Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Emma
“ I don’t know what I was thinking,” I grumbled, shaking my head as Lily sat perched in the chair behind the counter with me. “I seriously thought that he wanted to date me, and then he introduces me to his daughter as a friend. I felt so awkward that I just left.” I tossed the rag down into the laundry basket. It had been a long day, even though I had let Sarah open and run the shop for the first half of the day.
“I don’t know. I think that you should give him the benefit of the doubt,” Lily said with a shrug. “I mean, he was just caught off guard with Jess showing up. She probably caught him off guard—and on top of that, you and I both know that she was not with Dara.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t rat her out. I don’t want to get in the middle of their relationship. I can already tell they’re not on the same page right now.”
“It’s rare to be on the same page as your teenage daughter, I think. Hell, Drew never knows what’s going on with Dara. That’s my job. Jess doesn’t have that kind of figure in her life, and even though I try to be there for her, I know that it’s hard for her. She’s not going to tell me what’s going on in all aspects of her life.”
“Yeah, I get that, I do,” I said with a sigh, my eyes scanning the empty café. “But at the same time, I would’ve loved to have stayed and watched the movie with both of them—but it took Mason so long to answer that I just escorted myself out.”
“Maybe he was just thinking it over? Mason is a pretty thorough guy—well, mostly. I don’t know. He did get in that accident…”
“What accident?”
She waved me off. “It was some sort of vehicle accident after his first wife left. I think he was just in a bad place, but he still gets headaches from it sometimes.”
Well, that’s news to me.
“Anyway, I just think you should let him at least have the chance to make it up to you. Like I said, having teenagers can make things so weird. I can’t even imagine trying to date with one always poking around.”
“You give him way too much slack,” I muttered, sliding down into the chair beside her. “I just want something easy.”
“The easy things are never worth it. You’re just in the push and pull stage. It’ll either work out or it won’t. You’ll just have to see. Regardless, you have a baby to think about… Put the baby first.”
“Yeah, well, I said I wouldn’t tell Mason until I figure out where he stands with me…”
The sound of the door opening cut our conversation short, and I spun to see none other than Mason himself coming through the door. My heart stuttered in my chest, my mind flashing to the intimacy before us that was disrupted… Ugh.
“Hey,” he greeted us. There was an urgency to his step as he approached, his expression coming across like he was either going to explode in anger or excitement… And I had no idea which one it was.
“Hi, Mason,” Lily said, giving him a smile. “I heard about the awkward date night with the two of you.”
I shot her a warning glance, feeling the heat flush to my face at the way my best friend had just outed me. “It’s all fine.”
“Well, first of all,” Mason said quickly, his tone rushed. “I’m sorry about that. Jess was real upset that I didn’t invite you right then to watch the movie. I just didn’t want to pressure you to hang out with my daughter—sometimes she’s a mess…”
Relief flooded my chest, and I smiled, ignoring the knowing look on Lily’s face. “Thank you, maybe we can have a raincheck. I’d love to get to know Jess better.”
He held my gaze for a moment, like whatever I said to him hit the freeze button, but then he nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure she’d like that, anyway,” he blew out a sharp exhale. “I found out earlier today that Graham Hudson is putting on some gala at his new mansion. They apparently hear about a bunch of causes, and then the rich folks donate to whatever they want—and with a little research, I saw that some donate millions. ”
Lily raised an eyebrow. “And why are you telling me this? It seems almost like a sympathy convention… or something. Drew was invited, but he said he didn’t want to go.”
“Yeah, but I think we should go.”
“…why?” I asked, tilting my head as my brain suddenly thought of Brittany. “I don’t know about that… ”
Mason glanced back to the door, and then leaned against the counter. “Lucas is in real bad shape financially, and he does all the community events, gives riding lessons, and is the foundation of the town. He needs the money, and all the missing cattle might make him default on the ranch. When his dad passed, I guess there was a lot of debt that he had left hidden.”
So he does have bad debt.
“I don’t think it would count. It’s not a nonprofit,” Lily said thoughtfully. “I don’t know how you’d pull it off.”
“I read all the stipulations. It doesn’t say anywhere in the rules that it has to be a nonprofit. I saw they gave money to a couple of businesses over the years. I think it would be worth a shot… And I think Graham would feel some pressure to help out his community.”
My stomach felt uneasy as I thought about the plans they had made to buy the land… Did Mason know about that? Before I could mention it, Lily beat me to it.
