Chapter 3
The bright smile Liberty had pinned on her face faded when she saw the man who had followed the receptionist into the conference room reserved for the meeting. She had been expecting Corbin Whitlock. But unless Corbin had gotten reconstructive surgery, shrunk a few inches, and done a whole helluva lot of working out, this man wasn’t Corbin.
Corbin had been cute with dark blond hair and soft blue eyes. There was nothing cute about this man. Rugged was the only word that came to mind. A slightly crooked nose sat in the middle of an angular face half covered in dark scruff. While Corbin had been skinny, this man had broad shoulders that filled the doorway and had a tingle of familiarity settling in her stomach.
She understood why when the receptionist made the introductions.
“Mr. Cates, this is Liberty Holiday. Ms. Holiday, Jesse Cates.”
Jesse Cates?
Liberty stared at the man who had just swept off his Stetson. While his face was rugged, his hair was a hat-mussed mess of strawberry-blond waves. Beneath that crown of golden red were rich chocolate eyes that reminded Liberty of the Labrador she’d had as a kid—soulful with a spark of deviltry.
He stared at her for what felt like an eternity before a big smile spread over his face. Last night, all she’d been able to see was a flash of white teeth. Today, she could see the way his eyes crinkled at the corners and the ever-so-slight chip in the second tooth on the right side. Freckles were sprinkled over the bridge of a roman nose and high cheekbones. The chipped tooth, red hair, and freckles did make him look like Opie Taylor . . . the roman nose, square jaw, and deep-set eyes were more Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
The mixture was extremely unsettling.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Holiday.” His eyes narrowed. “Although I have the distinct feeling I’ve met you before. You ever been to Bramble, Texas?”
Liberty was still too stunned by his presence to speak. It took the receptionist making her excuses and leaving before she snapped out of her confusion and jumped to her feet.
“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing? Are you stalking me?”
His gaze swept over her from head to toe. Usually, she dressed in heels and a power suit for business meetings. Today, she had chosen to wear something a little more feminine and flirty. Her floral-print dress was short and formfitting, her cowboy boots high heeled and a flamboyant turquoise. When Jesse returned his gaze to hers, it was easy to read male appreciation. Which was exactly what she’d been shooting for . . . except with a completely different male.
A male who would be here any second.
“Never mind,” she said. “I don’t care what you’re doing here. I just want you to leave. And now. I have an important business meeting and I don’t need some rodeo bum screwing it up.”
His gaze lowered again. “You always dress for business meetings like you’re heading to a honky-tonk?”
Even though that was exactly how she looked, she didn’t care for him pointing it out. “That’s none of your damn business. Now get gone!” She pointed at the door.
He laughed. “You trying to get rid of me is becoming a little bit of a habit, don’t you think, darlin’?”
“What’s becomin’ a habit, darlin’, is you showing up in places you aren’t welcome. And by the way, you owe me a hundred dollars.”
His eyes widened. “Like hell I do. You cheated.”
She sent him a smug look. “I said ‘ready, set, go.’ I can’t help it if you weren’t ready.” She thought he’d get angry. Instead, he gave her another one of those blinding smiles . . . that if she was truthful, left her a little breathless.
“I’m always ready, darlin’. I’m just not always prepared. You took me by surprise. But I promise you, it won’t happen again.”
“You’re right. Because you won’t be showing up at Cooper Springs again. Unless you’re a man who doesn’t honor his bets.”
He studied her for a moment before he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and flipped it open. There was a picture in the plastic cover where a driver’s license usually went. A picture of a big family standing in front of a Christmas tree in matching candy-cane-striped pajamas. It was an odd thing for a rodeo bum to carry around in his wallet. Until Sweetie had gotten in a big fight with Daddy and refused to come home for Christmas, the Holidays had taken matching-pajama pictures every year—with Liberty organizing the pose, of course. Seeing the family photo made her feel a little less annoyed with the man.
As did the hundred-dollar bill he held out. “I’m a man of my word. I won’t set foot on land owned by the Holidays again.”
The way he worded his oath made her more than a little skeptical, but she didn’t have time to argue the point. She took the money. “Thank you. Now get out of here before the man I’m meeting shows up.”
He closed his wallet and slipped it back in his pocket. “So I take it your daddy isn’t coming to the meeting?”
The question confused her. “Not that it’s any of your business, but my daddy doesn’t attend all my meetings.”
“Even if they’re about his ranch?”
She rolled her eyes. “Good Lord, this town just doesn’t know when to keep their mouths shut. They had no business talking to you about Holiday Ranch business.”
