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Stepping into Royal Diner was like journeying back in time to the 1950s. Booths lined one wall, their red faux leather standing out against the black-and-white-checkerboard tile floor. On the opposite side of the long aisle stretched the counter with seats that matched the booths.
Not unexpectedly, the place was packed. Brandee spotted local rancher and town pariah, Adam Haskell, leaving the counter toward the back and headed that way, intending to grab his seat. As she drew closer, Brandee noticed a faint scent of stale alcohol surrounded Haskell. She offered him the briefest of nods, which he didn’t see because his blue bug-eyes dropped to her chest as they passed each other in the narrow space.
Once clear of Haskell, Brandee saw that the spot she’d been aiming for was sandwiched between an unfamiliar fortysomething cowboy and Shane Delgado. Of all the bad luck. Brandee almost turned tail and ran, but knew she’d look silly doing so after coming all this way. Bracing herself, she slid onto the seat.
Shane glanced up from his smartphone and grinned as he spotted her. “Well, hello. Look who showed up to make my morning.”
His deep voice made her nerve endings shiver, and when she bumped her shoulder against his while sliding her purse onto the conveniently placed hook beneath the counter, the hairs on her arms stood up. Hating how her body reacted to him, Brandee shot Shane a sharp glance.
“I’m not in the mood to argue with you.” She spoke with a little more bluntness than usual and his eyes widened slightly. “Can we just have a casual conversation about the weather or the price of oil?”
“I heard it’s going to be in the midfifties all week,” he said, with one of his knockout grins that indicated he liked that he got under her skin. “With a thirty percent chance of rain.”
“We could use some rain.”
Heidi dropped off Shane’s breakfast and took Brandee’s order of scrambled eggs, country potatoes and bacon. A second later the waitress popped back with a cup of coffee.
“Everything tasting okay?” Heidi asked Shane, her eyes bright and flirty.
“Perfect as always.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
When she walked off, Brandee commented, “You haven’t taken a single bite. How do you know it’s perfect?”
“Because I eat breakfast here twice a week and it’s always the same great food.” Shane slid his fork into his sunny-side up eggs and the bright yellow yolk ran all over the hash on his plate.
Brandee sipped her coffee and shuddered.
“What’s the matter?” Shane’s even white teeth bit into a piece of toast. He hadn’t looked at her, yet he seemed to know she was bothered.
“Nothing.” Brandee tried to keep her voice neutral. “Why?”
“You are looking more disgusted with me than usual.” His crooked smile made her pulse hiccup.
“It’s the eggs. I can’t stand them runny like that.” The same flaw in human nature that made people gawk at car accidents was drawing Brandee’s gaze back to Shane’s plate. She shuddered again.
“Really?” He pushed the yolk around as if to torment her with the sight. “But this is the only way to eat them with corn-beef hash.”
“Why corn-beef hash and not biscuits and gravy?”
“It’s a nod to my Irish roots.”
“You’re Irish?”
“On my mother’s side. She’s from Boston.”
“Oh.” She drew out her reply as understanding dawned.
“Oh, what?”
“I always wondered about your accent.”
“You thought about me?” He looked delighted.
Brandee hid her irritation. Give the man any toehold and he would storm her battlements in a single bound.
“I thought about your accent,” she corrected him. “It has a trace of East Coast in it.”
Shane nodded. “It’s my mom’s fault. Even after living in Texas for nearly forty years, she still drops her r’s most of the time.”
“How’d your mom come to live in Texas?”
Even as Brandee asked the question, it occurred to her that this was the most normal conversation she and Shane had ever had. Usually they engaged in some sort of verbal sparring or just outright arguing and rarely traded any useful information.
“She came here after college to study oil reserves and met my dad. They were married within six months and she’s been here ever since.” Shane used his toast to clean up the last of the egg. “She went back to Boston after my dad died and stayed for almost a year, but found she missed Royal.”
“I’m sure it was you that she missed.”
Shane nodded. “I am the apple of her eye.”
