Bouncing in the pickup truck Phoenix had rented at the airport, Cait looked out the window at the desolate area he was taking her to. “So, this is the land that’s made you so rich?”

“It sure is,” he said with pride in his deep voice.

“It’s not much to look at,” Cait commented on the drab gray trees that were short with thin leaves on them. The tan color of the dirt made everything blend in. Nothing stood out. “Does it get any better?”

“Hell, yes it does,” Phoenix said as he went around a corner and the pavement ended, white caliche rocks began, and the ride became even bumpier.

“Are we going off-roading now, Phoenix?” Cait asked as she grabbed the bar above the passenger side window. “Now I know why this was installed.”

Phoenix laughed as he shook his head. “This isn’t off-roading Caity-cat. This is one of the many roads the oil company put down when they were drilling the wells.”

“This is not a road!” she said as she hung on for dear life to the bar and pressed her feet against the floorboard in a vain attempt to steady herself. “This is worse than driving on the dirt, Phoenix!”

Rounding another curve, he pulled to a stop in front of a giant see-saw like structure. “This is the Nelson number one. The first oil well they drilled on this property. It makes roughly forty barrels of oil a day for me.”

“I can see why you like the land for that purpose but for any other purpose, it’s more than fairly undesirable. You sure you want to make a home for yourself here?” she asked him as she looked around, desperately trying to find anything of beauty at all to make her understand what he saw in the place.

Phoenix was happy with her dislike of the scenery. He was set on showing her that if she was looking for a husband, he wasn’t going to be the man for her. But if she wanted to play, he was game for that.

“This is where it all started, Cait. I want to make a home for myself and a family right here, where it all began,” he said then pulled away from the pump and headed down the bumpy road again.

Cait clung to the bar as she thought about why in the world he or anyone else would want to live in the middle of nowhere with only a bunch of machinery as their neighbors. And when he pulled up at a small, white house with the paint peeling, exposing old, gray boards underneath, she was thoroughly confused by the man. “What’s this?” she asked.

“This is the house the property came with. I stayed here a lot when I was first given the property. I want to make this place into a home. Come on, Cait. Let me show you around,” he said then jumped out of the truck.

When he opened the door for her, the most awful smell hit her like a brick. “Oh, Lord! What’s that smell?”

“That’s the smell of money, Cait,” he told her as he helped her out of the tall truck.

“It more like rotten eggs and tar.” Cait looked around to try to find out exactly where the odor was coming from and couldn’t pinpoint it at all. “It seems to be coming from everywhere.”

“Well, that’s because it is,” he told her as he led her into the ramshackle dump of a house. “That’s the gasses that come up with the oil. He pointed to a row of tan painted huge tanks that were not too far away. “That’s where the oil is pumped to. So, that’s why the smell is so strong here. You get used to it. You’ll see. Now, let’s go inside so I can show you the house and get your take on it.”

Cait pinched her nose shut as she went with him. She was pretty positive she’d never get used to that stench. And when he opened the door, she was met by three scurrying mice and let out a scream. “Rats!”

“Nah, those aren’t rats,” he said as he pulled her inside. “Rats are a lot bigger. Those are just mice. Once we move in here, they’ll move out.”

“We?” she asked as she looked at him, her fingers still holding her nose closed, making her sound stuffed up. “Phoenix, what the hell are you talking about?”

“You and me, of course. That’d be the next logical step, wouldn’t it? Moving in together?” he asked her as he watched her eyes get big.

“We’re not anywhere near that place yet,” she said.

And he had to wonder if they weren’t near that place then why was she talking about marrying him to her sisters?

Taking her into his arms, he pulled her close and kissed her on the forehead. “Maybe soon, you’ll be closer to wanting us to be a thing. A real thing. A lasting thing.”

“Not here,” she said as she looked at the empty house. “And to be perfectly honest, this place needs to be torn down. Bulldoze it. And don’t start over anywhere near here. I’m pretty sure breathing in this air is not good for us.”

Phoenix was pretty sure it wasn’t either, but he said, “You really can’t see yourself living here, Caity-cat?” He rocked her back and forth as he looked into her eyes.

“I really can’t. We should go see that beach house you have.” She let her nose go and gave him a smile and then a kiss to see if she could get him to take her away from the horrible place. “I know I’ll feel a lot better with the salty air blowing around, instead of this.”

“You don’t even wanna spend one night here?” he asked. “Just to see what it’d be like?”

She shook her head. “No, and you shouldn’t either. This isn’t a place to build a home and raise a family. This place looks like rattlesnake heaven. A terrible place to raise kids.”

Cait wasn’t wrong about the snakes. Phoenix knew that each year the oil field workers killed five to ten of the poisonous creatures on his place, alone. Her instincts were right.

Everything about the girl was right, except the conniving part of her, Phoenix thought. “I tell you what, you and I are going to the little town that’s just a piece down the road and have some dinner then maybe get a room in town for the night. I really do want you to get to know this place. This is where my future will be. Maybe I could buy a house in town. Maybe that’d be more your style.”

“You keep talking like I’m about to move down here with you. I’m not,” she told him. “I’m still in school, and that’s my top priority.”

With her words, he let her out of his hold. “About school. I suppose you’ve gotten into a real financial pickle with all those student loans. I’d like to help you out with them.” Phoenix eyed her to see if she’d accept his help and let the marriage thing go.

He wanted them to stop the playing against the other thing they’d been secretly doing. Phoenix wanted things to be real between them. A thing they were far from at that moment.

Cait was wondering what he was up to. She placed her hand on her hip and shifted her weight. “I don’t need your help, thank you very much.”

Moving around her, like a cat stalking its prey, he said, “I think you do. I think you need my help very much. You have to admit, it’d help your father out tremendously if I settled your debts. Don’t you want that for him?”

She gulped as Phoenix circled her then stopped in front of her, taking her by the chin, making her look into his eyes. Cait was on the verge of telling him the truth. The only thing keeping her from blurting it all out was the fact that he was hanging on to his secret too. “My father wouldn’t want me accepting that kind of money from a man.”

“But a husband, he surely would,” Phoenix said then smiled.

“What are you getting at, Phoenix?” she asked him as she knew he didn’t want to marry her. And she didn’t want to marry him. It was all too soon, and there were lies in their way.

A loud popping sound made them both jump and Phoenix ran outside to see what was making the noise. Cait followed, and the two found one of the tanks had a small lid that was blowing up as each pop sounded. “I need to make a phone call,” Phoenix said. “We should get out of here.”

Hurrying to the truck, Cait climbed in on her own so they could get out of there faster. Phoenix got in the driver’s side and pulled out his phone as he pulled away from the area. “Why do you think it’s doing that, Phoenix?”

“I have no idea.” He gave her a look that told her more than he’d been telling her.

“You’ve never stayed out here, have you?” she asked him with a frown. “You’re trying to make me think this is what you want, but it’s not, is it?”

“Um, uh,” he had no idea what to tell her. He drove away from the smell and the noise that he knew damn good and well he never wanted to live around. And suddenly he felt he had to open up and be honest with the young woman. “Let me make this call to the oil company and then you, and I are going to have a long talk.”

Cait nodded and leaned her head against the headrest. It seemed they were finally going to get to the truth. Or so she hoped.