is killing me, don’t you?” Tessa asked, delving in her pocket for a bit of apple. As the big stallion nipped the morsel from her palm, she wrestled with her conscience. Caught in a vicious circle, she found no answers. If she didn’t sell her best horses, she wouldn’t have money to buy the ranch, and if she couldn’t buy the ranch, someone else would. Then she and her animals would have to find a new place—a place they could afford, a place that might not be big enough to support her growing herd. Besides, Nate Edwards was a good horseman and he’d treat her horses well.
But the crux of the problem was Denver. As it always had been. If she bought the ranch from him, he’d surely leave. If she didn’t buy the McLean place, he might stay longer, but only for a while. Then he’d be forced to return to L.A. For good. Without her. She had agreed to a weekend trip to California, but not a lifetime in L.A., which, she reminded herself, he hadn’t asked her to share.
Her brows drew together in vexation. “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” she murmured, eyeing Brigadier fondly. There was just no perfect answer.
“Ready?” Denver called as he crossed the yard.
Tessa whirled and her breath caught in her throat. Clean-shaven, his hair neatly combed, he was dressed in a gray business suit—no longer the man she loved, but a stranger—an engineer who owned a firm of his own in Los Angeles.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she quipped. She walked to Denver’s rental car just as her father and Mitchell drove in.
Mitchell was out of the cab before the truck had rolled to a complete stop. “Going somewhere?” he asked.
“Into Helena. It looks as if Colton’s finally surfaced,” Tessa explained.
Tessa caught the anger in her brother’s eyes, and she understood it. It had been Colton McLean’s horrid words that had turned Denver away from her. Colton hadn’t held his tongue after the fire. In his outrage and fury, his false accusations had cut deep, wounding everyone in her family.
She didn’t blame Mitch for hating him. But soon it would be over, and soon the McLeans would be out of this part of Montana. At that particular thought, her stomach churned. After these past few weeks, she wondered if she would find any joy in life without Denver. “We’ll work things out,” she said to Mitch.
Shoving his hat on his head, he muttered, “I wonder.”
Denver’s lips drew tight. “Let’s go.”
Tessa slid into the passenger side of the car, turning a stiff shoulder to the anger smoldering in her brother’s gaze.
“When Colton gets back here, the fireworks are really going to start,” she predicted, slanting a glance at Denver as he drove down the long lane and turned onto the main road.
Denver’s answer was a grimace.
By midmorning the rolling hills had given way to the city of Helena. Denver drove toward the heart of the city and past the copper-domed capitol building before parking near the courthouse.
“You’re going to wait for Ross here?” she asked, eyeing the building.
“Maybe. But first we’ll check with his secretary; find out when he’s supposed to be out of court. Then we’ll have lunch.”
He linked his fingers through hers and started across the street. A few minutes later they were standing in front of a huge oak desk in the reception area of a steel-and-glass building. The names of O’Brien, Simmons and Taft were mounted on the wall in chrome letters, and a petite woman with shining copper hair and a wide, friendly smile had waved them into the high-backed chairs in the waiting room; “Mr. Anderson’s in court, but his secretary is in.”
Within minutes a tall svelte blonde with striking dark eyebrows and a midnight-blue dress swept through the doors. Her glossy lips curved at the sight of Denver. “Mr. McLean,” she said, extending her hand, her silver bracelet jangling a little. “I’m sorry but Ross isn’t in right now.”
Denver took her hand for a second, then let it fall. “This is Tessa Kramer,” he said quickly.
“Nancy Pomeroy,” the blonde replied.
“Nice to meet you,” Tessa said woodenly.
Denver explained, “Tessa runs the ranch.”
If that surprised Nancy, she managed to keep her face expressionless.
Denver added, “Yesterday Ross called and said he’d located my brother. I wasn’t at the house and didn’t get the message until this morning.”