Chapter 6
C al was in his office when Bailey tapped softly on his door.
“May I take your airplane?” she asked.
He tore his eyes away from the computer screen, blinking at her while his brain tried to adjust. “Take it where?”
“In the air, for a spin,” she said in the tone of someone who thought maybe his brain wasn’t working quite right.
“You’re a pilot?” he blurted.
Her lips tightened, and he guessed he had offended her. He could almost see the list of possible retorts flashing before her eyes, something like, “Lots of women are pilots now.” Instead she simply said, “Yes, sir.”
He gave her a knowing, teasing smile. It wasn’t that she was a woman so much that she was so doggone cute. Her hair was up in the spunky little ponytail again, only today she’d added a baseball cap up top. She wore a gray t-shirt with tidy denim jeans. In fact all of her was tidy. It was hard to picture her with a hair out of place or a spot of food on her clothes, almost as if those things wouldn’t dare, not on her watch.
“Was there anything else you wanted to add, Major Dunbar?” he asked, taunting her to say what was on her mind.
“Would you like to come with me, sir?” she asked, eyes slightly narrowed.
Now his did the same. “Why do you ask?”
She shrugged. “It’s your airplane and your ranch. Thought you might like the birds-eye view.”
“I’m good, thanks,” he said.
“Hmm,” she replied with what he could only imagine to be a taunting kind of smile since she wouldn’t say so directly. Someone must have talked and told her his Achilles heel—flying. Probably Jinx who for some reason found any hint of humanity in him hilarious.
He tossed her the keys to the plane. “Have at it, little bit.”
Her lips tightened again, signaling her dislike for the nickname.
“Anything to add?” he prompted.
She blinked three times and shook her head. “No, sir.”
“You are quite a marvel, Bailey. A woman who knows how to keep her mouth closed,” he said.
“And you are exactly as expected sir—a man who doesn’t know when to shut up.” She clutched the keys in her palm, turned on her heel, and disappeared, forcing herself to take measured steps as she walked away from him. She didn’t hate the man, but he certainly could irritate her, when he wanted to. She had never done well with being teased, especially not for being small, something she didn’t like to be. It was intensely aggravating to feel powerful on the inside but be cute and cuddly on the outside. Calhoun Ridge wasn’t all out resisting her, but neither had he fully accepted her presence. Instead he seemed to be indulgently humoring her, and that was almost worse. She could stomach rejection a whole lot better than condescension.
But neither would she allow herself to fall prey to the temptation to prove herself. Steady, she cautioned. She would not win him over by flying off the handle in an overeager attempt to show him how good she was. All she could do was keep on keeping on and let her work speak for itself. In the meantime, she got to fly.
“This place is amazing,” she admitted as she tucked herself in the cockpit and began doing her pre-flight check. It had horses and flat, open prairie, and an airplane. Those were pretty much all of her favorite things in life. Her blood pressure felt better than it had in months. Her head hadn’t pounded since she arrived and the tight feeling in her chest and arms had all but disappeared.
She started the plane, and a few of the ranch hands came out to watch. Bailey resisted the urge to wave at them, but it was hard because she was so happy to be flying again. It had been ages. In DC she had little access to a plane and they were overly picky about her health. Technically she wasn’t supposed to fly until she got her blood pressure fully under control. But that wasn’t a problem here, and her heart soared with the freedom of it all. This was one of the last bastions of true freedom in the entire country, acres upon acres of private land to do whatever she wanted. No flight plan, no flight tower, no fussy federal regulations. Just simple, old-school flying in a tiny beat up plane.
She took off and circled, climbing higher and higher until she was sure she had cleared the tree line. She needed to be low enough to look out but high enough to keep her altitude. When she felt she’d achieved perfection, she made a few concentric circles around the outskirts of the ranch, noting buildings and other landmarks. When she was satisfied with her aerial tour, she headed for the two trouble spots—the north where the rustlers stole cows and the south where smugglers brought drugs.
Finally, when she ran out of reasons to stay up, she circled back around and set it down. Cal was there when she stepped out, and she wasn’t certain if it was coincidence or on purpose. “See anything interesting?” he asked.
“I suppose it depends on the definition,” she said. “I’d like to get into town, speak with the local law enforcement.”
“When?”
“As soon as possible,” she said.
“I have some things I need to do tomorrow. You can ride with me.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“Are you always so polite, Bailey?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re a puzzle, little bit.”
“Yes, sir,” she agreed.
“Heard that before, have you?” he guessed.
“Yes, sir,” she agreed.
“Has anyone ever solved the riddle?” he asked.
“Not to my knowledge, sir,” she said.
He opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, and closed it again. “Hungry?” he tried instead.
“Enough to eat the paste off wallpaper,” she said.
