Showdown

by Amy Elizabeth

  Normally the image made Rebecca smile, but today it produced a different reaction.

  Tears welled in her eyes as she recalled one of the last things Walter ever said to her. It was a warm September morning and they were sitting on the back porch together, sharing what would be their final conversation.

  “I want to know that you’re going to support him in whatever he decides to do after I’m gone,” he’d said to her, “because no one has earned that right more than he has. Will you do that for me?”

  And Rebecca of course had answered yes, because she never would have guessed that this was what Alec had in mind. Now, though, she felt another stab of realization.

  Walter knew.

  He knew this would happen after he died. He knew all along that Alec wanted to sell the ranch. Had the two of them actually discussed it at some point…or did Walter just know his son that well?

  A familiar hand touched her shoulder, bringing her back to the present. Discreetly she dabbed her eyes and turned to see Tommy in the doorway.

  “You okay?” he said gently.

  She sniffed and nodded, but she must not have looked very convincing. Tommy opened his arms and she stepped into his embrace, burying her face in his shirt.

  “Did he tell you?” she asked.

  He nodded against the top of her head. “This morning.”

  Rebecca hadn’t even stopped to consider what Tommy would do if they sold the ranch. The Flying W was more than just his place of employment–it was his home. And in a couple of months it would be his wife’s home, as well.

  “I hadn’t even thought about you and Liz,” she admitted, pulling back to look at him. “It would mess everything up for you, wouldn’t it?”

  Tommy shrugged. “We’d be alright, Bec. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  “It’s not that I wouldn’t be alright. I just…” She paused and shook her head. “Were you surprised?”

  “Nah. I had a feeling it would come to this. He’s never wanted this place.”

  “But it’s not just a place, Tommy. It’s his family’s legacy. It’s our entire way of life. I can’t believe he would just up and walk away from it. And I don’t have the slightest clue what he’s going to do with himself. I mean, he’s a rancher. What does a rancher do if he doesn’t have a ranch?”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that. Alec’s a brilliant businessman. If you could’ve seen this place when I first got here, before he made it into what it is now, you wouldn’t believe the difference. He’s the type of person who’s going to succeed at anything he puts his mind to.”

  Rebecca conceded the point with a nod. “It’s just so surreal. On one hand, I can understand exactly where he’s coming from. But on the other…”

  When her voice trailed off, Tommy gave a quiet sigh. “I know, Bec. I love it here, too.”

  *

  Alec had just stepped into the farmhouse when his cell phone rang. Wearily he removed his gloves and reached into his pocket to answer it.

  “Hello?”

  “It’s me,” Rebecca greeted. “Are you finished with the assessor?”

  “Just now.”

  There was a slight pause. “I was going to pick something up for dinner and bring it home, but I thought maybe you’d like to meet me instead.”

  Alec was exhausted, but he couldn’t say no to her request. “I’d love to. Where did you have in mind?”

  Forty-five minutes later, he parked his truck in front of Rebecca’s favorite Italian restaurant, tucked a few streets back from the town square. When he entered the foyer he spotted her sitting at the bar, thoughtfully sipping a glass of red wine. Even though she sounded calm when she’d called him, he knew he needed to be prepared for anything.

  Alec wordlessly took a seat beside her, stretching his arm across the back of her chair. To his relief, she sent him a warm smile and leaned closer, pressing her lips to his.

  So far, so good, he decided. She couldn’t be that angry if she was kissing him.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  “Hi.” He mirrored her smile before he glanced out across the restaurant. “Do you want to get a table?”

  “Nah, let’s eat up here,” she said, settling back in her chair. “How’d it go today?”

  Alec briefly filled her in on his day. “It was a lot of questions and a lot of paperwork, just like the first time around. It’ll take them a week or so to get the numbers worked out.”

  Rebecca nodded and reached into the bread basket. “So I’ve been doing a lot of thinking today.”

  “And?” he dared to ask.

  She finished buttering her roll and set it on her plate before she turned to look at him. “You’re right, Alec. I do love that ranch more than anyplace else on earth. And if it were up to me, I would stay there forever.”

  Alec flinched. “Bec, I–”

  “Let me finish.” She reached out to touch his face. “As much as I love our home, I love you more. And I realized today that I can’t have both. If we keep the ranch, I lose you. The truth is that I lose you every time you set foot through that door, and I can’t live like that indefinitely. But if selling the ranch means I would get you back–the real you–then there’s no question what my choice is.”

  He searched her eyes, allowing the weight of her words to sink in. “Are you sure?”

  She nodded without hesitation.

  “You realize we’ll probably never sell it, though, right?”

  She nodded again. “But if it will make you happy to try, then do it. With my blessing.”

  Alec had to grip the bar to keep himself upright. He was so certain that she was going to say just the opposite–that she’d never agree to it or that she’d leave him if he ever sold their home.

  Never in a million years would he have imagined that she’d give him her approval.

