport,” Reed advised. “Go to Caleb right now.”

But Mandy vigorously shook her head.

It was far too late for her to go to Caleb. And it wasn’t what Reed thought. Caleb never offered her anything more than a plan for a fling in Rio. And even that was over now. She was pushing Caleb right out of her heart. Forever.

Caleb’s jet took off from the Sao Paulo airport, heading northwest into clear skies. The past two days had been an exercise in frustration, but with Danielle’s help, he’d defeated the Brazilian banking system’s red tape, and they were ready to start shipping raw materials next week.

They had a plant manager in place who spoke very good English. Their accounting and computer systems were set up, and they’d approved the hiring of three foremen who were now looking for local skilled trade workers.

“I’m going to set up a meeting with Sales and Accounting for Friday,” said Danielle, punching a message into her PDA. “We have to watch the gross sales ceiling for the first six months, and I want everybody to understand the parameters.”

“I’m not sure about Friday,” said Caleb. He had to give final instructions to the moving company. The sooner the better as far as he was concerned.

“Why not?”

“I need to go to Colorado.”

She whirled her head in his direction. “Wait a minute. What? ”

“The outstanding water rights issue is playing havoc with property values, but I told the broker to take any deal. I want this done.”

“But, your brother.”

“What about my brother?”

“We found him. He’s back. Sign the damn thing over to him and forget about it.”

Caleb wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “What do you mean we found him?”

Danielle straightened, her tone completely unapologetic. “Mandy wasn’t going to get anywhere on her own, so I had Enrico make a few calls.”

“Enrico found Reed?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t think you should run this by me?”

“I didn’t charge you anything. Besides, you were off in la la land, reconnecting with your roots and ignoring your own best interests.”

Caleb coughed and shifted in his airplane seat. “Okay, setting aside for a second that you went behind my back, Reed doesn’t want the ranch. He turned it down.”

“So? Put it in his name, anyway. I can have something drafted by the time we land in Chicago.”

“I’m selling it,” Caleb stated flatly, his frustration growing by the second.

“That’s a ridiculous waste of your time. We need you in your office, with your head in the game, not out on the range, chasing-”

“Since when is my life managed by consensus?”

“Since you stopped managing it for yourself.”

“I take a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks to visit my hometown.”

“Since when could you care less about your hometown?”

Caleb didn’t care about his hometown. Okay, maybe he did. A little. It was fun hanging out with Travis again. And Seth was a great guy. And Mandy. He sucked in a breath. Mandy was going to be impossible to forget.

He’d tried to tell himself she’d lied about her feelings for him. But then he’d been forced to admit, she was. He’d been an absolute ass to accuse her of sleeping with him to get him to give Reed back the ranch. She’d never do that.

He’d even tossed the idea of seeing her again back and forth in his brain about a thousand times. Assuming that she’d be willing.

“Is it Mandy?” Danielle asked, startling him from his thoughts.

“Mandy what?”

“Are you going back to see Mandy?”

Caleb pressed his head hard against the high-backed seat. He had no idea how to answer that question. Mandy and the ranch were two completely different issues, but somehow they’d gotten all tangled up into one.

“If you’ve got a thing for her, you might as well go get it over with.”