“Oh.” Then what was she doing here? Why were they making plans for a vacation in Brazil?

“She’s my financial lawyer.”

“Sure.” Whatever. It didn’t mean they weren’t romantically involved.

He lowered his voice further. “And why did your mind immediately go to a romance?”

“Because she’s gorgeous,” Mandy offered, counting on her finger. “Because she’s here. Because she just told you if you didn’t come back to Chicago, things weren’t going to work out between you.”

Caleb’s voice lowered to a hiss. “And what exactly do you think I’ve been doing with you?”

She was slow to answer, because she really wasn’t sure what the heck he’d been doing with her. “A harmless flirtation. I assumed you didn’t mean it the way-”

“I did.”

“I’d love some coffee,” came Danielle’s sultry voice from the kitchen doorway.

“Coming up.” Mandy quickly turned away from Caleb.

“She thinks you and I are dating,” he said to Danielle in a clear voice.

Danielle’s response was a melodic laugh. “Like I’d get you to sit still long enough for a date.”

“See?” Caleb finished before backing off.

“I’m setting up a corporation for him in Brazil,” Danielle explained. “Do you by any chance have an internet connection? A scanner?”

“In the office,” Caleb answered. “Up the stairs, first door on the right.”

When Mandy turned around, two stoneware mugs of coffee in her hand, Danielle was gone.

Caleb was standing in front of the table in the breakfast nook. “I’m not dating her.”

“Got that.” Mandy took a determined step forward, ignoring the undercurrents from their rather intimate conversation. “Brazil?”

“It’s a huge, emerging market.”

She set the two mugs down on the table. “Are you, like a billionaire?”

“I’ve never stopped to do the math.”

“But you might be.” No wonder he could give up the ranch without a second thought. He wasn’t quite the philanthropist he made himself out to be.

“The net worth of a corporation is irrelevant. All the money’s tied up in the business. Even if you did want to know the value, you’d spend months wading your way through payables, receivables, inventory, assets and debts to find an answer. And by the time you found it, the answer would have changed.”

“But you don’t need the money from the ranch,” was really Mandy’s point.

Caleb drew a sigh. “I’m giving the money to Reed because he earned it.” Caleb’s hand tightened around the back of one of the chairs. “Boy, did he earn it.”

“Then don’t sell the ranch.”

“I can’t stay here and run it.”

Mandy tried to stay detached, but her passion came through in the pleading note of her voice. “Reed doesn’t want the money. He wants the ranch.”

“Then, where is he?”

“He’s sulking.”

Caleb gave a cold laugh. “At least you’ve got that right. He’s off somewhere, licking his wounds, mired in the certain and self-righteous anger that I’m about to cheat him out of his inheritance. Nice.”

“Reed doesn’t trust easily.”

“You think?”

“And you’ve been gone a long time.”

“When I left, I begged him to come with me.”

“Well, he didn’t. And you have a choice here. You can make things better or you can make them worse.”

“No. Reed had a choice here.” Caleb’s voice was implacable. “He could have stayed.”

“He’ll be back.”

Caleb shook his head. “I don’t think so. And he’ll be better off with the money, anyway. He can go wherever he wants, do whatever he wants. He’ll be free of this place forever.”

“If he wanted to be free,” she offered reasonably, “he’d have left with you in the first place.”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you want him back here so badly?”

Mandy wasn’t sure how to answer the question. What she wanted was for Caleb and Reed to reconcile. She wanted the ranch to stay in the Terrell family for Reed’s children, for Sasha’s grandchildren. Reed had sacrificed ten years to protect his heritage. Caleb had no business pulling it out from under him.


Caleb watched the last of the dozen pieces of paper disappear into the ranch house office fax machine. The machine emitted a series of beeps and buzzes that indicated the pages were successfully reaching the Lyndon real-estate office.

“You did it, didn’t you?” Mandy’s accusing voice came from the office doorway. It was full dark, and the ranch yard lights outside the window mingled with the glow of the desk lamp and the stream of illumination from the upstairs hallway. Danielle had retired to the guest room half an hour ago. Caleb thought Mandy had already left.

“The Terrell Cattle Company is officially for sale,” he replied, swiping the pages from the cache tray and straightening them into a neat pile.

“You’re making a mistake,” said Mandy.

“It’s my mistake to make.”

She moved into the room. “Did you ever stop to wonder why he did it?”

“Reed or Wilton?”

“Your father.”

Caleb nodded. “I did. For about thirty-six hours straight. I called Reed half a dozen times after I left my lawyer’s office that day. I thought he might have some answers. But he didn’t call back. And eventually his voice-mail box was full and I knew it was hopeless.”

“Danielle’s office?”

“Different lawyer.”

“Oh.”

Caleb set down the papers and turned to prop himself against the lip of the desk. “I guessed maybe Reed and the old man had a fight, and leaving me the ranch was Wilton’s revenge.”

“They had about a thousand fights.”

Caleb gave a cold chuckle. “Wilton fought with me, too. A guy couldn’t do anything right when it came to my old man. If you piled the manure to the right, he wanted it to the left. You used the plastic manure fork, you should have used the metal one. You started brushing from the front of the horse, you should have started from the back-” He stopped himself. Just talking about it made his stomach churn. How the hell Reed had put up with it for ten extra years was beyond Caleb. The guy deserved a medal.

“My theory,” said Mandy, moving farther into the dimly lit room, “is that once you were gone, he forgot you were such a failure.” An ironic smile took the sting out of her words.

“While Reed was still here to keep screwing up over and over again?”

“Got a better theory?”

“He found my corporation thanks to Google and decided I was worth a damn?” Even as he said the words, Caleb knew it was impossible. He’d spent the better part of his adult life warning himself not to look for his father’s approval. There was nothing down that road but bitter disappointment.

