“Talk this out,” Mandy finished. “But, can I say, I really hope you’ll give it some time before you sell, Caleb, because I know Reed-”
Caleb wrapped a big hand around her upper arm and turned her to face him. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Oh.” Then what was she doing here? Why were they making plans for a vacation in Brazil?
“She’s my financial lawyer.”
“Sure.” Whatever. It didn’t mean they weren’t romantically involved.
He lowered his voice further. “And why did your mind immediately go to a romance?”
“Because she’s gorgeous,” Mandy offered, counting on her finger. “Because she’s here. Because she just told you if you didn’t come back to Chicago, things weren’t going to work out between you.”
Caleb’s voice lowered to a hiss. “And what exactly do you think I’ve been doing with you?”
She was slow to answer, because she really wasn’t sure what the heck he’d been doing with her. “A harmless flirtation. I assumed you didn’t mean it the way-”
“I did.”
“I’d love some coffee,” came Danielle’s sultry voice from the kitchen doorway.
“Coming up.” Mandy quickly turned away from Caleb.
“She thinks you and I are dating,” he said to Danielle in a clear voice.
Danielle’s response was a melodic laugh. “Like I’d get you to sit still long enough for a date.”
“See?” Caleb finished before backing off.
“I’m setting up a corporation for him in Brazil,” Danielle explained. “Do you by any chance have an internet connection? A scanner?”
“In the office,” Caleb answered. “Up the stairs, first door on the right.”
When Mandy turned around, two stoneware mugs of coffee in her hand, Danielle was gone.
Caleb was standing in front of the table in the breakfast nook. “I’m not dating her.”
“Got that.” Mandy took a determined step forward, ignoring the undercurrents from their rather intimate conversation. “Brazil?”
“It’s a huge, emerging market.”
She set the two mugs down on the table. “Are you, like a billionaire?”
“I’ve never stopped to do the math.”
“But you might be.” No wonder he could give up the ranch without a second thought. He wasn’t quite the philanthropist he made himself out to be.
“The net worth of a corporation is irrelevant. All the money’s tied up in the business. Even if you did want to know the value, you’d spend months wading your way through payables, receivables, inventory, assets and debts to find an answer. And by the time you found it, the answer would have changed.”
“But you don’t need the money from the ranch,” was really Mandy’s point.
Caleb drew a sigh. “I’m giving the money to Reed because he earned it.” Caleb’s hand tightened around the back of one of the chairs. “Boy, did he earn it.”
“Then don’t sell the ranch.”
“I can’t stay here and run it.”
Mandy tried to stay detached, but her passion came through in the pleading note of her voice. “Reed doesn’t want the money. He wants the ranch.”
“Then, where is he?”
“He’s sulking.”
Caleb gave a cold laugh. “At least you’ve got that right. He’s off somewhere, licking his wounds, mired in the certain and self-righteous anger that I’m about to cheat him out of his inheritance. Nice.”
“Reed doesn’t trust easily.”
“You think?”
“And you’ve been gone a long time.”
“When I left, I
“Well, he didn’t. And you have a choice here. You can make things better or you can make them worse.”
“No. Reed had a choice here.” Caleb’s voice was implacable. “He could have stayed.”
“He’ll be back.”
Caleb shook his head. “I don’t think so. And he’ll be better off with the money, anyway. He can go wherever he wants, do whatever he wants. He’ll be free of this place forever.”
“If he wanted to be free,” she offered reasonably, “he’d have left with you in the first place.”
Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you want him back here so badly?”
Mandy wasn’t sure how to answer the question. What she wanted was for Caleb and Reed to reconcile. She wanted the ranch to stay in the Terrell family for Reed’s children, for Sasha’s grandchildren. Reed had sacrificed ten years to protect his heritage. Caleb had no business pulling it out from under him.
Caleb watched the last of the dozen pieces of paper disappear into the ranch house office fax machine. The machine emitted a series of beeps and buzzes that indicated the pages were successfully reaching the Lyndon real-estate office.
“You did it, didn’t you?” Mandy’s accusing voice came from the office doorway. It was full dark, and the ranch yard lights outside the window mingled with the glow of the desk lamp and the stream of illumination from the upstairs hallway. Danielle had retired to the guest room half an hour ago. Caleb thought Mandy had already left.
“The Terrell Cattle Company is officially for sale,” he replied, swiping the pages from the cache tray and straightening them into a neat pile.
“You’re making a mistake,” said Mandy.
“It’s my mistake to make.”
She moved into the room. “Did you ever stop to wonder why he did it?”
“Reed or Wilton?”
“Your father.”
Caleb nodded. “I did. For about thirty-six hours straight. I called Reed half a dozen times after I left my lawyer’s office that day. I thought he might have some answers. But he didn’t call back. And eventually his voice- mail box was full and I knew it was hopeless.”
“Danielle’s office?”
“Different lawyer.”
“Oh.”
Caleb set down the papers and turned to prop himself against the lip of the desk. “I guessed maybe Reed and the old man had a fight, and leaving me the ranch was Wilton’s revenge.”
“They had about a thousand fights.”
Caleb gave a cold chuckle. “Wilton fought with me, too. A guy couldn’t do anything right when it came to my old man. If you piled the manure to the right, he wanted it to the left. You used the plastic manure fork, you should have used the metal one. You started brushing from the front of the horse, you should have started from the back-” He stopped himself. Just talking about it made his stomach churn. How the hell Reed had put up with it for ten extra years was beyond Caleb. The guy deserved a medal.
“My theory,” said Mandy, moving farther into the dimly lit room, “is that once you were gone, he forgot you were such a failure.” An ironic smile took the sting out of her words.
“While Reed was still here to keep screwing up over and over again?”
“Got a better theory?”
“He found my corporation thanks to Google and decided I was worth a damn?” Even as he said the words, Caleb knew it was impossible. He’d spent the better part of his adult life warning himself not to look for his father’s approval. There was nothing down that road but bitter disappointment.
Mandy perched herself on the inset, cushioned window seat. She was silhouetted now by the lights from the yard. “You have to know you are worth a damn.”
“You’re too kind.”
