Landon let out an involuntary cough. “What?” He couldn’t have heard her right.
“My mother’s brother,” Kitty said, as though Landon’s question was about who Uncle Roger was. “He thinks Coyote Glen is in a prime location to attract people who’re looking to escape the cold. He wants to do something with a western theme because the place is so close to Tombstone and Bisbee. Probably something ridiculous like caddies with cowboy hats.”
Landon could only stare at her for another moment. “Are you pulling my leg?”
She shrugged apologetically. “You know how slim profit margins are with ranching. My parents would make a lot more money going in with my uncle and developing it.”
When Landon didn’t make any response, Kitty noticed the effect her words had on him, and her smile melted away. “I’m sure whatever they do with the land, they’ll make certain people don’t bother your cattle.”
He finally found his voice. “Your grandfather worked his entire life to build up his stock to produce the finest cattle possible. His whole world was this ranch, and your family wants to turn it into a western-themed golf course?”
His words had come out too harsh. Kitty’s expression hardened. “You don’t need to tell me what my grandfather valued. I’m well aware that Coyote Glen was his whole world. That’s why he never visited us. He was always too busy with his cattle. Seven days a week. Twelve months a year. Maybe if he’d retired when he was sixty-five like someone with a normal job…” She put her fingers to the bridge of her nose and sighed. “I guess what ifs don’t matter.” Her hand dropped to her lap. “I’m just saying I understand why my father isn’t keen to change professions.”
Ranching was hard work, no doubt about it. Some days Landon was running from sunrise to sunset. But if Cal had wanted to take a vacation, he could have had his foreman cover for him. Landon didn’t mention this. Pointing out that Cal could have visited if he really wanted wouldn’t help anything.
Landon leaned forward, lacing his fingers together. He had to think how best to word what he said next. “Your grandfather and I had an arrangement. He planned to sell Coyote Glen to my family when he got too old to run it himself. Normally, that sort of agreement wouldn’t matter so much. It’s not as though I want to take on another four hundred head of cattle. But the truth of the matter is that we’ve been sharing wells with your ranch for years. It’s our only water source for our front section. I can live without the extra land and cattle, but we need the water.”
She blinked her large green eyes at him. “I’m sorry. Perhaps if you explain to my parents…” She broke off uncertainly.
He studied her expression, trying to read what her hesitation meant. “Would telling them matter? Or will this bit of information just ensure that if they do consider selling, Uncle Roger will set the price higher?”
She showed no hint of taking offense at this accusation, which meant that Uncle Roger was indeed the sort of man who’d increase his price because he knew he had the Wyles over a barrel. Landon inwardly cursed himself for giving away that information so easily. The Bentons might have found documentation in Cal’s effects that told them of his watering arrangement with the Wyle Away, but they might not have.
Kitty shifted on the couch, setting her feet back on the floor. “My parents know how much you and your brothers did for my grandfather. I’m sure they’ll do what they can to help you, but my uncle has them sold on the golf course idea. He offered to move down here to oversee the golf course and sell house lots.”
A golf course. That’s what Landon’s livelihood was going to be choked by—caddies in cowboy hats. He hardly trusted himself to speak. Anything he said now, he’d likely regret later. “My offer to help your family still stands. Give me a call if you need anything.” He picked up his hat, rose to his feet, and nodded a farewell to her. “Should be an interesting funeral tomorrow. I imagine it will be hard to bury your grandfather, what with him turning in his grave.”
Chapter Two
“You told her what?” Dillon asked.
Three of Landon’s brothers were gathered in the kitchen, putting together dinner while he reported on his conversation with Kitty. Dillon was home for the weekend and had momentarily stopped chopping tomatoes to send Landon an incredulous look.
“Turning in his grave,” Jaxon repeated as he added taco seasoning to the hamburger. “Sounds like something I would say and then you would yell at me for.”
