Chapter Thirteen
Lil held up her phone as she climbed the steps into Jordan’s trailer.
“Maya texted back. R. F. Weston LLC has a manager listed, no members. She says that it might be a single-owner LLC or multimember. There’s no way to tell from public records because they only have to list the manager, no one else.
” Lil settled on the sofa beside him. “Do you think Connery is going to follow through with setting up a meeting?”
“I think he will. My concern is whether the other party will agree.”
“What will you do if they don’t?”
“If we can’t swing the mortgage in time, then we let them buy Jim Reed’s property and keep the Willow Creek.” The words were clipped. Matter-of-fact.
“What about Wade?” she asked softly.
“He’ll be okay. Not happy, but okay.”
“And you?” Because she didn’t believe for a second that he was okay with losing the Reed property.
“This isn’t how I’d hoped things would play out.”
“You wanted to sell this place.”
He brushed his fingers through her hair and she leaned against him, loving the security she felt being close to him.
“It seemed like a good way to not have to deal with the past. To take the money and invest it in something that had nothing to do with Carl Jordan.” He dropped his head back against the sofa cushion.
“I don’t remember a lot about being four, except that my mother wasn’t there anymore, and someone kindly explained that she wasn’t coming back. ”
Lil closed her eyes as she inhaled his scent. Who did that to a little kid?
“I recall being shuffled around. A lot of confusion. And that part about my mom not coming back … I did not understand.” He dropped his arm around her.
“Then I ended up at this man’s house. Now I hadn’t been around a lot of men, and I wasn’t sure what to make of him, but he had these other little boys, and they were glad to have me there.
Wanted to show me all their stuff. I really remember that part because I didn’t have much.
” He fell silent. A gust of wind hit the trailer, rocking it a little, and his arm tightened around her.
“I don’t know what would have happened if my biological father had rescued me instead of letting me go into foster care.
I wouldn’t have had the life I did, and I like this life, but I’m still beyond pissed that he didn’t even try to do the right thing when he obviously could have.
” Jordan looked down at her and tipped up her chin with the tips of his work-roughened fingers to give her a quick kiss.
She slid a hand around his neck and pulled his mouth back to hers, claiming him while he was hers to claim.
And the claim ended exactly where she’d hoped, in the trailer’s bunk, with Jordan making her believe in enjoying the here and now. It wasn’t a practical solution for every occasion, but it was becoming her go-to.
Could she walk away right now if she had to?
Of course she could. But why would she? They understood one another.
Lil woke when Jordan stroked the hair away from her face, surprised that she’d fallen asleep, and propped herself up on her elbow. “I need to go.”
Lil thought he was going to protest, but instead he cupped her face with his palm, brought his forehead down to touch hers in an intimately reassuring way that made her throat feel tight.
She started to get out of bed when Jordan’s phone rang, and he reached behind her to retrieve it off the window ledge. He said hello with a note of anticipation in his voice, and she eased back onto the bed next to him.
After listening a moment, he said, “I understand.”
Lil could tell that he didn’t like what he’d just heard.
“Sure. We can tweak things. Yeah.” He kept the phone in his hand as he flopped onto his back.
“That was the bank. Apparently, I’m in an unstable employment situation.
What sucks is that I am because I chose to be.
Even if I managed to snag a contract in the next few weeks, it’d be too little too late. ”
“Even with this place as collateral?”
“Foreclosure is expensive.”
“You’re right,” Lil said, having just gone through one. “The bank guy kept whining about their expenses when our ranch went on the block. But I thought that with you being an engineer with a long job history … I guess you actually have to have a job.”
“Landlord isn’t enough.”
She took his face between her hands and gave him a soft comforting kiss. When her lips left his, she slid her hand around the back of his neck and she touched her forehead to his, just as he’d done earlier. She hated that he was fighting this battle.
“I have to go talk to my brothers. We’ll modify the application.”
“What about the time factor?” she asked as he got out of bed.
He slid his legs into his jeans. “There are some things we just can’t change.”
*
“We could swing this if it wasn’t for the time crunch.” Jordan slumped back in his chair.
He and Wade and his brothers had been at the table since he’d arrived, debating different financial scenarios. The one given was that they would not mortgage the Tree Fork. Trev offered to apply for a raw land loan again, as did Wade, but the time factor was working against them.
