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“This about the Newman property?”
Bennett just nodded.
“You never did tell me what happened with it. The estate lawyer get in touch yet?”
“Nope. No estate lawyer.” Bennett slammed the tailgate shut and nodded to the cab as Gander meandered out from his hiding spot and ambled over to the barn. Jackson took his cue and hopped in the passenger side as Bennett put the truck in drive.
“I thought you met with someone this morning about buying the place.”
“I did. Newman’s daughter.”
Jackson let loose a laugh that usually cheered Bennett up. Not today.
“No kidding. Margaret’s back in town? Man, you were so smitten with her back in the—”
“Yeah, well, I’m not anymore. She’s definitely changed, and not in a good way.”
“Oh yeah?” Jackson asked.
Bennett stole a quick glance at his brother and his manure-shoveling grin before training his eyes to the narrow dirt road in front of them. “This isn’t funny. She’s stubborn and frustrating and way too polished to think she can live like this again. Not that she’d admit it.”
“So, she’s sticking around, huh?”
“I can feel you smiling, and you’d better cut it out or you’re buying at Hank’s tonight.”
“If I get to say I told you so it’ll be worth a round of beers.”
Bennett swerved to miss a squirrel that darted in front of the truck. “Oh, and she goes by Maggie now.”
“Maggie, huh?”
“And she’s not selling. To me, at least.”
Bennett shook his head. He still hadn’t figured out the hurt behind her refusal to sell. All he knew was it was personal.
“To you? Huh. Well, I seem to recall you being gone a semester longer than you said you’d be. Maybe she’s hurt that you missed her graduation.”
Bennett let that percolate. Maybe. But he hadn’t. Would it make a difference now if she knew he’d come back? Especially when she was the one who didn’t meet him at the bus station, the one who didn’t return his letters.
“Well, then she should just say so.” Why’d everything with women have to be a complicated game of guesswork? “Besides, she’s the one who never wrote, never answered my question, just… left.”
“Yeah. You’re right.”
Bennett shot Jax another glance when he stopped at the gate leading to the barn and south fields.
“I am?” Bennett asked.
Jax shrugged. “Of course. Especially since I’m sure you sat her down to explain calmly and rationally how bummed you were she didn’t show up to take you to the bus that morning. You know, how you wished she’d have been straight with you if she didn’t want to get married.” Jax whistled. “Brokenhearted or not, I’m glad you said something.”
Bennett scowled. “Brokenhearted. Shit. Betrayed is more like it,” he grumbled.
“So, you did, then? Tell her?”
“Shut up and go open the gate.”
Jax laughed and hopped out of the truck. As the gate swung back and Bennett drove through, he let his gaze wander over the property he’d built up from scratch. Right now, it might be a thriving operation worth millions, but only a decade and a half ago, it’d looked kinda like Newman Ranch did now, with vines stretching over every lacquered board on the ranch home and barn, the fields overgrown enough that they resembled corn fields and not natural grass, and the pitiful stream that trickled through had all but dried up thanks to irrigation issues.
Bennett had saved it from destruction by razing everything and starting over, but it’d been hard. And it took the better part of a year just to get it back to where it’d been when Bennett was a teen. Was Maggie up for that kind of overhaul?