Jaxon and Dillon might be identical twins, but their personalities were far from similar. Jaxon had always taken advantage of his looks—dark hair, blue eyes, and easy smile—to get him into trouble with women and out of trouble with everyone else. Dillon was more serious and responsible. He had to be in order to be a banker, Landon supposed. These days he was more comfortable in a suit than in a pair of Levi’s.
“You were supposed to build bridges,” Dillon said. “Not burn them.”
Preston, the youngest, snorted. At seventeen, he was still the shortest of the family but gaining fast. Nearly six feet tall. He had dark hair like the twins but was the only one of the brothers to inherit their father’s brown eyes. “Well, what did you all expect? If you wanted to sweet-talk the woman, you should have sent Jax over.”
“True,” Jaxon said, flashing his trademark grin.
Landon grabbed a handful of silverware to set the table. “I thought Kitty’s parents would answer the door. And besides, Jaxon already had a stint sweet-talking Kitty. As I recall, it didn’t turn out very well.”
The statement earned another grin from Jaxon. “That all depends on your definition of very well.”
Preston’s gaze bounced between Jaxon and Landon. He’d only been ten at the time of the infamous cattle drive and hadn’t been there. “Oh? What happened?”
Jaxon winked. “One night, Landon caught us kissing.”
“She was fifteen.” Landon plunked silverware near a plate and moved on to the next. “I had to keep Cal from killing you.”
“Didn’t do a very good job,” Jaxon said. “I was eating dust as drag rider for the rest of the drive, and after he talked to Dad, I had to clean Cal’s stables for months.”
Landon finished with the silverware and went back for glasses. “This time, just do us all a favor and stay away from the girl.”
“Why so touchy?” Jaxon asked.
Landon didn’t have an answer for that. He had no reason to feel protective of Kitty anymore, so he just took the glasses from the cupboard and ignored the question.
Dillon dumped the chopped tomatoes into a bowl. He was still dressed in his banker clothes and his tie kept threatening to swing into the vegetables. “We’ll just have to make the Bentons an offer they can’t refuse.”
“You mean rough them up?” Jaxon nodded as though taking the idea into consideration.
Dillon loosened his tie to remove it. “I mean offer them enough money to put thoughts of receptionists dressed as old-time barmaids out of their heads.”
How much would that be? Landon pulled tortillas from the fridge. “Can your bank loan us the money?”
“Actually, no,” Dillon said. “It’s against the bank’s policies to make loans to family members. We’ll have to apply somewhere else.”
More hoops to jump through. Landon suppressed a groan. “We’ll need to figure out how to make the payments on a huge loan.” It would be better to put down as much cash as possible. They had over a million in stocks and bonds, money they’d gotten from their parents’ life insurance policies, but even that wouldn’t be enough. “What’s the emerald necklace worth these days? Maybe it’s time to sell it.”
Besides the ranch, their parents had left one thing of value: their great-grandmother’s necklace. Their mom wore it every year on her anniversary and birthday. It was a Wyle tradition. But with their parents gone, maybe it was time to sell it.
Dillon shook his head. “We can’t sell a family heirloom.”
“It’s just a necklace,” Landon said. Keeping th
e ranch watered was more important than a piece of jewelry.
Dillon took the bowl of tomatoes to the table, still shaking his head. “We’ll have to get a loan regardless, and Mom wouldn’t want us to sell it. She wanted our wives to wear it on special occasions like she did.”
“Dillon’s got a point.” Jaxon took food to the table. “Audrey’s already looking forward to the day she’s old enough to wear it on her birthday.”
Landon dropped the package of tortillas on the table with the defeated thud. How could he argue with that sort of loyalty to their mother’s memory? Each of his brothers had their own way of grieving their parents’ death. Ethan, their oldest brother, had stayed away from the ranch, and Landon had thrown himself into the work there, not giving himself time to dwell on the loss. Evidently, part of the twins’ grief involved attaching meaning to their mother’s wishes about the necklace.
“Fine,” Landon said. “We’ll look into other options. After the funeral, I’ll talk to Mr. and Mrs. Benton and see if we can convince them to sell.”
