Chapter Five
Lil, having fired the first salvo, waited.
She had a decent amount of experience with confrontation, but she didn’t like it.
Never had. But she hated not knowing what was going on in Jordan’s head even more.
Was he going to abide by the contract? So far, he was being nice about it, showing signs of being the good guy Aubrey said he was, but she needed to know exactly where he stood.
“The sale is contingent on the property being free of tenants,” Jordan repeated.
So that ball was still in play, despite not being mentioned since their first meeting.
Lil made herself appear calm, although she was feeling anything but. “Could there be another buyer?” she asked reasonably.
“I’m working under a deadline.”
It took a bit of trust on his part to admit that she had some power in this situation, or he might be playing her, hoping for empathy about his predicament. Good luck with that because Lil was empathy-ed out.
Or so she wished, because she couldn’t help asking, “What kind of deadline?” instead of simply staying silent.
Jordan shifted his weight before saying, “There’s a property for sale adjoining the ranch I grew up on.”
And she could tell that the property was important to him, which wasn’t making this any easier.
Stay. Strong. You didn’t cause this situation.
She shouldn’t have to sacrifice for a man who, while attractive, and seemingly nice, she didn’t know.
Lil dropped her gaze as she inhaled, then tucked one thumb into her belt loop and looked up again.
“I’m sorry that’s the situation, but I signed the lease on this property in good faith, and one of the reasons was the certainty of a seven-year stay.
I’ve moved an entire ranch once. I’m not doing it again. Not yet anyway.”
Moving had been a misery, both physically and emotionally. It’d been tougher than she imagined leaving the familiar behind and starting fresh. And now that she had her toehold in a new life, she didn’t want to start over. Besides that, she liked living on the Willow Creek Ranch.
“Why not keep the place?” she asked. “Collect rent? I would.”
“Our circumstances might be different.”
There was a touch of dark sarcasm in his voice, the first she’d heard from him, and she answered in kind.
“Right. You got a ranch. I lost one.”
He looked past her, his mouth forming a hard line before he said, “I don’t want this ranch.”
She stared at him. “Jordan? What do you mean you don’t want this ranch?”
But she could see that the conversation was over.
The landline rang in the kitchen as they faced off, a distant trill.
He jerked his chin toward the house. “I’ve got to get back to work. You may as well answer that.”
*
Lil stabbed her trowel into the freshly rototilled earth and scooped out the dirt before burying an onion set. Gardening did not come naturally to her, but Aubrey had big plans for the Willow Creek harvest this year and, as promised, she’d shown up with all kinds of things to plant.
“He said he didn’t want this ranch?” Meg pointed at the ground.
“This ranch,” Lil repeated.
Jordan had still been hammering away in the barn when Aubrey arrived with the start to their garden, but Lil didn’t bring up his odd comment until he’d driven away a few minutes ago.
Lil wiped the back of her gloved hand over her forehead as she recalled the conversation. “It sounded very much like he wouldn’t mind having a ranch. Just, again, not this one. And he didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Has he even been here before?” Aubrey sank back onto her heels.
She’d arrived at the same conclusion as Lil concerning Jordan’s possible parentage—the shared name was hard to discount—but there were other plausible explanations, including coincidence, and they’d decided to leave things at the conjecture stage.
It was, after all, none of their business.
But that didn’t keep Lil from wondering.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly, patting dirt around an onion bulb, then pushing herself to her feet and dusting the garden soil off her jeans.
“He didn’t seem that curious about the place when he arrived for our first meeting, but that may have been because he was focused on business.
” And trying to get her to agree to vacate the premises.
“I guess the important thing is that I was firm about staying.”
“Stick to your guns,” Aubrey murmured.
“Oh, I plan to.” It wasn’t a comfortable situation, but it was one they were going to have to live with.
That said, she wondered again why Jordan had asked her if anything else had happened on the ranch besides the cut fences. He was the only guy who had a motive to mess with them, so why would he have brought it up? Did he know something she didn’t? If so, what on earth could that something be?
Meg dropped the last spud into a hole and patted soil over it, then glanced up at Lil.
“If Jordan’s biggest problem is inheriting a ranch, then I think he has it pretty good.
Even if he can’t sell, he gets the rent.
He doesn’t need to have anything else to do with the place if it gives him bad feels. ”
“Agreed,” Lil said as her sister got to her feet and banged the dirt out of the empty cardboard box.
Aubrey also stood, stretching her back before giving the garden a satisfied once-over. “Good work, ladies.”
