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His heart crumbled like rotting wood. One poke and the whole thing turned to dust. This couldn’t be real. He’d crossed over into another dimension. That was the only plausible explanation for what she was saying.
“No,” he said.
“No?” Harley released a sharp laugh. “You don’t have any say in what’s happening.” She glanced back at Anthony. “Honestly, it looks like I don’t have much of a say either.”
“What is that supposed to mean? Of course you have a say. You’re not locked into anything.” Mason could hear the desperation in his voice, and at this point, he didn’t care. “You’ve made your point. You were hurt by our argument—”
“This isn’t about some argument! Geez, Mason.” She threw her arms up in the air. “There’s so much more to this than you realize.”
“I have yet to hear an explanation for what you think is going on.”
Harley groaned, taking his wrist in her hand as she pulled him from the porch and out onto the lawn. Her voice lowered so that Anthony wouldn’t overhear her. “Our argument did one thing and one thing only. It made me realize just how different we are. We come from different worlds.”
He scowled, ripping his wrist from her grasp. “No.”
Her expression softened. “This isn’t about you. It’s about me.”
“Don’t—just don’t.” Mason couldn’t understand what was happening inside him. The only thing he knew was that he didn’t want to go down the path that Harley was insisting they should take.
She sighed, her eyes darting to the man on the porch. “This is for the best.”
“What? So you can get your inheritance? Please tell me you’re not walking away because of the money.” He spit the word out like it was poisonous. “I thought you were better than that.”
Her eyes clouded over. In fact, her whole expression had turned cold. “I would think that you, of all people, would understand.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
“Uncle Vern told me, Mason. He laid out everything he’s offered you to babysit me. Money. The ranch. All of it. Do you expect me to believe that you took the job out of the goodness of your heart?”
His mouth dropped open. He hadn’t expected Vern to throw him under the bus so quickly.
“Yeah. That’s right. Don’t forget how this whole thing started. I begged you to help me out. I offered to build you something for your family—for you. And that’s when you agreed. Guess I’m the idiot here. I thought you wanted something for your family—but it was so much worse than that. You’re getting everything handed to you if you put up with me.” Harley let out a bitter laugh. “It makes so much more sense that you were worried about losing something of value. If Vern decided you weren’t worthy of getting this place, then you’d have to make a hard choice. Me or the ranch.”
“That’s not what any of this is about,” he started, but she appeared to grow tired of their conversation.
“So, I made the choice for you. Now you don’t have to worry anymore. You get what you want.”
“How do you know what I want?” He snatched her hand and pulled her closer. “We still have a chance to make this work.”
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and dragged down her cheek. “That’s just it, though. This was always going to happen. No matter what way you look at it, I was always going to end up with a Yale man or someone with money.”
“But money isn’t everything.”
“Don’t you get it? Money is everything. It’s what makes the world go round. It’s how people survive. Money is the one thing that will make both of our lives better.”
His gut twisted with her confession. As much as he wanted to argue with her and insist that they only needed each other, he couldn’t. She was right. Money was the reason he had agreed to this job.
Mason just hadn’t realized how hard he would fall for the woman in front of him. It was like she said, they came from different worlds, but they had each made a decision that showed they agreed on one thing.
They wanted to be taken care of. He needed the money so he could start a family and create a life he was proud of. She wanted the money she’d grown accustomed to.
The whole situation made him sick to his stomach.
Mason dropped her wrist and pulled back. “So that’s it then? You don’t even want to see what life could be… here in Copper Creek?”
She dropped her gaze and shook her head. “We have to accept what’s going on. We just don’t work together.”
But they could have. At least, that was what his heart wanted to believe. The bitterness returned to his gut. Harley wasn’t willing to make a sacrifice. She wanted that successful, cream-of-the-crop, sort of guy.