  Rebecca leaned closer and rested her face against his ear. “I was thinking about where I’d be right now if I’d never gotten out of Southie,” she said softly. “Sometimes I still wake up and expect our whole life together to be a dream. Because the truth is…I’ve already got everything I want. I got to make my life exactly what I wanted it to be. And you deserve nothing less.”

  She pulled back to look at him. “It’s your turn, Alec. It’s your turn to get everything you’ve ever wanted.”

  Chapter 13

  Tommy let out a sigh as he scanned the numbers on the screen, ensuring that they matched the numbers on the inventory sheet. When he was certain that everything was correct, he pressed the Order button and patiently waited for the conformation. Then he set the papers aside and leaned back in the chair to rub his tired eyes.

  He’d meant to finish all of this last night, but once Liz showed up he knew he wouldn’t get any work done. She’d just found out that her cousin wouldn’t be able to join them in Las Vegas, and she was understandably disappointed. Tommy hated to hit her with one more thing when she was already feeling down, but she needed to know.

  “Alec might be putting the ranch up for sale,” he told her during dinner.

  Liz paused midmotion. “Really?”

  “It’s a long shot at best. A place like this won’t sell overnight, if it sells at all.”

  She frowned. “But what if it does?”

  Tommy didn’t have an answer for her. He’d been turning the possibilities in his mind all week, wondering what he would do if he had to leave the Flying W. It’d be easy if it were just him; he could join the rodeo circuit again or look for a similar position on a different ranch.

  In a few more months, though, it wouldn’t be just him. He’d have a wife to provide for, and he didn’t exactly have the most impressive résumé. Hell, he didn’t even have a high school diploma. For the first time since he was eighteen, he felt apprehensive about the future.

  That wasn’t the only thing on his mind. Something else was troubling him, too; something buried deep below the surface.

  For all these years, he’d successfully managed to keep
his nose out of Rebecca and Alec’s business. His feelings for her had never dimmed, but he’d never had a reason to question her relationship with Alec, either. As long as Rebecca was happy, Tommy was happy.

  Since Walter’s death, though, something had changed between Rebecca and Alec. Tommy never saw them argue, but there was definitely some sort of disconnect between them. He used to see them together all the time, working side-by-side in the barn or laughing over something in the office.

  Now he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen the two of them together. Alec showed up alone in the mornings to help him work; then Rebecca would come down in the afternoons after Alec returned to the farmhouse. Rebecca constantly went into town alone, too. Oftentimes he wouldn’t see her truck pull into the driveway until he was already in bed for the night.

  Why was she spending so much time away from the farmhouse? And why was Alec spending so much time in it? Were they each just missing Walter? He knew the old man’s death was a painful blow to them, and understandably so.

  Still, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was some unresolved issue that was causing friction in their relationship.

  Despite his curiosity, Tommy knew better than to pry. Regardless of how he felt about Rebecca, certain things were none of his business…and her marriage was foremost on that list.

  But the more time passed, the harder it was for Tommy to remain uninvolved. He knew that she trusted him, so he had no problem lending her a listening ear. At the same time, she didn’t know how much it tore him up to see her cry. Since she didn’t know how he felt about her, she had no way of knowing that she was inadvertently pushing him closer and closer to the one place he didn’t want to be.

  He didn’t want to come between her and Alec.

  He genuinely wanted the two of them to be secure in their marriage, so he could be secure in his own. He wanted it to go back to the way it was before last summer so he could give Liz the undivided love she deserved. He could do that when Rebecca was happy. He didn’t need to worry about her when she was happy.

  But lately she hadn’t been; even when she didn’t say it aloud, he could see it in her eyes.

  And that bothered him far more than it should have.

  “Hey.”

  A quiet voice jolted him back to the present. He lifted his head to see Liz standing in the doorway, looking downright adorable with her fuzzy pajama pants tucked inside her snow boots.

  “Hey,” he echoed, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. “I was just trying to finish some stuff before you woke up.”

  “And did you?”

  He nodded and pushed his chair away from the desk, wordlessly opening his arms. She grinned and curled up in his lap, nuzzling her face in the crook of his neck. He closed his eyes and kissed the top of her head, marveling at the way her presence quieted his mind.

  “You’re really worried about this place selling, aren’t you?”

  Tommy was worried about a lot of things, but he responded with a simple nod.

  “Don’t be,” she added, tightening her arms around him. “You know they’ll give you a stellar recommendation.”

  “I know.” He gave a quiet sigh. “It’s just been my home for so long now. I thought it always would be.”

  *

  When the assessor called Alec to give him the final estimate, he had to sit in the nearest chair so he didn’t keel over. He knew his property was valuable, but the dollar amount that the assessor listed was so astronomical that Alec thought he’d misunderstood him.

  “You heard me right,” the assessor assured him. “So if you’re serious about selling, the only way you’re going to do it is to parcel out the property and sell it in pieces.”

