by Mary Leo
“They were all losers.”
“Maybe so, but they were my losers and I wanted to be the one to break up with them on my own terms, not because one of my meddling brothers scared them away.”
“I get it, but it might be a good idea to date someone with an actual income this time.”
“Why? You don’t have two dollars to rub together and so far it looks as if you hooked the richest girl in town, who, by the way, is just passing through.”
Where Shiloh ever got that idea mystified him. Sure, maybe he and Avery may have attempted some kind of relationship, but he’d closed the lid on that idea earlier that very afternoon. Not that he didn’t wish he could do a rewind on that conversation, but the chances of that happening were slim to none. He was certain that Avery Templeton had much better things to do with her time, and much more suitable guys back in Phoenix to flirt with rather than some cowboy stuck on a declining ranch in the middle of Nowhere, Arizona.
“Me? You must have your facts crossed, little sister. I haven’t dated anyone in months, maybe even years.”
“Oh?” Shiloh said, as she turned and nodded towards someone on the crowded dance floor. “I think my facts are spot on, big brother. Now give me the keys to your truck.” And she held out her ring-clad hand. Shiloh wore a ring on almost every finger, rings she’d created. Reese had to admit, his sister was quite talented, and he hoped that one day she received the accolades she deserved.
Reese looked over the dance floor, and there, walking towards him, looking like a runway model for seductive feminism, was Avery Templeton, a vision of pure beauty.
He reached into his pants pocket, pulled out his keys, and gladly handed them to his sister without once looking at her.
“Try not to make a fool out of yourself, Reese,” Shiloh warned. “You already look a little spellbound.”
“That might not be possible.” Just seeing Avery again brought up all sorts of sinful thoughts. Her lovely dress caressed her body like rays of sunshine. Her bare legs appeared endless and her feet were wrapped in a perfect pair of light tan colored cowgirl boots. A goddess in boots sashayed towards him wearing a smile that melted his soul.
Spellbound? Oh yeah, he had it bad.
“Hi,” Avery said, once she stood in front of Reese.
“Hi,” Reese answered as everyone else in the large room faded away. They stood staring into each other’s eyes for a moment while Reese tried to think of something to say.
“I’m Shiloh,” his sister said, holding out her hand to Avery. “We spoke on the phone.”
At once Avery’s gaze left his and wandered in Shiloh’s direction. The two women briefly shook hands. “Avery Templeton. So nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
“This is great!” Avery said, gesturing to encompass the dance hall. “I didn’t know there were so many people in Wild Cross. This place is packed.”
“We may be a small town, but we love our dances.”
“I don’t remember the last time I went to a real country dance. I love it.” And she seemed to. Her face beamed with a bright smile as her body gently moved to the music.
“Well then you two should be out there on the floor enjoying yourselves,” Shiloh said as Reese stepped closer to Avery, anticipating the feel of her body next to his.
“I don’t dance,” Reese said, but as soon as Avery was close enough, he took her in his arms and twirled her out on the floor.
“Me neither,” Avery muttered once she nestled into his arms, her body touching his as a heat pulsed through him that could ignite the entire building with its force. He consciously put a few inches between them or he wouldn’t be able to think much less dance. She felt soft and warm, and her hair smelled like flowers. He wanted to gobble her up and never let her go.
“I thought you were angry at me,” she asked, her head on his shoulder, her breath tickling his neck.
“I am.”
“Then why are we dancing?” she whispered in his ear, the sensation sending sharp bolts of heat through his body causing it to react in ways it shouldn’t in public.
“I don’t dance.”
“Oh,” she said, following him perfectly, her body melting into his. “I forgot.”
He couldn’t help the chuckle in the back of his throat. “I just wanted to hold you in my arms,” he told her under the vibrant music that dominated everything around them.
“Is this how you deal with all the women you’re angry with?”
He loved when she teased him, taunted him with her logic.
“Only you.”
“I’d hate to see what the others get.”
He pulled her in tighter. The band, four men and one woman, all playing stringed instruments, strummed out a waltz, the woman warbling an old Loretta Lynn love song that Reese recognized from his youth.
“Mostly the cold shoulder,” he told her.
“Um,” she moaned, burying her head deeper into his shoulder. “Nothing cold going on here. Why am I so special?”
“Because whenever I’m around you, I forget what’s good for me.”
“And I fall into that ‘bad for you’ category?”
He couldn’t help but smile at their situation.
“In spades, Hot-T. In double spades.”
She leaned back and stared up at him, her face serious. “Reese, I want to apologize for the things I said this afternoon.”
At the moment, moving to the rhythm of the music, feeling her this close to him, he didn’t want to think of anything else besides what he felt right now.
“I was the one who overreacted. Maybe we should start all over again.”
She gave him a little nod and a hint of a smile tugged at her glossy full lips. “Want to try those beers again?”
“I have a better idea,” he said, then he gently brushed her lips with his, letting the thrill of it wash over them like hot rain.
“Let’s get out of here,” she told him, stopping the dance and taking his hand to lead him out of the building.
