A Cowboy Comes Home

Twelve

Caleb’s jet took off from the Sao Paulo airport, heading northwest into clear skies. The past two days had been an exercise in frustration, but with Danielle’s help, he’d defeated the Brazilian banking system’s red tape, and they were ready to start shipping raw materials next week.

They had a plant manager in place who spoke very good English. Their accounting and computer systems were set up, and they’d approved the hiring of three foremen who were now looking for local skilled trade workers.

“I’m going to set up a meeting with Sales and Accounting for Friday,” said Danielle, punching a message into her PDA. “We have to watch the gross sales ceiling for the first six months, and I want everybody to understand the parameters.”

“I’m not sure about Friday,” said Caleb. He had to give final instructions to the moving company. The sooner the better as far as he was concerned.

“Why not?”

“I need to go to Colorado.”

She whirled her head in his direction. “Wait a minute. What? ”

“The outstanding water rights issue is playing havoc with property values, but I told the broker to take any deal. I want this done.”

“But, your brother.”

“What about my brother?”

“We found him. He’s back. Sign the damn thing over to him and forget about it.”

Caleb wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “What do you mean we found him?”

Danielle straightened, her tone completely unapologetic. “Mandy wasn’t going to get anywhere on her own, so I had Enrico make a few calls.”

“Enrico found Reed?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t think you should run this by me?”

“I didn’t charge you anything. Besides, you were off in la la land, reconnecting with your roots and ignoring your own best interests.”

Caleb coughed and shifted in his airplane seat. “Okay, setting aside for a second that you went behind my back, Reed doesn’t want the ranch. He turned it down.”

“So? Put it in his name, anyway. I can have something drafted by the time we land in Chicago.”

“I’m selling it,” Caleb stated flatly, his frustration growing by the second.

“That’s a ridiculous waste of your time. We need you in your office, with your head in the game, not out on the range, chasing-”

“Since when is my life managed by consensus?”

“Since you stopped managing it for yourself.”

“I take a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks to visit my hometown.”

“Since when could you care less about your hometown?”

Caleb didn’t care about his hometown. Okay, maybe he did. A little. It was fun hanging out with Travis again. And Seth was a great guy. And Mandy. He sucked in a breath. Mandy was going to be impossible to forget.

He’d tried to tell himself she’d lied about her feelings for him. But then he’d been forced to admit, she was. He’d been an absolute ass to accuse her of sleeping with him to get him to give Reed back the ranch. She’d never do that.

He’d even tossed the idea of seeing her again back and forth in his brain about a thousand times. Assuming that she’d be willing.

“Is it Mandy?” Danielle asked, startling him from his thoughts.

“Mandy what?”

“Are you going back to see Mandy?”

Caleb pressed his head hard against the high-backed seat. He had no idea how to answer that question. Mandy and the ranch were two completely different issues, but somehow they’d gotten all tangled up into one.

“If you’ve got a thing for her, you might as well go get it over with.”

Caleb didn’t have a thing for Mandy. Okay, well, he definitely had a thing for her. But the way Danielle put it, it sounded so crass. “How is this any of your business?”

“It’s not. But we have this lawyer-client confidentiality thing going on, so I feel like I can be honest.”

“Go be honest with someone else.”

“Caleb.” Her voice took on a tone of exaggerated patience, and she folded her hands in her lap. “We agreed that the solution was to give your brother back the ranch. I’ve handed it to you on a silver platter. You need to take it.”

“I’m selling it,” he repeated. He held the trump card, because there was nothing she could do to change his mind.

“Why?”

“Because he doesn’t want it, and he’s better off without it.”

“So, you’re doing this for him.”

“Right.”

“Yet, you haven’t spoken to him in ten years.”

“I spoke to him the other day.” And it had been a surreal experience.

The person he’d fought with in Helena had been Reed, only not Reed. The new Reed was a twenty-seven-year-old man, broader and stronger than he’d been as a teenager, self-confident, self-assured. Part of Caleb had wanted to sit down and talk things over with him. And part of Caleb had wanted to throw Mandy over his shoulder and carry her away.

Mandy had said they were just friends. Yet, she stayed behind with Reed.

