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"Huh."
The horse tries throwing James again. Callahan winces as the boy's weight, low as he can keep it, comes flying off the saddle a couple inches. The horse comes back down onto the ground hard, and James keeps a good enough grip that the horse yanks him back down into the saddle.
"We're not going to try to cheat you, you know. We'll make you a very generous offer, and we're prepared to negotiate. But having the space right there, practically butting up against both sides—I shouldn't tell you this, but it's worth quite a bit."
"Well, then I'm sorry that I'm being such a cuss about it." His heart really isn't in the conversation. He's watching James and hoping he doesn't get his arm ripped out. Still, he's looking good for it.
Then the horse kicks just right, and James's hand must not be cinched in tight enough because he slips and tumbles right onto his ass. Randy and Michael make a bee-line to grab the horse and get it calmed down. James pushes himself up, looks up to see how the girl's thinking about him.
But Philip Callahan's standing right there next to her, and he knows the answer. He's not thinking about them at all. Not thinking about him, either, and he shouldn't be thinking about her.
She's thinking about what it would do for her business if she got them to sell her the land.
"Well, if you're sorry about it, I can get some papers drawn up—"
"Not that sorry," he says. He shakes his head as if he were sad about it, but he's not.
"You can't blame a girl for trying, can you?"
He can't. And he doesn't. But that doesn't mean that he's changing his mind. His eyes slide over on the horizon. They have time for maybe another few tries before they're done. The little sapling reminds him why he's not selling.
"I don't blame you, Miss Lowe. I just want you to know that I'm not changing my mind, in spite of not blaming you."
"Well, if you won't let me buy your ranch, you could at least let me buy you dinner." Callahan looks over at her. His eyebrow raises. "And the boys. Of course. Ain't every day you get that kind of entertainment for free."
Randy tightens a gloved hand into the reins and throws his weight up onto the horse, and then hangs on for dear life as the ornery son of a bitch gets to trying to throw him off again.
"I couldn't. And neither could they. You got other things on your mind, don't worry about us."
"Well, Mr. Callahan, I'm not a woman who gives up easy. If I was, I wouldn't be able to do my job. So you're going to be seeing a lot of me. You might as well get the benefits, too."
He lets out a breath. "You want to take the boys, they'll eat about anything. But leave me out of it, I'll find something on my own."
He doesn't want to admit that he doesn't want to start any rumors about the two of them, and he doesn't want to spend any time with her because if some rumors got started then they wouldn't be that far from the truth.
Morgan Lowe is a hell of an attractive woman. It's easy to imagine himself with her. It'd be easy for any man to imagine it. The boys seemed to think that he had some ideas in his head about it, and it was hard not to think that maybe he was getting some sort of notion.
He didn't want to get any notions. He wanted to keep working his ranch, get rid of the Black, and get back to his life. Get back to the work that he'd known since he was just a boy.
Because the truth is, there's no space for a second attractive woman in his life, no matter how much he wants there to be.
Chapter Ten
Morgan Lowe sits in her car with the lights off, and her stomach doing a flip. What the heck is she thinking? There's nothing to be nervous about.
And yet, it's dark, the lights in the house are still on, and she's got a paper bag full of takeout. Takeout for two, it should be noted. Because she's got to impress somehow, and not being a scaly bitch has been the best way to get him to talk to her so far.
There's no being sure that this will even work. But going out of her way to think about him, maybe, will show that she's got the human element. Maybe she'll look thoughtful.
Maybe she won't. Maybe she'll look pushy and needy and everything that she doesn't want to be described as. Maybe everything will just go sideways, and she'll have to go back with her tail between her legs, knowing that things couldn't possibly go in the direction of selling the place.
But there's a good chance that neither is going to happen. More than likely, she stays in this awful limbo that she's already been in for days now. She'll be allowed to come around, and he won't be even willing to think about it.
Well, everyone's willing to think about it. Everyone has a price, and it's a price that she'd be willing to pay, if it means that she gets to have that feather in her cap. Doesn't matter what the number is—none is too high.
But sometimes the price isn't something in money. Or you can't get them to make the mental translation from the money to whatever they really want.
Sometimes they want what they've got because they think it makes them look better. They don't want the thing, they want to look good. So you give them an out, a way to look good without whatever you wanted. Then the emotions are out of the way, and then they've got a number.