Mandy perched herself on the inset, cushioned window seat. She was silhouetted now by the lights from the yard. “You have to know you are worth a damn.”

“You’re too kind.”

“Reed’s worth a damn, too.”

“No argument from me.”

She tucked her feet up onto the wide, bench seat, and he noticed she was wearing whimsical sky-blue-and-pale-pink, mottled socks. It surprised him. Made her seem softer somehow, more vulnerable.

“I don’t understand why you’re in such a rush to sell,” she said.

“That’s because you live in the Lyndon Valley and not in Chicago.”

“Rash decisions are compulsory in Chicago?”

He moved across the room and took the opposite end of the bench, angling his body toward her and bracing his back against the wall, deciding there was no reason not to give her an explanation. “I’ve had two weeks to think about it.”

“Reed had ten years.”

“In many ways, so did I.”

Mandy shifted her position, smoothing her loose hair back from her face. His gaze hungrily followed her motion.

“Did you ever wish you’d stayed?”

He hesitated at the unsettling question, not sure how to answer. Back then, he’d second-guessed himself for months, even years, over leaving Reed. But it all came down to Wilton. “He killed my mother,” Caleb said softly. “I couldn’t reward him for that.”

“She died of pneumonia.”

“Because it was left untreated. Because she was terrified of telling him she was sick. Because he would have berated and belittled her for her weakness. Terrells are not weak.”

“I never thought you were.”

“I’m not,” he spat, before he realized it wasn’t Mandy he was angry with.

She tossed back her hair. “Reed wasn’t weak. Yet, he stayed.”

“He squared it in his head somehow.”

Reed claimed he wanted to protect his mother’s heritage, since half the ranch had belonged to her family. Which, looking back, was obviously the reason Wilton had married her. The man was incapable of love.

“She was twenty years younger than him,” Caleb remembered. “Did you know that?”

“I knew she was younger. I didn’t know by how much. I remember thinking she was beautiful.” Mandy’s voice became introspective. “I remember wishing I could be that beautiful.”

Caleb couldn’t hold back his opinion. “You are that beautiful.”

Mandy laughed. “No, I’m not.” She held out her hands. “Calluses. I have calluses. Danielle has a perfect French manicure, and I have calluses.” She peered at her small hands. “I think there might even be dirt under my fingernails.”

“Danielle has never had to clean tack.”

“No kidding.”

“I mean, she lives a completely different life than you do.”

Mandy’s face twisted into a grimace. “She goes to parties and I shovel manure?”

“Her world is all about image. Yours is all about practicality.”

“I’m just a sturdy, little workhorse, aren’t I?”

“Are you wallowing in self-pity, Mandy Jacobs?”

She went silent, her glare speaking for her.

Caleb moved inches closer, fighting a grin of amusement. “Are you by any chance jealous of Danielle?”

Mandy tossed back her hair in defiance. “Jealous of a stunningly beautiful, elegant, intelligent, successful lawyer, who’s flying off to Rio-”

“Sao Paulo,” Caleb corrected, enjoying the flash of emotion that appeared deep within Mandy’s green eyes.

“They’re both in Brazil.”

“It’s a big country. One’s a beach resort, the other’s full of skyscrapers, banks and boardrooms.” He fought the urge to reach out and touch her. “But I’d take you to Rio if that’s where you wanted to go.”

She cocked her head sideways. “You’d take me to Rio?”

“I would.” He dared stroke an index finger across the back of her hand. “We’d dress up, and go dancing at a real club and have blender drinks on the beach. You could even get a manicure if you’d like.”

“Are you flirting with me?”

He met her gaze full on. “Absolutely.”

“You have women like Danielle in your life, and yet you’re flirting with me?”

“I am.”

“Why?”

Caleb debated for a moment before answering. But then he reminded himself he was in Colorado. People were forthright around here. And he owed Mandy no less than she was giving him.

“Because you’re real,” he told her. “You’re not some plastic package, constructed to appeal to a man’s anthropological triggers. When you laugh, it’s because you’re happy. When you argue, it’s because you have a point to make. And when your eyes smolder, it’s because you’re attracted to me, not because you’ve spent days and weeks practicing the exact, right look to make a man think you’re interested in him.”

“I’m not interested in you.”

“But you are.” He smoothed a stray lock of her hair and tucked it behind one ear. “That’s what’s so amazing about you. Your body language doesn’t lie.”

“And if my body language slaps you across the face?”

“I hope it’ll be because I’ve done something to deserve it.” Because, then the slap would be worth it.

“You’re impossible.” But her voice had gone bedroom husky. Her pupils were dilated, and her dark pink lips were softened, slightly parted.

“It’s not me you’re fighting,” he told her.

She didn’t answer. Her breathing grew deeper while a pink flush stained her cheeks.

He moved the last couple of inches. Then he dared to bracket her face with his hands. Her skin was smooth, warm and soft against his palms. His pulse jumped, desire igniting a buzz deep in his belly.

He bent his head forward, his lips parting in anticipation of her taste. He hadn’t even kissed her yet, and desire was turning his bloodstream into a tsunami.

She sucked in a quick breath, her jade-green eyes fluttering closed.

Caleb could tell stop signals from go signals, and this was definitely a go. Her head tilted sideways, as she leaned into his palm. He crossed the final inches, her sweet breath puffing against his face in the split second before his lips touched hers.

Desire exploded in his chest. He’d meant it to be a gentle kiss, but raw passion pushed him forward.

He’d known it would be good, guessed she would taste like ambrosia, but nothing had prepared him for the rush of raw lust that made his arms wrap around her and his entire body harden to steel.