“I don’t have transportation,” he said, eager to follow.
“My car’s parked out back.”
“Lead the way,” he said, anticipating getting her alone, wanting her more than he’d wanted any other woman. His imagination took hold as they made their way off the dance floor when a familiar voice stopped him cold.
“Shiloh says you want to ask me something?” his mother said from behind him.
Reese stiffened. He’d forgotten all about his mother, the stack of papers waiting for him at home and everything that had to do with his miserable reality. All he wanted was to make love to Avery, but he knew that wouldn’t be happening . . . at least not yet.
He sheepishly gazed at Avery, who had turned to him, her beautiful red hair caressing her bare shoulders, her dress still moving from their dance, her face flushed from their soft kiss.
She let go of his hand, and the spell was immediately broken.
His mom came into focus in front of him. She looked gaunt, and tired, but adamant about confronting him. He had no choice but to talk to her, right there, and right now.
The band began playing a square dance with calls and suddenly Avery was whisked away by the group that seemed to form around her. Shiloh and two cowboys swung her out of his reach while his mom lead him to the back of the expansive hall and out an open doorway into a long hallway where the music strained to permeate the old cinderblock walls.
“If this has to do with Chuck Starr, I can tell you right now, you’ll have to start asking him the questions because I don’t know anything other than what I’ve already told you,” she said with a brevity to her voice that Reese recognized from her many reprimands when he was a kid.
Her demeanor was hostile, cold, and aloof, a side of his mom he’d rarely seen before. He wanted to give her a great big hug and tell her everything was going to be fine, that it was all going to work out, but he knew that was a lie.
His blissful mood sharply faded. He said,
“What I want to ask has nothing to do with Chuck. It has to do with Dad.”
“Keeping the truth from you was my decision, not your dad’s.”
Her words only slid the knife deeper into his gut, causing him to want to distance himself even more from her . . . but he forced himself to stay. What he wanted to know was too important.
“Thanks for clarifying that, but that’s not my question. It has to do with Dad and the all the expensive studies he ran. Did you know what he was specifically looking for when he ran a search to see what’s under our land? I was able to get most of the paperwork today at the Recorder’s Office in town, but there’s a lot missing.”
She unfolded her arms. “Is that what this is all about? Mineral rights?”
“Yes. I think it’s important, or why would he have kept it from me? Did you know what he was looking for?”
“No. He never told me specifics, only that he was having some sort of study done. I don’t know what kind, but they were expensive.”
He stared at her for a moment, not believing her.
“That’s all I know,” she said, her voice louder this time. “Your dad started keeping secrets from me in the last year, hiding what he was doing, the books, our money, his health, lots of things. Heck, I didn’t even know he came close to selling the place to Chuck.”
Reese’s breath caught in his throat. “What? He would never . . . how do you know this?”
She folded her arms across her chest again. “Because I found an offer from Chuck that your dad had signed. It was dated about three weeks before he passed.”
His stomach tightened, and his eyes burned. He had a hard time absorbing his mom’s words and what they would mean if his dad had followed through.
“Are you sure he didn’t give any part of that document to Chuck?”
She nodded. “Yes, everything was still there. I found the original paperwork. Not a copy. Along with information about who owns the mineral rights under our land. From what I read, it isn’t always clear and straightforward. Sometimes the government retains the rights. Your dad didn’t know who owned them, and had started the ball rolling to find out.”
“But he didn’t tell you any of this?”
“No, and evidently he didn’t tell you either,” she said, her voice low and controlled. He knew this was taking a tremendous toll on his mom, and it was killing him to see her so downtrodden. He wished he could make everything good again, make her happy again, but he knew that was going to take both of them some time.
“But why not? Why was he keeping this from us? Hunter, Shiloh, and Chase knew, but not us. And why did he sign those papers for the land and then not give them back to Chuck?”
“Perhaps the only person who knows the answers to those questions is Chuck Starr. Maybe you should ask him. Obviously, there was something more going on between the two of them than your dad was willing to share.”
“More secrets. More lies. And what makes you think Chuck will tell me the truth?”
Her face flashed with anger. “Because now you know you’re his son,” she said then walked back into the dance, leaving Reese feeling as if the one man he loved more than anyone else in the entire world had just beaten him up and left him on the ground, bleeding.
AVERY WATCHED AS Reese walked through the back door and made his way over to her as she stood on the sidelines of the dance floor. His entire disposition had changed, and she knew the moment they had shared on the dance floor had disappeared. Whatever he and his mom had talked about had been enough to change everything.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, taking her hand.
But she didn’t want it to be this way. She didn’t want his anger shadowing their night together.
She pulled back. “Hold on, cowboy. I’m not ready to leave just yet.”
“I am. It’s what you wanted isn’t it?”
“Not this way. Not while you’re angry.”
“Who says I’m angry?”
There was a break in the music and she could hear his breathing coming out in short bursts through his nose. His left hand was balled up in a fist and his jaw was clenched tight.
