Unbridled and Unbranded (18 page)

This coming weekend he planned to talk to Rafe, lay out the details, and then together they’d go speak with Callie. But only if Rafe agreed. Bo figured his chances were about fifty-fifty. Rafe had invested quite a bit of time and energy at the Double R Ranch.

As they walked to the table, the front door opened. Bo glanced over his shoulder and noticed Everett Collins, with a newspaper in hand, enter the restaurant and get a seat at the bar.

Once seated with menus in hand, Bo was about to ask Callie if she remembered this table, when he saw Everett strolling across the floor and fast approaching them.

“Rafe, Callie. Good to see you. Are you two discussing the deal to sell Callie’s place to the Double R Ranch? Let me know when you iron out the details and I’ll get the paperwork moving. We’ll have the land in your name in no time.”

Bo narrowed his eyes. “What the hell are you talking about, Everett?”

Callie’s face took on a suspicious expression. Bo didn’t blame her.

Everett looked puzzled for a moment and then opened the local newspaper to the public notice section. “Well, it says right here that you’ve put an intent to purchase ad in the paper. I thought you were ready to liquidate some assets to make the sale. Wasn’t that why you were just at the bank?”

Callie’s mouth fell open in what must have been utter shock. Bo was feeling pretty stunned as well. He snatched the paper from him and studied the fine print.

There at the very top of the page in larger and bolder print than all the other notices was his name and his ranch listed exactly as Everett had said.

“Are you having second thoughts, Bo? Because everything is set and ready to go, just like you asked.” He turned to Callie. “It’s a good thing, too. You didn’t have much time left.” Everett swiveled back to Bo. “Call me after lunchtime on Monday and we’ll get things moving on the sale pronto. I’ve got to run now.” Everett then winked at him, slapped his back a couple times, and walked away from their table toward the exit door of the restaurant as if running away.

Callie, wide-eyed with shock, started sputtering a denial. “He’s not buying my land,” she finally said to Everett’s back. He kept moving. To Bo it was obvious that he’d only said all this to get a reaction.

Looking at Callie’s face, Bo knew Everett had done a convincing job of making him look really bad.

“What the hell? Don’t fall for this, Callie.”

Callie sent a furious look his way. “Is that what all the secrecy has been about? Your plan is to buy my ranch even though I already said no?”

“No. That isn’t my plan.” Bo wasn’t sure what to say to convince her.

“And the accidental e-mail I received from your accountant. I suppose you didn’t talk to him either.”

“I didn’t talk to him about your ranch, Callie. I swear to you.”

“Why is it big as life in the newspaper, then?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t believe you.” She stared at him with hurt eyes. The look of distrust embedded in her gaze nearly brought him to his knees.

“I know how this looks, Callie, but trust me. I did not do this.”

She scooted her chair away from the table. “No. I don’t trust you right now. You have a vested interest in whether I stay or go. But if you think that forcing me to sell my land to you will make me want to stay in town after I’ve worked so hard to leave, well, then, you are sadly mistaken.”

She stood abruptly and stalked away from the table.

“Callie,” Bo called after her. He scraped his chair back and stood up. A passing waiter and a large group of people thwarted his movement after her. When he was finally able to follow, it was too late. He stopped at the door and looked out into the darkening evening. She was already out of sight, probably already on the Main Street by the time he got away from their table.

Bo dialed her cellular number a few times, but either she didn’t hear her phone, or more likely, she wasn’t picking up his calls.

Fuck
. How could a nice nostalgic night go so wrong so fast?

Bo wanted to find Everett and punch him in the face. But that wouldn’t help.

How the hell did an e-mail from his accountant end up in Callie’s inbox? Why did Everett lie to them about what he’d done in the bank? But most of all he wanted to know who the fuck had put that fake notice of intent to buy in the paper.

Chapter Eleven

Callie had never felt so utterly betrayed in her life. All this time Bo had been secretly plotting to undermine her dreams. Ignoring the calls he sent to her cell, Callie turned her phone completely off so as not to be tempted to give him a further piece of her mind.

She raced out of the restaurant, down the sidewalk toward Main Street and was headed to her rust-bucket truck when someone out of her periphery suddenly stepped in her path. Heart knocking hard in her chest, she turned in time to see Drew Kincaid walking toward her.

“Callie,” Drew said. “Glad I caught you.”

Callie was so not in the mood to deal with another man trying to plot her future behind her back.

“Get out of my way, Drew. I’m not in the mood to deal with you.”

“Please wait. Just let me talk to you for just a minute.”

Callie stopped dead in her tracks and gave him a sour look. “What?”

“Could we please go to your house?”

“Why?”

His arms rose in the air. “What I want to say, I’d like to say in private, if you don’t mind.”

“I need a preview of the topic of discussion before I agree.”

“I’d like to say I’m sorry. Truly, Callie.” His voice lowered. “I know I’ve been a shit. Let’s meet at your place and just talk, okay?”

Callie was truly surprised. He’d never tried this approach before. Wanting to get as far away as she could from the fight with Bo, Callie went against her better judgment and nodded. “Fine. I’ll meet you at my place. But we talk outside.”

