by Julie Benson
“You lost me.”
“While the men folk are off doing their thing, I treat the women to a girls’ weekend at the inn. I could contact Heather at The Pure Harmony Spa about offering massages and facials, and I bet Jenna at Cuts and Curls would be willing to do mani/pedis, makeup, and hair. After all, it would be a great deal for them. They’d make money, and we would too because—”
“Everyone would stay at the inn.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s a damned good idea.” One he never would’ve thought of. “You’re turning into quite the businesswoman.”
Guilt raced through him at the sparkle in her eyes and her beaming smile. He’d been quick to criticize. He should be the same with praise. She’d stepped up and grown into the job. Not only that, but her ideas would continue to grow and improve their business. He’d offered her a job out of pity, but the tourist venture had become a true partnership he never imagined.
“While we’re talking about new ideas,” he said, “what do you think of offering a small cattle drive experience? Would people be interested in that?”
“Absolutely.”
She shifted in the chair and his shirt rode up on her long, sexy legs. Between that and the occasional glimpse of her breasts as she moved, he was about to explode. He threw back the covers and crawled out of bed.
“Ty, I’m not done with my sketch.”
“Finish it later. It’s time to make it up to me for putting on my hat.”
*
A few days later as Ty waited for Cassie in the doctor’s waiting room, he thought about his time at the inn. He couldn’t remember when he’d been this content, this satisfied with his life. He’d sure as hell had never been this happy with Lauren. Zane was right. He’d dodged a bullet there.
His days with Cassie and Ella had settled into a routine. After having breakfast together, he stopped by the ranch to touch base with AJ, while Cassie took Ella to school. Once back at the inn, he and Cassie discussed the tour business and ways to implement the couples’ weekend and cattle drive. She possessed a real knack for promotion and new revenue development.
He enjoyed seeing Cassie the artist at work and the creations develop before his eyes. Talk about getting in the zone. When she got going on her sculptures, she wasn’t aware he was in the room. Then after they picked Ella up from school, they visited with Crunchie before heading back to the inn to tackle homework.
But the nights were his favorite time of day. They either watched TV or played board games. He and Ella joked about Cassie’s unexpected competitive nature and her tendency to cheat, while she denied the truth. Then one of them read her a story, depending on who was her favorite that day, and they tucked her in bed.
After that, the night belonged to him and Cassie. They talked or watched TV. Nothing earth shattering. What made the time special was that it was theirs. Now when they crawled into bed, they made love that was damned earth-shattering. A couple of times when they got carried away and forgot to keep quiet, they wondered how Ella managed to sleep through the noise.
Things were as close to perfect as they could be. He’d gotten used to sharing in their lives, and now it could all end. If Cassie’s wrist healed enough to get rid of the brace, she wouldn’t need him. What would happen to them when he moved back to the ranch and the rest of the world intruded? He wasn’t ready for that. Not that he’d have a choice.
Lauren’s words hammered in his head. Ty, I’ve outgrown you. We had fun, but I don’t need you. I want to be on my own, and an east Texas cowboy doesn’t fit the new image I’m trying to create.
What if Cassie’s sculpture sold? He’d joked if she made it big with her art that she wouldn’t have time for their tourist business, but what he’d said could turn into reality. What if she didn’t have time for him?
“Look.” Cassie wiggled her wrist, now free of the brace when she returned to the waiting room.
Disappointment coiled inside Ty. “Great. It’s not broken.”
“While my wrist’s still sore, and I need to be careful, I can return to normal activity.”
And he could return home.
As they headed to his truck, Ty knew he should say something, try to figure out where they went from here, but he couldn’t force the words past the brick lodged in his throat.
Finally he decided nothing ventured, nothing gained. He unlocked his truck and opened the door for Cassie. “How about we go out to dinner tonight?”
He resisted the urge to cringe. Talk about bungling asking a woman out. He’d done a better when he was sixteen.
“You mean like a date? Just the two of us?”
He nodded. He’d done such a lousy job Cassie wasn’t even sure he’d asked her for a date. “I’ll even arrange for the babysitter.”
“I’d like that. It’s a date.”
*
When they parked in front of the inn, Ty said, “I’ll pack my things and head back to the ranch. How about I pick you up at seven?”
“I’ll be ready.”
Considering what they shared, how they’d explored each other’s bodies in great detail just last night, he wondered if their small talk felt as awkward for her as it did for him. But how could it feel differently when they seemed to be going at their relationship in a backward order? Hopefully tonight’s date would fix that.
“The Horseshoe has bands on Wednesdays. We could grab dinner and stick around for the music.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Cassie said as she opened the front door.
They no sooner stepped inside when Ella barreled toward them, a Fed Ex envelop clutched in her small hands which she shoved into Cassie’s.
“This came while you two were at the doctor,” Aubrey said trailing behind Ella. “The return address says it’s from a New York art gallery.”
Apprehension tightened Ty’s stomach. The sculpture she’d sent off. This had to be good news. He wanted her success, wanted her artwork to take off because for her it was part of who she was like the ranch was for him. But he wanted… He paused. He wanted her. To stay here with him, and he feared her career taking off would make that impossible.
