by Julie Benson
“No.” The force in his voice nearly rattled the windows.
“At least ask her for enough to meet the ranch’s expenses. You’ve done so much for her. She’d be happy to return the favor now that she’s come into some money.”
He pinned her with his best don’t-mess-with-me-the-subject-is-closed-big-brother stare.
“Why are you being so stubborn about this? Cassie’s practically family, and don’t glare at me like I just said something ridiculous. You never looked at Lauren the way you look at Cassie. Your eyes light up when she walks in a room. You look at her the same way Grandpa Mac looked at Grandma Mabel.”
This wasn’t Cassie’s problem, and no way was he asking him to bail him out financially when he’d been stupid enough to cosign a loan for his ex.
He refused to dignify his sister’s suggestion with an answer.
“If it’s a pride thing, and you don’t want to ask her, I will,” she continued, oblivious to the fact that she’d nearly pushed him past his breaking point. Time to set her straight.
He stopped in front of his sister and leaned down until they were almost eye to eye. “Listen to me carefully. You are not to tell Cassie about this. Do you understand?” When she didn’t answer, he repeated the questions and she nodded. “I’ll figure something out, but you stay out of this, Aubrey. You’ve done enough already.”
*
As Cassie, with Ella in the backseat, parked near the Bar 7 Ranch, she couldn’t believe the changes in her life since she’d arrived in Wishing. Her career was on an upswing. Surprisingly, she’d come to enjoy running the inn and the tours. Working with Ty was helping her learn to be a better businesswoman, and juggling her art career and her other responsibilities became less daunting every day. She loved doing the tours. Not only did it keep from becoming too isolated with her artwork, being at the ranch gave her insight into Ty’s life. Seeing him, his land, his world, gave her confidence and a new perspective that fueled her creative work.
Then there was Ella, and the stability Ty gave her. Every day her emotional state improved and she came more out of her shell. While she’d never get over losing her parents, Ty filled a little of Ella’s void over losing her father.
And every day Cassie loved him a little bit more.
He’d only moved out a day ago and yet she found she missed him. She longed for the closeness they shared as they snuggled on the couch after they put Ella to bed. That had been her favorite part of the day when in the night stillness they talked about their day, plans they had for their business or nothing at all. If last night’s date hadn’t turned into a group celebration, maybe she’d have found out where he saw their relationship going.
No worries. I have time to see what develops. I’m not going anywhere.
She pushed the barn door open and Ella dashed past her, a bright red apple clutched in her small hands. “Crunchie’s gonna love this.”
When Ty didn’t meet them, Cassie headed for his office. Maybe they could sneak in a quick necking session before Ella missed them. She walked into the room and froze. His normally immaculately organized desk was littered with papers. The wastebasket on the floor overflowed with wadded up ones. When he glanced at her his normally warm brown gaze was dull, distant, and weary.
“Bad day?” she asked as she crossed the room.
“It’s better now that you two are here.” He smiled, but it was tight, almost forced. His posture remained stiff and rigid.
Something was wrong.
“Sorry. I’m not buying that lousy performance.” When he failed to crack a smile at her joke, she placed her hand on his arm. Bands of steel remained unyielding under her touch. His tension radiated through her. “Something’s bothering you. I know you well enough to see it in your eyes. Let me help.”
The weariness vanished replaced with stoic resolve as he yanked his arm away. He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m fine. I don’t need any help.”
The hard edge lacing his voice as he tried to create a wall between them made her more determined. He’d done so much for her, been there at the lowest point in her life when she had no one else to turn to. She wanted to do the same for him now. “Sometimes I can’t see a solution to a problem until I talk things through with someone. At least let me provide a sympathetic ear.”
Her words, intended to offer comfort and support had the opposite effect. Ty flinched as if he’d taken a blow. His gaze darkened. His brows knit together and the skin pulled tight across his cheeks. “Don’t Cassie.”
He wanted to shut her out. Too bad. She wasn’t about to let him. “Don’t what? Offer to help when something’s obviously bothering you? I thought that’s what people who are involved do. Maybe I’m wrong, though.” About relationships. About expectations. About them, and what they had together. Like a partnership and a future.
She crossed her arms over her chest to keep from clenching her fists as anger mixed with disappointment settled in her stomach. “If nothing else, we’re neighbors, and I’ve been told that’s what neighbors do around here. They help each other.”
“I’ll be honest with you,” he began, his gaze shifting from her face to somewhere over her shoulder.
She braced. Nothing she wanted to hear ever had come after that phrase. I’ll-be-honest-with-you had been one of her mother’s favorite phrases and often prefaced a criticism that stung like a bad paper cut.
“What’s going on with me has nothing to do with you. It’s private and I’d prefer to keep it that way.”
Okay, then. He couldn’t be clearer than that. Desperation poured into every cell in her body.
“Aunt Cassie and Ty, you’ve got to see what I taught Crunchie.” High pitched childish giggles floated toward them. “You’re gonna be amazed!”
“We’ll be right there, Ella.” Ty stood and glanced at Cassie, his eyes blank and emotionless. “We’re done here.”