He hesitated for only a moment before he spoke. “They didn’t. Corbin did.”
She stared at him. “Corbin?”
He nodded. “He would have been here, but he’s in Paris. So he asked me to handle the meeting.”
It took her moment to absorb what he was saying. “He asked you to handle the meeting? You work for him?”
He hesitated. “Sort of.”
Things started to fall into place. Her mere annoyance shot to anger in the time it took to blink. “That’s how you heard about Cooper Springs,” she said. “You knew we no longer owned the ranch. You were there scoping out the land your boss is stealing from my family.”
He held up his hands. “Now don’t be getting all bent out of shape. I wasn’t there scoping out your ranch. I really couldn’t sleep and thought a swim might help.”
“But you knew you were meeting with me today and you never said a word.”
“Not you. Your father.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Which makes your deception more acceptable? You should have told me who you were, instead of acting like you were some wanderlust rodeo cowboy who just wanted a midnight swim.”
“I believe you weren’t real honest about who you were either. But you’re right. I should have told you who I was. I just didn’t know how much your daddy had told you about the foreclosure. Corbin thought this meeting was with Hank. Not one of his daughters.”
She stared at him as his words sank in. “Corbin knows it’s the Holiday Ranch his company is foreclosing on?”
Jesse hesitated a long time before he gave one brief nod.
With that nod, Liberty flopped down in her chair in stunned disbelief. “But I don’t understand. Why would Corbin want to foreclose on my family’s ranch? He went to school with Belle and me. He wrote me poems and gave me wildflowers.”
“You dated Corbin?”
Corbin had asked her out. And she’d accepted. But then the guy she’d had a major crush on had asked her out on the same night and she’d played sick. Something she was very thankful Corbin didn’t know about. “No. He was just a nice guy who had a crush on me. Obviously, I was wrong about the nice part.”
“You weren’t wrong. Corbin is a good guy. But he’s also a good businessman. Your daddy knew what he was getting into. If he didn’t pay off the loan, Oleander Investments would get to keep the title to his ranch.”
“We tried to pay off the loan—with full interest, I might add—but your boss wouldn’t let us.”
Jesse stared at her. “Wait a second. Your daddy tried to pay the loan off?”
“Not my daddy. My sister’s husband, Rome Remington.” She snorted. “Something I’m sure you already know. I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t the one behind the foreclosing. Don’t all rodeo cowboys dream of owning their own ranch? Is that why you were sniffing around Cooper Springs last night? You were checking out your new home?”
“I’m not in the market for a home. Like I said before, I have a hard time staying in one place. But I would like to hear more about Rome paying off the loan.”
There was a look of confusion in his eyes. She wanted to believe that he didn’t know about Rome’s offer. But after he didn’t tell her who he was at Cooper Springs, she didn’t trust him.
“The only person I’m willing to talk to is Corbin,” she said. “I want you to get him on the phone right now.”
She thought he would come up with some excuse for why he couldn’t do that, but instead, he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and tapped the screen a few times before he held it out to her. It was a brand-new top-of-the line iPhone. She knew because she wanted one for herself, but couldn’t afford it. It confirmed that he wasn’t just an underling at Oleander Investments. He was a top-paid executive.
She jerked the phone from him and held it to her ear. It only rang twice before it went to voicemail. She was pissed, but she knew that showing her anger wasn’t going to save her family’s ranch. So she pushed her fury down deep and tried to keep her voice light and friendly.
“Hey, Corbin! This is your old high school buddy, Libby Holiday. Long time, no see, right?” She glanced up to see Jesse watching her with a smile playing on his lips. She glared at him before she swiveled her chair toward the window. “Anyway, I was hopin’ we could catch up . . . and maybe discuss the little ol’ loan my family took out with you. So give me a call back when you get a chance.” She rattled off her cellphone number before she ended with a bright, “Talk to yew soon!”
She hung up and swiveled back around to find the smile on Jesse’s face had gotten bigger.
“Good job of sucking up, Libby.”
She got up and lifted her middle finger. “Ms. Holiday to you, asshole.” She swept out of the room without a backward glance.
Once she was on her way to the ranch, she tried calling Belle. Her twin sister had a way of calming her down and putting things into perspective. But Belle didn’t answer and Liberty remembered she had a meeting with new clients. Which made Liberty feel even more ticked off that she wasn’t in Houston. Especially when it looked like her presence in Wilder wasn’t doing any good.
