Chapter 11
WYATT
There’s a knock on my door a little after eight on Monday evening.
I’ve been relaxing on the couch watching the highlights of the day’s baseball games since I got home from Grayson’s.
We had an impromptu family dinner; the women gushed about wedding plans and us boys sat drinking beer and talking business.
Admittedly, I was a little distracted by Maddie and the kiss that almost happened this morning.
I don’t know what I was thinking and that’s a huge problem.
She nearly got under my skin and made me cross a line that shouldn’t ever be crossed between us.
Right now, all I should be focused on is the fact that I need to win us this land, because whatever she has planned is only going to ruin it and bring more folk to town that have no respect for those of us that live here.
And I’ll be damned if I ever let what happened to Autumn happen to another member of my family.
Heaving myself up from the soft couch cushions, I walk to the front door.
There aren’t many people around here who will come knocking on my door at this time of night, and it’s far too early for a booty call.
Which I haven’t made, no matter how badly I want to rid myself of the thought of what it would be like to thrust into Maddie Hart.
The knock sounds again, and as I cross the foyer, I call out, “Hold your horses, I’m coming.”
This had better be good. All I want to do is stew in my thoughts and hopefully rid myself of the cowgirl that’s trying to take up space.
When I open the door, I come face-to-face with Tanner. He grins at me, holding up a six-pack of beers as if he hasn’t just turned up at my home unannounced.
“Thought I’d come and see how the pitch went. Maybe drown your sorrows? Or celebrate.” He shrugs, like he’s not bothered with which one it is.
I run my tongue over my top teeth, motioning for him to enter as I step back. “Right. You here as my friend or the man in charge of our operations?” I ask, skepticism filling my voice as I narrow my eyes at him.
He crosses the threshold and I lead the way back to the living room, his laughter following me.
“Can’t it be both?” he asks, a bravado to his tone.
When I plop onto the couch, he hands me a bottle of beer, and I twist off the cap before taking a sip. It’s still cold, which, given the summer heat this evening, is a damn miracle.
“Nope,” I reply, popping the “p” as I pick at the label on the brown bottle. “Not in this house, and sure as shit not if you want to know how the pitch really went.”
“Well, then I guess I’m asking as your friend,” he replies, taking a seat next to me. He turns his body toward me, like he’s about to be told some juicy gossip.
I let the quiet linger for a moment longer as I stare up at the TV screen on the wall.
Can I be one hundred percent honest about today?
About whatever the fuck happened before Jim interrupted me and Maddie?
I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t been plaguing me all afternoon, and especially in the quiet of this evening.
Everybody knows how much we dislike each other.
They all know the history we share, and so even though nothing happened, the fact that I’m still thinking about her all these hours later is a big deal.
I guess the question is, can I trust Tanner to keep this to himself?
Deciding the only way to know for sure is to test the waters, I say, “Maddie was there.” I hear the hesitation and uncertainty in my voice and almost kick myself for allowing it to come through.
Tanner takes a pull of his beer. “We knew that she would be,” he replies, as if I’m just stating the obvious.
We did. Maddie’s conversation with Rhett was the whole reason I put forward a pitch for this piece of land. But what happened in that room was… unexpected. To say the least. Kissing Maddie Hart is the last thing I ever thought I would do and yet it nearly happened.
Fuck, I need to get laid. Or something. Anything but think about her and the way she drew in a shaky breath as she looked at my mouth. Or the way she didn’t move, even when she could have. She was just as consumed by whatever the fuck was happening as I was.
“You going to give me any more, less obvious, details about the pitch, Wy?” Tanner asks, pulling me out of my thoughts. His confusion at my hesitation is evident.
“Uh. Yeah. Sure.” I scrub a hand over my jaw, trying to refocus my attention.
It’s best if I keep what happened to myself, not because I think Tanner will judge me for it but because it was a blip, a glitch in the matrix, and will never happen again.
