30. Ben
BEN
Liam and I headed over to the Callahan ranch for the first time in years. It took a lot to convince Liam that this was the right move after what Austin did to Bailey, but if we were going to mend the hurt between our families, someone had to extend an olive branch.
“You really sure you want to do this, Pop?”
“If your mother can forgive the family after she was poisoned, then I can get past it for the sake of the town.”
“The sake of the town,” he scoffed. “Right.”
“Like it or not, if the Callahans fall, the rest of the town won’t be the same. We need the store. No one else is going to put up a grocery store out here.”
Sighing, my son reluctantly agreed, though he would never say it out loud.
“I doubt anyone will ever see the Callahans the way they used to after what Austin did.”
“Probably not, but John is a good man. And his ranch will help us grow. We need that, and you know it.”
Pulling through the gates of the ranch, a shiver ran down my spine. I hadn’t been back here in years, and what once used to be a strong friendship had diminished into nothing more than scowls and barbs shot at each other.
“Let’s try to keep this civil,” I said as I shut off the truck and got out.
John stepped out of his house, his face filled with concern as my son approached with a permanent scowl on his face. Christ, he was gonna blow this for us.
“John,” I said, tipping my hat at him.
“Everything okay?”
“We came to discuss a business offer with you.”
The surprise on his face almost made me laugh, except there was nothing funny about how divided we were.
“A business offer,” he repeated. “You want to do business with me.”
God, I really felt like an asshole. “Gonna invite us inside to talk about it?”
He stood there for another moment, wariness clouding his eyes, but finally, he relented. “Uh… yeah, come on in.”
As we walked up the steps and through his front door, I was reminded of all the times we’d gotten together in the past. This house was like a second home to my kids at one time in their lives. Now, it was nothing but a distant memory.
“I don’t have anything in the house. Um…water?”
“No thanks, John.”
He huffed out a laugh, running his fingers through his thinning hair.
Time had not been good to this man, and while I’d never cared about it in the past, now I felt an overwhelming sadness that our friendship had taken such a beating.
There was a time when I would have come to this man for advice, or we’d have a beer after a long day.
It had been years since I talked to anyone like a true friend, and I could see now that my change in attitude was half the problem in my marriage. It hadn’t just affected my home life. It had changed how I dealt with everyone.
“We came to talk about the ranch.”
He sighed. “If you’re looking to get back in the cattle game…I’m not sure you’ve come to the right place. It won’t be much longer before I lose everything.”
“We’re not here for cattle.” I looked over at Liam, making sure he was still on board with this before I opened my mouth.
At his nod, I continued.
“The vacation destination shit is actually doing pretty well, but what people want from us is space. They want to come out here and get away from it all, including other people. We have plans to expand cabins on the ranch, but we need more room to grow.”
His face dropped. “You want me to sell more of my ranch to you?”
“No. We want to go into partnership with you.”
I wasn’t sure my words truly sank in. The skepticism on his face, coupled with the lingering anger that he thought I wanted to buy him out, was evident.
“John, we don’t want your land for ourselves. We want to work with you.”
Swallowing hard, the man stumbled back a step, landing heavily in his chair. “I don’t understand. You hate me.”
“Hate is a strong word. More than anything, Clara wants this feud between us to end.”
“So do I.”
I sank into the seat across from him, shoving all my anger and worries aside. If I was going to do this, I couldn’t keep seeing Austin at every corner.
“If you agree to join us, we would split the business. With your property and the access roads from the back, we could really expand and make this a true destination vacation spot.”
“But you already have the land you need.”
Liam pulled out a map of the area, laying it out on the table for John to see.
“Over here, we’d like to put a main resort.
While most families want to get away and have their own space, there are also many more that can’t afford the rates of renting a cabin.
If we were to build lodging here,” he pointed to the front of John’s property, “it would open up another stream of revenue for us. Then, with the back roads at the back of your property, it would make it easier for people to access the mountains. It’s possible we could even add in our own ski lift eventually. ”
“That’s a big undertaking,” John said, studying the map. “I don’t know anything about ski lifts and running a resort.”
“Well, Jeff has been buying up businesses in town for years with Krista. He’s got quite a bit of knowledge on his side, and he’s been taking business courses for the past two years,” Liam said.
“We’d have to hire someone with experience on the slopes, someone who can really run things right, but that would be years down the road after we’re more established.
For now, we’d like to focus on building the business even further, and making sure we can accommodate the traffic if the business gets to the point where we can make the whole plan happen. ”
I sounded like an idiot. As much as I tried to talk about this shit in a professional manner, my sons were the brains behind the whole operation. But I still had years of experience on my side, and the relationship with John to hopefully make this deal happen.
“I’d have to consult a lawyer,” he said, his eyes flicking to mine. He was worried he was going to get screwed over, and after what happened with the land we previously bought from him, I couldn’t blame him.
Not that we’d swindled him out of the land. It just hadn’t gone the way he’d hoped. After all that, he wanted to make sure he didn’t lose even more.
“We can have Ryder help us draw up a contract,” I suggested. “But there is one request that needs to be agreed upon before we go any further.”
“And what’s that?” he asked stiffly.
“Austin is never to have anything to do with the business. Being at your house is one thing, but if we build on your land, he wouldn’t be allowed on any of the properties, and would never be able to inherit your shares in the business.”
He sucked in a breath, but nodded. “Agreed.”
I got to my feet and held out my hand, grateful that so far, everything was going a lot better than I hoped. “Then we have a deal.”
“A deal.”
