The Mistletoe Effect (21 page)

“Maybe there’s more to happiness than a dream job.”

He brushed an errant strand of hair away from her face. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to go to L.A. like you and Janice worked out, and I’m going to go to Fort Worth. But I’m going to start looking into ranch work in the L.A. area. And as soon as I find it, I’m going to come to you. Will you wait for me?”

“Oh, Decker.” He heard the imminent sob in her voice and gathered her even more tightly against him.

“Please,” he said, “I would never forgive myself if you turned that job down for the sake of me. Everything’s going to work out, somehow. I promise.”

She stroked her palm over his cheek. “I don’t want to be the woman who kept you from your dream, either. Your dream and your father’s dream. I want you to go to Fort Worth and breed horses and manage a world-class stable. I’m so proud of you for making this leap. Your dad would be proud, too.”

But Decker wasn’t so sure. He had the sneaking suspicion that his dad would tell him that nothing in the world was more important than love. He had a feeling that if his dad had to choose between his dream job and being with his wife, love would rule the day. And maybe, just maybe, that’s what had happened, why his dad had never seen his dreams come true. He’d chosen his wife and kids instead.

Decker released a ragged exhalation, wishing he and Carina had never had to choose and praying for his father’s guidance to get him through the next couple days.

∗∗∗

Decker gave a wave to Ty Briscoe’s secretary, then walked right past her to stand at Ty’s open office door. “I need a word with you, if I could.”

Ever since Ty and Decker had exchanged words at the winter wonderland garden on the night he and Carina stole the Christmas tree, Decker had been half-expecting to get fired for his insolence, but he had a suspicion that he and Ty shared the same cowboy code of honor, which meant he respected a man who stood up for his woman, as Decker had done for Carina.

Ty turned his attention from the paperwork on his desk, looking unimpressed. “Have you come to tell me how to parent my daughter or are you here to give me advice on how to run my business?”

“Neither.” Decker didn’t get the impression that Carina had told her father about her job offer in L.A., and it wasn’t his right to bring it up, though dancing around the truth was going to make this conversation even trickier.

At Briscoe’s wave of invitation to sit, Decker dropped into a chair across the desk from him. “We’re both busy men, so I’m going to get right to it.”

“Fair enough.”

“I’ve been talking with Murray Outweller about me moving over to Granite Hill Ranch and working for him.”

With a grunt of surprise, Ty set his pen down and laced his fingers behind his head. “Murray and I go way back to our barrel-racing youths.”

“Yes, sir. I know. He’s looking to retire, but not before he settles in a new ranch foreman, someone who might entertain the idea of buying the place from him one day.”

“You two really were talking,” Ty said.

“Yes, sir. Last time he was at the resort, he paid me a visit in the stable.”

Ty tsked and sat forward, snatching up his pen again. “That dirty bastard was looking to steal one of my key employees from me? And, here, I thought he and I were old friends.”

A knot of panic lodged in Decker’s throat. He hadn’t meant to mention that part.
Damn nerves.
“You and the rest of the rest of the Briscoe family gave me a chance when no one else would. I know you and I have butted heads this month, but in all the years I’ve been a Briscoe employee, you’ve been mighty patient while I figured myself out, and I’ll always be grateful for that. The thing is, I’m ready for a change.”

This wasn’t the change he wanted, not anymore, but it was a close enough proximity for the truth given that Carina had yet to talk her job offer over with her father.

The hint of amusement tugged at Ty’s lips. “What you’re saying is that hitching horses to carriages and leading trail rides for city slicker tourists isn’t getting your blood stirring anymore?”

He said it with a fair amount of dry wit, which eased the knot in Decker’s throat a bit. “No, sir.”

“Granite Hill Ranch is a big-time operation and Fort Worth is another world than our little corner of hill country. Are you sure you’re ready for a move that big?”

An image of Carina popped into his head. He’d been ready for this change for years, right up until twenty-four days ago. But now his heart, his everything, was moving to California, something Carina would never do if Decker didn’t accept the job in Fort Worth. He had no doubt that if he remained at Briscoe Ranch Resort she would, too.

