Chapter 10 #2
Freddy sincerely hoped not. She’d invited Eb as a little dig at Ry, but now she was in danger of spending the meal alone with her silver-haired neighbor. Both Leigh’s and Ry’s assessments of Eb had been weighing on her mind. “I’m not sure, Manny. Why don’t you leave another salad, just in case?”
Eb glanced at her. “Isn’t Leigh out on a sunset trail ride?”
“Yes.”
His expression of goodwill dimmed. “Then I guess you must be expecting your prospective buyer,” he said. “Before he arrives, we need to talk. I was hoping your trail ride would discourage him.”
“So was I, but he doesn’t discourage easily.”
Manny put salads in front of both of them. “Where would you like the third one?” he asked.
Eb patted the place mat beside him at the same moment Freddy pointed to the seat next to her. Manny paused as he looked from Eb to Freddy.
“Here, I’ll take that from you,” Ry said, sitting down next to Freddy. “You look lovely tonight,” he murmured to her.
“Thank you.” The compliment filled her with pleasure, far too much pleasure for her own good.
“So, McGuinnes, you survived,” Eb said.
“So l did. How are you doing, Whitlock?” He reached across the table to shake Eb’s hand. “How’s Gold Digger?”
“Gold Strike,” Eb corrected.
“Oh, yeah.” Ry grinned. “You’ll have to forgive me. I’m new around here.”
“So I noticed. I was wondering how you found your way to the table without a ma?tre d’.” Eb gave Ry a wide smile that looked totally insincere.
“We city dwellers learn to be resourceful. I just followed the light flashing off your bolo tie, Eb. May I call you Eb? I’ll bet you need a winch to hoist that hunk of silver over your head every morning.”
Eb’s smile disappeared. “I’m surprised to see you up and about, McGuinnes, much less cracking jokes.”
“Yeah, me, too.” Ry hoisted his water glass in Freddy’s direction. “To the power of... youth.”
Freddy knew she shouldn’t be enjoying this, but Eb was always so darn full of himself that it was fun to watch someone pricking his balloon of self-importance.
In the next moment, she felt guilty. During her father’s illness, Eb had almost made a pest of himself with offers to help out.
Once, he’d graded the road to the ranch without asking and another time he’d rounded up several of her strays who’d wandered through a break in the fence, returned the cattle and mended the fence.
Freddy had been grateful, but Leigh had contended he was building up points toward some future goal.
“I suppose Freddy’s told you about the curse on this place,” Eb said between bites of salad.
“She has. Fortunately, I’m not a superstitious man.”
Freddy glanced at Eb in surprise. “You don’t believe in the True Love curse, do you?”
“I didn’t used to.” Eb pushed away his empty salad plate.
“But consider the run of bad luck you’ve had recently, Freddy.
First your father’s cancer. Then you were forced to sell to this big-shot corporation, but the place still hasn’t turned a profit.
Maybe there’s something to that curse business.
Even a relatively minor thing like Mikey getting cut up, or your stock tank springing a leak.
And remember, too, that calf was stillborn, and pack rats chewed the wiring in two of your trucks. ”
“Pack rats and stock-tank leaks are just part of living out here in the desert, Eb,” Freddy said, irritated by his catalog of mishaps.
“Don’t happen that much to me.” Eb leaned back in his chair and puffed out his chest.
Or you keep quiet if they do, Freddy thought, and felt uncharitable for thinking it.
Manny replaced the salad plates with servings of T-bone, baked potatoes and beans.
Ry picked up his steak knife. “If I didn’t know better, Whitlock, I’d say you’re trying to scare me off so you can buy this place for a song. Not that I blame you,” he added, cutting into his steak. “Any good businessman would try the same thing.”
“Oh, I’m no businessman,” Eb said, with a sly nudge of Freddy’s knee under the table. “I’m just a rancher.”
Freddy felt like a dope. Of course Eb was trying to discourage Ry with all this talk of the ranch’s curse. In his typical heavy-handed way, he was trying to help. And she would prefer that Eb buy the place, wouldn’t she?
Manny returned to the table. “Excuse me, but there’s a call for Mr. McGuinnes.”
Ry looked up, his expression alight with anticipation. He turned to Freddy. “Where can I take it?”
“You can go in my office. Just head straight across the main room. The door’s open.”
After Ry left, Eb heaved a sigh. “I do hate city slickers. I’m surprised he didn’t whip out one of those cellular jobs.”
“Eb, I thought you just bought one of those things?”
