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“You sell it without his advice,” they’d said, “you’ll regret it.”
“Couldn’t someone else do it?” Addison had asked.
The brothers had exchanged a glance so quick she might not have noticed it if she hadn’t been looking at them from across her desk—old man Chambers’s desk—in what passed for the ranch office.
Addison’s eyebrows had risen. “What?”
“Nothing,” Caleb had said.
“Nothing at all,” Travis had added.
“Bull,” Addison had said calmly. “You’re up to something and I want to know what it is.”
Another of those quick looks. Then Travis had cleared his throat.
“Jake truly is the man you want, Addison.”
Addison had been tempted to point out that she didn’t want any man. She had a career she’d worked her tail off to obtain. But that wasn’t what he’d meant, and she knew it.
“He’s the best there is.”
“But?”
Travis had shrugged. “But, he’s not plannin’ on stayin’.”
“Here we go. The drawl. The smile. The famous Wilde charm—and you both know damned well how much good that will do you.”
She’d said it just lightly enough so the brothers had chuckled.
“Heck,” Travis had said, sitting back and crossing one boot-clad foot over the other, “it works with every other female in this part of Texas.”
“I bet,” Addison had said sweetly. “But I’m not from this part of Texas. I’m not from any part of Texas.” She’d paused for emphasis. “And I’m not ‘every other female,’ I’m your employer.”
“Our client,” Travis had said, his drawl as lazy as Caleb’s.
The brothers had grinned. So had Addison. It was a familiar routine and it still surprised her that she felt comfortable enough with them for relaxed banter.
“And because you’re our client,” Travis had said, “and we have your best interests at heart….”
“Try telling me all of it,” Addison had said. “Or I’ll put this place on the market tomorrow.”
The brothers had exchanged a long look. Then Caleb sighed.
“Jake’s been in the army.”
“So?”
“So, he was, ah, he was wounded. And he, ah, he’s not sure if he wants to stay at El Sueño or maybe move on. And—”
“And he needs a solid reason to stay,” Travis had said bluntly, no charm, no drawl, nothing but the cool voice of the financial advisor Addison had come to know and respect. “He knows your land almost as well as he knows ours. He’s smart, he’s pragmatic, and he was born knowing horses and ranching.”
“We promise you,” Caleb had said in that same no-nonsense way, “you won’t regret working with him.” And then, before she could say anything, he’d added, “Have you had any regrets, dealing with us?”
Thinking back to that conversation, Addison sighed, brought her glass to her lips and drank some more wine.
No. She most definitely had no regrets. She’d learned not just to like the Wildes, but to trust them.
Travis had been her financial advisor pretty much since she’d arrived in Wilde’s Crossing. Caleb had been her attorney close to the same length of time. Using a New York lawyer and a New York financial guru just hadn’t made much sense.