He thrust his hand into mine, and for the first time in a long time, I felt like I had my old friend back.
“Clara!” I called out, kicking the door shut behind me as I strode into the house with a bottle of champagne to celebrate.
When she came rushing down the hall, her skirt swirling around her legs, I almost forgot about the whole damn thing. My cock swelled the moment I saw her in that tank top, smudged with paint.
“What is it? Ben!” she snapped when I couldn’t stop staring at her breasts. “What’s going on?”
I marched forward and snagged her around the waist, kissing her hard. “Fuck, every time I look at you, I want you.”
Chuckling against my lips, she peeled herself from my arms, putting some space between us until I answered her questions. “So, you have champagne, and you look happier than I’ve seen you in a long time. Care to share this brilliant news?”
“Your husband just snagged a nice chunk of land to expand the family business.”
“The cabins?” she asked in shock. “We’re expanding?”
“Not only expanding, we gained a partner. We’re going to put up more cabins—enough to draw attention from all over the United States. And we’re going to build a resort.”
“A resort!” she laughed. “When did all this happen?”
“Well, I’d like to take the credit, but it was really all Liam and Jeff. Those boys are smart, and they’ve been talking for a while about what they need to do to make the company thrive.”
“And you listened,” she said softly, a smile gracing those beautiful lips.
“Well, a wise woman told me that I needed to stop sitting on my ass and finally do something for my future.”
“Really? And who would this wise woman be?”
Tugging her back against me, I slipped my hand down her waist, gripping her ass tight. “I think you already know the answer to that.”
She hummed against my lips, her eyes beaming just as bright as her smile.
This was right. So fucking perfect. The chips were all falling into place, and we’d finally have the life we always wanted.
It might not look like I thought, but I’d learned over the last few months that it didn’t matter what I had or where I worked, as long as I had Clara by my side.
“So, who is this mysterious partner?”
“John Callahan.”
Her body stiffened in my arms, and she pushed out of my grip, turning away from me. “You partnered with John.”
“Yeah. He owns the property right across from the river. Expanding in that direction is the only thing that makes sense, and with the access roads and the—”
The words died on my lips when she turned and shook her head at me, the disappointment clear as day.
“John Callahan.”
“Clara…I don’t understand. Why are you so upset about this?”
The huff of laughter that left her lips confused me even more. “Why? His son tried to poison me. That’s why!”
I clenched my hands into fists, holding my anger as best I could. “You told me you wanted peace. You wanted me to forgive him,” I bit out.
“Yes, forgive him. Not partner with him and tie his family to ours for the rest of our lives!”
“Clara, this is a good business move. This will help the town and our family. Liam and Jeff—”
“Liam and Jeff should have never agreed to this,” she snapped. “I wanted us to be happy. I wanted to move beyond the hate and the constant fighting. But this…” She huffed out a laugh, spinning away from me. “Did you already sign the paperwork?”
“No.” The words felt like they were ripped from my throat. As much as I understood her anger, I couldn’t wrap my head around how quickly her stance on the family had changed.
“Then you can tell him you’ve changed your mind.”
Her words hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. For the first time in five years, I was actually excited about something, eager to get back to work and see the ranch profit instead fall into decline.
And she was telling me I had to turn it down, to end what could be a phenomenal arrangement.
“No.”
“Excuse me?” Her words were nothing more than a whisper, and the devastation on her face couldn’t be misunderstood.
“I won’t do it.”
“Why?”
“Because I already agreed to the arrangement. Because it’s good for all of us.”
“His son tried to kill me!” she shouted, tears filling her eyes.
“And I made sure that Austin would never be allowed on the property or anywhere near the business.”
“And you think that’s enough? Do you really think I’d just forget about all the other crimes he’s committed?”
“No. Of course not, but as you said, John is not his son.”
“No, but they’ll always be family. John won’t walk away from him!”
“I fucking know that! Do you think it was easy for me to go to John after all that we’ve been through? Do you think I just shoved all the past hurt aside and forgot about the vendetta he held for our family? Over something Jeff didn’t even do?”
“It sure as hell seems like it!”
I strode forward and grabbed her tightly, pleading with her to understand.
“I swore I would never let anyone hurt you or my family. Then Jeff was involved in that accident, and our world turned upside down. Our son nearly lost the love of his life because of Austin. He nearly died himself. Nearly every fucking person in this family has paid some price for what happened all those years ago. If you think I don’t understand that, then you really don’t get me at all. ”
“What I don’t get is why you would go into business with him, knowing that after everything, you’re shoving us right back into a situation that could get one or all of us killed!”
“I would never do that,” I hissed.
“You already did! Going into business with John will end badly for us, and I swear to God, if you don’t end this, I will walk away.”
Her words were a slap to the face, a knife to the chest. Never in my life had I felt betrayal more than I did in this moment. She was willing to end it all because she didn’t trust my instincts, or for me to take care of my family. And if she didn’t have faith in me, what was the point of all this?
I took a step back, and then another, trying to wrap my head around the words that left her mouth. It was the business or our marriage. It should be an easy choice, but what would be left of our marriage if there was no trust?
“You don’t mean that,” I croaked out.
“Yes, I do. Choose, Ben. The business or me. Which is it?”
I had never been good with ultimatums. If you pushed, I pushed right back. And while I did not want to walk away from the woman I loved, this went so much farther than just making a simple choice.
Trust was everything in a marriage, and right now, she’d thrown it out the window.
Decision made, I turned on my heel and walked out.
It was the hardest thing I’d ever done, but for the first time in the last five years, I knew what I was doing was right.