Page 19 of The Cowboy’s Reckoning

“She was a couple years behind me. Scary smart. Quiet.”

“It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for.”

He grinned. “Maybe so.” His smile faded and an awkward silence followed.

Lil shifted her weight. “I have more chores to see to.”

“I have a big hole to fix.”

But neither of them moved.

Then Lil tilted her chin in a determined way that told Jordan that the moment was here. They were about to open a discussion. The discussion.

“Are we clear on the fact that Meg and I are staying on the Willow Creek until the lease is up?”

Chapter Five

Lil, having fired the first salvo, waited. She had a decent amount of experience with confrontation, but she didn’t like it. Never had. But she hated not knowing what was going on in Jordan’s head even more. Was he going to abide by the contract? So far, he was being nice about it, showing signs of being the good guy Aubrey said he was, but she needed to know exactly where he stood.

“The sale is contingent on the property being free of tenants,” Jordan repeated.

So that ball was still in play, despite not being mentioned since their first meeting.

Lil made herself appear calm, although she was feeling anything but. “Could there be another buyer?” she asked reasonably.

“I’m working under a deadline.”

It took a bit of trust on his part to admit that she had some power in this situation, or he might be playing her, hoping for empathy about his predicament. Good luck with that because Lil was empathy-ed out.

Or so she wished, because she couldn’t help asking, “What kind of deadline?” instead of simply staying silent.

Jordan shifted his weight before saying, “There’s a property for sale adjoining the ranch I grew up on.”

And she could tell that the property was important to him, which wasn’t making this any easier.

Stay. Strong. You didn’t cause this situation.

She shouldn’t have to sacrifice for a man who, while attractive, and seemingly nice, she didn’t know.

Lil dropped her gaze as she inhaled, then tucked one thumb into her belt loop and looked up again. “I’m sorry that’s the situation, but I signed the lease on this property in good faith, and one of the reasons was the certainty of a seven-year stay. I’ve moved an entire ranch once. I’m not doing it again. Not yet anyway.”

Moving had been a misery, both physically and emotionally. It’d been tougher than she imagined leaving the familiar behind and starting fresh. And now that she had her toehold in a new life, she didn’t want to start over. Besides that, she liked living on the Willow Creek Ranch.

“Why not keep the place?” she asked. “Collect rent? I would.”

“Our circumstances might be different.”

There was a touch of dark sarcasm in his voice, the first she’d heard from him, and she answered in kind.

“Right. You got a ranch. I lost one.”

He looked past her, his mouth forming a hard line before he said, “I don’t want this ranch.”

She stared at him. “Jordan? What do you mean you don’t want this ranch?”

But she could see that the conversation was over.

The landline rang in the kitchen as they faced off, a distant trill.