She sniggered. “You’re kidding, right? You look like you’re about to blow and you suddenly want me to follow you out of here for a night of passion? I’m thinking I might not be the girl for that party, but I’m sure there are plenty of other women who would jump at the chance for a night with brooding Reese Cooper.”
His fist slowly opened. “I am not brooding. It’s just that my dad . . . but I can’t even tell you about anything. You’re working for the enemy.”
His forehead furrowed, and his eyes smoldered with anger.
“I’m not working for anyone at the moment, other than maybe as a cheerleader for the band. They’re great. You might want to stay awhile and have some fun . . . you remember how to have fun, don’t you? You just let go of that chip you’ve been carrying around and everything else is easy.”
“I can’t trust you.”
The sound of fiddles filled the air, as everyone seemed to gravitate to the dance floor for the next high-octane tune. Heels stomped on the wooden floor, as hoots and whistles bounced off the walls around them.
“Maybe not, but you can dance with me.” She had to almost yell out to him.
He hesitated for a moment, then a tiny grin pulled up the corners of his perfect lips. “I don’t dance,” he said, as a wide grin lightened up his face.
And just then, an older woman with gray hair and a happy disposition grabbed his other hand and pushed him into some kind of crazy over and under loop move, giving brooding Reese no choice but to follow along with her snappy, happy feet.
Soon Avery joined in on the fun, and for the next couple of hours, Reese Cooper Jr. seemed to lose all his fight . . . at least for now.
EIGHT
Reese sat at his father’s desk, staring at the numbers in the ledger his mom had left for him before she took off for a visit with her sister in Phoenix. No matter how many times Reese went over the numbers, no matter what he added, subtracted, fudged and generally tried to justify adding to the income column, the numbers wouldn’t lie.
The Cooper Ranch owed more money than it could make in the coming year. His father’s surveys, which so far hadn’t given Reese any new insights, had used up what little savings his mom had managed to squirrel away, and now their only salvation was either to sell off the remaining livestock or sell some of the remaining land.
“I don’t think we have a choice in the matter,” Reese told Hunter, who had gone over the numbers with him. “As it stands now, the money we made for the calves has already been used for supplies and past bills, and we’ve missed three loan payments to the bank.”
“One more and they’ll start sending us foreclosure notices,” Hunter said, looking solemn and forlorn. His usual happy disposition replaced by the stark gravity of the matter.
Reese pulled an open envelope out of the pile that sat on the desk next to him and handed it to Hunter. “They already have.”
Hunter took the envelope, pulled out the document inside and shook his head. “What the hell are we going to do? How did Dad let this happen? And Mom, why didn’t she say anything?”
He sat down hard on the wooden chair next to Reese, disturbing both the dogs, Clint and Duke, who had curled up in their usual spot under the desk.
“I don’t know. I think once things started to snowball, they just couldn’t keep up.”
“And you knew nothing about any of this?”
Reese slowly shook his head. “Nothing. Dad only gave me access to the books that he wanted me to see.”
In hindsight, Reese wished like hell he’d been more forceful with his dad and had insisted on seeing everything, not that he really thought it would have done much good.
“Well, why the hell didn’t you double check with the bank? Why didn’t you push him harder? You were supposed to be in charge of the ranch, not Dad. What the hell happened?”
Reese knew his brother was angry. Reese was angry as well, but he also knew that anger wouldn’t get either one of them any closer to solving the problem.
“Those studies cost a small fortune to run, more money than we had, or have, especially the private surveys. It seems there were some of those as well.”
“Why? Did he think he’d find something of value? Did he think he could turn this place into another Circle Starr?”
Chuck had found oil under his land and helium. He was making millions off of both those finds. If there was any oil or helium under the Cooper Ranch, the way the Cooper luck had been going, the government probably already owned it. Reese still didn’t have the results of the mineral rights search.
“Maybe that’s what he was hoping for. Something big, like our own oil field.” Reese shook his head. “Hell, I don’t know what he thought, but it cost us thousands of dollars to do it, and because of it, we’re dead broke.”
“Maybe if we all pool our money, we can at least make the last few payments to the bank,” Hunter said, trying to sound positive. As if they had a chance of saving the ranch. No wonder Reese’s dad had signed at that last offer Chuck had given him. He knew the inevitable was about to happen, and wanted to take care of his family.
Reese knew it must have killed him to sign those papers . . . and more than likely, it probably had.
This only made Reese more determined to try and save the land . . . and if he had to sell it, he’d be damned if he would sell it to Chuck Starr.
“I can’t ask you guys to do that. Shiloh is just now starting to make a profit from her jewelry, and Draven is saving the money he makes on riding lessons to go back to school. And any money you and Chase make off boarding horses is yours. That’s always been the case since you were teens. That’s the agreement you made with Dad. I’m not about to change that now.”
“Stop,” Hunter said. “None of those things matter if we lose the ranch. Seems to me we have two choices, pool our money to pay off what we can of the bank loans, or take that last offer that Chuck made for the entire ranch. And who knows, now that it’s all out in the open about you being his son, maybe he’ll sweeten the pot. Have you talked to him yet?”