Cold spread through her, and the frantic need to get away from Ty overwhelmed her. “I can’t do this. I need some air. Tell Ella—” She paused to collect her thoughts, but words refused to form. She loved Ty so much, and his shutting her out as if she were a stranger left her hollow. She’d wondered where she stood with him. Now she knew. “Just tell her something. I’ll be back in a little while.”
“I’ll handle it.”
As she stumbled out of the barn, she knew he would. He always did. That was part of their problem. He was more than willing to help her, but when it came to relying on her? Forget about it. No matter what the situation he managed. Alone.
Not exactly the type of relationship she’d envisioned if she ever fell in love. She’d imagined one of give and take. An equal partnership where they relied on and propped each other up during the rough times and shared in their successes. A true team.
She’d been a fool to think otherwise, that she could have that with Ty. For a while they’d played house, but that was all it had been. Nothing more. Since then, who knew what they’d been doing, but she was tired of it. She flung open the barn door, the wood creaking in protests, and stormed outside.
“Damn stubborn man wouldn’t know a good thing if he fell over it!” A cloud of dust swirled around her as the stone went flying.
“Hey. Warn a girl when you’re about to send a projectile her way so she can duck. Thank goodness I’ve got quick reflexes or you’d have nailed me with that one.”
Cassie froze and glanced up to find Aubrey twenty feet in front of her. “Sorry.”
“What’s wrong?”
“That’s exactly what I asked Ty, but he won’t tell me. Instead he keeps saying nothing’s going on when I know there is.”
Aubrey linked her arm through Cassie’s. “We need to talk. Let’s go inside because I’m going to need a drink, and after you hear what I have to say, I think you might, too.”
Chapter Sixteen
‡
Once inside at the kitchen table, Aubrey poured each of them a glass of Cab. After taking a rather large gulp of hers, Aub
rey said, “I screwed up, Cassie. Remember that investment opportunity I mentioned at the well that day?”
Cassie nodded.
“When Ty refused to loan me the money for the venture, I borrowed the money out of the ranch account. I thought I’d have it replaced within a couple of days.”
“Oh, Aubrey, you didn’t.”
“I really thought I’d have the money returned by now.” Aubrey explained how she’d bought into a friend’s company and how the deal to sell to an international company that was set to close last week had been held up with legal issues. “If everything had gone like it was supposed to, Ty never would’ve known.”
“When did he find out?”
Aubrey’s grip tightened on the stem of her wine glass. “Today when the bank called to say they were calling in the loan he cosigned for his ex.”
“I don’t understand. If Lauren defaulted on the loan, why didn’t they call her?”
“They did. She said she couldn’t pay and told them to call Ty.”
A fist squeezed her heart for what Ty must be feeling, followed by anger at Lauren. How could a woman do something like that to a man she once supposedly loved? The woman was a selfish bitch. That was the only way she could do what she had. “How could she be so irresponsible and do that to him?”
“That’s Lauren for you. She goes from one crisis to another and expects someone to be there to help dig her out of trouble.” Aubrey ran her finger around the rim of her wine glass. “Anyway, that’s how Ty found out. When he told the bank to transfer funds out of the corporate account, he discovered what I’d done.”
“How much did you take?”
“Enough that Ty can’t borrow money to pay Lauren’s loan. Not only that, but he says we can’t meet this month’s expenses.”
“What about your mom? Can she help?”
Aubrey shook her head and explained why that wasn’t an option. “I’ve really messed everything up, Cassie. He says it’s really bad. We could lose everything, even the ranch.”
“That’s not going to happen.” Cassie’s chair scraped against the wood floor as she pushed away from the table. “I’ll talk to Ty. I’ll tell him I can help.”
Panic flared in her green eyes, Aubrey clutched Cassie’s hand. “You can’t do that. When I suggested he ask you for a loan since you received that monster check and his saving are tapped out because he’s been paying your salary out of his pocket—”
“What?”
Aubrey covered her face with her hands and groaned. “I’m on a roll today. That was something else I wasn’t supposed to tell you he was paying you from his savings.”
Ty had given her a lifeline when she’d been about to go under financially, and he’d done so in a way to salvage her pride. The depth of what he’d done for her rippled through her. The man really was something.
“You can’t tell him I told you all this after he told me not to,” Aubrey pleaded. “If he knows we talked he’ll be even madder at me. As it is, I don’t know how he’ll ever forgive me. Please don’t make this worse.”
She squeezed the younger woman’s hand in reassurance. “Okay, calm down. I won’t say anything.”
Ty’s pride kept him from confiding in her earlier, and it would prevent him from accepting help from her now. He’d held onto the family ranch through tough times that forced to others sell out. Ending up in this precarious financial situation on top of what Lauren and Aubrey had done must have him feeling as if his world had collapsed on top of him. She refused to let him risk losing the land he loved so much.
She wanted to prove that he could count on her, that he didn’t have to always be the strong one. Time for her to pay him back for everything he’d done for her. “What’s the name of your bank, and can you stay with Ella this afternoon?”