“Open it quick, Aunt Cassie,” Ella said, bouncing up and down. “Aubrey and I are dying to know what it is.”
“It’s from Malcolm, the gallery owner I worked with in New York.” She explained how she’d sent him her sculpture. “It’s something different than anything I’ve ever done before.”
“Open it, Aunt Cassie!”
“I bet it’s good news,” Aubrey added.
For Cassie, but Ty wasn’t so sure whatever the envelope contained would be so great for him.
The zip of cardboard ripping as she pulled the tab on the package echoed in the entry. Her shook as she reached inside and withdrew the contents, a smaller white business envelope.
“Another envelope?” Ella groaned.
Cassie tore open the smaller envelop and retrieved a letter from inside. He slid closer to get a better view. As she unfolding the single sheet he spotted a check. He’d joked about her not having time for their business if she made it big, but now that was a real possibility. The realization of how much he relied on her.
Her smile and the sparkle in her eyes lit up the room as she read the note. “I sold the piece you sent, but that’s not all. The client loved your sketches and wants to commission two of the other items. The enclosed check includes the purchase price for the first sculpture and deposits for the others. We’ll talk soon about delivery dates.”
Cassie waved the check in the air and feminine ear-piercing shrieks erupted around him, making his ears ring. Then Ella grabbed Aubrey and Cassie’s hands and the three of them started dancing like dancers out of a Weird Al Yankovic video.
“What on earth’s wrong?” His mom shouted, concern lining her face, as she rushed in from the direction of the kitchen.
“Man, the Air Force could use those screams to warn of air raids,” AJ said, joining them, too.
“I
’m sorry we scared you both,” Cassie said. “Nothing’s wrong. Something’s very right. I sold a sculpture.”
His mom hugged Cassie and said how thrilled she was. AJ high-fived her and added his congratulations. Ty knew he should say something, but every time he tried to move closer to Cassie someone else got in the way.
She glanced over her shoulder at him, uncertainty in her gaze. He smiled and mouthed the word, “Congratulations.”
Now that the excitement had died down, Cassie glanced at the check. Color flushed her checks and she started laughing.
“People usually don’t laugh when they look at a check,” Aubrey said. “Though come to think of it, I did once when a doctor’s office sent me a check for one cent because I overpaid for an office visit.”
“Oh, dear,” his mother said. “I hope you’re not laughing because it’s something like that.”
Everyone including Ty stared at her expectantly, but she whenever she tried to speak she broke into another fit of laughter. She handed him the check. “You want me to tell them?”
Cassie nodded. When he read the amount he damned near dropped the thing. He swallowed hard. Twenty thousands dollars? Holy hell. He’d never imagined she could make that kind of money selling three sculptures. Not three. She’d sold one and received deposits on the others.
“Twenty thousand dollars. That must’ve been some sculpture. What was it made out of? Platinum?” he asked.
She beamed up at him and his heart skipped a beat. “I have you to thank because you gave me the idea. It came to me the day at the lake when I saw you on your horse.”
“I say this calls for a celebration,” Ty’s mom said.
All Ty could think about was so much for their first date.
Chapter Fifteen
‡
While last night’s celebration at the Horseshoe had been fun, a group even with his mother, sister, best friend, and Ella it hadn’t been what Ty had in mind for his first date with Cassie. Intent on rescheduling, he picked up his phone to call her, but before he could his phone rang with a call from his bank.
“Ty, there’s no easy way to say this,” John said when Ty answered. “We’re calling in the loan you cosigned for Lauren.”
She’d assured him she’d make this month’s payment. Or had she? He’d told her she would, but now that he thought about it, she never promised to do anything. “You need to talk to Lauren about this.”
“I did. She said her business is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy. She said since she’s unable to pay off the loan, she said to contact you for payment. I hate saying this, Ty, but per the terms of the loan that means you’re responsible for it.” Then John rattled off the amount due.
Ty sat at his desk for a minute waiting for the shock to subside. It didn’t. From the balance, Lauren must have quit making payments before she moved. Hell, from what John said she’d only made a handful of payments at all. Damn. What a mess. He wanted to say hell with it and let her suffer the consequences, but that would cost him, too.
The smartest thing to do would be to pay off the loan and then deal with Lauren. He pulled up his personal account on his computer to check the balance. Paying Cassie’s salary had taken a good chunk of his savings, but what remained would help. “I’ll transfer part of the funds to cover the loan out of my private account.” Everything but what he needed to keep the account open. “The rest can come out of the corporate account.”
Silence stretched before John cleared his throat. “Have you checked the balance on that account recently?”
Apprehension unfurled inside Ty. Have you checked the balance on that account recently? Not what a man wanted to hear from his banker. He pulled up that account and stared at the dismal balance. “This has to be a mistake.”
The amount was so low he wouldn’t be able to meet this month’s expenses.
“I expressed concern when Aubrey made the second withdrawal, but as she’s a signer on the account there was nothing I could do.”
