Outlaw Cowboy (4 page)

Thankfully Delia had gotten enough rest that tears didn't rush to the surface, but she did feel a little wobbly, a little warm in the wake of that. So, she offered her best guess at what would constitute a polite response.

“Thank you.”

She meant that thank-you far more than any words could ever do justice. She might have an ally, and while she wouldn't trust that easily, it was nice to know she had a possible backup if things got particularly sticky.

“I'll let you be then. But, really, my door is always open.” The little old-fashioned lamp she held flickered against her smiling face, and Delia would chalk up the fact that it looked genuine to the warmth of the flame.

The girl was a stranger at best, and yet…when Delia turned to go inside, she did it with a strange warmth in her chest. It almost fought off the cold.

Caleb got out of his truck, trying to find some way to unclench his jaw. He wanted nothing to do with this lunch with Mel, even less when he walked into Georgia's to see his sister sitting with her husband.

Dan's presence had not been mentioned when Mel had called to ask him to lunch. A purposeful choice, Caleb had no doubt.

He had mixed feelings about his brother-in-law. On the one hand, Dan made Mel happy, and that was what was important. Mel had suffered a lot of unhappiness, and a lot of loss, and she deserved whatever Dan gave her.

But on the selfish hand, Dan's easy humor rubbed Caleb completely the wrong way. Or was that his overflowing bank account? Either way, he couldn't get comfortable around Dan.

And Caleb really, really didn't want him here for this, but he forced himself to smile as he slid into the booth across from his newlywed sister.

“Do you two ever separate?” He forced some cheer into his voice, even though that was the last thing he was feeling.

“Why would I ever separate from the most beautiful woman in Blue Valley?” Dan wrapped his arm around Mel's shoulder. Mel pushed ineffectively at him and then rolled her eyes.

“Don't make me nauseous before lunch, please.” Despite her tone, there was a happy curve to her mouth that had been missing for too many years. “Dan's not staying. He has a meeting with a llama specialist.”

“Please tell me that's not a real thing.”

“So to speak.” Dan pushed out of the booth. “You two be good to each other.” He dropped a kiss on Mel's head, then slapped Caleb on the shoulder. Hard.

“And reasonable,” he added, somewhat under his breath—Caleb assumed it was meant for him, not Saint Mel.

It was a conscious effort not to let that stick in his craw. He was reasonable, damn it. They just didn't agree on what reasonable was. He figured that had something to do with love diluting their brain cells. So far, he hadn't seen much evidence that love did anything but.

Georgia appeared next to their table, her constant, harried self. “You guys ready to order?”

Mel chatted cheerfully with Georgia, and they placed their orders, but once they were alone, silence cocooned them. No, it wasn't going to be a fun conversation.

Which meant he'd love to get it over with. “So.” He drummed his fingers on the worn plastic of the table. “You wanted to talk.”

Her smile weakened. “Let's eat first. I'm starving.”

“Mel, let's not dance around the bullshit. You know as well as I do I have too much stuff to do back at the ranch to dawdle around on niceties. Give it to me straight.”

Her smile completely died and she let out a breath. “Things aren't great, Caleb.”

“Well, there's always divorce.”

She fixed him with her withering big-sister glare. He wanted to smile. For some warped reason, he missed that glare, the way things had been years ago. Before Dan. Before Dad's wheelchair days. Before Caleb had gotten really deep in the party scene. When Mel had looked at him as someone to despair over—and protect at the same time.

He'd effectively killed the second somewhere around the age of sixteen, and while he didn't want his older sister protecting him
now
, he missed some of those softer feelings she'd had for him.

“Not funny, and I will remind you of all your disparaging feelings on love and marriage when you find yourself shackled to some woman who keeps you in line.”

Caleb snorted. He might—someday far in the future—not mind the family life, but he didn't think it was in his cards.
It's in you.
He'd have to believe he could rise above that, but Mom's little mantra seared into his brain.

He was still working to believe he could be halfway decent. Fully decent was probably a step too far.

But Mel's humor was short-lived. “The ranch is in a bad spot.”