  Alec hadn’t considered that as an option, but it made sense. The month of February disappeared in a blur of meetings with his accountant and attorney and every realty office in the town of Jackson. Finally he settled on a realtor named Bonnie Vickerman, not only because of her business savvy but also because she was willing to comply with his unusual request.

  “I want to be the one to show the property,” he explained during their consultation. “I have to know who the buyer is and what his intentions are. There’s no way I’ll sell to someone I’ve never met.”

  Bonnie gave a gentle smile. “I fully respect that.”

  Before the final advertisements were even drawn up, Alec received a phone call from Dan Ward, a longtime friend and the president of the city council. “Rumor has it you might be putting the Flying W on the market.”

  “Word travels fast in a small town,” Alec replied, smiling in spite of himself. “How’ve you been, Dan?”

  They made small talk for a couple of minutes before Dan cleared his throat. “I’m in no way trying to tell you what to do with your own land. But I wanted to share something that happened when you were young, in case your father never told you about it.”

  Alec leaned against the counter. “I’m listening.”

  “Back in the recession in the early eighties, the cattle market all but bottomed out. Your father was hurting for money, and I mean hurting. So he approached the National Park Service to see if they’d be interested in purchasing some of his property. And they were. They bought nine-hundred acres from him that same month.”

  He frowned into the receiver. “I didn’t realize that the park service was in a position to purchase land from private sellers.”

  “Well, most acquisitions do come from donations. But there is a provision in place for them to purchase land that already borders its boundaries. If I’m not mistaken, the northern edge of your land shares a border with Grand Teton National Park. I doubt they’d have the budget to purchase all of it, but they might be willing to take a decent chunk off your hands. I know your father would be pleased with the idea. He was always a great supporter of the park service when he served on the council.”

  Alec took a moment to process what Dan was telling him. Rather than parcel off the land to developers, how much better would it be to sell it to the park service, which would preserve it for generations to come?

  “Do you have a contact in the acquisitions office?” he asked.

  He could hear the smile in Dan’s voice. “Do you have a pen handy?”

  Before he made the call, Alec sat down with Rebecca to see what she thought. To his relief, she loved the idea as much as he did.

  “How much do you think they’ll purchase?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure. But there’s only one way to find out.”

  Later that week he met with Tony, the head of acquisitions, who called them the next day with an official offer. The National Park Service was willing to purchase twenty-five hundred acres–just less than half of their total property. It included most of the river valley and the land beyond the back paddocks, areas that were still in their natural state and would forever remain that way under the protection of the park service.

  “Give me one second, Tony,” Alec requested, pressing the mute button on the speaker phone. Then he looked up at his wife, who sat on the other side of the kitchen table. “What do you think?”

  Rebecca nodded. “I think you should do it.”

  Alec’s hand was still shaking when he hung up the phone. Not even a month after he’d pitched the idea, nearly half their property was sold.

  Was it really going to be this simple?

  *

  Rebecca shifted her weight from one foot to the other, scanning the crowd of faces that emerged from the jet way.

  She could hardly believe that it was already March. Tomorrow she and her friends were boarding a plane bound for Las Vegas, but she’d scarcely had a moment to think about it. She was glad that Alec was including her in the process of advertising and selling the ranch, but for the most part she let him make the decisions. He had far more experience in business than she did, and he was the one who was so fired up about it.

  In fact, she hadn’t seen him this animated about anything since his father’s deat
h.

  Her thoughts were interrupted when she spotted her mother shuffling into the terminal. Susan was the epitome of South Boston Irish, with her petite frame and ruddy complexion. Rebecca was never sure what to expect with Susan’s visits, but to her relief her mother looked happy and healthy, bundled up beneath a colorful scarf.

  “Hi, Bec,” she greeted, huffing as she set her carry-on bag on the floor. “It’s good to see you.”

  Rebecca enveloped her in a warm embrace. “It’s good to see you, too, Mom.”

  They chatted about Susan’s flight and the weather back in Boston as they made their way to baggage claim. “Jeff and Alli both get off work at three,” Rebecca said. “They’re going to pick Stacey up from daycare and meet us back at their house.”

  Susan beamed at the mention of her granddaughter. “I can’t wait to see her. I can’t believe it’s been over a year already.”

  “I know. She’s getting big so fast. And she’s walking like a champ now. You’re really going to have your hands full this weekend.”

  Her mother laughed. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  After collecting Susan’s suitcase, they headed outside into the crisp alpine air. It wasn’t until they climbed into the truck and Rebecca started the engine that her mother finally cleared her throat.

  “So how are things with you and Alec?”

  Rebecca gave a little shrug. “Things are okay.”

  When she didn’t respond, Rebecca glanced over at her. Susan stared straight back at her, searching her eyes in that way that only mothers can.

  “You’ve been telling me that for months, Bec. And you still don’t have me convinced.”

  Rebecca dropped her gaze. “He’s gotten a little better since we put the ranch on the market. He’s sleeping more. And he’s been doing a lot of work with Shadow and Onyx again, so he’s staying busy.”