No, Caleb wasn’t going to go there. Mandy told him she wasn’t romantically involved with Reed, and he was going to believe her. The remaining question was whether she was interested in being romantically involved with Caleb.

Three days ago, he might have said maybe. Today, he’d definitely say no. But what if he went back? What if he treated her properly this time? Was there a chance of something between them?

He’d regretted walking away from her the second his feet hit the pavement in Helena. And he’d regretted it every minute since.

“I’m going to Colorado,” he told Danielle with determination.

She shook her head and leaned back in her seat. “I can’t save you from yourself, Caleb.”

Sitting at his office desk, hitting send on a final email before he headed to the Chicago airport, Caleb heard someone enter through the open door.

He didn’t look up. “Tell the driver I’ll be ten more minutes.”

“You have a driver?” came a deep, male voice.

Caleb turned sharply, swiveling his high-backed, leather chair to face the doorway.

Reed’s large frame nearly filled the entrance. His boots added an inch to his six-foot-three-inch frame, and his midnight-black, Western-cut shirt stretched across his broad shoulders. In the office, he looked even more imposing than he had outside the hotel.

Caleb instantly came to his feet.

Reed didn’t look angry, exactly. But he didn’t look happy, either.

“What are you doing in Chicago?” was the only thing Caleb could think to say. He couldn’t help but wonder if Mandy was with him.

“Wanted to talk to you,” said Reed, taking a few paces into the office.

“Okay,” Caleb offered warily. He’d been feeling off-kilter since he last saw Mandy, and his emotions continued to do crazy things to his logic. He really wasn’t in the mood for a fight.

Reed stepped up to the desk. “Don’t sell the ranch.”

Caleb’s jaw went lax.

“It’s mine,” said Reed.

Caleb didn’t disagree with that. Morally and ethically, the ranch belonged to Reed.

“And I want it,” Reed finished.

“You want it?” Something akin to joy came to life inside Caleb. Which was silly. The ranch wasn’t good for Reed.

“Yes.”

“Just like that.” Caleb snapped his fingers.

Reed’s dark eyes went hard. “No. Not just like that. Just like ten years of sweat and blood and hell.”

“I was going to give you the money.”

“I don’t want the money. I want the land. My land. Our mother’s land.”

Caleb’s heart gave an involuntary squeeze inside his chest.

“Did you forget her great-grandmother was born at Rock Creek?” asked Reed, voice crackling hard. “In that tiny falling- down house next to the waterfall?”

Of course Caleb hadn’t forgotten. His mother had told them that story a hundred times.

“And her grandfather, her father. They’re all buried on the hill, Caleb. You going to sell off our ancestors’ bones?”

“You going to live with the memory of him? ” Caleb blurted out.

“You going to let him defeat us?” Reed squared his shoulders. “He was who he was, Caleb.”

“He killed her.”

“I know. Do you think I don’t know? And I can’t bring her back.” Reed’s voice was shaking with emotion. “But do you know what I can do? What I’m going to do?”

Caleb was too stunned by the stark pain on his brother’s face to even attempt an answer.

“I’m going to have her grandchildren. I’m going to find a nice girl, who loves Lyndon Valley, and I’m going to give her babies, and my first daughter will be named Sasha, and she will be loved, and she will be happy, and I will never, ever, ever let anyone hurt her.”

Caleb’s chest nearly caved in, while his heart stood still.

“Are you going to stand in my way?” Reed demanded, bringing his fist down on the desktop.

“No,” Caleb managed through a dry throat.

“Good.” Reed abruptly sat down and leaned back, crossing one boot over the opposite knee.

Caleb slumped in his chair. “Why didn’t you say all that in the first place?”

“I’ve said it now.”

“You’re going to find a nice girl?” Caleb couldn’t help but ask.

Reed nodded. “I am. A ranch girl. Someone like Mandy.”

Caleb’s spine went stiff, and his hands curled into fists.

Reed chuckled, obviously observing the involuntary reaction. “But not Mandy. Mandy’s yours.”

“No, she’s not.”

“Yeah. She is.” Reed’s tone was gruff, his eyes watchful. “Unless you’re going to cut and run on her, too.”