“Yes, sir. I’m more than ready.” He braced himself for Ty to bring up Carina, to inquire about her and Decker’s relationship and why he was so eager to move on.

“What do you need from me?” Ty asked instead. “I get the impression you’re not just here to give me your notice.”

So that was that, then.
Bastard.
Decker swallowed hard. This was the tricky part, and for the life of him he had no idea what Ty’s reaction was going to be. “Mr. Outweller is waiting for your phone call to give your blessing for the deal. He said he needs you to vouch for me.”

Ty rubbed his chin. “And you think that’s something I’d do for you?”

“I do,” he bluffed. “I don’t think you want me working here any more than I want to work here.”

Ty tossed his pen onto the desk, breaking out in a hard chuckle. “Well, one thing I will say about you, Decker—you’ve got balls to come in here like this considering the last two times we were face-to-face, you threatened me.”

“I was protecting what’s mine.”

“You’re talking about Carina?”

“Yes.”

Ty cocked his head to the side. “If she’s yours, then why are you so hot to nullify the marriage license, get out of town, and start a new job elsewhere?” Then his face fell, as though a new thought had occurred to him. “Unless you’re planning to take her with you. Tell me I’m not going to have to replace two of my best employees at the same time.”

His best employee. Not his little girl. Ty was worried about the resort, not what was best for his daughter. Then again, why was Decker surprised? It was a good thing Decker was the man looking out for her now.

Who’s going to look out for her in California?
Who was she going to come home to after the first day of her new job? Who was going to cook for her and listen to her and encourage her to keep being brave and bold and standing up for her herself? Yes, Decker could do that over the phone from Fort Worth, but it wouldn’t be the same, not by a long shot. He blinked down at his boots, processing that, breathing through the ache in his chest.

“Your silence speaks volumes, son. Is she going with you or are you going to leave her here with a broken heart? Don’t think I don’t know that’s what’ll happen. I see how taken she is with you.”

None of the above. They were breaking each other’s hearts, a truth he felt with each painful beat of his pulse. He cleared his throat and met Briscoe’s hard gaze. “With all due respect, sir, that’s between me and Carina. She’ll tell you what she wants you to know.”

He snatched up his pen again and tapped it restlessly against a leather-bound ledger. “She doesn’t talk to me, especially not now. This sham marriage you two agreed to turned her ornery and standoffish. I’ve never seen her like it before. And I don’t know what to do.”

She talks to me.
Why in the world had he been so willing to give that up? To send her out to California alone? Why had he kept pretending that being a ranch foreman was still his dream when the only dream he had for his future now was being with the woman he loved? How had he let himself get so close to losing everything?

“Sir,” he croaked. “I have to go.”

But Briscoe didn’t seem to hear him. “Never met a more private person in my life, to where you can’t barely get a read on her. Do you have any idea what it’s like raising a child like that? Where you can’t figure out what to do with them or what to say to them? I know she loves to work and she loves this ranch. That’s our language, me and her. That’s what the two of us had. I want that back.”

Decker had seen Ty Briscoe’s eyes well with love before, including when he’d walked Haylie down the aisle, and heard him talk with fatherly concern, but only about Haylie. Everything was always about Haylie. This was the first time Decker had seen a glimpse of that same caring toward Carina and it threw him off. Maybe the old man really did care about losing his daughter after all, and not just an employee.

“You should tell her that.”

With a grunt that seemed to mean he didn’t buy in to Decker’s advice, Ty stopped tapping the pen and gripped it so hard it looked like he was trying to strangle the ink out of it. “Since you’re not giving me the straight story on whether Carina’s going with you, you’ve put me in a position, Decker. Because either way, I’ve got a raw deal. Either I’m disloyal to Carina by vouching to Murray for the man who’s planning to break her heart, or I’m vouching for the man who’s planning to take her away from me. What’s a father to do?”

Decker gaped at him, feeling like he was seeing the man for the first time. Spending the rest of his life devoted to Carina meant he’d be a part of the Briscoe family. He’d have Ty Briscoe as his father-in-law, and it was only a few short months ago that Decker had pitied Wendell for that fate.