“We’ll see if we can do a bit better than that.” They turned and began heading toward the house in silence. It was a comfortable silence, and both of them were a bit surprised by that. Neither liked to share space, and yet in two days they had fallen into an easy companionship. They ascended the porch steps. Cal reached for the door, but it was pulled open from the inside.
A woman stood in the doorway observing them, her beautiful face cool and composed. Finally she spoke. “Well, I see I’ve been replaced. That didn’t take long.”
An ugly sort of tension radiated between the two. Bailey glanced questioningly at Cal. “Bailey, this is my wife, Isabel.”
“How do you do?” Bailey asked, extending a hand Isabel ignored completely.
“I do very well,” Isabel said, her tone as cold as her expression.
Bailey dropped her hand and crossed her arms over her chest. Obviously something was going on between the husband and wife. Whatever it was, it was none of her concern and couldn’t be improved by input from her.
“What do you want, Is?” Cal asked.
“Just dropping by, seeing what the cat dragged in.” Her eyes landed on Bailey again.
“Bailey’s working for me,” Cal said.
“I’m sure she is,” Isabel replied.
“Enough,” Cal said, the word cold and final. “What do you want?”
“I can’t come to my own house? It is still mine, you remember. Well, half.”
“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go wash up,” Bailey said. She took a step toward the door, but Isabel made no move to let her pass. “Or I could stay here and continue to linger awkwardly in your private conversation.”
Finally, Isabel stepped to the side and let her through.
“Isn’t she the cutest?” Bailey heard her ask, but she skirted around the hallway before she heard Cal’s answer.
“Don’t,” Cal said. “She’s an employee, nothing more.”
“She’s living in our house,” Isabel said.
“In her own room, in her own wing, a fact I’m sure you’re well aware of since you likely snooped before we got here.”
“Oh, honey, you know me so well,” Isabel said.
“I certainly do,” Cal said, bumping by her to enter the house. With Isabel there, it felt cold and tense again, sharp contrast to the warm, welcoming way it felt without her. How had he ever thought she would fit in this place? In this world?
“I need more money,” Isabel said, following him to the kitchen while he washed his hands in the sink.
He laughed humorlessly. “I bet you do. What happened to the twenty thousand I gave you eighteen months ago?”
She shrugged. “Living is expensive.”
“The way you do it, maybe,” he said.
“Let’s review, Cal. Either give me the allowance I want to live on, or I take half the ranch in a divorce. Tossing me a few bucks here and there seems like a much cheaper, easier alternative, don’t you think?”
He sighed. “Don’t you ever get tired of being so…you?”
“You’d think so, but no. And a lot of people think I’m pretty great, actually.”
“That’s because they don’t have to live with you or pay your bills,” he countered.
“Aw, save the banter for your new little toy. She looks like the kind that would enjoy it.”
“How much?” he asked.
“Ten thousand,” she said.
He bit down on his tongue, swallowing the reaction she wanted from him. She was spoiling for a fight, he could tell. Her cavalier attitude about Bailey was covering a mound of jealousy and possessiveness. “I’ll think about it,” he managed.
“Think hard, Cal, because the more I sit out there alone in my little corner of the world, the more I begin to wonder what I need you for. I could totally run this place.”
“You’d run it to the ground in three months,” he said, gritting his teeth hard against his growing anger and frustration. Had he ever loved her? It was hard to remember.
“Totally worth it to see you suffer. And then I’d sell the land, bit by bit, take all that money, and go somewhere tropical. Or maybe European. I haven’t decided yet.”
“Go away, Isabel,” he said. “And I don’t mean just now. Go far away, leave this place, and forget it ever existed.”
She smiled and tapped his wedding band. “Not sure you actually mean that. But when you do, it’ll be a fun conversation with my lawyer. All that football money, just languishing in an account somewhere. My, my, won’t that be fun.”
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing, the vein in his temple throbbing. Isabel was the only woman he had ever been tempted to hit. He had never done it, would never do it, but the temptation always left him feeling shaken. What kind of man even thought about hitting a woman? No kind he had ever wanted to be, and yet here he was.
“Do it,” Isabel whispered, reading his thoughts. “And then I’ll have you arrested and take you for even more.”
“I would never hit you, and you know it. But even if I did, you’d be hard pressed to find someone to arrest me around here. You’re nobody’s favorite.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” she said with a taunting little smile.
“Is there anything I can do to help with supper?” Bailey asked, and it was as if somebody pulled the plug on his frustration. He took a deep breath, one that reached all the way to the bottom of his lungs this time, and turned his back on Isabel.
“I’m sure it’s already done. Estralita always leaves us in good shape. Isabel, you can see yourself out, I take it.”
“Sure you don’t want to count the silver?” she asked.
