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“I know, I know,” Teresa said, holding up one hand as if to stave off a familiar argument. “You are a grown woman. You don’t need a man to complete you.” She gave an impatient huff. “I should never have let you watch those talk shows when you were growing up. They fill your head with—”
“—sense?” Gina offered, smiling. She did love her mom, it was just so aggravating having to apologize for not being married and/or pregnant all the damn time.
“Sense. Is it sense to live alone? To not have love in your life? No,” Teresa snapped, not waiting for an answer. “It is not.”
It would be easier to argue with her mom if a part of Gina didn’t agree. Okay, a small part. But a tiny voice in the back of her mind whispered that she wasn’t getting any younger. That she should give up on old fantasies that should have died years ago.
Yet somehow…she couldn’t quite manage it.
“I’m fine, Mom,” she said, willing herself to believe it.
Teresa laid one hand on her daughter’s forearm and gave her a pat. “Of course you are.”
Okay, Gina was willing to accept that, even if her mom was placating her. At least it had stopped the conversation. “Where’s Papa?” she asked. “He was going to come look over the new baby this morning.”
Teresa waved one hand. “He has a ‘meeting’ he said. Very important.”
“Yeah? With who?”
“You think he tells me?” Teresa huffed out a frustrated breath and Gina smiled.
Nothing her mother hated more than not knowing what was going on at all times.
“Well, while Papa’s in his meeting, you can meet the new baby.”
“Horses,” Teresa muttered. “You and your horses.”
Gina laughed and took her mother’s hand. “Come on.”
As they walked to the fence gate, a rumble of noise drifted to them and Gina turned to watch a car approach down the long driveway leading in from the main road. Dust billowed behind the black luxury SUV and Gina felt a stir of something deep inside her when she recognized the car. Despite trying to ignore that feeling, her breath caught and held in her chest and her mouth suddenly went dry.
She didn’t even need to read the license plate… KING 1 to know without a doubt that Adam King was in that car. She felt it as surely as she felt the rocky ground beneath her feet. What was that, anyway? Some sort of inner radar that leaped into life whenever Adam got close?
“So, Adam King is the important meeting,” her mother mused. “I wonder why.”
Gina wondered, too. She knew she should just go about her business, but somehow, she couldn’t make her feet move. She just stood there and watched as Adam parked his car and opened the door. When he stepped out and looked around, his dark-eyed gaze sliding across the ranch yard, something inside her jumped in reaction. Stupid, she told herself. Stupid to feel anything for a man who didn’t even know you existed.
Adam’s gaze kept moving, as if he were cataloging the Torino ranch and would be given a test on it later. Finally, his gaze moved over Gina. She stiffened. Even from a distance she felt the power of his stare as if he’d reached out and touched her.
He nodded at her and her mother, and Gina forced herself to lift one hand in a halfhearted wave. Almost before her fingers had stopped moving, though, Adam had turned for the house.
“A cold man, that one,” Teresa said in a quiet voice from right beside Gina. Crossing herself she added, “There is a darkness in him.”
Gina had felt the darkness, too, so she couldn’t really argue the point. But she’d known Adam and his brothers all of her life. And she’d always wanted to be the one to ease the darkness back for him.
Stupid, she supposed. What is it with women that we all want to be the one to “save” a guy? she wondered.
She was still standing there, watching after Adam, even though he’d already gone into the ranch house for his meeting with her father. And finally, Gina felt her mother watching her. “What?”
“I see something in your eyes, Gina,” her mother whispered, worry tightening her mouth and flashing in her gaze.
Gina immediately turned away and started walking toward the horses in the meadow. She still felt a little shaky so she made sure her steps were long and steady. Lifting her chin, she whipped her hair back out of her eyes and said, “I don’t know what you mean, Mom.”
Teresa wasn’t so easily put off, however. She hurried after her daughter, took hold of Gina’s arm and dragged her to a stop. Looking into her eyes, Teresa said, “You cannot fool me. There is something there in you for Adam King. And you must not surrender to it.”
Surprised, Gina laughed. “Excuse me? This from the woman who not five minutes ago was telling me to get married and start having babies?”
“Not with him,” Teresa said. “Adam King is the one man I do not want for you.”
Unfortunate.
Since Adam King was the only man Gina wanted.
Two
Adam knocked on the front door, waited impatiently and then jerked to attention when a shorter, older man opened it and smiled out at him.
“Adam,” Sal Torino said, stepping back and waving him inside. “Right on time, as always.”
“Sal. Thanks for seeing me.” Adam stepped into the house and glanced around. It had been a long time since he was last here, but he noticed that the place hadn’t changed much.
The entryway was wide and lit from above by a skylight that spilled sunshine in a wash of gold across the gleaming pine floors. The hall leading to the back of the house was covered in framed family photos of smiling kids and proud parents. The high, arched doorway that led into the living room where Sal gestured for Adam to follow had been unchanged, as well. The walls were still a soft, warm yellow, the furniture was oversize and comfortable, and a stone hearth, cold now, held a copper urn filled with fresh flowers. Sal took a seat on the sofa and reached for a coffeepot sitting on a tray atop a wide, scarred pine table.
While Sal poured coffee Adam didn’t want, he wandered the room and stopped at the curved bay window. The glass gleamed in the morning light and provided a sweeping view of the neatly trimmed lawn ringed by ancient oak trees. Adam hardly noticed, though. His mind was already focused on the task at hand: How he would convince Sal to sell him the land he needed.
“So, what brings Adam King to my house first thing in the morning?”
Adam turned around to look at his neighbor. Sal stood about five foot eight, had thick black hair streaked with gray, skin as weathered and tanned as old leather and sharp brown eyes.
He walked over to take the coffee cup Sal offered him and then had a sip just to be polite. Sitting down opposite the other man, Adam cupped the heavy mug between his palms and said, “I want to talk to you about that twenty-acre parcel in your north pasture, Sal.”
The older man’s face split in an understanding smile as he leaned back into the sofa cushions. “Ah.”
It wasn’t good business to let your opponent know how badly you wanted something. But Sal Torino was no dummy. The King family had made offers for that land several times over the last couple of decades and Sal had always turned them down flat. So, he already knew how important this was to Adam. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.
“I want that land, Sal, and I’m willing to make you a deal that’ll give you a hell of a profit on it.”
Shaking his head Sal took a gulp of coffee, swallowed and sighed. “Adam…”
“Hear me out.” Adam leaned forward, set his coffee cup down on the tray and sat back again, bracing his forearms on his thighs. “You don’t use that piece of land for grazing or pasture. It’s just sitting there.”
Sal smiled and shook his head again. Fine. He was stubborn. Adam could appreciate that. He bit down on the impatience scratching at his insides and forced a congenial tone to his voice. “Think about this, Sal. I’m willing to make you another substantial offer for the property.”
“Why is this so important to you?”
Now we play the game. Adam wished this were all somehow easier. Sal knew damn well about Adam’s quest to make the King ranch whole again, but clearly he was going to have to spell it all out.
“It’s the last piece of the original King family holdings,” Adam said tightly. “Which you already know.”
Sal smiled again and Adam thought the older man sort of looked like a benevolent elf. Too bad he didn’t look like an elf who wanted to sell. “So let’s get down to business here. You don’t need the land. I want the land. Simple as that. So what do you say?”
“Adam,” Sal started, pausing for another sip of coffee, “I don’t like selling land. What’s mine is mine. You know that. You feel the same way I do.”
“Yes, and that parcel is mine, Sal. Or it should be. It started out King land. It should be King land again.”
“But it isn’t.”
Adam quietly seethed with frustration.
“I don’t need your money.” Sal sat forward, set his coffee cup down and then stood up to wander the room. “You know that, and yet, you come to me anyway, thinking to sway me with an argument for profit margins.”
“Making a profit’s not a sin, Sal,” Adam countered.
“Money is not the only thing a man thinks about, though.”
Sal stopped at the hearth, leaned one arm on the heavily carved mantel and looked down at Adam.
Adam wasn’t used to being the one on the defensive in a negotiation. And looking up at Sal from the comfort of a too-soft chair made him feel at a disadvantage, so he stood up, too. Shoving both hands into the pockets of his jeans, he watched the older man and wondered what Sal was up to.
“I hear an implied ‘but’ in there somewhere,” Adam said. “So why don’t you just tell me what you’ve got in mind and we can decide if we’re going to be able to make a deal.”
“Ah,” Sal said. “So impatient. You should learn to enjoy life more, Adam. It’s not good to build a life solely on business.”
“Works for me.”
Adam wasn’t interested in listening to advice. He didn’t want to hear about “enjoying” life. All he wanted was that last piece of land.
“There was a time when you didn’t feel that way,” Sal mused and the smile slipped off his features even as his dark eyes went soft and sympathetic.
Adam stiffened perceptibly. The worst part of living in a small town was having everyone for miles around knowing your personal business. Sal, he knew, was trying to be nice, so he kept a lid on the simmering knot of something ugly inside him. People thought they knew him. Thought they could understand what he was feeling, thinking. But they were wrong.
He wasn’t interested in sympathy any more than he was looking for advice. He didn’t need anyone’s pity. Adam’s life was just as he wanted it.
Except for owning that damned piece of land.
“Look, Sal,” Adam said slowly, quietly, “I’m not here to talk about my life. I’m here to make a deal. So if you don’t mind…”
Sal clucked his tongue in disapproval. “You are a single-minded man, Adam. And while I admire that, it can also make one’s life harder than it has to be.”
“Let me worry about my life, okay?” That sizzle of impatience he’d felt earlier had begun to bubble and froth in the pit of his stomach. “What do you say, Sal? Are we going to be able to come to an agreement?”
Sal braced his feet wide apart, folded his arms across his chest and tipped his head to one side, studying Adam as if looking for something in particular. After a long moment or two, he said, “We might be able to strike a deal. Though the terms I have in mind are somewhat dif ferent than you were expecting.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“Simple,” Sal said with a shrug. “You want the land. I want something in return. And it’s not your money.”
“Then what?”
The older man nodded, walked back to the sofa and sat down again, getting comfortable. When he was settled, he looked up at Adam and said, “You know my Gina.”
“Yeah…” Suspicion rattled through Adam.
“I want to see her happy,” Sal said.
“I’m sure you do.” And what the hell did Gina have to do with any of this?
“I want to see her married. Settled. With a family.”
Everything in Adam went still and cold. He suddenly became hyperaware. He heard the ticking of the clock that hung over the fireplace. He heard a fly bumping against the bay window. He took a long, slow, deep breath and dragged in the enticing aroma of spaghetti sauce bubbling in the kitchen. Adam’s skin felt too tight and every nerve ending in his body was standing straight up.
He took another breath, shook his head and stared at Sal, hardly able to believe what he’d just heard—realization at what Sal could be insinuating hitting him like a ton of bricks. But the older man was staring at him through steady, determined eyes, allowing Adam time to absorb what he’d said. But how could he possibly believe the old man was serious?
Adam had faced tough negotiators before and come out on top, though. Today would be no different.
“I don’t see what Gina getting married has to do with me or this conversation.”
“Don’t you?” Sal smiled. “You’re a man alone, Adam. Gina is alone, as well…”
This was not going the way he’d planned.
Gina?
Married?
To him?
No way. He looked into Sal’s eyes and saw that the older man was absolutely sincere. No matter how whacked it sounded. Adam ground his back teeth together and took a couple of long, hopefully calming, breaths. Didn’t help.
“Let me be clear,” Sal said, shifting to rest one arm along the back of the sofa, like a man completely at ease with himself and his surroundings. “I offer you a deal, Adam. Marry my Gina. Make her happy. Give her one or two babies. And I give you the land.”
Babies?
Fury erupted within and turned Adam’s vision red at the edges. His lungs labored for air. His brain was covered in a mist of temper that made thinking nearly impossible. Which was probably for the best. Because if he took the time to actually consider what Sal was saying, who the hell knew what he might say?
He couldn’t even remember being that angry before. Adam wasn’t manipulated—he was the one who did the manipulating. He was the one who was a shark in negotiations. He didn’t get surprised. He didn’t feel at a loss. He was never at a loss for words, damn it.
And looking at Sal now, he could see the old guy was really enjoying him being confounded, which only made Adam more furious.
“Forget it,” Adam said, the words hardly more than a hiss of sound. Unable to stand still, he stalked over to the bay window, glared at the outside world for a second or two, then spun back around to face the man still seated on the couch. “What the hell’s wrong with you, Sal? Are you delusional? People don’t bargain their daughters for gain anymore. This isn’t the middle ages, you know.”
Slowly the older man stood up, narrowed his eyes on Adam and pointed his index finger, stabbing at the air with it. “This is not for my gain,” Sal pointed out. “This is for your gain. You think I would accept any man for my Gina? You think I value her so lowly that I do this without thinking? Without considering?”
“I think you’re nuts.”
Sal snorted a laugh that had no humor in it. “You want the land so badly? Do this one thing and it’s yours.”
“Unbelievable.” This was crazy. