There’d been plenty of times when Mac had actually enjoyed watching her stare down an adversary. But he had to say, being on the receiving end of that icy look wasn’t nearly as enjoyable.
What had brought this on?
“Why don’t you take a seat and tell me what’s got you so angry.”
“I don’t want a seat,” she said. “And I don’t want to be soothed like you do those horses you love so much...”
He frowned. “Then what exactly do you want?”
“I already told you. I want to quit.”
“Why the hell would you want to do that?”
Her gray eyes went wide, as if she couldn’t believe he even had to ask that question. But as far as Mac knew, everything was just as it should be. They’d closed the Donaldson deal the day before and now McCallum Enterprises could add Double D Energy Services to its ledgers. And Andi’d had a lot to do with getting David Donaldson to sign on the dotted line.
“I just gave you a raise last night for your work on the energy project.”
“I know,” she said. “And I earned it. That deal was not pretty.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“You told me to take over the planning for Violet’s baby shower.”
He drew his head back and narrowed his eyes on her in shocked surprise. With her talent for list making and organization, Andi should be able to handle that shower in a finger snap. “That’s a problem? I thought you and Vi were friends.”
“We are,” she countered, throwing both hands high. “Of course we are. That’s not the point.”
“What is the point, then?” Mac dropped into his chair and, lifting his booted feet, crossed them at the ankle on the edge of the desk. “Spit it out already and let’s get back to work.”
“For one, you don’t decide on Vi’s baby shower. For heaven’s sake, you stick your nose into everything.”
“Excuse me?”
“But my main point is,” she said, setting both hands at her hips, “I’m tired of being taken for granted.”
“Who does that?” he asked, sincerely confused.
“You do!”
“Now, that’s just not so,” he argued. “Let’s remember that raise yesterday and—”
“In the last day or so, you had me arrange for the new horse trailer to be dropped off at the ranch. I called Big Mike at the garage to get him to give your car a tune-up before the weekend, then I saw to it that the new horses you bought will be delivered to the ranch tomorrow afternoon.”
Scowling now, Mac bit back on what he wanted to say and simply let her get it all out.
“I drew up the plans for the kitchen garden your cook wants for behind the house and I made sure the new baby furniture you’re giving Vi was delivered on time.” Andi paused only long enough to take a breath. Her eyes flashed, her mouth tightened as she continued. “Then I called Sheriff Battle to make sure he cleared the road for the delivery of the last of the cattle water tanks.”
“Had to clear the road—”
“Not finished,” she said, holding up one hand to keep him quiet. “After that, I bought and had delivered the standard half-carat diamond bracelet and the it’s-not-you-it’s-me farewell note to the model who can’t string ten words together without hyperventilating...”
Mac snorted. All right, she had a point about Jezebel Fontaine. Still, in his defense, Jez was seriously built enough that he’d overlooked her lack of brain cells for the past month. But even he had his limits.
“You’re my assistant, aren’t you?”
“I am and a darn good one,” she countered. “I’ve kept your life running on schedule for the last six years, Mac. No matter what you throw at me, I handle it and add it into the mix I’m already juggling.”
“You’re a damn fine juggler, too,” he said.
She kept talking as if he hadn’t said a thing.
“Then when I asked you for this afternoon off so I could go see my nephew’s baseball game, you said you had to think about it. Think about it?”
“I appreciate a good Little League game as much as the next man,” Mac said slowly, keeping his gaze fixed on hers, “but we’ve still got some details to be ironed out on the Double D deal and—”
“That’s my point, Mac.” His eyes widened when she interrupted him. “There’s always something that needs to be handled and I’m so busy taking care of those things I haven’t had time to find a life.”
“You’ve got a pretty good life from where I’m standing,” he argued, pushing up from his desk. “Great job, terrific boss—” He paused, waiting for a smile that didn’t come, then tried to continue, but he couldn’t come up with a third thing.
“Uh-huh. Job. Boss. No life.” She took a deep breath. “And that stops today.”
“Okay,” he said flatly. “If it’s that important to you, go. See your nephew’s game. Have some popcorn. Hell, have a beer. We’ll talk more tomorrow morning when you come in.”
“I won’t be in,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s time for a change, Mac. For both of us. I’ve gotten too comfortable here and so have you.”
He laughed abruptly. “You call dealing with what all that’s been going on around here comfortable?”
She nodded. “There’ve been problems, sure, but we handled them and things are slowly getting back to normal. Or, as normal as life gets around here.”
Mac sure as hell hoped so. It had been a wild time in Royal, Texas, over the past couple of years. A lot of turmoil, more than their share of trouble. There was the tornado, of course, then the drought that held most of Texas in a tight, sweaty fist and then a man he used to think of as one of his oldest friends, Rafiq “Rafe” bin Saleed, had come to town with the express purpose of ruining Mac’s reputation, his business and his family. And he’d come damn close to pulling it off.
Remembering that was still enough to leave Mac a little shaken. Hell, he’d trusted Rafe and had almost lost everything because of it. Sure, they’d worked everything out, and now Rafe was even his brother-in-law, since he and Mac’s sister, Violet, were married and having a baby.
But there were still moments when Mac wondered how he could have missed the fact that Rafe was on a misguided quest for revenge.
Without Andi to help him through and talk him down when he was so damned angry he could hardly see straight, Mac didn’t know if the situation would have resolved itself so quickly.
So why, when life was settling down again, had she chosen now to talk about quitting? Mac had no idea what had brought this nonsense on, but he’d nip it in the bud,