“Of course.” Brandee thanked Heidi as the waitress set a plate down on the counter. With the arrival of her breakfast, Brandee had intended to let her side of the conversation lapse, but something prompted her to ask, “She didn’t remarry?”
Never in a million years would Brandee admit it, but Shane’s story about his mother was interesting. Shane’s father had died over a decade earlier, but Elyse Delgado had accompanied her son to several events at the TCC clubhouse since Brandee had bought Hope Springs Ranch. Her contentious relationship with Shane caused Brandee to avoid him in social situations and she’d never actually spoken to his mother except to say hello in passing. Yet, Brandee knew Elyse Delgado by reputation and thought she would’ve enjoyed getting to know the woman better if not for her son.
“There’ve been a couple men she’s dated, but nothing serious has come out of it. Although she was completely devoted to my father, I think she’s enjoyed her independence.”
“I get that,” Brandee murmured. “I like the freedom to run my ranch the way I want and not having to worry about taking anyone’s opinions into account.”
“You make it sound as if you never plan to get married.” Shane sounded surprised and looked a little dismayed. “That would certainly be a shame.”
Brandee’s hackles rose. He probably hadn’t intended to strike a nerve, but in the male-dominated world of Texas cattle ranching, she’d faced down a lot of chauvinism.
“I don’t need a man to help me or complete me.”
At her hot tone, Shane threw up his hands. “That’s not what I meant.”
“No?” She snorted. “Tell me you don’t look at me and wonder how I handle Hope Springs Ranch without a man around.” She saw confirmation in his body language before he opened his mouth to argue. “Thanks to my dad, I know more about what it takes to run a successful ranch than half the men around here.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
“But you still think I need someone.”
“Yes.” Shane’s lips curved in a sexy grin. “If only to kiss you senseless and take the edge off that temper of yours.”
* * *
The second Brandee’s eyes cooled, Shane knew he should’ve kept his opinion to himself. They’d been having a perfectly nice conversation and he’d had to go and ruin it. But all her talk of not needing a man around had gotten under his skin. He wasn’t sure why.
“I have neither a temper nor an edge.” Brandee’s conversational tone wasn’t fooling Shane. “Ask anyone in town and they’ll tell you I’m determined, but polite.”
“Except when I’m around.”
Her expression relaxed. “You do bring out the worst in me.”
And for some reason she brought out the worst in him. “I’d like to change that.” But first he had to learn to hold his tongue around her.
“Why?”
“Because you interest me.”
“As someone who sees through your glib ways?”
“I’ll admit you’ve presented a challenge.” Too many things in his life came easily. He didn’t have to exert himself chasing the unachievable. But in Brandee’s case, he thought the prize might be worth the extra effort.
“I’ve begun to wonder if convincing me to sell Hope Springs had become a game to you.”
“I can’t deny that I’d like your land to expand my development, but that’s not the only reason I’m interested in you.”
“Is it because I won’t sleep with you?”
He pretended to be surprised. “That never even occurred to me. I’m still in the early stages of wooing you.”
“Wooing?” Her lips twitched as if she were fighting a smile. “You do have a way with words, Shane Delgado.”
“Several times you’ve accused me of having a silver tongue. I might have a knack for smooth talking, but that doesn’t mean I’m insincere.”
Brandee pushed her unfinished breakfast away and gave him her full attention. “Let me get this straight. You want us to date?” She laughed before he could answer.
He’d thought about it many times, but never with serious intent. Their chemistry was a little too combustible, more like a flash bang than a slow burn, and he’d reached a point in his life where he liked to take his time with a woman.
“Whoa,” he said, combating her skepticism with lighthearted banter. “Let’s not get crazy. How about we try a one-week cease-fire and see how things go?”
Her features relaxed into a genuine smile and Shane realized she was relieved. His ego took a hit. Had she been dismayed that he’d viewed her in a romantic light? Most women would be thrilled. Once again he reminded himself that she was unique and he couldn’t approach her the same way he did every other female on the planet.
