Page 48 of More Than This Land

Claire held his gaze for one beat longer than was professionally necessary. “I’m glad you approve.” It almost sounded sarcastic, but she meant it. She’d hoped for his approval with every word she typed.

The meeting wrapped up, and Ruth walked Claire to the kitchen, pressing coffee and the remaining cinnamon roll on her with a firmness that didn’t invite refusal. “We’re keeping you for lunch.” Ruth opened a cabinet. “Noah, call Eli and tell him the afternoon check on the south pasture can wait an hour.”

“Already texted him.” Noah waved his phone side to side from where he stood in the doorway. “Claire, this is amazing work. I’ve been trying to explain the concept of infrastructure to Luke for months and you put it in a sentence.”

“You’ve never used the word infrastructure in your life.” Caleb came in behind him.

“I use infrastructure all the time.”

“Name one other time.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed, but Wade came in carrying his coffee cup, effectively ending the argument.

Wade settled his hip against the counter. “Claire, you came into this ranch as a stranger. You had every reason to make a clean assessment, hand us a report, and be done with it.” His hands rested at his sides, relaxed. “Instead, you learned who we are. You learned what we were built to be. And you gave us back a version of ourselves that we’d been losing.”

Claire’s throat closed, and she set the cinnamon roll down before she dropped it. “Thank you, sir.”

Ruth’s hand found her shoulder and squeezed. “I know everyone just ate, but lunch is ready.”

Lunch turned out to be a typical loud affair where Graham argued with Noah about the merits of a particular fence post brand that somehow became a broader philosophical debate about whether tradition was inherently valuable or only situationally valuable. Caleb arbitrated while alternating which brother he backed. Wade offered opinions that made everyone sit back and stop talking long enough to chew.

Luke sat at the corner and laughed at the right moments, refilled Claire’s water glass without being asked, and said almost nothing directly to her for ninety minutes.

She noticed everything he did. That was the problem. She’d been noticing everything he did for weeks.

After lunch, she gathered her things from the dining room while the brothers cleared dishes and Ruth covered leftovers. The folder, laptop. and the extra handouts went back into her bag in the same order she’d carried them in that morning, even though they would go through the shredder as soon as she emptied her bag at Granny Mama’s.

Luke walked in and closed the dining room door behind him, shutting out all sound. “I wanted to give you this myself.” He crossed the room and held out an envelope with the ranch logo on the front. “Your fee for the full project. I added a percentage for the implementation support you did beyond the initial scope.”

Claire looked at the envelope but didn’t take it immediately. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Your work was worth more than the original contract.” His eyes met hers. She expected coolness in his gaze but found warmth instead. “You deserve to be paid for that.”

She took the envelope, fingertips brushing the thick paper. Payment for services rendered. A clean conclusion to a professional engagement.

Her stomach bottomed out.

“I also wanted to say.” Luke’s hands went to his pockets and stayed there. “The vision you brought for our future is what the ranch was always meant to be.” He stopped. His jaw moved once. “I should’ve listened.”

“You listened when you were ready.”

His forearms flexed, and he took a step toward her. He wanted to reach for her. She’d never recognize that in anyone else, but she’d learned to read Luke. Awareness sparked between them, but he stayed on his side of the room and she on hers.

She could offer him some kind of hope, but the last thing she wanted was to be false with him.

“Take care of yourself, Claire.”

She nodded. He held her gaze one moment longer, then moved to the door, opened it, and walked back into the noise of his family.

Claire stood in the empty dining room, the check in her hand weighing on her heart.

This was it. The work was done. The report delivered, the recommendations presented, the fee paid. There was no next meeting on the calendar. No outstanding deliverable. No reason to drive out to 4C Ranch with her laptop and her folder and the hope of seeing Luke that had become so constant she’d stopped noticing it the way she stopped noticing background noise after a few minutes.

Until it stopped.

She set the envelope down on the table, breathed out a heavy sigh that did nothing to help her, and picked it up again.

She’d told herself for weeks that the professional engagement was what gave her permission to be here. She had a legitimate reason to orbit this family and this land and this man who’d been painstakingly teaching himself to be someone worth staying for. Without the consulting project, she was just a woman who’d moved back to her grandmother’s town and made some friends with no commitment to anything.