“It has been for a long time.” So what was more time? He'd find an answer. So the bank refused his attempt at a loan even after they'd paid off Dad's medical debts—it didn't mean he couldn't find some way for Shaw to survive.

“We can't keep going like this. I tried to give you some time, but we can't keep ignoring how little Shaw's making and how much more it's costing. I know you don't want us to use Dan's money on—”

“Why should his money pay for the ranch? Dad's medical stuff was enough.” It ate at Caleb, that Dan had swept in and erased all the debts from Dad's accident and made the house wheelchair accessible. Like a fucking saint or some shit.

He hadn't had a choice in that. It needed to be paid off, and even if he'd turned the tide on the ranch, he'd have spent forever trying to get to the end of that debt. But the ranch was Shaw, had been since before Montana had been a damn state.

He wouldn't let anyone swoop in and put their name on it. Shaw was his, and even if Mel still had a legal claim, she'd left. Her life was her husband and her husband's ranch. His life was Shaw.

“He has the money. Sitting there.
We
have the money. How can you expect me to stand by and watch…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “I'm sorry, but my name is on all those papers, not yours. I won't let you run it into the ground just because of your stubborn pride.”

“And I won't let your husband's money fix all my mistakes. I'm going to do this.”

“You don't have enough money. You don't have enough cattle. You can't get a loan.
I
can't get a loan. This is your only option.”

“It isn't.”

“Name one other option. Just one.” She placed her hands on the table, palms up—a pleading gesture.

“Trust me.”

“Then name one. You want to run Shaw, name one way we don't come out in the red this year.”

What he wouldn't give for a lie to form. Some bullshit story. He used to be really good at making up bullshit stories, but that had been back in his drinking days when his imagination was typically aided by beer or whiskey. “Give me more time.”

“How much more time is there? I know I've been busy with Dan's spread, but that doesn't mean I don't keep my eye on Shaw.”

“Maybe you shouldn't.”

She leaned back in the booth, jaw going hard as she looked at some point behind him.

It hurt, plain and simple, but she had chosen to leave. She didn't get to act like she was Shaw anymore, even if it
was
her name on the deed.

It was only him now.

“I'm a grown adult,” he said as evenly as he could manage. “I have changed my ways. Every last stupid one of them.”

He swallowed at the emotion in his throat, because the bottom line was, he was powerless here. Mel had all the cards. The money, the power with Dad… Hell, in a legal dispute, she'd probably win too.

He had nothing, except this. And they'd agreed to be honest last year. When Summer showed up, they'd agreed to stop pretending everything was fine. This wasn't fine.

So, he looked her straight in the eye and gave as much honesty as he could muster. “Do not take this away from me.”

Her whole body slumped. “Caleb.”

“Give me through the spring. We had a rough winter. Things are bad. Give me through the spring to make up some ground. We'll mark it June 1. That's when you started working for Dan last year. One year of me at the helm—you've got to give me that. We won't lose it all before that.”

“And if things are still failing on June 1?”

“I'll do whatever you want. Dan can buy me out. I will do whatever it is you want from me.”

“We'd never buy you
out
, Caleb. You'll always have a place at Shaw. It is yours as much as mine. But at some point, you have to take the money. And at some point, you have to let…”

She trailed off, but Caleb knew what she was going to say. Let her take over. Let her make the decisions. Which would make the ranch
theirs
. He might still work it, but if Dan paid off the debts, if Mel took over how the ranch was run…he'd be nothing more than a ranch hand.

He'd have failed at
everything
, and he didn't know how to live with that. “So, it's a deal?”

Mel chewed on her lip for a few seconds, and then Georgia stopped by and quickly slid them their food.

“Give me a few more months to make it right. I can make it right.”

She stared down at her hamburger. “How?”

That was the question. He didn't have an answer to it, and he wasn't sure what would change between now and June. Maybe nothing would, but something about being sober had taught him he had to try.

Even if he failed spectacularly. “June 1. Deal?”

She took a deep breath and blew it out. “All right. And I know we'll be busy with llama season this spring, but if you need my help, you ask. Got it?”

“I don't even want to know what llama season is.”

“Caleb.”

“Okay, okay. I got it.”