“I’ve never-”

“She’s in love with you, Caleb. Not that you deserve her.”

Reed had it all wrong.

“No, she’s not. She’s…” Caleb wasn’t sure how to describe it. “Well, ticked off at me for one thing.”

“Because you were such a jerk in Helena?”

“So were you.”

Reed shrugged. “She’ll forgive me in the blink of an eye, once I tell her I’m moving back.”

“I’ll sign it over to you today,” Caleb offered. Now that the decision was made, he felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

“What about Mandy?”

“That’s between me and Mandy.”

Caleb’s brain was going off in about a million directions. Was it possible that she loved him? Had she told Reed she loved him? What business did she have loving him? She was a Lyndon Valley woman, and he was a Chicago man. How was that going to work?

“You slept with her, right?”

“None of your damn business.”

“Do you think a woman like Mandy would sleep with just anyone?”

Of course Caleb didn’t think she’d do that. And he couldn’t help remembering how it felt to have her sleeping in his arms, the taste of her lips, the satin of her skin. And he wanted to feel it all again, so very, very badly.

“I thought you were going to take my head off in Helena.” Reed chuckled low. “She had no idea what she did, by the way, telling you she was staying with me.”

Caleb remembered that moment, when she had a choice and she hadn’t picked him. He never wanted to feel that gut-wrenching anguish again. Mandy belonged with him. Not with Reed and not with any other man. Him, and him alone.

“You should go talk to her,” Reed suggested.

“I was going to talk to her. Good grief, can I make at least one decision on my own?”

“Apparently not a good one. When were you going?”

Caleb pasted Reed with a mulish glare. “The jet’s warming up on the tarmac.”

“You have a jet?”

“Yes.”

“Bring a ring.”

Caleb drew back. “Excuse me?”

“You better bring a ring. You’ve been a jerk, and you need to apologize so she’ll forgive you. And that whole thing’s going to go a whole lot smoother with you on one knee.”

“You haven’t spoken to me in ten years, and you come back and the first thing you do is tell me who I should marry?”

“Second thing, technically,” said Reed.

“Where do you get your nerve?”

“I’m bigger than you. I’m stronger than you. And it’s not me who wants you to propose.”

Caleb scoffed out a laugh at that. “It’s not?”

“No. It’s you.”

Caleb stared at Reed, suddenly seeing past everything to the brother that he’d loved, still loved. Because, despite everything that had happened between them, it was still the same Reed. And he was still smart and, in this case, he was also right.

Caleb grinned. “You want to catch a ride back to Lyndon?”

Mandy had sworn to herself she wouldn’t wallow in self-pity. She wouldn’t pine away for Caleb, and she wouldn’t let herself get involved any further in the brothers’ conflict. She was going cold turkey.

Abigail was right. It was none of Mandy’s business. They were grown men, and she had to let it go and let them work it out for themselves. Or not.

When it came down to it, Travis was right, too. Getting involved with Caleb had brought her nothing but heartache. What had she been thinking? That she could spend days and nights with a smart, compelling, exciting, successful man, and her heart wouldn’t become involved.

She ran a curry comb over Ryder’s haunch, dragging the dust out of the gelding’s coat.

It was ironic, really. She’d spent the better part of her life giving advice out to people. She could be quite obnoxiously meddlesome at times. But she was always so certain she was right. She harped on people to take her advice, since she usually had some distance from the problem and a better perspective than the person who was in the thick of it. Yet, when people who loved her gave her perfectly reasonable, logical, realistic advice, she blew them off and did it her own way.

It served her right.

And she was now exactly where she deserved to be, losing Reed as her dear friend and neighbor and desperately missing Caleb. Reed had been right. She loved Caleb. She was madly, desperately in love with a man who’d never again give her the time of day.

If she closed her eyes, she could still feel his arms around her.

“Mandy?” his voice was so real, it startled her.

Her eyes flew open, and she blinked in complete astonishment. “Caleb?”

How could he be standing in her barn?

But he was.

She blinked again.

He was.

“Hello, Mandy.” His tone was gentle. He was wearing a pair of worn blue jeans and a soft flannel shirt, looking completely at home as he slowly walked toward her.

