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He nodded. “He would have been here, but he’s in Paris. So he asked me to handle the meeting.”
It took her moment to absorb what he was saying. “He asked you to handle the meeting? You work for him?”
He hesitated. “Sort of.”
Things started to fall into place. Her mere annoyance shot to anger in the time it took to blink. “That’s how you heard about Cooper Springs,” she said. “You knew we no longer owned the ranch. You were there scoping out the land your boss is stealing from my family.”
He held up his hands. “Now don’t be getting all bent out of shape. I wasn’t there scoping out your ranch. I really couldn’t sleep and thought a swim might help.”
“But you knew you were meeting with me today and you never said a word.”
“Not you. Your father.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Which makes your deception more acceptable? You should have told me who you were, instead of acting like you were some wanderlust rodeo cowboy who just wanted a midnight swim.”
“I believe you weren’t real honest about who you were either. But you’re right. I should have told you who I was. I just didn’t know how much your daddy had told you about the foreclosure. Corbin thought this meeting was with Hank. Not one of his daughters.”
She stared at him as his words sank in. “Corbin knows it’s the Holiday Ranch his company is foreclosing on?”
Jesse hesitated a long time before he gave one brief nod.
With that nod, Liberty flopped down in her chair in stunned disbelief. “But I don’t understand. Why would Corbin want to foreclose on my family’s ranch? He went to school with Belle and me. He wrote me poems and gave me wildflowers.”
“You dated Corbin?”
Corbin had asked her out. And she’d accepted. But then the guy she’d had a major crush on had asked her out on the same night and she’d played sick. Something she was very thankful Corbin didn’t know about. “No. He was just a nice guy who had a crush on me. Obviously, I was wrong about the nice part.”
“You weren’t wrong. Corbin is a good guy. But he’s also a good businessman. Your daddy knew what he was getting into. If he didn’t pay off the loan, Oleander Investments would get to keep the title to his ranch.”
“We tried to pay off the loan—with full interest, I might add—but your boss wouldn’t let us.”
Jesse stared at her. “Wait a second. Your daddy tried to pay the loan off?”
“Not my daddy. My sister’s husband, Rome Remington.” She snorted. “Something I’m sure you already know. I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t the one behind the foreclosing. Don’t all rodeo cowboys dream of owning their own ranch? Is that why you were sniffing around Cooper Springs last night? You were checking out your new home?”
“I’m not in the market for a home. Like I said before, I have a hard time staying in one place. But I would like to hear more about Rome paying off the loan.”
There was a look of confusion in his eyes. She wanted to believe that he didn’t know about Rome’s offer. But after he didn’t tell her who he was at Cooper Springs, she didn’t trust him.
“The only person I’m willing to talk to is Corbin,” she said. “I want you to get him on the phone right now.”
She thought he would come up with some excuse for why he couldn’t do that, but instead, he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and tapped the screen a few times before he held it out to her. It was a brand-new top-of-the line iPhone. She knew because she wanted one for herself, but couldn’t afford it. It confirmed that he wasn’t just an underling at Oleander Investments. He was a top-paid executive.
She jerked the phone from him and held it to her ear. It only rang twice before it went to voicemail. She was pissed, but she knew that showing her anger wasn’t going to save her family’s ranch. So she pushed her fury down deep and tried to keep her voice light and friendly.
“Hey, Corbin! This is your old high school buddy, Libby Holiday. Long time, no see, right?” She glanced up to see Jesse watching her with a smile playing on his lips. She glared at him before she swiveled her chair toward the window. “Anyway, I was hopin’ we could catch up . . . and maybe discuss the little ol’ loan my family took out with you. So give me a call back when you get a chance.” She rattled off her cellphone number before she ended with a bright, “Talk to yew soon!”
She hung up and swiveled back around to find the smile on Jesse’s face had gotten bigger.
“Good job of sucking up, Libby.”
She got up and lifted her middle finger. “Ms. Holiday to you, asshole.” She swept out of the room without a backward glance.
Once she was on her way to the ranch, she tried calling Belle. Her twin sister had a way of calming her down and putting things into perspective. But Belle didn’t answer and Liberty remembered she had a meeting with new clients. Which made Liberty feel even more ticked off that she wasn’t in Houston. Especially when it looked like her presence in Wilder wasn’t doing any good.
She had been so positive she could talk Corbin out of foreclosing on the ranch. Now she wasn’t so sure. He didn’t seem to care that it was the family ranch of the girls he’d gone to school with. Where had the sweet poem-writing boy gone?
It was something she intended to find out.
