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“Your hair’s been salt and pepper since you turned thirty. Quit pretending otherwise.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“You didn’t ask one except about your hair color.” A weak argument, but Bennett was trying to track the sudden movement he saw behind Maggie’s pulled blinds. The window coverings were new. Huh. She’d done what she set out to with the house, then. The ranch, too.
The shadow passed behind the shades again.
Was someone else in there with her? He squinted to focus his vision.
“Hellooooo. Are you ready to leave yet, boss?” Jackson asked.
Bennett sighed and rolled his eyes. “We’re waiting on Johnny.” That was partially true, but he was an hour late and knew the deal. Leaving without him wouldn’t be unprecedented.
“Johnny isn’t coming. So, can we get a move on? While I’ve only got some gray hair?”
“What’s the deal? You got a date or something?”
“I might.”
“Jesus. You know it’s possible to stay with one woman, or one job for longer than a week.”
Jax’s brows raised, but his smile didn’t falter. “I’m gonna let that slide since it seems more about you than me. Unless you want to talk about my place at MBE yet?”
Bennett’s mouth twisted. “I want to, and I want to do right by you, brother, but can we put a pin in it till this drive’s over?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Bennett nodded. If only he could put a pin in his feelings for Maggie. She wasn’t coming to see them off. To see him off. It shouldn’t surprise him—after all, she’d been telling him how she felt for the past week. Maybe it was high time he listened.
“Alright, Jax. Head up and let Hector know I’ll be taking over as trail boss once I make sure we’ve got everyone. The rest of the team have been given their roles, so once I rally the herds, we’ll be on our way. Oh, and make sure everyone’s radios are on. This isn’t a long ride, but it’s gonna be a tough one once we reach the canyon.”
“You worried about stampedes?”
“A little. That many horses and men and cattle in one place aren’t a recipe for calm waters, that’s for sure. Keep the pace slow back here.”
“You got it.”
Jackson took off toward the edge of Maggie’s property, his long hair whipping in the dry breeze. His younger brother looked at home atop a stallion—much more than he did sitting in a swivel chair surrounded by blank walls and stale air. It was yet another thing someone had been trying to tell Bennett, but he hadn’t listened. It was the same with Matt back before his older brother had left—Bennett wanted his brother to stay and help the family out, but Matt had bigger dreams ahead of him and scarier demons chasing him from behind. Seemed Bennett had a habit of thinking he knew what was best for the people in his life he loved the most. He was three for three in gettin’ it wrong, too.
Oh, Maggie. I’m sorry I didn’t hear you, his heart called out to her over the steady roar of hooves and shouts from the wranglers. You deserve to do this on your terms, how you see fit. I’ll be here if you need me, but I know you won’t.
If there was even a small chance he’d be able to tell her all that face-to-face, he wanted that opportunity. But if not, he’d gotten it off his heart, and that had to count for something.
“C’mon, Jove. Time to head out.” He nudged his horse and took one last glance at Maggie’s house. The front door opened, and Maggie walked out, a smile on her face that would have washed any lingering clouds away had they not tucked tail months ago.
He pulled the reins the opposite direction of the fray behind him, bent on telling Maggie what he’d figured out. He stopped when a man roughly his age with ash-blond hair and a roguish beard strode out of the house, a similar smile on his face.
Bennett had never been a jealous man—what he wanted, he worked for. But bile worked its way up his throat seeing Maggie so happy with someone else. Helping put a smile like that on her face was all he’d wanted. But it wasn’t his job, was it?
His gaze stayed trained on the man through the embrace he wrapped Maggie in, all the way to the truck parked on the side of the home. The truck pulled away, and Bennett’s jaw clenched.
Orin Mechanics. The biggest retailer of ranching supply equipment in the country. Hell, the planet.
It was worse than Maggie being interested in some other guy.
She was being poached.
And why shouldn’t she be? She was brilliant, driven, and intuitive; of course, a mega retailer like Orin would be interested in her. And she was saying yes, the way it looked. As she’d promised all along, she was going to do what was best for her, even if it meant leaving him behind when she returned to San Antonio where Orin’s headquarters were.