She had been so positive she could talk Corbin out of foreclosing on the ranch. Now she wasn’t so sure. He didn’t seem to care that it was the family ranch of the girls he’d gone to school with. Where had the sweet poem-writing boy gone?
It was something she intended to find out.
When she got to the ranch, she found her mama on the porch taking down the Easter decorations.
Darla Holiday loved holidays, which was why she name all her daughters after them, and had always covered the house inside and out with upcoming holiday decorations. After Easter, the porch was usually decorated for Mother’s Day with a wreath of spring flowers and every surface filled with all the childhood crafts the Holiday sisters had made for her and Mimi over the years. So Liberty was surprised to see the plastic bins overflowing with red, white, and blue bunting and stars and stripes decorations.
“Isn’t it a little early to be decorating for Memorial Day and Fourth of July, Mama?”
Darla continued wrapping the ceramic bunnies in tissue paper. “I wanted you and Belle to have your decorations in case we aren’t here.” She glanced around at all the plastic bins. “We probably won’t have room to put all this up in our next house. Who knows if we’ll even have a porch?”
Since it was true, Liberty said nothing.
Darla stopped wrapping and studied her. “I guess the meeting with Corbin didn’t go well.”
Liberty’s anger returned. “I didn’t meet with Corbin. I guess he’s in Paris. I met with an Oleander executive who claims Corbin knows exactly who he’s foreclosing on.”
Mama looked confused. “That doesn’t sound like Corbin. He was always such an honest, hardworking boy. It was a shame he was shipped off to one family member after the other like some unwanted, flea-bitten dog. If his family were good folk, that would be one thing. But we all know his uncle was not a good man. Which was why your daddy had to fire him.”
Liberty remembered Corbin’s uncle and had never liked him. Not only because he was sullen and gruff, but also because he always smelled like whiskey.
“Maybe that’s why Corbin is foreclosing on the ranch,” she said. “Maybe he’s doing it to get revenge for Daddy firing his uncle.”
“Maybe, but I got the feeling there was no love lost between him and his uncle. Dan Wheeler passed away a few years ago and Corbin didn’t even come back for his funeral.”
“Then I don’t get it,” Liberty said. “I don’t understand why Corbin is refusing to let Rome pay off the loan.”
“You didn’t ask his employee?”
“Jesse acted like he didn’t know anything about it. And maybe he doesn’t. He didn’t hesitate to call Corbin when I demanded to talk to him. It was almost like he wanted answers too.”
The screen door swung open and Mimi stepped out in one of her wide-brimmed gardening hats. When she spoke, it was obvious she’d been eavesdropping on their conversation. “Then maybe this Jesse will be our savior.”
Liberty snorted. “Jesse Cates? Obviously, you haven’t met the man. I get the feeling if he was in a burning building, the only one he’d be concerned about saving is himself. A cockier cowboy I’ve never met.”
“You’re not a cowboy worth your salt if you don’t have a little swagger.” Mimi’s eyes narrowed on Liberty. “And you’re pretty cocky yourself, young lady. Don’t tell me that you and this Jesse got into it.”
“I’m certainly not going to be nice to a man who is working for the villain kicking my family out of their home.”
Mama sighed. “So, in other words, you let your temper get the best of you, Liberty Lou.”
“Well, what was I supposed to do, Mama? Kiss his butt?”
“Yes!” Mimi said. “If it keeps this land in our family, that’s exactly what you should have done. It was what you were planning to do with Corbin. Now it looks like it’s up to me to fix this mess you’ve made.”
Liberty was scared of few things. Her grandmother getting involved in family business was one of them. She held up her hands.
“Oh, no, Mimi. The last time you thought something was up to you to fix, your granddaughters were offered up to the men of Wilder like mares at a livestock auction.”
Instead of looking offended, Mimi just smiled. “And look how well that plan worked out. It got one of my granddaughters married to a Remington who can run this ranch the way it needs to be run.”
Liberty wanted to argue, but she couldn’t. Mimi’s harebrained plan to give the ranch to a Remington if one of the two brothers could convince one of her granddaughters to marry them was the reason Rome and Cloe had married. Unfortunately, it hadn’t worked out exactly as planned. The fake marriage had become anything but fake and Rome hadn’t ended up with the Holiday Ranch.
Corbin Whitlock had stopped that.
“If we have a ranch for Rome to run,” Liberty said. “And that’s looking doubtful.”
“Then you didn’t pay close enough attention to the golden rule I taught you.” Mimi tugged on her gardening gloves. “Never underestimate a Texas woman when she sets her mind on something.”