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She gave one definitive nod. “A gentleman’s agreement.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “Although, in this case, I guess it’d be called a gentleman and lady’s agreement.”
She shook her head. “A gentleman’s agreement will work just fine if we can come to one.”
Oh, she was actually talking about doing the beer and handshake thing. Did bottled water count?
“Exactly what are you proposing?” he asked.
That question was designed to get to the heart of why she was here. It was clear that she wanted to work things out. But as much lip service as he gave to gentlemen’s agreements and handshakes, he didn’t feel comfortable wagering away his family’s property without something in writing.
“I’m not saying we come to some sort of agreement,” she said. “I’m just saying we agree to talk it out, maybe with our kids present.”
“Definitely with our kids present.”
A long silence followed as Gus tried to picture his kids in the same room as Bobbie’s children. None of them were children anymore, of course. But he’d always think of them that way, even after they had children of their own. Phoenix and Sawyer were particularly combustible. They’d broken up a fight between them just hours earlier.
“How would that work?” he asked, looking over at her again.
She’d been sipping her water, and she put the cap back on and set it in front of her. Then she took a deep breath, still staring at it, and said, “We break bread together like we did this morning. We’ll all be in the same room. We can even have the attorneys present if you want.”
Gus shook his head. It just didn’t sound like a good idea.
“How about this?” he said, falling back on his usual tactic of negotiating his way out of every awkward situation. It’d gotten him this far in life. Why stop now? “We start gradually, work on our own kids, maybe intermingle the families a little… Maybe we even bring Phoenix and Sawyer in last.”
Now she was staring at him, her brow furrowed and her mouth downturned in a frown. He didn’t like to see her frowning. He wanted to put a smile on her face. Considering who he was, that was unlikely, though.
“Georgia is already dating our attorney,” he said. “Maybe we could start there.”
That made total sense. Clayton and Georgia had been spending a lot of time together—mostly at the Ludington residence. There was no reason they couldn’t join his family for dinner, though.
He nodded as if in agreement with himself. “That’s what we’ll do.”
“What?”
Oh, right. She hadn’t been inside his brain. He had to actually explain what he was thinking.
“I’ll tell Clayton to come to dinner and bring Georgia,” he said. “We’ll do it tonight.”
“Georgia’s busy right now,” Bobbie said. “We all are. Valentine’s week is just around the corner. We have a lot of prep work to do.”
He’d forgotten about that. Cupid Ridge Dude Ranch was popular with couples looking for a charming getaway. For Valentine’s Day, they rolled out the red carpet. It was too chilly outside for outdoor activities like horseback riding and roping, but he’d heard the inn had a fireplace in each guest room and provided chocolates and romantic dinners.
“We’ll wait until after that,” he said. “In the meantime, we can call our lawyers off. We’ll just put everything on pause until we figure things out on our own.”
Paused, not stopped. He was careful about his wording. He didn’t want to commit to anything. He had a sinking feeling that for all her talk about working things out on their own, Bobbie Ludington was hoping for some sort of cush deal. And Knott Ranch needed the extra money from the Cupid Ridge Dude Ranch property to survive.
3
There was one big secret Bobbie kept from her family. Sometimes—at least once a week—she’d slip out for a mysterious errand and come straight here to the Cupid Ridge Cinema.
It was her escape and had been for the past year. In the months immediately following her husband’s death, it had been the only thing that kept her going.
On this particular weekday, Mike was running the box office, as he tended to do during the week when things weren’t so busy. She gave him a big smile and passed her debit card through the opening in the window.
“You’re later than usual this week,” he commented, his voice tinny through the small speaker above the window opening.
“I’ve been trying to sneak out all week.” She smiled. “We have guests coming for Valentine’s week tonight.”