“In hindsight, I should have started the mortgage process as soon as Jim gave us the heads-up about the property.” Jordan reached for the closest glass.
“Connery’s deal was good,” Wade said. “And if I recall, they didn’t throw that no-tenant thing at you until late in the process.”
“At first, I thought it was because they didn’t know the terms of the lease, but now I think they did and were laying groundwork. Costing Lil and Meg enough money that they’d consider the buyout.” By that time, he was deep enough into the process that it was hard to stop the wheels rolling.
“Don’t worry if someone else gets the Reed property,” Wade said. “They may not want to stay.”
“Why’s that?”
“I have a plan.”
Jordan could tell by the way Trev’s eyes shifted downward that he’d already heard the plan.
“It involves pigs,” Wade said on a satisfied note. “Lots of pigs. It’s time we diversified.”
Jordan shook his head as he half-laughed.
He did like the way his dad’s brain worked.
“Before we start building the stye, let’s see if Connery follows through and gives me a contact name.
” He pushed his chair back. “In the meantime, I’m going home.
” The words came out so naturally that he didn’t realize what he’d said until Hayes raised his eyebrows.
Was the Willow Creek home?
Temporary or not, it was starting to feel that way, and it wasn’t because he was getting attached to the ranch itself. It was the woman who lived there that made him want to get back to the property he never should have owned in the first place.
When Jordan drove over the Willow Creek cattleguard twenty minutes later, spraying water from the mud puddle on the other side, he caught sight of Lil driving a cow and calf across the pasture.
The calf’s head bobbed with each step, indicating it was lame and Lil was bringing it in to treat.
After parking, he made his way to the gate that she’d left open, closing it when she drove mama and baby through.
“Thanks,” she said, before maneuvering the pair into a smaller pen. “I thought I was going to have to wait until Meg got home to doctor.” The cow tried to turn back as Lil spoke, but she brandished her stock stick and Mama changed her mind.
“You’ve been busy since I left.” Her hair was escaping her ponytail, and dirt caked the knees of her jeans, indicating that an adventure had occurred.
“I work for a living,” she proclaimed with a mock sniff.
“That a fact?” He let the words roll out on a suggestive note.
Her eyebrows lifted as she played the game.
“I was filling badger holes in the pasture, so nobody breaks a leg, when I saw the limping calf. It’s going to tick me off if he strained it in a badger hole, but it’s hard to keep on top of those things.
” She blew out a puff of breath as she watched the calf hide behind its mother who shook her head at Lil.
“Maybe I should get him,” Jordan suggested, already knowing what her answer would be.
Lil pushed the hair off her forehead with her gloved hand, leaving a streak. “I’ve got this.”
“As you wish.”
It took less than a minute for Lil to expertly separate the cow from the calf, sending the mother out of the pen, Jordan stepped inside and closed the gate.
The cow whirled around, surprised that her baby wasn’t behind her.
The calf bawled and shot past Lil, adrenaline helping him forget his lame foot.
Jordan grabbed at the little guy as he went by, got a hold, then lost it.
The calf charged to the opposite side of the pen, then back toward mom, giving Lil a chance to grab him around his neck and slowly tip him to one side like a bulldogger in a rodeo.
She was panting by the time she had the little guy laid out.
“I guess I should have taken you up on your offer.”
“You think?” Jordan asked, taking hold of the injured leg and stretching it out.
It was easy to see what the problem was. A rock was jammed in the juncture of his cloven hoof.
“He’s bigger than I thought.” She looked over her shoulder. “Can you see what it is?”
“Rock.” He pulled out his knife and used it to wedge the stone free. “There.”
Lil shifted her weight and the calf struggled, his tail hitting her in the face. “We’ll trade next time.” Lil rolled off the calf and sat in the dirt.
The baby let out another bawl and headed toward where mom was throwing dirt on the opposite side of the gate.
“I thought we’d be treating him for days.” She held out her hand and Jordan pulled her to her feet. She attempted to brush the corral mud off her jeans, then gave up. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
After herding the mom back into the field, Lil said, “How’d the brainstorming go with your brothers?”
“About as expected, but we’re all on the same page. Wade has a plan that involves pigs, but we’re hoping it doesn’t come to that.”
“Pigs?”
He smiled at her as he opened the last gate. “Pigs.”