“That’ll be just fine. Thanks.”

Callie turned away without responding, got in her truck, and drove toward home as fast as she dared in her dependable old rust-bucket Jeep. Away from Bo. Away from the memories he brought in the form of seating them at that special table from their past. She remembered the anniversary dinner from years before as if they’d been there yesterday. It touched her that he remembered the details enough to re-create them. Bo was
not
the manipulator she’d made him out to be.

On the way home, she thought about Bo and their stupid fight. The one-sided fight where she had barely let him even speak and then had crushed his pleas of innocence. He’d looked so forlorn when she saw that newspaper. And come to think of it, he’d looked surprised, too. Almost as surprised as she’d been. She shouldn’t have reacted so badly without giving him the chance to explain. She knew Bo better than that. She should turn around and go find him. But now had to deal with Drew Kincaid instead.
Crap
.

Was it so awful that Bo wanted to help her live out her dreams by purchasing her ranch so she could actually be guaranteed a chance do it? It wasn’t like he poisoned her water supply or had done anything to try and keep her here permanently.

Callie was suddenly a little ashamed of herself. She truly shouldn’t have reacted so poorly. It was Bo. The man she’d known for the better part of her entire life. He loved her. Just as she loved him. As soon as she got rid of Drew, she’d call him and let him at least talk. She owed him that much.

The trip home didn’t take too long. She pulled her Jeep into her usual parking place at the side of the house by the lilac bushes her mother had planted long ago. She got out, and made it as far as the front porch steps as Drew pulled up in an huge, fancy, dual rear-wheeled truck. It was monster sized. The only thing bigger on the road was likely a jacked-up Hummer. It probably traveled one mile for each gallon of gas it sucked up. He opened the door and climbed down out of the gigantic vehicle.

“What did you want to say, Drew?” Callie wished she’d declined to talk to him. She needed to go call Bo and say she was sorry for not giving him a chance to speak.

Drew pulled his ten gallon hat off his head. “I just recently found out something about you that I didn’t know before. I wanted to apologize for being such an ass for the past several months. Plus, I’d hoped that we might come to some sort of an arrangement.”

“What arrangement?” Callie had never seen Drew look so contrite. He sincerely looked like he was sorry.

“It has recently come to my attention that you have dreams of moving away from Ryder. I didn’t know that. Your old man and I knew each other back in the day. He told me once long ago that he thought we’d eventually join properties sometime in the future. I guess I’d sort of counted on that happening.”

Callie huffed. “That was his dream, not mine.”

“I know. I didn’t even consider what you wanted, Callie. Now I understand. You want to go overseas to Europe and be an artist.”

Callie’s eyes widened. She couldn’t even hide how stunned she was. “How do you know about that?”

“Dusty mentioned that you have an art studio of sorts in the loft of an old barn on your property. He found it along with some notes and letters or some such thing about how you wanted to go abroad to paint and sculpt.”

Callie dropped her head, squeezed her hands tight, and pushed out a long sigh. “He should have stayed away from my private things and kept his big mouth shut.” She hadn’t wanted anyone to know about her secret passion. Well, not anyone except for Bo and Rafe. She never had a single inkling that Dusty knew anything about her long-range plans.

“Well, don’t be mad at Dusty. I sort of goaded the information out of him. But my point in telling you this is that we can still make an arrangement between us, Callie.”

Her head popped up to stare at him with incredulousness. “Like what?”

“If you want to leave, go ahead.” Drew smiled as if all her problems were now solved. “I can look after your ranch with Dusty’s help. We can set up any kind of agreement you want. I just want to fix all the mistakes I’ve made. Please let me.”

Callie was almost moved by his heartfelt-sounding words. But something seemed off in his exuberance. She didn’t quite trust him. He had been an ass for far too long for only a single conversation to sway her to his side. Why was he suddenly being so nice and accommodating after the long-standing rivalry and threats? He was likely up to something. Or someone had finally taught him you got more flies with honey rather than vinegar. But in her mind it was too little too late.

She wasn’t in the mood to figure out his tricks tonight. She needed to go call Bo and make up. Callie tried to move past Drew. He stopped her. “Please, Callie.”

“I’m not having the best day, Drew.”

“I can help.”

“How?”

“Marry me. I know you have to do so before your next birthday to qualify for the funds in your grandmother’s trust. Then you’ll have money to live your dreams. Meanwhile, I’ll take care of your land while you’re gone to do whatever makes you happy.”

Callie’s mouth dropped open. How on earth did he know the conditions of her grandmother’s trust? The trust she’d never planned to use because Callie refused to marry a
local
boy as her grandmother called them, to keep the land with folks who’d been around in the “area” a long time and understood the demands. The stipulation of the trust said she must marry before she turned thirty-two.

Callie patently refused.

Marriage, if she ever decided to do it, was not meant to broker business arrangements. They didn’t live in the Middle Ages. She would not be traded for and used like cattle stock purchase. That’s what the marriage for money in the trust felt like to her. Like she was chattel. She refused to marry for money. Even her own money.