Cal didn’t reply. It wasn’t the silver he cared about, and she knew it. If a few trinkets would appease her, he’d gladly hand them over. But Isabel wanted to hit him where it would hurt the most; she wanted the ranch. And she’d get it over his dead body. When she failed to get a reply from him, she turned her attention to Bailey.
“Well, it was such a pleasure to meet you, you little cutie. Take good care of Cal here, but not too much. He’s still a married man, after all, and judges don’t take a shine to infidelity.”
“Seems like you’d know all about that,” Bailey replied evenly and Isabel blinked at her, surprised.
“Well, then. Consider the gauntlet tossed, I suppose.”
“I’m here for a job. I don’t concern myself with trivialities and nonessentials,” Bailey said.
“Kudos on picking one who can hold her own. This ought to be fun,” Isabel said. “You two have a pleasant meal getting your taste buds burned off by yet another one of Estralita’s stews.” She wheeled and floated out of the kitchen, actually floated as if her heel-clad feet didn’t touch the floor. Bailey had never been capable of floating like that, but neither did she want to. And she had certainly never worn heels. Floating and combat boots were incompatible.
They waited to speak until the front door opened and closed. “Sorry about that,” Cal said. He sounded exhausted.
“You doing all right there, boss?” she asked.
He nodded and then changed his mind and shook his head.
“Want to talk about it?” she offered. He sat and she dished stew and bread for each of them, pouring them both a generous glass of sweet tea.
“No, but I suppose there are a few things you need to know to protect yourself.”
“It’s all right, I’m aces at self-defense,” she said, and he smiled.
“I’m afraid you might need more than that with her. It’s probably not a surprise to you we’re separated, considering she no longer lives here.”
“How long?” Bailey asked.
“Two years. As you correctly guessed, she cheated on me and moved out soon after. But even before that things weren’t good. I honestly can’t remember if they ever were. And I’m part of it, part of the reason she acts like that. It seems like the two of us bring out the worst in each other, and it’s been all out war from the beginning.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Bailey said sincerely.
“The thing is, nobody knows about the separation. Not in my family, anyway. A year and a half ago my brother got married and I paid her twenty thousand dollars to fly east for the wedding and pretend we were still together.”
“Why?” Bailey exclaimed.
“I don’t know. At the time we’d only been separated six months, and I had hope maybe things would work out and we’d get back together. And then I saw Maggie and Cam together, remembered how it’s supposed to be, and realized I didn’t actually want Isabel back. I mean, I wanted to maintain my marriage because that’s what you do—you get married and you stay married. But I can’t stand her. She repulses me on every level. The ranch is a pawn between us, the threat she constantly dangles before me. I’m the fourth generation in my family to run this place. Do you understand what it would be like to lose it because I married for looks?”
“Yes,” she said, and he thought maybe she did get it. She seemed the type of person who would understand the full weight of the responsibility he was under, of duty and honor.
“What’s the solution?” he asked earnestly. “Because so far I can’t find my way out, so we linger in this mutual trap of loathing, both of us in misery. She lives on a far corner of the land and dates other men. Lots of other men, if the rumors are true. I remain here, a cuckolded laughing stock who pays for her lavish, entitled lifestyle.”
“Have you spoken to a lawyer?”
“Yes, and the law’s on her side. She could take half the ranch. I only own seventy percent, my brother owns thirty. In the case of a divorce, Isabel and I would split my half, thirty five percent each. Even with Cam and I having the majority, she would make life a misery just because she could. She would fight me every step of every day. She would ruin me, ruin the ranch, just because she hates me that much.”
“What if you sold all your percentage to your brother before filing for a divorce?” she asked.
“That’s called dissipation of assets and, while not technically illegal, it’s unethical and frowned upon.”
“So is infidelity,” she said. “I’m not saying she should walk away with nothing here, but if you sold to your brother, you could give her half the cash value of the ranch. I think any judge would see that as fair. It’s not like she’d be empty handed, and I’m guessing you’d rather see the cash go than your family land.”
“That’s true,” he said. “And Cam has enough in his trust to cover at least Is’s half of the ranch. I could pay him back in increments.”
“Of course it would mean having to tell him the truth.”
“I’m guessing by your disapproving tone you believe I should have done that from the beginning,” he said.
“I’m a marine. We’re kind of big on the truth,” she said. “You know, honor, faithfulness, etcetera.”
“Sounds like I should have married a marine and saved myself the trouble of a beauty queen,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” she agreed, and he laughed.
“Tell me, little bit, if you’re so hep on marines, why aren’t you married to one?”
“Two marines in one family, that’s a tricky combination, sir. And I’ve never found a civilian who measures up.”
“Measures up to what?” he asked.
“My exacting standards,” she said.
“As someone who chose poorly, let me commend you on that and advise you not to settle,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” she agreed, and they finished their meal in contemplative silence.