NINE

 

 

By the time Avery pulled up in Chuck’s driveway and killed the engine in front of the sprawling ranch house, it was going on ten o’clock. Her butt ached, and her libido had experienced a crushing blow. All she could think of was soaking in the whirlpool tub in her private bathroom. She’d only used it once before, after her first day of riding for essentially the same reason she needed it tonight. Only difference was tonight’s injury had been frustrating and somewhat humiliating, whereas the soreness from her first long ride in years, had been rejuvenating.

She located the code on her phone for Chuck’s front door and when it unlocked, she pushed it open, only to find Chuck just walking out of his private den carrying what had to be an expensive cut crystal glass with a shot of something amber colored inside.

He took one look at Avery hobbling in and made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. “Brandy?” he asked with an inviting smile, holding up his glass.

She nodded, “Yes, please, with a generous pour.”

She followed him back into his den where she knew the only really comfortable furniture, besides her bedroom, was located and gingerly sat in one of the plush armchairs with the feather cushions and the Western motif. Chuck’s den or office was decorated in masculine tones of tan and deep browns. The windows were covered in dark wooden horizontal blinds that Chuck kept closed most of the time. Even the walls had been paneled in woods with swirling deep brown grains that matched the shelving on one of the walls with deep, file-type drawers on the bottom. She’d discovered that Chuck kept those drawers locked when she’d tried to open one looking for a pen while Chuck was in the office with her. He also kept his office door locked during the day, and only opened it sometimes at night, when he relaxed in one of his chairs, drinking a brandy.

At first, she’d found all the locks a bit unnerving, but then decided it was probably due to some of the ranch workers who floated in and out of the house during the day, leaving paperwork for Chuck with Kayla.

Avery immediately noticed that one of the drawers was still open and a file had been pulled. Bell House was written across the top. Immediately her curiosity meter moved up a couple notches. She wanted to ask him about the file when he abruptly closed the drawer, not taking the time to put the file back. If she didn’t know better, she would think he wanted to hide it from her.

Avery decided it might be best to keep what she saw to herself. Chuck didn’t seem like he wanted to share.

He poured her a double from an intricately cut crystal bottle that sat on a small side table, handed it to her, then took a seat across from her in a leather chair that matched hers.

“I thought by now you would be used to a saddle,” Chuck said as the chair enveloped his body in its comfort.

Avery took a long swallow, savoring the complex flavors of the liquid on her tongue. Its warmth spread out across her body, helping her to relax into the plushness that cradled her weary body.

“Wasn’t riding,” she finally said. “Spent the day at the kite festival in Flagstaff with Reese.”

She slid down in the luxurious chair as her body released the long day.

“You certainly didn’t get that limp from a kite festival.”

“The friendly Cooper dogs. I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of affection.”

A low chuckle rumbled from the back of Chuck’s throat. “I don’t think I could ever use that description when it came to those dogs. They’d just as soon rip me to pieces than show me any lovin’.”

“Huh, maybe that’s why they were so aggressive. They could smell this house on me.”

He drank down some of his brandy, then tugged on the sides of his mustache. Chuck kept a neatly trimmed solid white mustache that completely covered his top lip, and dipped down the sides of his mouth. She couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t had one. Of course, when she was a kid, it had been dark brown, with only traces of white hair. Chuck had always been a good-looking, old world cowboy. Someone she’d always admired and looked up to. She understood Reese’s resentment of him because of all that his dad had probably told him over the years, but what she couldn’t understand was Reese’s refusal to give Chuck a chance. Even the Cooper dogs hated Chuck.

“Ha! That very well could be. “By the way, I picked up the final docs today for the meeting tomorrow. You might want to read everything over one more time before we hand it off to Reese and Catherine for their signatures.”

“Kind of calling it close, don’t you think?” Avery didn’t like to work like this. She preferred to be well prepared in advance, but apparently at Reinhardt and Lowe, Chuck’s hired law firm, they were more of a last minute kind of practice.