She gripped the top rail of the stall with her leather-gloved hand. “What are you doing here?” she managed.

A slow smile grew on his face as he drew closer under the bright, hanging fluorescent lights. “You want to go to Rio?”

She watched his expression closely. “Is that a joke?”

“I’m completely serious.”

“No. I am not going to Rio with you.” She meant what she said. She was completely done with the Terrells.

He came to a halt a few feet away from her. “You said you would.”

“That was before.”

“Before what?”

Before her plan to fix everything had crashed and burned around her ears. Before she’d learned the truth about herself. Before she’d fallen in love with him and opened herself up to a world of hurt.

“Before we fought,” she said instead.

“We didn’t fight.”

She shot him with a look of disbelief.

“Okay,” he agreed. “We fought. And I’m sorry. I know you were just trying to help.”

She shook her head, rubbing her palms across her cheeks and into her hair, trying to erase the memories. “I meddle. I know I meddle. And I’m the one who’s sorry.”

“I forgive you. Now, come to Rio.”

“No.”

“Come to Rio and marry me.”

“N- What? ”

“I thought…” He moved slowly closer, carefully, as if he was afraid to spook her. “I thought we could fly to Rio, get a manicure, have a blender drink and you could marry me.”

There was a roaring inside her brain while she tried to make sense of his words. “Caleb, what are you trying to-”

He reached out and took her hands. “I’m trying to say that I love you, Mandy. And I like it when you meddle. I especially like it when you meddle with me.”

Her heart paused, then thudded forcefully back to life, singing through her chest.

He loved her? He loved her?

Exhilaration burst through her.

She let out an involuntary squeal and launched herself into his arms. He hugged her tight, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around.

“Why? How?” she couldn’t help but ask, voice muffled in the crook of his neck. She didn’t expect this, didn’t deserve this.

“I don’t know why, but how? Mostly I just think about how beautiful you are, how sexy you are, how smart and caring and funny.” He drew back and kissed her mouth. His lips were warm, soft, delicious and tender.

When he finally drew back and lowered her to her feet, she gazed up into his eyes. “I love you, too, Caleb. So very much.”

“So, you’ll come to Rio?”

“You know my family won’t let you marry me in Rio.”

“They can come along. I have a pretty big plane.”

“We have to wait until my dad gets better.”

“Of course we do,” he agreed, kissing her all over again.

He captured both of her hands in his. His blue eyes danced under the lights. “You by any chance interested in a ring?” he asked.

She swallowed, unable to find her voice.

He tapped his shirt pocket, and she made out a telltale square bulge.

Joy flooded her. “You brought a ring to this engagement?”

“I did. A diamond.”

Her lips broke into a grin. “Let’s see it.”

He reached into his pocket and extracted a small, white leather box. “It was Reed’s idea.”

“You talked to Reed?”

“He’s inside with your brothers.”

“Reed is here? ” She couldn’t believe it.

“Any chance we can focus on the ring right now?” Caleb popped open the spring-loaded top.

A beautiful, square-cut diamond solitaire in yellow gold was nestled against deep purple velvet. The sight took her breath away.

He leaned in and spoke in a husky whisper. “Do I know how to do a proposal or what?”

“That’s one gorgeous ring.”

“You like it?”

“I love it.”

“Because we can exchange it if you want.”

“Are you kidding? What else could I possibly want in a ring?”

Using his blunt fingers, he extracted it from the box.

She held out her left hand, and he smoothly pushed it onto her ring finger. It fit. She held her hand at arms length, flexing her wrist and watching the sparkle.

“This should shut Travis up,” she mused.

“Yes.” Caleb kissed her finger with the ring. “Because that was my secret plan. I figured, you know, if you’d marry me, it would be a bonus. But what I was really looking to do was get your brother off my back.”

“We’re really going to do this? You and me? Us?” Both her brain and her emotions were operating on overload. Caleb had come back to Lyndon Valley. He loved her. They were staying together. It defied imagination.

“Just as soon as you’ll let me.”

Uncertainty suddenly overtook her. “But, what then? Where do we go? Where do we live? My family’s here. You’re there.”

“Well, Reed will be back living at his ranch.”

