grinned. “Probably not. Okay, so the wild bachelor days are over for poor Dylan and poor Jeb. That doesn’t mean you and I can’t spend a few days catching rays and chasing women. How about it? A week of sun and fun.”
Michael was tempted. Then he thought of his jam-packed schedule. “I don’t think so. Not any time soon, anyway. My calendar’s booked solid.”
“You are turning into a pitiful stick in the mud,” his brother declared sorrowfully. “If you won’t do that, how about going over to Los Piños for a few days to visit Trish and Dylan and their families? Spend a little quality time with our niece and nephew. Trish was saying just the other day that a visit is long overdue.”
Guilt nagged at Michael for about ten seconds. “Yeah, well, I’ve been meaning to get over there, but you know how it is,” he hedged.
“I know exactly how it is. Your niece is going on three years old and you haven’t seen her since she was baptized when she was a month old. When Dylan and Kelsey got married, you barely stuck your head in the church over there long enough to hear their I do’s before you took off for some can’t-miss conference.”
“I was speaking at an OPEC meeting. Are you saying I should have turned down that chance?”
Tyler waved off the defense. “I’ll give you that one. But if it hadn’t been OPEC, it would have been something else. What exactly are you afraid will happen if you take some time off? Do you think the rest of us are going to steal the company out from under you?”
He peered at Michael intently. “You do realize what a joke that is, don’t you? Trish wants no part of the business. She’s happy as a clam running her bookstore and devoting her spare time to her husband and daughter. Dylan is perfectly content playing Dick Tracy across the state. Jeb is doing in-house security and wallowing in family life.”
“That still leaves you,” Michael pointed out, aware that he was grasping at straws.
Tyler laughed. “You know perfectly well that I’m trying my best to convince Dad to let me stay out in the field, exploring for oil. I’m heading back out onto one of our rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in another couple of weeks. I miss it. I miss Baton Rouge.”
Michael studied him. “Who’s in Baton Rouge, little brother?”
“I didn’t say anything about a person. I mentioned an oil rig and a city.”
“But I know you. There has to be a woman involved.”
Tyler scowled. “We were talking about me competing for your job. It’s not going to happen, Michael. Not only do I love what I do, it keeps me out from under Dad’s thumb. Face it, none of your siblings wants a desk job here, thank you very much. It’s all yours, big brother. There is no competition. This office in the executive suite is yours for life—if you want it.”
Michael inwardly admitted that everything Tyler had just said was true. But that knowledge didn’t keep him from working compulsively. “I love what I do, so shoot me,” he muttered.
“You need a life,” Tyler retorted. “You might think it’s enough to be at the top of the list of Houston’s most eligible bachelors, but you’re going to look mighty funny if you’re still there when you hit ninety.”
“Why worry about my social life? A minute ago you claimed I’m destined to die of a heart attack before I turn forty. If that’s the case, there’s no point in leaving behind a wealthy widow.”
Tyler waved off the attempt to divert him. “You’re missing my point.”
“Which is?”
“You need some balance in your life, Michael. Believe it or not, I actually recall a time when you were fun to be around, when you talked about something besides mergers and the price of crude oil.”
Michael uttered a resigned sigh. Clearly, his brother was on a mission. Tyler was usually a live-and-let-live kind of a guy, but periodically he turned into a nag. This kind of persistence could only mean that he’d been put up to it by the rest of the family. The one way to shut him up was to make a few well-intentioned promises.
“Okay, okay, I’ll try to get a break in my schedule,” Michael promised.
Tyler looked skeptical. “Not good enough. When?”
“Soon.”
He shook his head, obviously not pacified by such a vague response. “Trish says her guest room is ready now,” he said. “You can see your niece. You can see Dylan and his family. I’ll even ride over with you on the company jet. We’ll have ourselves an old-fashioned reunion.”
Michael wasn’t fooled for a minute. Tyler wasn’t going on this proposed jaunt out of any great desire to hold a family barbecue. He’d been assigned to deliver his big brother into the protective arms of their baby sister.
Michael shuddered at the memory of the last time they’d all ganged up on him like this. He’d wound up in a deserted cabin in the woods for a solid week with no car and no phone. Instead of relaxing him, the forced solitude had almost driven him up a wall. He hadn’t been able to convince his siblings that they hadn’t done him any favors. A two-day visit with Trish’s family would be heaven by comparison. He was smart enough to accept it while he still had a choice in the matter. His family wasn’t above kidnapping him, and he doubted a court in the land would convict them for it once they made a convincing case that they’d done it for his own good.
“Set it up,” he said, resigned to the inevitable. “Just let me know the details.”
“We’re leaving in fifteen minutes,” Tyler announced, his expression instantly triumphant.
“But I can’t—”
“Of course, you can,” Tyler said, cutting off the protest. “Hop in the shower, get into your clothes and let’s go. I have your suitcase at the airport and the pilot’s on standby. Your secretary’s canceled all your appointments for the next week.”
“A week?” Michael protested. “I agreed to a couple of days.”
“Your secretary must have misunderstood me,” Tyler said with no evidence of remorse. “You know how she is.”
“She’s incredibly efficient, and I thought she was loyal to me.”
“She is. That’s why she wiped the slate clean for the next week. So you’ll be able to take a long overdue break. You’re free and clear, bro.”
Michael frowned at Tyler. “Awfully damned sure of yourself, weren’t you?”
“What can I say? I’m a born negotiator. It runs in the family. Now, hop to it.”
Not until twenty-four hours later did Michael realize the full extent of his brother’s treachery, when he found himself shut away on Trish’s ranch, abandoned by his sister, her husband and the very niece he’d supposedly come to see.
Tyler had long since departed, claiming urgent business elsewhere. Probably a woman. That one he’d denied existed over in Baton Rouge. With Ty, it was always about a woman.
At any rate, one minute Michael had been sitting at Trish’s kitchen