“We still have a few hours in the morning to change anything, but as it stands right now, it’s what I want. What I’ve worked for all these years. I’m just glad I’m still alive to see it happen. It could’ve been me that had that heart attack just as easily as Reese Sr. I prob’ly deserved it more than he did.”

Her stomach clenched. Chuck meant more to her than she could put into words. For years, he’d kept her mother’s memory alive with stories about her, stories that her dad had refused to share. Her dad, Daniel, remaining true to his upper crust, British upbringing, handled his pain by closing himself off. He rarely spoke of Avery’s mom, Pamela, and it was only here, on this ranch, that Avery had been allowed to speak of her, to remember her, and only privately with Chuck. She would always be grateful for those stories, for those memories that Chuck had generously shared.

“Don’t even say things like that. You know how much you mean to me, Chuck. Sometimes even more than my own dad.”

“And you shouldn’t be saying anything like that. Your dad raised you. Put food on the table and clothes on your back. He was there whenever you were sick, and he was there for all the good stuff. He loves you more than you could ever imagine. He’s a good father to you, Avery, always has been and always will be. A father and his child have a special bond. One that can’t be broken.”

She knew he’d shifted the conversation to his own feelings about Reese. “I know all that. I’m not saying I don’t love my father, because I do. But I love you as well, and I’m sure in time that Reese will . . .”

He leaned forward in his chair. “Don’t even think that. I’m not a fool. I’m not looking for any kind of love from Reese. That belongs to the man who raised him, who was there for him. All I want is his respect for what I’ve accomplished, for all that I’ve worked for. Everything I’ve done has been for him. It’s always been for my son. I knew Reese Sr. would never make the kind of money or own the kind of company that my son deserved, so I worked my tail off to make sure I could provide it. Reese Sr. was a stubborn old cowboy who never thought beyond what was right in front of him, even when he was a young man. He never tried to reach for more. Always settled for less than he deserved.

“That’s not my dream, never was. Even in the beginning, when I was dirt poor. When Catherine and I were first dating, I always knew I would be rich someday. I knew that just working the land would never be enough for me, or for her. I wanted so much more for Catherine, for our baby, but she wouldn’t hear it. She wouldn’t trust me.

“There was a time, between her and me, when she confessed that she’d loved me, and had somehow always loved me since she was a kid . . . since she dreamt about me. I remember that she said her dreams about me were more than just dreams. That she knew we were meant for each other. Told me I was her soul mate, and I foolishly believed her. Then, once our baby was conceived, everything changed.” He stopped talking and finished off his drink.

Avery’s inner antenna went up and she desperately wanted more information about Catherine’s dream, but she didn’t want to interrupt Chuck’s thoughts. Since she’d arrived, they’d only had one other conversation that had dealt with the Cooper family, but Chuck hadn’t wanted to get too deep into the details. Tonight however, Chuck seemed to want to tell her everything, and Avery eagerly lapped it up.

He stood and poured another shot of brandy into his glass, then he held up the bottle. “Can I top yours off?”

“Yes, thanks,” she said without hesitation. She was finally feeling no pain, and didn’t want to change a thing. “So how did everything change?”

He poured another shot into her glass, placed the bottle back on the small side table, and slipped back into the comfort of his chair.

“Up until that moment, when she learned she was pregnant and shared it with me, we’d been inseparable, spending as much time as we could together. I’d been working on this very ranch at the time doing a lot of different jobs. Of course this ranch was only about an eighth of the size it is now back then, but even then, I knew I would one day own it. But without your dad’s help, it might not have happened when it did. I could never do enough to repay your dad for believing in me back then.

“Anyway, I’d met Reese Sr. several times before I knew he’d been secretly trying to court Catherine. I even did some wrangling for him for about a week or two. We got along fine, but what I didn’t know was that he’d been spending time with Catherine’s parents, going behind my back and trying to get them to agree to some kind of arranged marriage. He knew dang well she and I were an item, but that didn’t stop him. Matter-of-fact, I think it spurred him on, made him work harder for the prize.