Hopefully, Landon would be able to meet their price.
Chapter Three
Kate sat stiffly in the pews beside her parents and her fourteen-year-old sister, Libby. She had one goal for the afternoon: get through the funeral without leaving streaks of mascara running down her cheeks like racetracks. She should have bought the waterproof kind, but she hadn’t expected to get so choked up. In the last seven years, she’d only spoken to her grandfather during holiday video calls. Always polite small talk.
As she sat in the chapel, emotion gripped her throat and made it hard to breathe. Not just grief, although that was there too. It was a feeling of deep disappointment. She’d always hoped that he would . . . she wasn’t exactly sure what . . . change, soften, apologize. Now, none of that could happen.
Her father was at the podium, giving a tribute. “He was the hardest working man I ever knew.”
True. Some people called that being a workaholic and went to therapy for it. A petty thought. She shouldn’t have petty thoughts at Grandpa’s funeral.
“He was unfailingly honest.” Her father paused. “Sometimes brutally honest.” Murmured chuckles went through the crowd. “But you always knew where you stood with him.”
Yes, Kate had. She’d known exactly where she’d stood with him and what he’d thought of her.
Instead of listening to the rest of her father’s talk—which would undoubtedly bring on a torrent of tears—she gazed around the church. A few of the faces were familiar, friends of her grandparents. She didn’t know anyone by name except for the Wyles. They sat off to the side, near enough to the front pews that they were almost in the section reserved for family.
I imagine it will be hard to bury your grandfather, what with him turning in his grave.
Honestly, Kate still couldn’t believe Landon had said that. But then, the guy had always been too arrogant for his own good. He was the sort that never made a mistake, not when he was shooting pigeons, roping cattle, or getting her in trouble. He’d always been her grandfather’s favorite. Responsible, dependable Landon.
When she was younger, she’d been in awe of his rugged good looks: blond hair, blue eyes, and a jawline that you could write love songs about. Even all these years later, being in the same room with him made her feel as though her confidence and poise were a sham. She became a clumsy, awkward teenager again instead of a twenty-two-year-old with a job at one of Seattle’s premier interior design studios.
Kate had some good memories of her summers in Arizona. Why did looking at Landon only bring back the bad ones? Or rather the bad one. Well, perhaps that wasn’t really a mystery. He’d been involved in her worst ranch memory—one foolish mistake on her part—but somehow it was so big it overshadowed every other lazy, contented day she’d spent on Coyote Glen.
The ill-fated cattle drive. She’d begged her grandfather to let her go on one from the time she was eight years old. Grandpa had always told her she was too young, and her parents had never wanted her to miss school for it anyway.
Just after her fifteenth birthday, they’d both relented. After the calves had been branded, she could help take the cattle to the summer rangeland.
Fifteen had been a time for firsts. It was the year she’d grown four inches, lost weight, and gotten contacts. It was the first time she’d liked the way she looked in pictures and the first time boys at her school started paying attention to her. It was also the first time her mother made sure to preapprove all of the clothes she took with her to the ranch and made sure her shorts weren’t too short. Since Kate had developed a figure, that sort of thing suddenly mattered.
Kate hadn’t known why her mother was so worried. The only guys she saw regularly during her summer stays in Arizona were the Wyle brothers, and they wouldn’t have noticed her if she was on fire. They were all too old, too busy, and too handsome to pay attention to her. Well, except for Jaxon.
He’d been the most social of the brothers, and since he was only two years older, he didn’t mind her tagging along if she agreed to help him with his chores. She’d been a good audience when he did questionable things like tie a rope to the barn rafters and swing around the place like Tarzan.
When she showed up to Coyote Glen for the cattle drive, Jaxon did an actual double take when he saw her. “Whoa girl, what have you done with yourself?”
She looked down at her clothes, wondering what he was talking about. “I threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. What do you mean?”
“I mean you grew up.”
“It happens,” Kate said. “I have an arrangement with Father Time.”