“You do know that Graham wanted Drew to convince Lucas to sell part of the ranch, right? Well, actually, in the beginning, Graham wanted the entire thing, but then he just went after some of the land.”
Mason shook his head. “I had no idea, but that makes a lot of sense… And I bet Graham knew about the standing with the bank.”
“Yeah,” Lily said sadly. “Graham knows a lot more than I think he should, but you know how small towns work… Word gets around.”
“But I had no idea about the bad debt until I talked to Lucas recently,” Mason reasoned, looking more and more defeated as the conversation went.
“Yeah, but those developers have ties to everything—even Drew knows about the bank stuff. He tried to push Graham in a different direction, but it just didn’t seem to work.”
“And I think if we play our cards right, we can make it work.”
“You’re going to need a good sob story… Get Lucas to tell the entire story of the ranch,” I said, perking up at the idea. “I know that people with money to donate want it to go to someone that they connect with. You need a solid proposal.”
“And you can help me convince Lucas to do it.”
“Uh…” my voice trailed off. “I barely know Lucas.”
“I think the three of us might be able to change his mind,” Mason insisted, his tone growing more desperate. “We’re not going to gang up on him; we’re just going to throw it out there, and you two both know how important it is to keep this town the way it is. I’d put together a whole damn posse, but I don’t want to air Lucas’s financials… I think he’ll understand if you two know.”
“Okay,” Lily agreed with a sigh. “I’ve known Lucas since we were kids, so we might as well give it a shot. Emma has a way with people, too, so maybe she can be a good back up.”
“I don’t know,” I began, feeling uneasy. “This might be like kicking someone when they’re down… Maybe you should just go alone to talk to Lucas, or maybe take Lily.”
“But you experienced the ranch for the first time, and you have firsthand experience as to why an outsider would want to keep the ranch,” he countered.
The worry lines on his face made me feel a little guilty. I knew how much the ranch meant to the community—and I had experienced it firsthand… “Fine,” I said after a few moments of silence. “Just let me clean up and we can go.”
** *
“Absolutely not,” Lucas glared at the three of us standing in the entryway of his house twenty minutes later. “I will burn this house down, file a false claim, and spend the rest of my life in prison before I go begging the same rich assholes who came to take my ranch for money.”
I cocked my head at the strange insurance fraud claim. That seems very thought out.
“But the pressure would be put on those assholes to donate money, and then it’s kind of like a fuck you,” Mason reasoned. “And if you approve, we could put together an entire group of people—of all ages—to come and talk about what the ranch means to them.”
Lucas shook his head. “I get that you’re trying to come up with some high and mighty way to save this place, Mason, I know that. I appreciate you thinking about it as much as you have, but this is a battle I’m gonna have to fight on my own.”
My eyes drifted to the pistol fastened in his belt, and I couldn’t help but wonder how he was planning to fight the battle. “Maybe… Maybe we could just do the appeal for you,” I said, grabbing his attention. “Mason is the sheriff, and he’s highly regarded. I run a business and moved here from out of town, so I can provide a fresh perspective…”
“You could go as a couple,” Lily offered and the side gesture made me want to kick her in the shin. She was really pushing it.
“We could, and play on the fact that we wanna get married at the ranch—and how much it means to us,” Mason added, causing my heart to take off in my chest… Was he thinking about us like that? Or was th is just a ruse to win over the hearts of the people who might give money to the ranch?
“I mean fake of course,” Mason quickly added as Lucas raised his brows.
Just a ruse.
I ignored the pang of sadness in my chest, as well as the look of irritation on Lily’s. “Yeah, I guess you could bring that up, but it really needs to be community focused, not personally focused.”
“She’s right,” Lily said promptly. “You can go as a couple, and maybe mention that your first date was there… But leave the rest of it out. The town talks too much, anyway. You go talking about marriage and it’ll make it back to Jess.”
Because of Cody…
“Y’all are all crazy,” Lucas grunted, shaking his head. “I ain’t gettin’ involved with any of this. If you wanna go beg the damn assholes then go, but I don’t wanna be involved with it.”
“But you’ll take the money if we get it for you?” Mason perked up.
Lucas’s gaze bounced between all three of us, his eyes weary and halfway annoyed. “Sure. You go embarrass yourselves, and if you somehow can convince them to care, then go for it. But I don’t think it’ll work.”
I looked over to Mason, who nodded, a hopeful glimmer in his eye. He really thought that it would work… And all I could think about was the nausea I was feeling from carrying his baby…
But maybe this would bring us closer.