“Her parents were older, and didn’t have much money. Reese Sr. with his family ranch seemed like the right pick for their daughter. Plus, they were worried about who would care for them in their later years, and got the notion into their heads that I couldn’t. Reese Sr. played on that perception of me. Made them think I was a drifter, even though I was born and raised not fifty miles from here.

“Her parents convinced Catherine, who they’d adopted after her real parents were killed in a car accident, to marry Reese Sr. Once she’d made up her mind, everything moved with lightning speed. She begged me to sign away my rights to our baby, convinced me it was the right thing to do considering her pending marriage and the scandal she would have to live with if anyone ever found out that a drifter was the real father. Eventually, she wore me down and I signed on the dotted line. The next day, she and Reese were married.”

Avery’s heart broke for that young naive cowboy in love with the wrong woman. “That must have ripped you apart.”

“Still does,” he said with a catch to his voice and a longing in his eyes, Reese’s eyes. The resemblance was even more apparent in the low light of Chuck’s office.

“How so?”

“Never really got over Catherine. Dated a lot of women in my day, some who thought we’d get married, but I always compared them to Catherine and none of them matched up. Probably why I never married. Plus, the way Reese looks at me, what he thinks of me . . . I mean, I know he hates me, and rightly so. I bought up more than half of the Cooper ranch. That alone is cause to despise me.”

“You made the best offer, I’m sure.”

“I did, but that doesn’t change anything. Reese still resents the fact that I bought it. I can only imagine what he’ll say when he learns what I’m proposing now.”

“What’s that?” Avery asked. She’d read most everything Chuck had proposed for this partnership, but she knew Chuck’s lawyers had recommendations of their own, which she had yet to see.

“I’d rather you read it for yourself.”

Chuck had sunk lower in his chair, and his eyes appeared to be barely open. Either he was straight up drunk, or sleep was knocking on his door.

“And afterwards, do you want my opinion?”

“Of course. Wouldn’t think of presenting the partnership agreement to Reese without it.”

She decided that Chuck was affected by a combination of fatigue and feeling no pain from the brandy. He looked dog-tired, as her mom had liked to say, like this whole thing was finally taking its toll on him physically.

“You should get some rest. It’s a big day for you tomorrow.”

He smiled and tugged at the corners of his mustache. “You should too.”

“Not yet. I have some reading to do.”

“In that case,” Chuck said as he eased out of the chair, left the room for a few minutes and returned with a blue folder. “Have at it. Can I bring you anything?”

Avery took the folder and fanned the pages. There were plenty of them, and each page looked dense with information. It was going to be a long night.

“My bed. I think I’ll be much more comfortable there.”

He grinned. “I can help you to your room, if you want, and offer you a very nice heating pad that I’ve used on several occasions. Plus, I can put on a kettle if you want tea.”

“All of the above, thank you very much. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.”

“I’m expecting it to be one of my longest.”

 

 

REESE HAD GONE back and forth on whether or not he wanted one of his siblings with him for the Chuck Starr meeting. At first, he thought he would take Hunter, who had a more light-hearted approach when it came to family issues. But the more Reese thought about it, the more he wasn’t in the mood for laughs. This was serious business. After all, this was his future and the future of the Cooper Ranch they would be talking about.

Then he thought he’d ask Chase to join him, but Chase barely spoke, as a rule, and when he did it usually caused controversy and Reese didn’t need any more controversy in his life. He just wanted to hear what Chuck had to say, and then think it over later, at a bar, with a tall beer in his hand. Alone.

For about a second he thought about bringing Shiloh, but ever since she’d gotten a bite from a buyer for her jewelry, the Cooper Ranch was the last thing she wanted to talk about, let alone meet up with Chuck Starr, a man she’d never had any use for.

Draven hadn’t even been on the list. His head was always up in the clouds, and getting him to come down to earth and focus on what was around him, hadn’t been something he wanted to do.

The one person Reese would have taken with him had up and left. Of course he couldn’t blame his mom for not wanting to stick around when Reese had been a true prick to her ever since she’d told him the truth.