Jaxon’s gaze kept sweeping over her, but she didn’t mind the way that felt. It was a compliment. “Father Time isn’t as kind to some,” he said. “Clearly, you’re daddy’s favorite.”
Landon walked over to them, hauling a saddle. His shoulders seemed to grow broader every time she saw him, and the sun had streaked highlights into his blond hair that would have made any girl envious. He had a shadow of stubble on his chin, a reminder that he was almost twenty. So grown up. And if possible, even more handsome than his brothers.
“Those hay bales won’t move themselves,” Landon told Jaxon. He gave Kate a polite nod. Then he stopped in his tracks and his gaze shot back to her.
“I know,” she said. “I grew a bunch and stopped wearing glasses. Half of Grandpa’s men didn’t recognize me.”
Landon shook his head. “And this is the year your grandfather decided you should travel with the ranch hands?”
She wasn’t sure how to answer that. “I’m fifteen. I’m old enough to help.”
“Right.” Landon gave her a smile that seemed strained and not at all happy about her addition to the group. “See you later.” As he walked away, he shook his head again and uttered, “Mercy, this is just what we need.”
She didn’t understand his reaction and supposed he still thought of her as incapable of doing hard things like shooting pigeons.
She did fair enough on her first day. She worked well with the other riders, keeping the cattle moving in the right direction. None wandered off, darted away, or had any injuries. She had no unfortunate run-ins with prickly pear and wasn’t even all that saddle sore.
That evening, they made camp not far from a road where Grandpa had some old corrals. His men had driven up trailers full of food, water, and equipment. While she was getting her horse ready for the night, Jaxon strolled over. “Do you need help with that saddle?”
“No, I’ve got it.” To show him, she hefted the saddle from her horse’s back and carried it to the equipment trailer. When she came back with a bucket full of supplies, he was still there.
Jaxon took the bucket from her. A perfect dimple flashed in his cheek. “You didn’t just get pretty, you got strong too. I suppose you developed those muscles beating away boys.”
She began using the currycomb on the horse’s neck. “Sadly, I haven’t needed many muscles for that task.”
Jaxon took a brush to the horse’s flanks. “I don’t believe that. Not for a hot minute.”
“You can believe it for hot minutes and cold minutes and lukewarm-ish, in-between minutes. I’ve never even had a boyfriend.” A few guys at her school talked to her, but nothing more. Maybe they still saw her as the awkward, slightly-unpopular girl. Maybe she still was that girl.
“Seriously?” Jaxon asked. “What’s wrong with the boys in Seattle?”
She curried the horse’s shoulders. “It’s a mystery. Although it might be my fault. The last time I tried to flirt, the guy ended up with a concussion.”
Jaxon moved to the horse’s other flank. “Flirting must be different in Washington.”
She sighed. “You know how sometimes a guy will tease a girl and then she smacks his arm playfully? I was trying to do that, but I guess I smacked Andrew too hard, because he jerked away from me, stumbled into a cafeteria chair, and hit the ground. He ended up going to the nurse’s office, and he never talked to me again.”
Instead of offering any sympathy, Jaxon chuckled. “The guy was a wuss. Next time you want to flirt, try a rancher. We don’t blow over in the wind.”
It was perhaps a mark of her naiveté that she didn’t realize he was talking about himself. But earlier in the day, Dillon had given him a hard time about some girl named Brittany, so Kate had assumed he had a girlfriend.
“You mean your brothers?” The idea was almost laughable since they were all so mature, aloof, and drop-dead gorgeous. “I can tell how impressed Landon is with me. This morning while I saddled up, he told me my boots weren’t proper riding gear; they were a fashion statement I’d regret by nightfall. Honestly, you’d think I’d showed up in stilettos.”
Jaxon held out his hands, presenting himself. “If you want to learn how to attract a guy without inflicting injury, look no further. I can give you flirting lessons.”
The Cowboy and the Girl Next Door: (A Clean, Enemies to Lovers Romance) Wyle Away Ranch Book 1 Page 2