Eb looked uncomfortable. “Okay, I did, but it’s just to take out on the range. You should get one, too. It used to be safe for women to ride around this country alone, but not anymore...” He peered in the direction Ry had taken. “Any type of idiot could be out there.”
“He’s turned out to have spunk, Eb,” Freddy said. “I know he’s a greenhorn, but he took that trail ride like a man.”
Eb gave her a sharp look. “You changing your mind about city guys buying the place?”
“No, not really. Westridge was bad enough, but at least they left me in charge. I have the distinct impression these men wouldn’t do that.”
“Bet your bottom dollar on it. This McGuinnes is a real wheeler-dealer. He—” Eb didn’t finish the sentence as Ry came back into the dining room.
His walk was still a little bowed, and he still grimaced as he sat down, but his blue eyes glowed as he looked at Freddy. “Good news. My third partner is definitely in.”
The leap of excitement in her chest caught her totally by surprise.
“And just what does that mean?” Eb asked.
Ry looked across the table at him. “That it’s a done deal, neighbor.”
For the rest of the meal, Freddy felt like a referee at a sporting event.
Eb paraded his knowledge about ranching and Ry parried the rancher’s boasting with thrusts of razor-sharp wit.
By the time Eb said his goodbyes and drove away in his king-cab dual-wheel pickup, she would gladly have carried him to his ranch on her back.
“Lovely evening,” Ry said as he stood next to her on the porch.
She shot him a sideways glance. “I suppose you enjoyed yourself.”
“You bet.”
“Men,” she muttered, lifting her gaze heavenward. “By the way, what are these two partners of yours like?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “You know, this is the craziest deal I’ve ever put together, with the most unlikely characters. A trucker, a New York City cop and me. Can you imagine a stranger combination than that?”
She was unwillingly intrigued. “How did you ever link up with them?”
“We were all in the same elevator accident.”
Her stomach pitched. “Were you hurt?” she asked before she could stop herself, before the betraying note of concern could be banished from her question.
He gazed at her, a smile of irony making a brief appearance. “A minor concussion, which is nothing compared to the way I’ve been battered since I arrived here.”
Freddy avoided his gaze. “What about the other two?”
“My briefcase went flying and gashed open the cop’s chin, and he also broke his arm. The trucker hurt his back, which put his trucking career in jeopardy but gave him a nice settlement. The cop’s quitting the force and sinking his pension into the ranch.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “You’re using an insurance settlement and someone’s retirement fund to buy the ranch?”
“Along with every asset of mine I could liquefy.”
“Doesn’t that worry you, risking people’s nest eggs?”
“No. People thrive on risk. It’s playing it safe that ruins them. These two men were both stagnating, needing a challenge but not sure what it should be. I provided one.”
From his assured tone of voice, Freddy easily pictured him in a luxurious office in Manhattan, playing the market with nerves of steel, winning and losing small fortunes as if he were using Monopoly money. “And what about you? Did you need a challenge, too?”
“Apparently, I did.”
“I suppose your partners will want to come out to the ranch, too.”
“Definitely. Chase Lavette, the trucker, plans a trip as soon as the physical therapists have released him, and Joe, the cop, wants to bring his little boy out.”
“Of course, the deal isn’t finalized,” she said. “It could still fall through somehow, or one of your partners could back out.”
“They won’t.”
As crickets chirped in the mesquite branches, Freddy turned this new information over in her mind.
She’d been devastated when she’d had to sell the ranch to Westridge, but life around the True Love hadn’t changed as much as she’d expected.
This time, however, the owners wouldn’t be a faceless company.
Real people were buying the True Love, people looking for a challenge.
God knows what havoc that could create. She felt a headache coming on.
“Maybe it’s time to call it a day,” she said. “We probably both could use some rest.”
“Should I check for bugs before I go to bed?”
“No,” she said with a weary shake of her head. “We’re on a regular schedule with an efficient exterminator. You’re safe here.”
“I’m almost sorry to hear that.”
She looked into his eyes. Had he already developed a taste for danger?
“Good night, Freddy,” he said softly. “Sleep well.”
Nodding, she retreated inside before the spark of excitement in his gaze could lure her to stay.
Two hours later, her headache was worse. Climbing out of bed, she changed into her red tank-style bathing suit, grabbed a towel and headed toward the pool. But once she’d entered the enclosed patio, she paused. Ry was in the Jacuzzi, his head pillowed on a towel, his eyes closed.