“What about last night?”
“It was great,” she said in a small voice, barely able to gather enough breath to make herself heard.
“You say that after I signed away my rights to my family’s land.”
Why had he? He could have torn up the agreement after finding out he owned the land, but he hadn’t. He’d left it for her to find. Why would he do that?
“Not because of that,” she said, reaching deep for the strength to say what was in her heart. “I say it because I think I might have fallen in love with you.”
His face remained impassive, except at the corner of his eyes where the muscles twitched. “Is this the part where I say I’m not going to pursue legal action against you?”
She floundered, wondering if that was what he intended. “No, this is me talking to you without this between us.” She tore the document he’d signed down the middle, lined the pieces back up and tore them again.
“Is that supposed to impress me? Do you think that document would’ve stood up in court?”
Brandee hung her head. “It was never supposed to get that far.”
“I imagine you were pretty confident you could get away with cheating me,” Shane said, the icy bite of his voice making her flinch.
“I wasn’t confident at all. And I wasn’t happy about it. But the ranch is everything to me. Not just financially, but also it’s my father’s legacy. And the camp could have done so much good.” Brandee ached with all she’d lost. “But I am truly sorry about the way I handled things. I didn’t do it to hurt you.”
He stared at her in silence for several heartbeats before stepping back.
“You didn’t.”
And then the door swung shut in her face.
Twelve
Five days and four long, empty, aching nights after Shane slammed the door in Brandee’s face, he slid onto the open bar stool beside Gabe at the Texas Cattleman’s Club and ordered a cup of coffee.
Ignoring the bartender’s surprise, he growled at his friend, “Okay, you got me here. What’s so damned important?”
Gabe nodded toward a table in the corner. A familiar blonde sat by herself, hunched over an empty glass. Brandee’s long hair fell loosely about her face, hiding her expression, but there was no misreading her body language. She was as blue as a girl could be.
“Yeah, so?” Shane wasn’t feeling particularly charitable at the moment and didn’t have time to be dragged away from The Bellamy. He had his own problems to contend with.
“You don’t think there’s something wrong with that picture?” Gabe nodded his head in Brandee’s direction.
There was a lot of something wrong, but it wasn’t Shane’s problem.
“Tell me that’s not why you dragged me here. Because if it is, you’ve just wasted an hour of my time.”
Gabe’s eyes widened at Shane’s tone. “I think you should talk to her.”
“As I explained yesterday and the day before and the day before that, I’m done talking about what happened. She screwed me over.”
“In order to keep her ranch,” Gabe replied, his quiet, calm voice in marked contrast to Shane’s sharp tone. “She stood to lose everything. How would you have behaved if the situation was reversed and you were about to lose Bulls
eye?”
It wasn’t a fair comparison.
“I’d say good riddance.” Shane sipped his coffee and stared at the bottles arranged behind the bar. “I would’ve sold it years ago if I thought it wouldn’t upset my mom.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”