The walls closed in on Ty. His sister had damn near cleaned out the corporate account, while Lauren defaulted on her loan, and he was left holding the empty bag. “Take everything out of my personal account except what I need to keep it open. Put that toward the loan. I’ll get the balance to you this week.”
“I’m sorry to do this, Ty. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t call in the loan, but headquarters has put strict instructions in place for us in these types of situation.”
After he ended his call, a numbing cold spread through him. How would he find the money to pay off pay off Lauren’s loan and meet the ranch’s expenses? Anger surged through him at both Lauren and Aubrey. He couldn’t deal with the first right now, but intended to make his sister fix her share of the mess right now.
He stormed through the house yelling her name, thankful that his mother was at work. If she were home, she’d get caught smack dab in the middle of her children’s disagreement.
“Stop yelling,” Aubrey said from the top of the staircase. “What’s wrong?”
“I got a call from John at the bank.”
Aubrey paled. “Ty let me explain.”
“Get down here right now.”
His sister nodded, continued downstairs, and joined him in the living room. “What I want to know is what the hell were you thinking when you raided the business account?”
“I thought I’d have the money replaced in a week, but unfortunately it’s going to take longer for my investment to pay off.”
“Investment? The one we discussed? The one I said I couldn’t loan you money for?”
“You think we talked about it? That’s not how I see it. I brought up the subject. You nixed it without ever really listening to what I had to say.”
“Yes, I did, but apparently you didn’t hear me. I thought I was clear when I said we couldn’t afford to invest in anything right now.” A fresh wave of anger roiled through him at her open defiance. He bolted out of the chair and started pacing, hoping to burn off his irritation. Better wearing a hole in the floor than losing it with his sister.
He circled the room as Aubrey explained how she’d been taking her allowance for the last few years and investing it. While she’d developed a little nest egg, she lacked the funds to buy into her friend’s company. “I know you told me I couldn’t borrow the money, but I really thought you were just being overly cautious.”
“The money will be repaid. Today.”
He didn’t think it possible, but his sister paled further. “The money’s gone. Curt used it to pay production costs for the prototype. The company’s sale should’ve gone through this week, but a couple of legal issues are holding things up. I can’t recoup the cash until Curt sells the company or finds more investors. When that goes through I’ll make a killing.”
“Then why am I worrying?” Sarcasm dripped from his words. He stopped and glared at his sister. “Things always go as expected.”
“Calm down. I’ll replace the funds in a month the most.”
“Calm down. Don’t tell me to calm down.” He inhaled deeply and held the breath, but when the tightness in his chest refused to loosen he started pacing again. “Damn it, Aubrey. You and Lauren are going to drive me to at an early grave.”
“What’s Lauren got to do with this?”
“Thanks to her defaulting on the loan I consigned for her, the bank’s called in the loan. That means I’m on the hook for it. With my savings tapped out from paying Cassie’s salary I don’t have the funds to pay the balance.”
“Then borrowing money from the tourist account isn’t an option.” Aubrey paused. “Wait a minute. You’ve been paying Cassie’s salary? You told Mom the tourist business was doing well enough to hire her.”
“I lied.”
“If you’d told me, I wouldn’t have borrowed the money from the ranch account.”
“You will not make this my fault.” Fury radiated from him as he paced, and the anger in his voice rattled around the room. His sister stared at
him wide-eyed as if she didn’t recognize him. “I told you the business couldn’t afford to advance you the money. That should’ve been good enough for you.”
“We can figure this out,” she said. “All we have to do is get through the next couple of weeks and everything will be fine.”
“If your deal pans out. You keep forgetting there aren’t any guarantees in business. Things look promising now, but it could fall apart in a heartbeat. Do you know how many start up companies fail in their first year?”
Aubrey shook her head.
“I do. Three out of four. We can’t count on your investment paying off.”
“Surely if you ask the bank for more time, they’ll give it to you. Our family has done business with them since they opened.”
“John’s hands are tied. The corporate offices are calling the shots.” Not that he blamed the bank. They had to watch out for their interests. “If I can’t pay the loan, the bank has the right to go after my assets. As in the Bar 7. We could lose everything, and if that isn’t enough, we don’t even have enough to cover this month’s expenses. You know trivial things like hay and feed for the cattle.”
“Is the situation that serious? You’re not just being overly dramatic to teach me a lesson?”
He nodded.
“We’ll have to ask Mom to help out.”
“No we won’t. She needs to put down as much as possible on the new house so her payments are affordable now that she’ll be on a fixed income.” He leaned forward in his chair, braced his hands on his smooth desk top and locked gazes with his sister. “You won’t tell her about this, because she’d cash in her investments and she’d lose a good portion of her money to penalties.”
He resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck and the Texas sized knot that had formed there. He would figure this out because he refused to let his family down. He wouldn’t lose the ranch his ancestors had built. The legacy his grandfather trusted him to maintain. He could handle anything, but that.
“I’ve got it,” Aubrey said, her youthful face brightening. “We can ask Cassie for a loan.”