had gone over the situation with his ranch as he drove, keeping his gaze locked on the road. He’d explained how Miranda had married his uncle several years ago and initially charmed everyone. The Bryan brothers—Cole’s father and uncle—had been steadily losing money on their ranches and had agreed that a guest ranch was worth a shot, especially since Miranda had offered to take the helm. Things went well in the beginning, but once his uncle died, the situation had changed. Miranda had changed. True colors began to show.
Cole’s expression had grown increasingly tight as they’d neared the ranch, and now, as he parked next to the house, she was wondering if he was in danger of cracking a tooth. She touched his arm.
His gaze jerked over to her, and then he made an effort to relax his features. “Sorry. Lots of crazy emotions tied up in this place.”
Taylor was beginning to toy with the idea of kissing him before his blood pressure redlined. Instead she got out of the truck. A kid in his late teens came out of the barn as Taylor closed her door, and Cole motioned for her to join him. They walked over to meet the boy at the ATV he’d left near the pasture fence.
“How’s it going, Matt?”
“Jancey’s staying with you, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I tried to text her, but she didn’t answer.”
“She’s fine.”
The kid nodded, looking relieved. He glanced behind him as if expecting someone to be there listening, then said, “The queen is pissed that she just took off without telling anyone.”
“She’s going to have to get over it.”
Matt threw a leg over the ATV. “Tell Jancey hi and that it wouldn’t kill her to text back.”
“She’s off her game right now, but I’ll tell her.”
The kid started the engine, then with a wave, headed back across the pasture.
“Miranda sends him to do the chores. Since she uses the place, she wants it public ready at all times.”
“She uses the entire place?”
“Not the house. The house is ours. Well, the entire place is ours, but she has the rights to use it tied up.”
“Renegotiate.”
“It’s a fifty-fifty ownership deal. She won’t budge and neither will we.”
“Unless you have something she wants and can bargain.”
Cole turned to her, his expression serious. “I have nothing that Miranda wants other than this property. That leaves us in a bad place.”
“So it seems.”
“Come on. I’ll show you the house and you can see why it isn’t used for guests.”
The house was totally old-fashioned inside, with small rooms. The kitchen was large, though. There were heat grates in the floors of the upstairs rooms to allow the heat from the kitchen to permeate the rest of the house.
“They made the rooms small so that they could close off the ones not in use during the winter and not heat them.”
“I can understand that, but wow, if you knocked out some walls—”
Cole shot her a look that stopped her dead. “Then Miranda would probably come up with a loophole to use the house.”
“Could she?”
“Probably not, but she’d drive me crazy in the process.”
“You need out of this agreement.”
He turned toward her. “You think?”
“Have you consulted an attorney?” A question she’d put off asking until she had more facts.
He put a gentle palm on each side of Taylor’s face, making her nerves start doing a crazy dance, and instead of answering, focused on her as if she were the answer. Things were heating up between them, and she wasn’t doing one damned thing to stop them.
“Cole?”
“Miranda has an attorney on retainer.”
“That doesn’t mean…”
“The land is mine and Jancey’s. It’s not going anywhere. When I get ahead, I’ll hire a lawyer.”
“But what if she finds a loophole to gain possession,” Taylor asked. “Eminent domain, or pedis possessio?”
He gave a short laugh. “I think she would have already done that if she could, because that’s exactly how my cousin got his ranch out of her clutches.”
“Bottom line, you can’t make a living on your own property?”
“I can, but I can’t. Jancey and I get a percentage of the take from the guest ranch, but it’s not as much as you might think. If there’s an open position on the ranch, Jancey or I could choose to take the job and draw a paycheck in addition to the percentage—which is what we did in the past. I worked there for…hell, since I was sixteen. Went back to work after college, thinking that it was my job to help the family business. Then my uncle died and it all went to hell.
“I can live here on my ranch. However, if I work the ranch, the money I make goes into the general coffers and I pull a percentage of that, as does Miranda.”
“Her finger’s in every pie.”
“The result of an agreement between brothers—one of whom was madly in love with her.”
Cole gestured toward the door with his chin. “I’ll show you the rest.”
He toured her through the barns, which had been expertly staged. He shook his head at the gleaming leather harnesses hung on one wall.
“Looks good,” Taylor murmured.
“Want to know how long it’s been since there’s been a draft horse on the place?” He stopped at the wide door at the far end of the barn and stared out over the fields. Everything about him was stiff and defensive. Taylor was familiar with the posture, having held it a few times herself as she dealt with problems at work…but those problems had never been personal.
She shifted her weight, and he slowly turned toward her, tearing his gaze away from his land. One corner of his mouth tightened. “You know why I brought you with me, right?”
“To keep you from doing something that might get you arrested?”
The corners of his mouth quirked into a faint smile. “Just so we’re on the same page.” He settled his hands on her shoulders, staring down at her seriously. “But I never asked if you were on board for a meeting with the queen.”
“Totally.” She couldn’t wait to meet the woman.
“I