*
After Ella left, Ty sat at his desk and he closed his eyes. The disappointed and wounded look on Cassie’s face when he said he didn’t need any help flashed before him. Her gaze had almost done him in. He’d come so close to confiding in her. Part of him wanted to share his financial troubles and to ask her to help him brainstorm possible solutions, but then he remembered how much she’d been through so much since coming to town. The last thing she needed was him dumping his problems on her.
He should’ve known better than to cosign Lauren’s loan when her father refused, but instead of trusting his instincts, he’d reasoned them away. They were getting married in a couple of months and her debts would become his anyway, so what did it matter? Turned out it mattered a lot.
And he’d taken his anger out on Cassie. He’d hoped to smooth things out a little when she picked up Ella, but instead she sent Aubrey with a lame excuse about having errands to run. But he knew the real reason. She hadn’t returned because she didn’t want to see him.
Deciding he’d fix things with Cassie once he dug out of his financial pit, he opened the computer file on his investments. If he cashed in enough to pay off the loan and meet a couple of months expenses without sending cattle to market early and or selling any land, he’d call it a win. He had time to rebuild his personal finances. He’d recover. A plan in place, he picked up his phone and called John at First National. “I’m checking into cashing in my investments, but that’s going to take time.”
“The loan was paid in full an hour ago.”
Relief filled Ty’s veins. Miracles did happen. “I never thought Lauren would step up and take care of it.”
“Uh, it wasn’t Miss Colburn who paid the loan.”
His elation evaporated, replaced with confusion. The only one who knew about the loan was Aubrey, and unless she’d struck oil since they’d talked, she didn’t have the money. Apprehension uncoiled inside him. His sister damn well better not asked their mother for the funds. “Who paid the balance?”
“I can’t say. The person wishes to remain anonymous.”
“To hell with that. I have a right to know. John, don’t make me come down there.”
As silence stretched, Ty image the slender man with the receding hairline sitting behind his simulated wood desk, sweat forming on his brow.
“I suppose you do have the right to know. All I ask is that you don’t tell her I disregarded her wishes.”
Her?
“Miss Reynolds paid the balance,” John said. “She also wrote out a check to your sister, which she in turn, deposited in the corporate account a few minutes ago.”
White hot anger exploded inside him, blurring his vision. Ty didn’t know who he was madder at, Aubrey defying him and hightailing it to Cassie to ask for money, or Cassie for giving his sister the funds behind his back.
Ty rubbed his throbbing temple, wishing his head would explode and put him out of his misery. How long would it take this juicy news to spread through town? While John wouldn’t say anything, other bank employees had to know about the loan payment. Someone would share the story in confidence, and then it would spread through town. By night’s end he’d be a laughingstock. He’d be the man who’d foolishly cosigned a loan for a girlfriend only to have her default on it after leaving him at the altar. Worse yet, everyone would think he’d turned to his current girlfriend, Cassie, for help, and she had ridden in on a white horse to haul his ass out of the financial fire.
Lauren’s betrayal stung. While Aubrey’s hurt, it was more one of youthful optimism and inexperience. He blamed himself more for not setting limits of what she could withdraw from the account and not having taught her enough about finances. He’d sure as hell fix those two problems, but Cassie’s betrayal? That one cut deep, leaving a throbbing, gaping wound inside him. How could Cassie set him up for this humiliation? Anger swirled inside him, threatening to choke him. He snatched his keys off his desk and stormed out of his office, nearly running over AJ.
“I’d hate to be whoever you’re going to see,” his friend said. “What’s up? I’ve never seen you like this.”
“Not now, AJ. I need to set someone straight on a few things.”
“You need to cool off before you head out. I’d hate for my first official duty as Wishing’s chief of police to be arresting my best friend for assault.”
He stopped and thumped his friend on the back. “Congrats on getting the job. We’ll celebrate later, but right now I need to deal with Cassie.”
When he tried to head for the door, AJ stepped in front of him. “If you talk to Cassie in this shitty mood, you’ll blow what you’ve got going with her.”
“Whatever we had is shot to hell already. Now get out of my way before I knock you flat on your ass.”
AJ stood firm, his arms crossed over his chest. “I’m not letting you talk to Cassie like this.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Ty said before he took a swing at his best friend.
*
Cassie ignored the buzz of the fax machine and focused on the painting a tourist had commissioned of her three boys, but curiosity gnawed at her. Who could be faxing her? People with questions about the inn or wanting to book a stay either called or emailed. Her concentration shot, she set her brush aside and retrieved the fax.
After reading the message twice to be sure she understood, she collapsed into her desk chair. Grace’s client had upped his offer, and not just a little. Cassie sighed. She’d made this decision once, but this offer was too good not to reconsider. Selling the inn would give her more time to focus on her art, but she and Ty had so many plans for this place and the ranch.
Admit it. You don’t want to sell the inn. It’s home now. The first real one you’ve had in a long time.
The door bell rang and Cassie jumped. Before she walked across the room, the booming sound of pounding on the front door sent apprehension coursing through her. When the next series rattled the walls, there was no mistaking the force of anger or impatience in whoever stood waiting.
Somehow Ty had found out what she’d done.