“Son, I can see your wheels turning, so spit it out. What say you?”

It took a couple tries for Decker to kick his voice in gear. “Did you talk to the county clerk yet about destroying the forged marriage license?”

Ty’s eyes narrowed. “No. He’s on vacation until after the first of the year. Why?”

For the first time, hope bloomed inside Decker. He leapt to his feet. “I have to leave. Right now.”

“And go where?”

He paused at the door. “Fort Worth.”

Ty’s shouted questions and demands for Decker to “get on back in here” followed him out the office door and down the hall, but Decker was a man on a mission and nothing or no one was getting in his way of reclaiming the life and the woman he’d almost lost.

Chapter Eleven

Carina was marching toward her dad’s office, preparing to quit her job, when she saw Decker at Ty’s door. She’d considered joining Decker there, letting him bear witness to her standing up to her father and quitting, but he launched right into telling her dad about his own plans to quit.

She sank to a chair at an empty desk, wallowing in heartache as she listened to Decker outline his plans for his future. He was more than ready for change, to see his and his father’s dream through to fruition. She was so proud of him and all he’d accomplished, but that didn’t make his choice—or her choice—any easier to bear. And it didn’t make it any easier to hear that he was counting on her father to vouch for him.

A small, insecure part of her wondered if getting in good with her father was why Decker had agreed to the marriage deal in the first place, but she shoved that idea out of her mind immediately. Even if that had been his initial motivation, she knew all the way down to her bones that he cared about her now. Heck, as she heard her father point out to Decker, he had threatened her father with bodily harm in defense of her just a few short days ago.

The memory touched a place inside her, overwhelming her with love for Decker and sadness for their future. Propping her elbows on the desk, she dropped her head to her hands, listening to Decker and her father’s conversation and trying not to break down any further.

“Hey, uh, are you okay?”

She looked up see Cord McGraw standing over her, his eyes shifting anxiously between her and her dad’s office. She wasn’t keen on acting emotional and unprofessional in front of employees, but seeing as how she was about to quit her job, she found it difficult to care about her boss-like appearance anymore.

She smiled at him through watery eyes. “I will be soon. Thank you for asking.”

“ ’Cause, I mean, I don’t want Decker to come out here and think someone made you sad or something. Maybe I can get you some water or some tissues?”

He said it as though he was afraid that Decker would blame him, of all people, should Carina be upset, which didn’t make the least bit of sense. “That’s not necessary, but thanks anyway.”

“Okay, but, uh, will you let him know that I offered? I mean, let him know that I’m looking out for you like he told me to?” He squeezed his eyes closed. “Crap. I wasn’t supposed to mention that to you.”

Decker told Cord McGraw to look out for her? Why on earth would he do that? Then it all came back to her, the rumors that Emily’s sous chef had told them about Decker making threats to Cord in defense of her honor. Maybe the rumors weren’t so outlandish after all.

Carina stood and flipped the switch into manager mode. “My husband told me everything,” she said in her most authoritative voice.

Cord wrung his hands together, looking distraught. For one brief moment, she felt a little sorry for the guy; Decker must have done quite a number on him. She thought again of Alex’s words, that everyone needed someone looking after them. Decker had become that person to her, but the question now was—who was going to look after him when she moved to California?

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Decker, ma’am. I never meant no harm.”

She channeled the hard-ass Briscoe blood she was born with and leaned across the desk. “Tell me exactly what you’re sorry for.”

“For … for … starting that betting pool about whether Decker would get a raise and a promotion for marrying you or whether he’d eventually quit his job to get out of the marriage. It was stupid of me to ever conceive that maybe Mr. Briscoe bribed Decker to marry you.” Cord hung his head. “I ended the pool and returned all the money that very day. Anyone can see how happy you two are together. It just took us all by surprise and I reacted like an idiot.”

That was it? A betting pool? That was nothing, yet she could see Decker in her imagination, issuing threats to Cord much like he had to her father. “Yes, you did.”