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“You can’t have forgotten how well we worked together this past year. Not so quickly. We are good for each other,” Tara insisted in an attempt to appeal to his reason. “Don’t ruin our relationship because of this.”
“You ruined it yourself when you went behind my back and bought this land.”
“Why does that make you so angry?” Tara demanded in frustration. “Why aren’t you congratulating me for finally getting clear title to it from the government? Does it bother you so much that I succeeded where you and your father failed? This is all about that stiff-necked Calder pride, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s about you and the way you kept your acquisition of it such a deep dark secret. Even though you knew I would eventually find out, you still didn’t have the guts to come tell me. You let me show up here instead.”
“I didn’t know how to tell you. Can’t you understand that?” Tara said.
“I might buy that from anyone else, but not from you.”
“Don’t you see—when I started out, I didn’t say anything in case I wasn’t successful. By not saying anything in the beginning, it made it harder to tell you later. And it became even more complicated when I realized I wanted to make my home here. I never guessed I would come to feel that way, but I do. Is that so wrong?”
“I don’t give a damn whether you live in Montana or Marrakesh, just as long as it isn’t on this land.” His gaze sharpened on her. “But you are bound to know that so why are you doing it?”
Her lips curved in a smile of beguilement. “Isn’t it obvious? I want to be near you.” Tara stepped closer and slid her hands onto his shirtfront, spreading them across his chest. “Even if we aren’t married anymore, that doesn’t mean we still can’t be close.”
Grim-eyed, Ty grabbed her wrists and shoved her away from him. “Goodbye, Tara.” He strode toward the ranch pickup.
“Not goodbye, Ty,” she called after him. “We’ll see each other again. If you have any hope of getting this land now, you will have to deal directly with me. I’ll be flying back to Fort Worth this afternoon. Talk it over with your father then give me a call in the next day or two and we will arrange a time when the three of us can sit down and talk.”
Offering no response, Ty climbed into the pickup and slammed the door. An instant later the engine roared to life. After a reversing turn, the truck charged down the dim track toward the south fence line.
Buck waited a beat then sauntered over to Tara, his side glance inspecting the smooth satisfaction in her expression. “Reckon he’ll call?”
“He doesn’t have a choice,” Tara replied with certainty.
With a push of his thumb, Buck tipped the brim of his hat back. “I guess you haven’t learned a Calder always has a choice.”
“Not this time.” There wasn’t even the smallest trace of doubt in her voice.
Buck wasn’t so sure of that, but he didn’t say so as the wind carried to him the distinctive chop-chop of a helicopter’s rotating blades. Looking up, he spotted the big workhorse chopper lumbering out of the eastern sky, a piece of machinery suspended beneath it.
“Here comes the backhoe,” he told Tara then cautioned, “You might want to move back a ways. The dust is gonna be flyin’.”
“That’s fine. The architect and I need to decide on a final building site anyway.” Taking his suggestion, Tara moved away to rejoin the other man, studiously pacing off a section of ground, oblivious to everything else.
A thick and heavy silence hung over the den, weighted by the news Ty had brought back with him. Chase sat behind the desk, grimly contemplating its many ramifications. Ty stood at the window, one hand braced against its frame, a thumb of the other hooked in his back pocket while he stared blindly at the sprawl of ranch buildings beyond its glass. A high and angry tension ridged the muscles along his jaw and darkened his eyes to blackened pinpoints of suppressed rage.
The big leather chair creaked as Chase rocked forward. “It won’t be long before the range telegraph gets wind of this and flashes it to every corner of the ranch. We won’t be able to ignore it.”
Ty slammed his hand against the window frame, the sharp hard sound of it shattering the room’s stillness like a clap of thunder. “She wants something. What the hell is it?”
“We won’t know that until we meet with her,” Chase stated.
“I hate playing into her hand.” Ty swung from the window, no longer able to contain the simmering energy inside.
“At least we know the stakes are Wolf Meadow.” Chase settled back in his chair, turning thoughtful again.
“And she isn’t bluffing about building a house on it or that chopper wouldn’t be flying in a backhoe.”
“So it would seem,” Chase murmured in absent agreement. “But what is she doing with Buck Haskell on the payroll?”
“I didn’t ask. More than likely it’s pure spite on her part.” Too impatient to sit, Ty wandered over to the front of the desk.
“You do realize that Jessy will be calling the minute they land in Fort Worth to see what you found out,” Chase said, then added, “I wouldn’t tell her anything yet.”
Ty’s head came up, a questioning frown knitting his brows. “Why not? It won’t come as any great surprise to her. Jessy has been convinced Tara was up to something for more than a year.”