In addition to the potatoes and onions, they’d put in corn and squash, carrots and beets, cabbage and broccoli.
Two large tomato plants nestled in cages behind the small windbreak fence at the far end of the garden.
The irises were planted along the sheep fence that kept the goats out of the garden, with petunias between the bulbs to allow for some color this year.
“If you guys weren’t doing that cow thing tomorrow, I’d suggest a celebratory lunch out,” Aubrey said, wrinkling her nose at the word “cow”, which reminded Lil of a tidbit of information she’d wanted to pass along.
“Remember that Burke guy who was with Jordan at the Graff?”
“It’s hard not to remember Burke,” Aubrey said.
“He was the guy Jordan blamed for the cattle escape in town the other night. Well, he didn’t exactly blame him, but he said that if I knew him, I’d understand why there were cows in the hotel parking lot.”
“That is a true statement. If you’re ever introduced to the man, make certain there are no flames or sharp objects nearby. The guy invites disaster.”
“Are he and Jordan old friends?” Lil asked.
She had a hard time picturing Jordan hanging out with a guy who invited disaster, but what did she really know about Jordan Matthews? She’d only met the man a few days ago.
“They rodeoed together.”
“Jordan rodeoed? What event?”
“No idea.”
“Have you ever been to a rodeo?” Meg asked.
“Of course,” Aubrey replied lightly. “I live in Montana. I love to watch men land in the dirt.” She looked at the sun, as if using it to tell time. “I’d best be going, ladies.”
“Date?” she guessed.
“You know it.” She raised her eyebrows. “You should try it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” At this point in time, Lil would rather focus on her ranch.
Guys invited trouble that she simply had no time to deal with. Jordan was a perfect example. Under different circumstances she’d be all over him. But under these circumstances … trouble.
“I have a question,” Lil said as she and Meg walked Aubrey to her car.
“What’s that?” Aubrey asked.
“Did you have a nickname in high school?”
Aubrey’s look was sharp. “Why?”
Lil shrugged. “Just, you know, wondering.”
*
Estelle was dragging her feet at the prospect of moving into Hayes’s old bedroom, despite Jordan moving into Bailey’s trailer.
“I have a lead on a rental house,” she told Wade as she wiped down the counters.
Trev and Jordan exchanged a look as they laced their boots.
“You’re welcome to stay as long as necessary,” Wade replied gruffly.
“Thank you.” She sounded sincere. “I do enjoy my own territory, however.”
“And invading mine.”
“That stuff needed to be sorted. It’s been sitting in a stack next to the wall since my first day here. You haven’t touched it.”
“Maybe I put everything back the way it was after I touched it.”
“Then why were there cobwebs?”
“Ask the housekeeper,” he said immediately putting up his hands as if to defend himself from a blow.
Judging from Estelle’s expression, it was a wise move. Then Estelle’s grudging smile broke through, and Wade smiled back. Jordan took that as a cue to head for the door for chores and Trev followed.
“Do you think …”
“Not going to speculate,” Jordan said shortly.
“Dare I ask how things are going on the homestead?”
“The McAllens don’t want to leave. Connery threatened to back out, but I don’t believe him.” Jordan studied the far side of the big pasture, where Jim Reed’s acreage lay, just begging for a small house to be built at the tree line.
“What now?”
“If Connery isn’t blowing smoke and he backs out, then I mortgage the Willow Creek.”
Trev gave him a quick look. “You’re going to keep it?”
“No. Maybe.” Jordan tried to put his mix of feelings into words.
“I keep wondering why Carl Jordan left it to me.” Damn but it felt strange to have the same frigging name.
“Was it guilt? He should have stepped in after my mom died instead of letting the state put me in foster care. Not that I wanted anyone but Wade to raise me, but the coldness factor pisses me off.”
“I get it,” Trev said.
“Lil doesn’t,” Jordan said shortly. “She pointed out, and rightly so, that she lost her ranch and I got one for free.” He understood how that would rankle.
“Naw,” Trev said reaching for the tractor door handle. “It’s costing you.”
Trev mounted the steps to the cab, while Jordan headed for his truck. He’d just started the engine when his phone rang. Speak of the devil.
“You left a message to call?” Jess Connery said briskly.
He expected good news.
“I want to meet,” Jordan said.
There were things he preferred not to handle over the phone. He liked to see people’s faces, see if their words matched their body language.
“We can’t just talk now?”
“No.”