“Does that mean you’re not going to try to buy Hope Springs for a week?” Despite her smile, her eyes were somber as she waited for his answer.
“Sure.”
“Let’s make it two weeks, then.”
To his surprise, she held out her hand like it was some sort of legal agreement. Shane realized that for all their interaction, they’d never actually touched skin to skin. The contact didn’t disappoint.
Pleasure zipped up his arm and lanced straight through his chest. If he hadn’t been braced against the shock, he might have let slip a grunt of surprise. Her grip was strong. Her slender fingers bit into his hand without much effort on her part. He felt the work-roughened calluses on her palm and the silky-smooth skin on the back of her hand. It was a study in contrasts, like everything else about her.
Desire ignited even as she let go and snatched up her bill. With an agile shift of her slim body, she was sliding into the narrow space between his chair and hers. Her chest brushed his upper arm and he felt the curve of her breasts even through the layers of her sweater and his jacket.
“See you, Delgado.”
Before he got his tongue working again, she’d scooped her coat and purse off the back of the chair and was headed for the front cash register. Helpless with fascination, he watched her go, enjoying the unconscious sashay of her firm, round butt encased in worn denim. The woman knew how to make an exit.
“Damn,” he murmured, signaling to the waitress that he wanted his coffee topped off. He had a meeting in half an hour, but needed to calm down before he headed out.
A cup of coffee later, he’d recovered enough to leave. As he looked for his bill, he realized it was missing. He’d distinctly recalled Heidi sliding it onto the counter, but now it was gone. He caught her eye and she came over with the coffeepot.
“More coffee, Shane?”
“No, I’ve got to get going, but I don’t see my bill and wondered if it ended up on the floor over there.” He indicated her side of the counter.
“All taken care of.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Brandee got it.”
Had that been the reason for her brush by? In the moment, he’d been so preoccupied by her proximity that he hadn’t been aware of anything else. And he understood why she’d paid for his meal. She was announcing that she was independent and his equal. It also gave her a one-up on him.
“Thanks, Heidi.” In a pointless assertion of his masculinity, he slid a ten-dollar tip under the sugar dispenser before heading out the door.
As he headed to his SUV, he considered his action. Would he have been compelled to leave a large tip if Gabe or Deacon had picked up his tab? Probably not. Obviously it bothered him to have a woman pay for his meal. Or maybe it wasn’t just any woman, but a particular woman who slipped beneath his skin at every turn.
Why had he rejected the idea of dating her so fast? In all likelihood they’d drive each other crazy in bed. And when it was over, things between them would be no worse. Seemed he had nothing to lose and a couple months of great sex to gain.
As he headed to The Bellamy site to see how the project was going, Shane pondered how best to approach Brandee. She wasn’t the sort to be wowed with the things he normally tried and she’d already declared herself disinterested in romantic entanglements. Or had she?
Shane found himself back at square one, and realized just how difficult the task before him was. Yet he didn’t shy from the challenge. In fact, the more he thought about dating Brandee, the more determined he became to convince her to give them a shot.
But how did a man declare his intentions when the woman was skeptical of every overture?
The answer appeared like the sun breaking through the clouds. It involved the project nearest and dearest to her heart: Hope Springs Camp for at-risk and troubled teenagers. He would somehow figure out what she needed most and make sure she got it. By the time he was done, she would be eating out of his hands.
* * *
Brandee left the Royal Diner after paying for Shane’s breakfast, amusing herself by pondering how much it would annoy him when he found out what she’d done. She nodded a greeting to several people as she headed to the library. Once there, however, all her good humor fled as she focused on finding out whether there was any truth to Maverick’s assertion that Shane was a direct descendant of Amelia Crowley.
It took her almost five hours and she came close to giving up three separate times, but at long last she traced his family back to Jasper Crowley. Starting with newspapers from the day Jasper had penned the dowry document, she’d scrolled through a mile of microfiche until she’d found a brief mention of Amelia, stating that she’d run off with a man named Tobias Stone.