“They grow on you. The llamas.”

“Maybe on
you
, nut job.” She smiled, and he almost felt like less of a tool. He even let her talk all about llamas all through lunch, and when Dan reappeared, he waved her away so he could finish his lunch in peace.

She touched his shoulder gingerly—they still weren't quite used to easy touches. It was never much a part of their growing up. “Call me if you need me.”

“I will.” He'd just make sure not to need her. “And don't you dare pay on your way out.”

She laughed, heading straight for the cash register and not listening to him, which was for the best, since he'd given Delia his only twenty yesterday.

It was about the last thing he wanted to think about right now. His entire next two months needed to be Shaw and Shaw alone. No Delia distractions allowed. Which meant he had to get her the hell out of there.

Caleb popped his final fry into his mouth and was about to slide out of the booth when another man slid in opposite of him.

Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Tyler.”

Tyler nodded. “Caleb.”

Caleb wasn't unused to running into people he had an awkward history with; that was the nature of a small town and being a former ne'er-do-well. But having Tyler Parker, Mel's ex-fiancé, and someone Caleb had never been particularly nice to, sitting across from him at Georgia's was plain weird.

“Can I help you with something?”

“I couldn't help but overhear you and Mel's conversation.”

“Couldn't help but.”
My ass.

“I have a proposition for you. A business proposition that might help you.”

Caleb actually laughed aloud, even though he'd never known Tyler to be anything but serious and honest. “And why would you want to help me?”

“I can't say I
want
to help you, but it's a situation that would be mutually beneficial. I have other options, but you're in an interesting spot.”

Caleb clenched his fingers into a fist under the table and then relaxed. Interesting spot did not begin to cover his life right now. “And you think you can help me out.”

“I need land.”

“I'm not selling.”

“I'm not looking to buy. I'm looking to lease.”

Lease. Temporary. Huh. But he couldn't get over the fact that this was Tyler, who was a super upstanding citizen, and also a straight shooter. He didn't play games. So, what the hell was this? “I repeat, why would you want to lease from me?”

“Well, it's not as if you're any good at keeping the fence between our land in good repair. Might as well use that to my advantage for once. I need more grazing space for spring. You need cash. So, I'm offering to lease it from you.”

The problem with too good to be true was that Caleb never, ever trusted it. “Why?”

“I need land. Your land is the best option. Believe me, I wish it didn't come with you at the helm, but I'm a businessman. Your sister says you've changed, and I'm inclined to believe Mel.”

“Mel's married, you know?”

Tyler's attempt at a friendly smile went completely flat. “Yes, I'm aware.”

“Happily.”

“I've caught on, thanks.”

It wasn't that Caleb had ever hated Tyler. He'd thought Tyler was a decent enough guy, if a little uptight. But old habits died hard, and he was used to pushing Tyler's perfectly buttoned buttons. “So, it doesn't matter what you offer—this isn't going to help her or get into her good graces.”

“I'm not looking to get into Mel's good graces, Caleb. I'm looking to help each other out. Trust me, I wouldn't be offering anything to
you
if you weren't a last resort.”

Caleb couldn't mask his surprise. The Tyler he remembered would never have let a snarky comment like that slip out, no matter how much he may have thought it.

“I don't trust you, Caleb.”

“Gee, and here I was thinking you'd suddenly found me inexplicably attractive.”

Tyler attempted a smile, but Caleb could tell he didn't care for the joke.

“So you want me to lease you my north pasture for the season?”

“Yes. On a few conditions.”

Ah, yes, the kind of conditions meant to remind Caleb exactly
who
and
what
he was considered in this town. Ridiculous hoops no one expected him to be able to jump through. He'd been down this road a few times the past few months.

People he'd once wronged in some way saw his crappy situation as a way to wrong him right back, and since Mel was happily married to Mr. Moneybags, people had no compunction enacting revenge.

So, he knew exactly what kind of conditions these would be. Unfortunately, that didn't mean he could walk away. This could be his chance to prove Mel wrong. “What kind of conditions?”

“One, I'd get to randomly drop by and inspect things, make sure my cattle aren't being mistreated when I'm not around.”