He felt bad about that, and was beginning to come around to understanding her predicament as well as his dad’s. Still, he wasn’t up to forgiving anyone at the moment, especially not Chuck Starr, the culprit in all of this.

As he walked up the front steps of Chuck’s elaborate ranch house, Reese wondered if Chuck had taken advantage of his impressionable mom back then. After all, she was only nineteen when she’d gotten pregnant with Reese, and barely turned twenty by the time Reese was born. Still a girl in so many ways, while Chuck was almost twenty-four and had been living on his own. At least that was the impression Reese had gotten from what his mom had told him about that time.

A lot of it was still an unknown. Reese had been too angry to really listen to what his mom had to say once she told him he was Chuck’s biological son, a fact he still couldn’t come to terms with.

He knocked on the heavy wooden door, then tapped the bell, despite his wanting to run in the opposite direction. If it wasn’t for Avery, he didn’t think this day would ever have happened, and even now, as he stood out on the front porch on the Circle Starr Ranch, he wasn’t sure anything good would come of this meeting.

The door opened and Chuck’s house manager, Kaya, greeted him with a warm smile. Already he was skeptical, despite her hospitality.

“Come in. Come in. They’re waiting for you in Mr. Starr’s business office. I’ll show you the way.”

She closed the door with a dull thud, and a shiver ran up Reese’s back. He felt as if he’d just been locked in with the devil himself, and poor Kaya was merely under his vicious spell. Why else would she work for such a loathsome man?

“Nice to see you again, Kaya,” Reese said, trying to calm his acid nerves. “It’s been a while.”

“I think the last time was at your dad’s memorial,” she said as they walked alongside one another, with Kaya a couple steps ahead.

“Yes, that’s right. Sorry, I was kind of out of it that day.”

Reese had absolutely no recollection of Kaya attending the memorial. Truth be told, aside from Avery, and Chuck’s letter, he had little or no memory of anything, or anyone in attendance, of his dad’s memorial. The entire event was a blur of voices and moments that he’d wanted to forget, and apparently had been successful at it.

They walked through rooms that appeared as though no one lived in them. Leather chairs and sofas appeared to be brand new, along with side tables and decorative Native American artifacts. The colorful hand-weaved rugs seemed brand-new and looked like they had never been walked on. The Western art on the walls were original oils signed by the artists. Intricately carved Kachina dolls sat on tables, while colorful Hopi baskets and pottery dominated every flat surface.

Reese thought it curious that while the rooms were obviously professionally decorated, there didn’t seem to be one family photo or picture of Chuck with a friend, a family member or even Avery sharing a fun moment. It may as well have been a showroom in a high-end department store rather than someone’s home.

Chuck Starr’s house was more of a shrine to his wealth, rather than a place to be lived in and enjoyed.

“That was to be expected,” Kaya said, breaking his trance, and tossing him a wide understanding grin as she now walked alongside him. “We all do the best we can under those circumstances.”

Before Avery had arrived at the memorial, Reese had gone through the motions of shaking hands with friends and acquaintances, but he hadn’t really focused on anything or anyone. He hadn’t even eaten the lunch that his mom had so carefully selected. She’d purposely chosen gluten-free entrees, without any kind of food additives so that none of the guests would get sick afterward. Even the desserts were gluten and additive free.

Reese hadn’t eaten anything that day. Hadn’t joined anyone at the tables, and instead had spent all of his time out on that balcony, alone . . . until Avery showed up and rocked his world.

“Mr. Starr, your guest has arrived,” Kaya said once she and Reese entered the glass and dark wood business office. A large conference table dominated the room, a table that could easily seat twenty people, but today there were only three: Chuck Starr, Avery Templeton, and Catherine Cooper, Reese’s mom, who had said she was in Phoenix visiting her sister. His mom wore a black suit with black heels. Her normally loose shoulder-length hair had been pulled back into a twist of some sort, and she wore more makeup than usual, something he hadn’t seen on his mom in years.

