A Cowboy Under The Mistletoe

floor when she heard the rise in men’s voices.

“I don’t understand why you won’t take our money, if the Garrett ranch is what you want,” Shane said, sounding as if he had very little patience left.

Hank harrumphed. “I don’t need it, Dad. I’ve worked out everything on my own.”

“Then the rumors going around town are true?” Shane demanded, sounding even more upset. “You are going to marry Lulu Sanderson for her money.”

A brief silence followed. “If I was going to marry anyone for her money, I’d marry Ally Garrett,” Hank snapped. He was obviously exasperated. “But that’s not necessary with the plan I have.”

Of course it wasn’t, Ally thought, reeling backward in shock. She was ready to give Hank everything he could ever want, without so much as a promise of a ring on her finger. But Hank didn’t know that yet.

Deciding the conversation was over, she started forward once again, only to hear Shane McCabe say, “But Lulu is involved in this plan of yours…”

The grim note in Shane’s voice stopped Ally in her tracks once again.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Hank retorted, just as tautly, “but yes, Lulu is an integral part of my future plans, too.”

Ally’s heart sank. She ran a trembling hand over her eyes.

“You have to see you can’t have Ally and a deal with Lulu, too,” his dad argued.

“I don’t see why not,” Hank scoffed, confident as ever.

“It’ll never work,” Shane insisted with the paternal wisdom for which he was known.

“Yes,” he argued, as tears misted Ally’s eyes, “it will, Dad. The real question is when are you going to start believing in me again-with the trust and faith you gave me when I was a kid?”

And when, Ally mused, was she going to learn she would always-always-take second place to the family ranch?

“I do believe in you, son,” Shane insisted.

“Then why are you standing here tonight, trying to loan me the down payment and whatever collateral I need to purchase Mesquite Ridge?” Hank countered bitterly.

And why wouldn’t he take the offer? Ally wondered. Surely receiving money from family was better and more honorable than whatever it was Hank had cooked up with Lulu Sanderson.

“Your mother and I want you to be happy,” Shane soothed. “We want you to have kids. You and Ally seem like a good match.”

Ally leaned against the side of the house. I thought so, too. Obviously, she’d been wrong. Otherwise Hank would have confided some of this to her.

The voices came a little closer. “Lulu and I are a good match, too, Dad. Just not in the way you’d expect.”

Or want to hear, Ally thought.

Realizing she had witnessed enough, she marched briskly on around the corner of the house. Both men took one look at her face and realized she’d overheard enough to be deeply disturbed. Knowing she had to talk to Hank privately first, Ally said quietly, “Shane? Greta is looking for you. She needs your help in the kitchen.”

He nodded briefly at Ally, his glance conveying a thousand apologies as well as compassion. For Shane, too, knew what it was like to be emotionally shut out of Hank’s life at precisely the moment when Hank should have been opening up the most. To family, friends and especially the woman in his life. The woman he had pretended meant everything to him! Not, Ally thought miserably, that Hank had ever come right out and said he loved her, either. What if he didn’t? What if it was just passion keeping them together? A passion that might not last?

Ever the gentleman and congenial host, Shane said, “I’m sorry if I misstepped or have in anyway said or done anything to make you uncomfortable here this evening.” Shane cast another meaningful look at his son. “I was only trying to help.”

There was no question of the elder McCabe’s gallantry. Ally dipped her head in acknowledgment. “I know. I appreciate what you were trying to do, sir.” Even if Hank didn’t.

With a last rueful look at his son, Shane went inside. Ally stood facing Hank. She put her wounded feelings aside and faced him like the savvy businesswoman she still was. “Is it true that Lulu Sanderson is going to be an integral part of the deal you’re proposing to me tomorrow?”

Hank shrugged and ambled up the steps toward her. To her amazement, he now appeared to be annoyed with her! “I told you I’ve been talking business with Lulu.”

Ally warned herself to resist jumping to further conclusions. “I thought-hoped-you were just getting advice from her, or making use of her considerable connections in the venture capital and banking community, since she went to an Ivy League business school and worked in the financial sector before she came back to take over her dad’s restaurant.”

Hank stepped closer. It was clear from the look on his face that he wanted to tell her everything but for some reason still couldn’t. Or still wouldn’t. Frustration welled up inside Ally, as potent as hurt. “I’ve given you no reason to mistrust me.”

Hadn’t he? “Those glances Lulu has been giving you all evening say otherwise.”

Hank’s jaw set with the resolve of an ex-marine. “I’ve told you before. You have no reason to be jealous.”

Ally threw up her hands. Her feelings had been constantly dismissed and disregarded by her parents. No way was she letting it happen to her again.

She regarded Hank coldly. “I have every reason, given how happy Lulu is and how unhappy I am right now.”

“It’s just business.”

How many times had her parents told her that, while excluding and ignoring her? How many times had she been expected to just go away quietly and wait for the crumbs of their attention? “Then why can’t you tell me about it right now?” Ally countered with a burning resentment she could no longer contain. “Why are you treating me the way you’re treating your parents and heaven only knows who else?” Ally ignored Hank’s dissenting frown and rushed on miserably. “By only telling us what you feel we have a right to know at any given time, and yet still expecting us to magically understand what is going on in your mind and your heart?”

Hank’s spine stiffened. “When you really care about someone, you take things on faith,” he returned gruffly.

Like Lulu apparently was?

“Your dad is right,” Ally warned flatly. “You can’t have intimate relationships with both Lulu and me simultaneously.”

Hank folded his arms in front of him deliberately. “I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong, Ally. Lulu and I are just friends.”

Maybe not physically…at least not yet…

Ally set her jaw and took a stance. “I saw the way Lulu’s been smiling at you all evening, Hank.”

He lifted a hand. “She’s excited!”

Jealousy flared inside Ally. “I bet!”

Hank’s eyes narrowed. “I need you to believe in me, Ally.”

No doubt he did, Ally thought. But he wasn’t the only one with requirements for personal happiness. “And I need a life where I don’t feel excluded by ranch business, the way I did when I was growing up!”

More to the point, she had wanted to be an integral part of Hank’s efforts to purchase and build up Mesquite Ridge. Not Lulu. Ally had even, through clever financial analysis, found a way to do so that would meet both their monetary needs. For all the good it had done them.

Ally gestured dismissively. “Whatever the deal with Lulu is, I won’t accept it.”

Hank scowled. “I’ve spent days working on this,” he warned.

How well Ally knew that! “I don’t care. It’s pulling us apart, and you have other options.”

A muscle ticked in his cheek. He stared at her as if she were a stranger. “You’re not even going to give me a chance to lay out the proposal for you tomorrow at noon?” he asked incredulously.

“Not if the plan involves the participation of Lulu Sanderson or any of her money or ideas.” Because there was no way Ally was playing second fiddle to another woman, or being shut out by Hank and Lulu in the way she had been emotionally shut out by her folks. Especially over ranch business.

Hank studied her a long moment. His expression was grave. “You’re serious.”

“Dead serious,” Ally stated bluntly.