must have been a startling revelation.”
“To put it mildly.”
“From all evidence, you’ve handled it well.” She turned to her son who was playing some kind of clapping game with Hope. “Okay, young man, I know you hate to leave the love of your young life, but Mommy needs to eat. It’s been a hectic morning with a bridal shower and two funerals,” she explained to the adults.
“Who’s dead?” Collin asked.
Sorrow rippled over her face. “A baby that was stillborn, and the son of a rancher who lives at the far northern reaches of the county. The son was from New York. He was in advertising and dropped dead of a heart attack in a meeting with a client. His father brought him back here to be buried in the family cemetery.”
“It must be terrible to lose a child,” Hope said, handing the boy to Meg. Her eyes were as soft as velvet.
“Yes,” Meg agreed after a beat of silence. “See you later. Don’t forget you’re coming to supper Thursday night.”
“I won’t.”
Watching Hope with her friend, Collin had an idea. He considered it from every angle, looking for flaws and planning an argument to win her to the plan, which, in his estimation, was a sound one.
When Meg and Gabe left them to sit at the counter, he ate the tasty hash and studied Hope for a moment before speaking what was on his mind.
“I think you should come out to the ranch and look the land over before presenting our offer to your father. That way you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about. I can show you the two parcels in dispute.”
He liked the way her eyes opened wide as surprise darted through them. He waited impatiently for her answer.
Two
“N o,” Hope said, sounding as horrified as she felt.
She had done some stupid things in her life, such as getting mixed up with a fortune hunter in law school, but becoming involved with Collin Kincaid wasn’t going to be added to the list. She knew all about his father and the women the man had seduced—there were six known bastard sons to verify that. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be seduced by the current Kincaid heir. Going to the ranch with Collin would be the first step on that slippery slope.
“It would be logical,” he insisted, leaning forward over the table, his expression serious.
“’Logical’?” she questioned. That was the last word she would have expected him to use.
“Sure. You can view the two parcels that were sold, then you’ll know exactly what you’re talking about when you approach your father with our offer. Or don’t you care to see the land you’re fighting so hard over?”
The sardonic undertone hit a nerve. She had, of course, been out to the old Baxter spread. From what she could see, it was mostly hills and sharp peaks, but in truth she had only gone a short distance. The original ranch road had been too overgrown with shrubs and pine seedlings to navigate and the old mining road had been too rough for her car. A four-wheel-drive vehicle was the only practical way to get around in this country if one intended to really explore it in detail.
“And when I’ve seen it?” she inquired.
“Then, as a fully informed attorney, you can truly advise your father as to its value and if it’s worth another year of wrangling over.”
His tone as much as his words challenged her legal expertise. She stiffened in resentment.
But her next thought was that she wanted to see the ranch, not so much because of the case but because it was part of her history. The Baxter roots in Montana went back as far as the Kincaid roots did. Somehow her family had lost its heritage.
Somehow? She knew the “how” of that loss. Jeremiah Kincaid and his lying, cheating ways.
“What time shall I pick you up on Friday?” Collin asked, smoothly diverting her thoughts from the past.
“Pick me up?” she asked, puzzled. Had she lost track of the conversation?
“The old Baxter spread is a substantial piece of land. We’ll need a couple of days to see it all. The weekend would be a good time for me. You can stay over at the ranch house. We have plenty of room.”
He leaned back in the chair, as if sure that she would fall in with his plan, which would put her right in the middle of the Kincaid compound and the multiple relatives who now lived there as if it were already theirs.
“What arrogance,” she said, keeping her voice soft, amused. “My father doesn’t jump to your bidding. Neither do I. This lawsuit isn’t going to be disposed of at the whim of the current Kincaid family. We’re willing to pay top dollar for the Baxter place, which rightfully belongs to my family. Will the court believe the trustees are acting in Jennifer McCallum’s best interest to sell for less?”
“If Jordan can pull that much money together. It seems to me he’s spread pretty thin, what with all the developing he’s doing south of town, plus, the fancy new headquarters building.”
Collin’s manner was coolly sardonic now, but edged with the Kincaid fury that was as well known as their legendary charm. She was angry, too. She didn’t appreciate his trying to manipulate her into doing as he wanted, nor his casting doubts on her father’s business acumen.
“My father has more than enough resources to handle the ranch sale, which has nothing to do with Baxter Development Corporation.”
Unable to finish the meal, she laid her fork down and stood. Collin, polite as usual, immediately got to his feet, tall and intimidating.
“You Kincaids stick together like flies on honey, but you won’t win this case,” she informed him heatedly.
“Don’t take that to the bank quite yet,” he advised with an amused glance at the gaping faces around them.
A couple of ranchers chuckled openly while several of the local residents grinned behind their hands. Hope was the outsider, and she was acutely aware of that fact.
“I wouldn’t think of it. I’ll see you in court,” she said, flashing him a breezy smile and answering the challenge in his eyes with a confident lift of her chin.
She walked out of the quaint café, aware of multiple stares as she did, and especially that of Collin Kincaid’s.
Collin remained at the table, his face impassive as he observed her departure.
Outside, she spotted another employee of the corporation and got a ride to her office. There, she closed her door and paced restlessly to and fro, aware of a trembling deep inside her. She felt she’d braved the lion in his den and had gotten out alive—but not unscathed.
Sighing, she calmed herself and admitted she’d blown the meeting, walking out in a huff that way. As if emotion ever solved anything. She was more angry with herself than with Collin. It was his job to persuade her to see things his way just as it was hers to see that things were settled in her father’s favor.
Oh, what tangled webs…