At once, Reese was put off and felt betrayed, not only by his mom, but also by Avery, who hadn’t bothered to mention that his mom would be attending the meeting. Plus, Avery wore a dark gray business suit and heels, a sure sign this was more than just a let’s-get-together-and-chat kind of a meeting.

For Reese’s part, he’d had the foresight to change his jeans, and to slip on a clean long-sleeved shirt, but his boots were dusty, and his hat, which he hadn’t removed, wasn’t exactly his best. Maybe someone should have told him this wasn’t going to be a casual affair, but even if they had, Reese doubted if he would have bothered to dress up.

After all, he was dealing with the devil and a devil didn’t deserve any respect.

“Reese, would you like a coffee or anything to drink?” Chuck offered. He wore his usual pressed jeans, spit-shined boots and white dress shirt, only this time he’d thrown a sports coat over the outfit to give him more of an official look.

He stood in front of a long side table that contained several silver hot beverage containers, glass pitchers of various juices, small bottles of water, an assortment of Starr logo mugs, plates, bowls, and flatware. Baked goods, sliced fruit, and chunks of assorted cheeses, sat at the far end of the table ready to be enjoyed. The table had been set up for a party, but no one seemed to be in a festive mood, especially not Reese, whose stomach had clenched merely seeing his mom sitting across the room, looking as though she was finally in her element.

“How about a muffin? Kaya makes the best blueberry muffins you’ve ever tasted. It wouldn’t be fair to her if you didn’t at least try one,” Chuck urged as he placed a muffin on a white plate and held it out for Reese.

“I didn’t come here to be guilted into eating muffins. I came here because Ms. Templeton, your lawyer, convinced me to give you a chance. Now that I’m here, I can see this meeting was set up as some kind of an ambush between you and my mother, and I don’t want any part of it.”

Reese turned on his heel to walk right back out.

“No. Son, please don’t go,” Chuck said,

Reese quickly swung back around, his hands fisted, adrenalin surging through him. “You have no right to call me that. I’m not your son. You’re not my father. My father is rotting in a coffin below ground right now after you helped put him there. You’re not my father. You’re just a man who fucked my mother and made a baby.”

“That’s a horrible thing to say,” his mother countered, tears spilling down her cheeks.

“Apologize to your mother,” Chuck said as he walked closer to Reese, looking smug, as if he had power over Reese.

Avery somehow managed to insert herself between the two men. “Reese, I know you didn’t come here to fight with Chuck or to hurt your mom. She has enough hurt going on already. I know you came here to talk, to maybe start over with Chuck, to get to know him. No one is here to ambush you. I invited your mom late last night. Chuck didn’t know about it until she arrived this morning. I’m sorry if I overstepped my bounds, but I thought it would help. I thought she could help to get you and Chuck to talk to each other without hurling accusations. Please, if you care about me at all, you’ll back down and give this meeting a chance. Please.”

All the while she spoke, Reese stared into her eyes, those mesmerizing eyes of hers, looking for any hint of deception. He saw none. Not one trace of a lie. He saw only a deep need for calm in a storm of betrayal.

“Reese. Please. For my sake,” she whispered, her voice acting like a soothing balm on his raw nerves, melting his anger until he found himself taking a deep breath, then letting it out and taking in another until he calmed himself.

He pulled out a chair at the end of the table and sat down. Chuck took a seat at the far end of the table, with Avery in the middle sitting across from Reese’s mom.

“Mr. Starr would like to make you an offer,” Avery began once everyone was seated.

Reese jumped in before she could finish her sentence. “I already told him several times. I will not sell the Cooper Ranch no matter what the offer. If my mother told him otherwise, it’s not for her to make that decision without me. We both have to agree to a sale. Those are the terms of my father’s will.”

“Buying the Cooper Ranch is no longer the offer that Mr. Starr wishes to make. Instead, he had these documents drawn up by his personal attorney last week. I initially helped put the deal together, but only received access to the final partnership agreement last night. I stayed up for most of the night reading everything.

