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I cocked my head, studied her. “Sweetness, just how many coffees have you had today?”
She ignored the question as she turned back to Sam. “How can you ask that?” she insisted. “You of all people should know how hard I’ve worked for this… how much it means to me.”
Sam took a step closer and placed his hands on her shoulders. From where I stood, I could see the gravity written all over his face and knew Katie had to see it, too. “I’m sorry, Katie. Real sorry. I know you’ve worked hard, and there’s no doubt that you’ve earned that promotion, but is that what you really want?”
He might as well have been speaking Greek. Her brows drew together as she turned from him to me in confusion. “This is what I’ve been working for forever. Of course, this is what I want.”
“You really want to work for some douchebag chauvinist pigs?” I asked, taking a step closer so I could reach for her hand and soften the blow. A real man might be dominant, commanding and very demanding, but only to protect his woman. Not to fuck her over. “Do you really want to work your ass off for a firm that doesn’t value you?”
Tugging her hand out of my grip, she backed away from me. From us. “What is this about?”
Sam gave me a questioning look, and at my nod, he spoke. “We want you to stay, doll.”
And there it was. My cousin had just spelled it out for her and now our future was on the line. There was a tense silence as we watched her closely. Watched as she shook her head.
“I’ve already stayed here too long. I need to get back to New York before Roberts—”
“He means, for good,” I added, though I figured she knew that. “With us.”
Judging by her skittishness, she was well aware we were talking about more than just extending this fling by a day or two. She instantly defaulted to anger, like I knew she would.
“You can’t possibly expect me to drop everything—my career, my home, my friends. I have a life, you know.”
“And I’m sure it’s a good one,” I lied. What she had back in New York was no life—it was a rat race. An endless competition where the winner got an ulcer and a heart attack as a prize. And an ex who seemed to like to fuck with her. I caught her gaze and held it. “But we’d like to think you could have an even better life here in Bridgewater… with us.”
Sam stepped in, coming closer to her other side so she was surrounded by her men, forced to listen to us. “We want you with us for the long haul, doll. You’re the one for us.”
Scoffing, she crossed her arms in front of her chest. I had to assume she wasn’t aware that she’d just made her tits jut out in spectacular fashion. Of course, that made me hard, but now was not the time. I had to will the fucker down.
“You can’t possibly know that I’m the one. It’s too soon, too—”
“We know,” I said. My tone left no room for argument, but that didn’t stop her from trying.
She gaped up at me. “We’ve only been together—if that’s what you want to call it—for one night. And… and whatever that was on Sam’s desk. You can’t possibly be sure—”
“We know, doll.” Sam looked at me to explain.
I gave Katie a shrug. “It’s the Bridgewater way. When two men find their woman, they just know. It’s like lightning—”
“Oh, please,” Katie interrupted, clearly not buying it. “Declan gave me that whole ‘lightning strike’ speech. Do you really expect me to believe it’s that simple?”
Sam’s voice was low and gruff, filled with more emotion than I’d ever heard. “Do you really expect us to believe that you don’t feel it, too? That when we touch you, it isn’t… more?”
Her stunned silence was answer enough. For the first time since we arrived, some of the tension eased out of my shoulders. She felt it, she just didn’t want to admit it. I hadn’t even realized how nervous I’d been to have this talk—cowboys weren’t exactly anxious by nature—but this was a big fucking deal. Her response would affect the rest of our lives.
She seemed to know it, to
o. For the first time since I met her she seemed at a loss for words.
Sam took her by the elbow and steered her toward the truck. “Come on, doll, we’ve got a dinner to get to.”
It wasn’t until we were all in the truck that Katie came back to her senses. “You can’t seriously expect me to give up everything and move to Bridgewater.”
“Look at you,” I said. “You’re so stressed out over this job, you can barely see straight. Is this really how you want to live?”
She glared over at me. “That’s easy for you to say. You haven’t spent your entire adult life working toward a career goal. It’s not that easy to walk away from.”
I shrugged. She had a point. I had the ranch, but I wouldn’t say there was any need to move up any damn corporate ladder. Sam was the career-driven one in our family. He caught my look over her head and by silent agreement we let the conversation drop. There was no point in arguing with Katie—she could out-argue both of us, if we let that quick brain of hers make all the decisions. No, if we wanted to win her over we’d have to show her what she wanted. Let her body and heart decide.