“It went well. Jim seemed to like our idea, and I honestly think it’ll just come down to who wants to pay the most. He did mention a big corporate company out of Billings. ”
“I meant about why you mentioned Maddie, given we knew she would be there, but sure, let’s just deflect with the corporate company. What did he say about them?”
I should have known that he wouldn’t let me off that easily.
Tanner has known me for years; I’ve been by his side during one of the hardest things a person has to go through.
Deep down, I know I can trust him with this Maddie situation, so I guess it boils down to whether I can trust myself.
If I tell him about her, he’ll make me analyze and come up with a plan to handle it, or, even worse, ask me to look inside myself at why she’s got me so twisted up inside.
Instead, I keep my focus on the TV screen in front of me and the muted baseball game highlights that are flashing across the screen.
It’s easier than acknowledging his jab about Maddie because I don’t have a ready answer for why I led with her being there, other than the truth, which, right now, I don’t want to get into.
I pull off a piece of the label on my beer bottle before scrunching it up and flicking it onto the coffee table in front of us. Tanner waits patiently for me to answer him, and all the while, I feel his stare boring into the side of my face.
When I’m certain that my thoughts are in order, I reply, “All he said was that he had been meeting with an exec and they wanted to build a resort out there.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tanner’s head jerk back and his brows rise toward his hairline. “A resort?”
I lift a shoulder, taking a swig of my beer. “Yeah,” I murmur distractedly as an image of Maddie’s full, parted lips fills my mind. Gritting my teeth, I force my focus back to where it belongs.
Tanner sits forward, resting his elbows on his knees, oblivious to the torment I’m experiencing.
“You think there’s any chance he was just bullshitting?
I mean, how would they even get people to it?
They’d need to either lease land from your family or the Harts in order to access it, and I don’t see either of you going for that. ”
I slide my beer bottle onto the coffee table, the taste of it bitter on my tongue.
“I think he was bullshitting; I just can’t figure out why or what he’d get out of it.
We haven’t been approached by anyone about leasing out or even selling our land.
And like you said, I don’t think the Harts would go for it, but who even knows with them. ”
Tanner flops back, resting his head against the back of the couch. “I’ll ask around. I know some people in Billings who might want to come here, or at least know people who know people that might.”
A quiet falls over us as we both watch a player walk up to home plate, his bat swinging by his side as he stares at the dusty ground. When he’s in position, the pitcher throws the ball right into the catcher’s waiting glove.
I zone out, my mind replaying the interaction with Maddie, and the way her lips looked so inviting even when her eyes threatened murder. If Jim hadn’t walked in when he did, who knows what would have happened. Thank God nothing did.
All that matters now is the bid and the fact that I need to stay the hell away from Maddie Hart. She’s got trouble written all over her and I’m not interested in it or her.
With my newfound determination, I ask, “How did the meeting with Grayson and Reed go today?”
Tanner reaches for another beer before sinking back into the couch. He doesn’t need to offer me another; I’ve barely touched my first one.
Twisting off the cap, he replies, “Good. They signed off on the extra budget, so we can go ahead with the deal in California. I’ll be flying out to meet with Santos on Tuesday.”
Relaxing back into the couch cushions, I feel a sense of ease seep into me.
This I can deal with. Business as usual with no mention of a certain brunette.
“Nice. I’m eager to see how this partnership will help us grow.
You said they weren’t as open about it though, or at least not as much as the folks down in Texas? ”
Over the years we’ve established ourselves with rodeo sponsorships, land leases in Montana and breeding contracts for our cattle among other things.
We’re in the process of expanding our land leases and agricultural arms of the ranch business across the country, and Tanner is the one going out to talk all things operations as our chief operations officer.
“No, not all the ranches I’ve visited were interested. But Santos wants to keep his family legacy going and knows that partnering with us is the best way to do that. I’m hoping once others see how beneficial it is, they’ll come knocking.”
I nod distractedly as the image of Maddie fills my mind again. The dull ache of a headache quickly follows. I guess it’s fitting that she causes me pain.