She froze. “Seriously?”

Caleb nodded.

“He’s coming home?”

“He’s already home.”

She hugged Caleb tight, and his arms went fully around her. “Part time here,” he said. “Part time in Chicago. We made it work for two weeks. I’m sure we can make it work for the rest of our lives.”

Mandy sighed and burrowed herself in his chest. “For the rest of our lives.”

Once again, Caleb couldn’t seem to bring himself to let go of Mandy.

Back inside the ranch house, her brothers, Abigail and Reed all gathered around them, admiring her ring, hugging and kissing and laughing their congratulations. When they eventually gave way, Abigail went to the kitchen to find a bottle of champagne.

Caleb lowered himself into a leather armchair, and drew Mandy down into his lap, settling her against his shoulder, holding her hand and toying with the engagement ring on her finger.

His brother shot him a knowing grin, and Caleb smiled back, marveling at how the years had melted away. On the airplane and later in the car, he and Reed had talked. They’d talked about their years as children and teenagers, what had happened to each of them after Caleb had left for Chicago and Reed’s plans for the future.

Seth retrieved six champagne glasses from the china cabinet, setting them out on the dining-room table. “So, Caleb. Are you moving back here, or are you taking our sister away?”

“Both,” said Caleb, casting a long glance at Mandy’s profile. “We’ll have to play it by ear to start. I’m hoping Reed won’t mind if we stay at his place while we’re in the valley.”

“Welcome anytime,” said Reed.

“Seriously?” Mandy asked in obvious surprise. “You’re going to stay at your ranch?”

“Seriously,” Caleb told her. “A very wise woman once told me I needed to change my perception of it.”

He leaned in close to her ear. “I figure we’ll need to make love in every room in the house.”

She whispered back. “Not when Reed’s around.”

“What are you two whispering about?” asked Abigail as she appeared with a bottle of champagne.

“I’m sure you don’t want to know,” Travis sang, lifting the bottle from his sister’s hands and peeling off the foil.

“I’ve been thinking,” Caleb said to Reed, framing up an idea in his mind. “It’s not really fair for Mandy and I to set up a permanent place in your house.”

Reed frowned at him. “Why not?”

“I think we should be partners.”

His brother shrugged. “Keep half of it if you want. But you’re on the hook for the years we have a loss.”

Caleb shook his head. “The ranch is yours. Danielle’s already drafted up the papers. But I’ll buy half of it back from you.”

Reed scoffed out a laugh. “Right.”

The champagne cork popped, and Abby laughed as the foam poured over Travis’s hand.

“It’s been recently appraised,” Caleb noted. “So there’ll be no trouble establishing a price.”

Reed stared levelly across at him. “You think you’re going to give me fifteen million dollars?”

“Fourteen five, actually. I hear the water rights are screwing with land values.”

Abigail and Travis began handing around the full glasses.

“I’d take the offer,” Seth told Reed.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Reed countered.

“I’d play hardball if I was you,” said Abigail. “Where’s he going to find another ranch with such terrific neighbors?”

“Play hardball,” Mandy agreed with her sister. She bopped the side of her head against Caleb’s chest. “Give him the fifteen.”

Then she sat up straighter and accepted a glass of champagne from her sister.

Travis handed one to Reed.

Reed brandished his own glass like a weapon. “I’m not taking any money for the ranch. And that’s final.”

“Mandy,” Caleb intoned.

“Yes?” she answered, twisting her head to look at him.

“Please meddle.”

She grinned, leaned in and gave him a very satisfying kiss on the lips. “Whatever you say, darling.”

Caleb crooked his head to one side to paste Reed with a challenging look. “She’s my secret weapon.”

Seth raised his glass. “Congratulations, Caleb. You are the luckiest man in the world.”

“Agreed,” Caleb breathed.

Reed spoke up. “To the Jacobs and the Terrells. A new family.”

“Here, here,” everyone agreed, clinking glasses all around, then taking a drink.

“To my beautiful bride,” Caleb whispered, gently touching his glass to Mandy’s.

Her green eyes glowed with obvious joy. “Do you really want me to convince Reed to take the money?”

“Absolutely. Go get him, tiger.”