“Mr. Starr’s attorney is not present because we both thought this would go down easier if we kept this meeting simple. Our next meeting will be different, but this one is just between us.

“What Mr. Starr, your biological father, is proposing is that you join his company as a full partner.” She slid a dark blue folder to each of them: his mom first, then Chuck and Reese last. Reese opened the folder and skimmed the first page, but the wording felt too complicated for him to fully understand by skimming, so instead he listened to what Avery had to say.

“Once you read the terms, I’m sure you will find them quite generous. I suggest you contact your own attorney to go over the business partnership agreement in detail, and when you fully understand the contents, I’m sure you will agree that what Mr. Starr is proposing will make you and the Cooper family quite wealthy.

“Inside you will find the purpose of the partnership, and a detailed list of all the assets belonging to Circle Starr Enterprises both domestic and foreign. How the costs and profits of the company will be shared. The net worth of Circle Starr Enterprises as of the last quarter. How the accounting records will be maintained. The effective date of the agreement, which is upon signing, and everything else you might need to know about this lucrative partnership. Once you sign, you will be briefed on each business asset, their individual mission statements, and you will have access to all of their financials. In time, Mr. Starr will hand most of his business holdings over to you, and upon his death, should he pass first, you will be the sole inheritor of Circle Starr Enterprises.

“Your mom, Catherine Cooper, will receive fifty thousand shares of preferred stock in Circle Starr Enterprises, which will afford her a very comfortable life. Are there any questions?”

A deafening silence fell over the room. Reese could hear his heart beating in his ears. No one spoke. No one even breathed.

Reese stared down at the folder that told him his entire world could change if he simply signed his name on the bottom line, that he would no longer have to struggle. He would no longer have to wonder where he would get the money to pay the bank loans that threatened their home and their land if those loans weren’t paid soon. His mom’s life would change. His siblings’ lives would also be affected by this partnership, and all with the stroke of a pen.

With access to half of Circle Starr Enterprises in Reese’s back pocket, he’d see to it that his brothers would be free to pursue whatever they wanted. His sister could open her own jewelry store in New York or Bangkok for that matter, and none of them would ever want for anything ever again. Reese would make sure of it. After all, Chuck Starr was worth millions, perhaps even a cool billion, and Reese would be a full partner.

And all it took was some ink on a few sheets of paper.

The simplicity of it took Reese’s breath away.

“This is very generous of you, Chuck,” his mom said, leaning forward in the leather, high-back chair, breaking the palpable silence. “I never expected anything like this. Never.”

His mom looked completely surprised, and somewhat delighted by the prospect. But still, Reese detected some skepticism in her voice. She’d always told him, “nothing is ever free. There are always strings, even if they’re invisible strings. They’re always there, waiting to force you to dance when you least expect it.”

“I hope it’s a step in the right direction,” Chuck told her, a half smile spreading under his white mustache.

“I think it’s several steps in the right direction,” Avery added, then she turned to Reese. “What do you think, Reese? Clearly Mr. Starr is more than reaching out to you. He’s bringing you into the core of his business. You couldn’t ask for a more lucrative and solid olive branch.”

Still Reese hesitated, imagining those invisible strings. The full weight of what was inside the document that sat in front of him still settled in, filling in the nooks and crannies of his inbuilt skepticism.

Finally Reese felt compelled to speak. He had only one question. One question that he knew his father would want him to ask. “How . . .” Reese cleared the mistrust caught in his tight throat. “How will this affect the Cooper Ranch itself?”

“It can only benefit the Cooper Ranch,” Chuck began, his words strong and solid, coming at Reese with certainty and assurance. His was the voice of a confident businessman, something Reese’s dad never was and never could be. “You’ll have access to the funds you need to make all the repairs, to increase your livestock, to pay off any loans. It’s the best thing that could happen to the ranch.”

That was the right answer. The answer that Chuck had practiced, but Reese knew better. His father had taught him that Chuck never did anything out of the goodness of his heart. There was always an angle, something that would benefit Chuck Starr personally.

“That all sounds great, amazing, actually. Still, I have one more question. If I agree to all of this. If I sign all these documents and suddenly become a rich man . . . who will own the Cooper Ranch? The Cooper family or Circle Starr Enterprises?”

Chuck grinned. “By signing those documents, you will be part of Circle Starr. You will one day own all of it.”

He turned to Avery, depending on her for the truth. “Just tell me, who will own the Cooper Ranch?”

Her eyes widened, and at once he knew the truth without her having to tell him, but she did anyway. “Ultimately, you will, but for now, the Cooper Ranch and everything associated with it will be under the umbrella of Circle Starr Enterprises.”

Reese felt as if he’d been sucker punched. He turned to his mom. “Did you know these were the terms of my signing these documents?”

She didn’t flinch, didn’t move her gaze from his. “Yes,” she said without preamble. “It’s the only way for our family to keep the ranch.”

“What do you think dad would say about these terms?” Reese asked his mom, staring into her faded blue eyes, eyes that were now tearing up.

“I think he would hate them, but your dad had his own reasons for keeping his distance from Circle Starr. They have nothing to do with you.”

Reese smiled and snickered. “That’s just it, Mom. His reasons have everything to do with me.”

She tilted her head to the side, something Reese had seen a million times before. It usually signaled that she was about to try to manipulate his emotions, try to get him to see with his heart instead of his head. “By signing this agreement, you take the burden of our ranch off your shoulders, son. I no longer have to see you working so hard that your hands bleed, that you lose weight, and you give up a real life for yourself. That my other children give up a life for themselves. But more importantly, I won’t have to watch you work yourself to death like your father did.”

Reese’s emotions were too raw for this kind of discussion. The lump in his throat was too large, and he couldn’t help the mist forming in his eyes. “What are you saying, Mom? That all those years working our ranch had been a mistake? Had been too hard? That you want to step over all those years and forget about them?”

“I would never want you or any of my children to forget about where they came from or how hard your dad worked. All I’m saying is that maybe it’s time we tried another lifestyle. One that isn’t filled with strife.”

“And you think joining Circle Starr would do that for us?”

She carefully folded her hands on the table, looked down for a moment, then back up at Reese. He could tell she was pulling in all her strength and purpose for what she was about to say.

“I’m asking you to seriously consider Chuck’s offer. To weigh it carefully before you make up your mind. It doesn’t just affect you. It affects our entire family now and for generations to come. It’s a huge decision that can’t be taken lightly.”

Reese hit the table with his fist, and stood. Anger surged through his veins, and fogged his judgment. He needed to calm down, but that didn’t seem like an option at the moment. “Don’t you think I know that?”

“I do, and you should know that whatever you decide, you have my complete support.”

“Even if I decide not to do this?”

“Even then.”

Reese shook his head, then stared over at Chuck. He couldn’t help the ironic grin that stretched his lips tight over his clenched teeth. A moment later he said, “So, you’d win in the end, wouldn’t you? Either way, you’ll win. You know we can’t afford to keep the ranch, so you’ll buy us out if I don’t sign this. If I do sign, not only do you get my father’s ranch, the ranch you’ve been salivating over for decades, but you’d get me to work by your side. Ironic, don’t you think?”

But Chuck remained stoic. He didn’t even blink.

Reese gazed down at the blue folder on the table, pushed his chair back with the back of his legs, hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly scooped up the thick folder. “I’ll have our lawyer look it over and get back to you,” he told Chuck, knowing perfectly well he had no intention of doing either.

“Take all the time you need,” Chuck said, standing, his face warm and friendly now, reminding Reese of that time when he was a kid in the restaurant when Chuck had given up his table. He hadn’t seen that look since that day, and watching him now, a tiny crack formed in Reese’s distrust of Chuck Starr.

Damn, but he didn’t want that to happen, especially not now.

“I intend to do just that,” Reese said, then he grabbed one of Kaya’s muffins and strode out of the room.