The Tycoon's Tender Triumph Page 0,21

her and Chloe jumped out of her skin. She took the seat, but she wasn’t glaring at his back as he walked around to sit at his desk.

“As I see it, you’re trying to be independent and not accepting help from a neighbor.”

“I’d like to do this on my own.”

Sam lifted a shoulder as acknowledgement. “And do you have the money to do this right?”

Chloe looked down at her raw, torn up hands and sighed. “No. I don’t.”

“So you need a loan so you can get people in to do this correctly and safely, and not risk your health at the same time.”

“I won’t take money from you, Sam.”

“Why not?”

“Because I won’t be indebted to someone. Looks like my father wouldn’t accept help from you either.”

“Your father isn’t the question here. I’m pretty sure your dad has the money to make all the repairs so it was just that he wanted to do them himself.”

She grimaced and nodded her head. “I think you’re right, but that doesn’t alter the fact that I don’t want him on that roof again. I’m terrified of him falling again. He’s too old to be doing most of that work,” she said and rubbed her hands over her tired eyes. “I need to get it done myself before he moves back to the ranch.”

Sam leaned forward. “You know I didn’t start this whole thing on my own, don’t you?”

Chloe tried not to roll her eyes. “Sam, your financial prowess is pretty legendary.”

“I am good with investments, true. But your father helped me when mine died all those years ago. Without his help and support, I might not be here.”

This was news to Chloe. She’d always thought of Sam as a self-made man. “What did my dad do for you?”

Sam thought for a moment. “Primarily, he believed in me. He gave me some seed money and a whole lot of advice on how to raise horses, what to look for when purchasing new horses, who to talk to and basic things like that. Now I’d like to repay him for that by keeping you alive and healthy. And not letting you kill yourself by trying to do all the repairs that man is too stubborn to hire out to workers more capable than himself.”

Chloe sat there in the huge leather seat, suddenly feeling uncomfortable and petty. “What if you could repay him by providing help to someone else? Sort of a ‘passing it forward’ type of payback.”

Sam chuckled. “You’re going to be stubborn to the end, aren’t you?”

“No,” she replied quickly. “I just really want to do this on my own.”

“Even though there is plenty of room in my stable to house those horses, they’re comfortable and you could be over here riding and doing other things that interest you more rather than trying to kill yourself repairing that damn roof?”

That made her even more curious. “What do you mean?” she asked cautiously.

The look that came over Sam’s face could only be described as victorious. Chloe tried to be reasonable and not jump up and race out of the office but it took a great deal of effort.

“You obviously don’t want to be a rancher or you would have come back to help your father after college. So I’m guessing you want to do something different. I’m also assuming you’ve been so miserable in that job in New York that you’ve thought about a career you’d genuinely love a great deal, even coming up with a plan on how you’d like to approach building up whatever business your dream might entail. Are you willing to tell me what that enterprise might be?”

Chloe didn’t dare tell him about her photography, too embarrassed since she didn’t think her pictures were good enough to go anywhere in the art market. “I love the horses,” she countered. “I enjoy riding.”

“Then why haven’t you been over to ride those guys this past week? I know you ride occasionally, but they like you and you’re very good with them. Let me send some guys over to do the repairs for you.” He stopped her from interrupting him by raising his hands. “I’ll make sure that the repairs are all finished before he’s able to get out and about and he will never know that I arranged for the work to be done. In the meantime, you start exercising those animals, think about what you want to do besides return to that job that you hate so much,” he ignored her attempt to