Before Ally could respond, Cole—who’d turned back to see what was going on—reached her side. “There’s nothing to discuss, O’Malley,” Cole stated as the rest of the party rejoined them. Taking her other arm, Cole tugged Ally farther from Troy, adding, “I told you Bride’s Price isn’t for sale.”
Troy met Cole’s stare with narrowed eyes. “Yeah, you told me that. What you didn’t tell me was that your sister’s the one Miss Hennessey left the land to.” His gaze caught Ally’s. “Didn’t she?”
She nodded and Cole spoke up again. “Ally owns the land,” he conceded, “but my aunt put it in a trust to be controlled by me until Al turns thirty or marries.” His voice dropped to a harsh, taunting tone. “She’s only twenty-four, O’Malley. Why don’t you come back in six years?”
Cole didn’t add “or when she gets married,” Ally noticed. Clearly her brother didn’t even consider that a possibility. Her glance swept the rest of the faces intently watching the exchange. Nor, she realized wryly, did anyone else.
Including Troy O’Malley. Eyes narrowing, he frowned at her brother, then bit out, “All right, if you won’t sell, then I’ll lease Bride’s Price from you.” He named a sum that made Cole’s dark eyebrows lift involuntarily in surprise and Ally’s heart leap with excitement. With that kind of money, she could—
“Sorry,” Cole said, interrupting Ally’s thoughts. He didn’t look sorry, however, but grimly satisfied as he added, “But the answer’s still no.”
A muscle flexed in Troy’s square jaw. “That parcel is O’Malley land. You know it and I know it. Now that Eileen’s gone, it’s time to return it to its rightful owners.”
“All I know is that your grandfather deeded that land to my great-aunt and it now belongs to our family,” Cole said.
“He only gave it to her because they were betrothed.”
“He gave it to her as a gift,” Ally corrected Troy before Cole could reply. “There were no strings attached.”
Troy spared her an impatient glance. “He was expecting to marry her.”
“I see,” Ally said thoughtfully. “So Mick was actually giving himself a gift. How like an O’Malley,” she drawled, and watched Troy’s scowl darken. Pleased by the sight, she added, “Rather stupid of him to cheat on her, then, wasn’t it?”
This time the look Troy returned was longer. “Men often do stupid things when it comes to women.”
“I certainly won’t argue with an expert on that,” Ally answered.
One of the twins snickered, while Sue Ellen gasped excitedly. Emma clucked her tongue.
But Troy merely stared at her a moment longer, silently promising future retribution, before his gaze shifted to Cole. He gave a shrug. “What’s past is past. It doesn’t have any bearing on my offer to either buy or lease that land—offers you’d be wise to rethink, Cabrerra.”
“Oh, yeah?” Cole drawled, widening his stance and placing his hands on his hips. “Why’s that?”
“Because from what I hear you’ve spread yourself thin lately, financially speaking, and can use the money.”
Cole didn’t like that; Ally could tell by the way his voice grew soft. “Where’d you hear that?”
“From a mutual friend,” Troy drawled, his tone just as soft and even more taunting than Cole’s had been.
The mutual friend, Ally knew, had to be Misty. Apparently her oldest brother knew it, too, because for a second, sheer hatred burned in Cole’s icy eyes. He took a step in Troy’s direction. Troy stepped forward to meet him, and funeral or no funeral, there would have been a fight—Ally was sure of it—but the Reverend grasped Cole’s arm, holding him off.
Cole didn’t resist the Reverend, but he didn’t look away from Troy’s steady gaze, either. “Later, O’Malley.”
Troy nodded. “Yeah, later.” With a final, mocking look at Ally, and a polite tilt of his hat to the other women, he headed toward the parking area.
The other men slowly followed, while the women stood in silence, watching until Troy climbed into his pickup.
“Well, thank goodness that’s over, and without violence, too,” Sue Ellen said, disappointment heavy in her quavery voice as Troy’s truck spewed gravel pulling out of the tiny lot, and sped to the highway with small tornadoes of dust churning behind its oversize tires. She heaved a sigh, then patted Ally’s arm as they started walking toward the cars again. “You are so lucky, dear, to have four brothers to watch out for you!”
“You certainly are!” Emma stated.
Ally wasn’t sure she agreed. She planned to talk to Cole as soon as possible concerning the decisions he’d made—without consulting her, thank you very much!—about Bride’s Price. But for the next two hours she was too busy playing hostess, serving up the tuna-and-pea casserole Emma Mae had brought and making sure everyone had plenty of coffee and second helpings of Sue Ellen’s famous peach cobbler, to even try to catch Cole alone.
After eating, everyone remained in the big kitchen talking around the scarred mahogany table that had once been Ally’s mother’s pride and joy. Glad the meal was over, Ally pushed her chair from the table and stretched out her legs, slouching as a wave of weariness swept over her.
Like many of the homes in the area, the Cabrerra ranch house was built of thick limestone blocks, excavated by the earliest settlers well over a hundred years ago. A bathroom complete with claw tub had been added in the thirties; a gas stove had replaced the wood-burning one in the fifties. Since then, not much else had been done to the place. Ally had worked hard the past week, cleaning the ranch house and trying—with limited success—to brighten the old kitchen by bringing in flowers and replacing the dingy curtains with crisp white ones she’d bought with money skimmed from the grocery allowance. Nothing, however, could hide the chips in the yellow tile counters, or the battered condition of the cupboard doors.
When she caught Emma Mae looking critically at the cracked linoleum on the floor, Ally said a shade defensively, “We’re redoing the whole kitchen, you know. Right after the next stock sale.”
Cole frowned at her across the table, shaking his head, and Ally tilted her head inquiringly in return. Did he want their plans to remain a secret for some reason? If so, tough luck, because Emma declared bluntly, “I’m glad to hear it. This house can use some updating,” and if Emma knew something—not to mention Sue Ellen—the whole town would soon know about it, too.
Perplexed by Cole’s strange behavior, Ally remained silent as the conversation rambled from the sorry state of beef prices, to the never-ending heat, to the merits of the new computer that Cole had recently purchased to replace their old model. Only half listening, Ally was jerked from her thoughts when Emma announced she’d set up a Web site for the town.
“A Web site?” Ally repeated. She glanced at the older woman in surprise. “I didn’t know you were hooked into the Internet.”
“I’m not. My computer is too old. I set the Web site up on the one the O’Malleys donated to the town library. Janie helped me,” Emma said, nodding at the younger woman—an
