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“If we add more head, we’ll have to buy extra feed. We’re already goin’ through the hay we cut just two months ago.”
“Can we get more?”
“Don’t know,” Len said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“Everyone around here is in the same fix. Except for Nate Edwards. He’s been irrigatin’ like mad, and from what I hear, he harvested more bales than he expected.”
“Then maybe we can buy from him.”
“Maybe,” Len agreed, grinning at the prospect of adding to the herd.
“I’ll give him a call. Now, tell me what kind of cattle you’d like to see on the ranch. We’ve got Herefords, right?”
“Ever since I can remember.”
“So what about a new breed? Angus or Charolais?”
Len launched into his favorite topic, and to Tessa’s horror, even her father and Mitchell added their two cents worth. Eventually everyone at the table was weighing the pros and cons of adding more beef to the stock. Why did Denver care? Tessa wondered. What was his angle? Wasn’t he going to sell the ranch to her—or had he lied again?
“So when did you get so interested in ranching?” she asked, finally unable to hold her tongue. She felt her father stiffen beside her, but she glared at Denver. “I thought you were leaving.”
Denver leaned forward, pushing his face across the table. “Until I actually sign on the dotted line,” he said slowly, “I intend to take part in all the decisions that affect this ranch.”
“From L.A.?”
“If need be.” His eyes glinted wickedly at the mention of California.
“Tessa—” Mitchell warned.
“Do we understand each other?” Denver asked.
“Perfectly,” she said, meeting the fire in his gaze with her own.
With a smile, Denver turned back to Len as if Tessa hadn’t even interrupted.
Her temper soaring to the stratosphere, Tessa could barely listen. Though she pretended interest in the conversation around her, she couldn’t concentrate. Not the way she should have. Not with Denver watching her through hard, calculating eyes. He wasn’t actually staring—he feigned interest in the entire group of hands and household helpers seated around the table—but Tessa could feel his gaze follow her. When she reached for the biscuits, as she laughed over a joke Mitchell whispered to her, or even while she helped Milly clear the table, she could feel the weight of Denver’s gaze.
“I’d add about fifty head of each,” Len was saying, leaning back in his chair as Milly offered thick slabs of apple pie around the table.
“That’s an increase of a hundred and fifty. I don’t know,” Curtis whispered thoughtfully.
Tessa couldn’t stand the easy camaraderie, false as it was, a minute longer. “I thought you were going to sell the ranch lock, stock and barrel,” she cut in, her eyes trained on Denver’s face.
“I am. But not until the ranch is in better shape.”
“And you think by spending money on cattle and feed that things will improve?”
“Couldn’t hurt,” he drawled, one corner of his mouth lifting.
He was actually enjoying her show of temper! “Then maybe it’s my turn to make something clear. As I said before, I intend to buy this ranch, and I don’t want the added expense of extra stock. Not yet.”
Denver’s eyes flashed. “And I told you I couldn’t sell until the books were straightened out and I found my brother.”
“That could take years!”
He did smile then, an infuriating grin that curved his lips lazily and caused her heart to throb. “I’ve got all the time in the world. Don’t you?”
Her jaw fell open. “I thought you couldn’t wait to get to L.A.”