Using the Stone family name, Brandee then tracked down a birth certificate for their daughter Beverly. The Stones hadn’t settled near Royal but had ended up two counties over. But the state of Texas had a good database of births and deaths, and the town where they’d ended up had all their newspapers’ back issues online.
Jumping forward seventeen years, she began reading newspapers again for some notice of Beverly Stone’s marriage. She’d been debating giving up on the newspapers and driving to the courthouse when her gaze fell on the marriage announcement. Beverly had married Charles Delgado and after that Brandee’s search became a whole lot easier.
At last she was done. Spread across the table, in unforgiving black and white, was the undeniable proof that Shane Delgado was legally entitled to the land where Hope Springs Ranch stood. A lesser woman would have thrown herself a fine pity party. Brandee sat dry-eyed and stared at Shane’s birth certificate. It was the last piece of the puzzle.
In a far more solemn mood than when she’d arrived, Brandee exited the library. The setting sun cast a golden glow over the street. Her research had eaten up the entire day, and she felt more exhausted than if she’d rounded up and tagged a hundred cattle all on her own. She needed a hot bath to ease the tension in her shoulders and a large glass of wine to numb her emotions.
But most of all she wanted to stop thinking about Shane Delgado and his claim to her land for a short time. Unfortunately, once she’d settled into her bath, and as the wine started a warm buzz through her veins, that proved impossible. Dwelling on the man while lying naked in a tub full of bubbles was counterproductive. So was mulling over their breakfast conversation at the Royal Diner, but she couldn’t seem to shake the look in his eye as he’d talked about kissing her senseless.
She snorted. As if her current problems could be forgotten beneath the man’s chiseled lips and strong hands. She closed her eyes and relived the handshake. The contact had left her palm tingling for nearly a minute. As delightful as the sensation had been, what had disturbed her was how much she’d liked touching him. How she wouldn’t mind letting her hands wander all over his broad shoulders and tight abs.
With a groan Brandee opened her eyes and shook off her sensual daydreams. Even if Shane wasn’t at the center of her biggest nightmare, she couldn’t imagine either one of them letting go and connecting in any meaningful way.
But maybe she didn’t need meaningful. Maybe what she needed was to get swept up in desire and revel in being female. She’d deny it until she was hoarse, but it might be nice to let someone be in charge for a little while. And if that someone was Shane Delgado? At least she’d be in for an exhilarating ride.
The bathwater had cooled considerably while Brandee’s mind had wandered all over Shane’s impressive body. She came out of her musings to discover she’d lost an hour and emerged from her soaking tub with pruney fingers and toes.
While she was toweling off, her office phone began to ring. It was unusual to have anyone calling the ranch in the evening, but not unheard-of. After she’d dressed in an eyelet-trimmed camisole and shorts sleepwear set she’d designed, Brandee padded down the hall to her office, curled up in her desk chair and dialed into voice mail.
“I heard you’re looking for a couple horses for your summer camp.” The voice coming from the phone’s speaker belonged to Shane Delgado. “I found one that might work for you. Liam Wade has a champion reining horse that he had to retire from showing because of his bad hocks. He wants the horse to go to a good home and is interested in donating him to your cause.”
Brandee had a tight budget to complete all her projects and was doing a pretty good job sticking to it. When she’d first decided to start a camp, she’d done a few mini-events to see how things went. That was how she’d funded the meeting hall where she served meals and held classes during the day and where the kids could socialize in the evenings. Thanks to her successes, she’d forged ahead with her summer-camp idea. But that required building a bunkhouse that could sleep twelve.
With several minor issues leading to overages she’d hadn’t planned for, getting a high-quality, well-trained horse for free from Liam Wade would be awesome. She already had three other horses slated for the camp and hoped to have six altogether to start.
Brandee picked up the phone and dialed Shane back. Knees drawn up to her chest, she waited for him to answer and wondered what he’d expect in return for this favor.
After three rings Shane picked up. “I take it you’re interested in the horse.”
“Very.” Her toes curled over the edge of the leather cushion of her desk chair as his deep, rich voice filled her ear. “Thank you for putting this together.”
“My pleasure.”
“It was really nice of you.” Remembering that he had the power to destroy all she’d built didn’t stop her from feeling grateful. “I guess I owe you...” She grasped at the least problematic way she could pay him back.
“You don’t owe me a thing.”
Immediately Brandee went on alert. He hadn’t demanded dinner or sexual favors in exchange for his help. What was this new game he was playing? Her thoughts turned to the blackmailer Maverick. Once again she wondered whether Shane was involved, but quickly rejected the idea. If he had any clue she was squatting on land that belonged to his family, he would be up front about his intentions.
“Well, then,” she muttered awkwardly. “Thank you.”
“Happy to help.”
After hanging up, she spent a good ten minutes staring at the phone. Happy to help? That rang as false as his “you don’t owe me a thing.” What was he up to? With no answers appearing on the horizon, Brandee returned to her bedroom and settled in to watch some TV, but nothing held her attention.
She headed into the kitchen for a cup of Sleepytime herbal tea, but after consuming it, she was more wide-awake than ever. So she started a load of laundry and killed another hour with some light housekeeping. As the sole occupant of the ranch house, Brandee only had her cook and cleaning woman, May, come in a couple times a week.
Standing in the middle of her living room, Brandee surveyed her home with a sense of near despair and cursed Maverick. If she found out who was behind the blackmail, she’d make sure they paid. In the meantime, she had to decide what to do. She sank down onto her couch and pulled a cotton throw around her shoulders.
Her choice was clear. She had to pay the fifty thousand dollars and resign from the Texas Cattleman’s Club. As much as it galled her to give in, she couldn’t risk losing her home. She pictured the smug satisfaction on the faces of the terrible trio and ground her teeth together.
And if Maverick wasn’t one or all of them?
What if she’d read the situation wrong and someone else was behind the extortion? She had no guarantee that if she met the demands that Maverick wouldn’t return to the well over and over. The idea of spending the rest of her life looking over her shoulder or paying one blackmail demand after another appalled Brandee. But what could she do?
Her thoughts turned to Shane once more. What if she could get him to give up his claim to the land? She considered what her father would think of the idea and shied away from the guilt that aroused. Buck Lawless had never cheated or scammed anyone and would be ashamed of his daughter for even considering it.
But then, Buck had never had to endure the sort of environment Brandee had been thrust into after his death. In her mother’s house, Brandee had received a quick and unpleasant education in self-preservation. Her father’s position as ranch foreman had meant that Brandee could live and work among the ranch hands and never worry that they’d harm her. That hadn’t been the case with her mother’s various boyfriends.
She wasn’t proud that she’d learned how to manipulate others’ emotions and desires, but she was happy to have survived that dark time and become the successful rancher her father had always hoped she’d be. As for what she was going to do about Shane? What he didn’t know about his claim on Hope Springs Ranch wouldn’t hurt him. She just needed to make sure he stayed in the dark until she could figure out a way to keep her land free and clear.
Four
At Bullseye Ranch’s main house, Shane sat on the leather sofa in the den, boots propped on the reclaimed wood coffee table, an untouched tumbler of scotch dangling from the fingers of his left hand. Almost twenty-four hours had gone by since Brandee had called to thank him for finding her a horse and he’d been thinking about her almost nonstop. She’d sounded wary on the phone, as if expecting him to demand something in return for his help. It wasn’t the response he’d been hoping for, but it was pure Brandee.
What the hell was wrong with the woman that she couldn’t accept a kind gesture? Well, to be fair, he hadn’t acted with pure altruism. He did want something from her, but it wasn’t what she feared. His motive was personal not business. Would she ever believe that?
His doorbell rang. Shane set aside his drink and went to answer the door. He wasn’t expecting visitors.
It was Brandee standing on his front porch. The petite blonde was wearing her customary denim and carrying a bottle wrapped in festive tissue. She smiled at his shocked look, obviously pleased to have seized the upper hand for the moment.
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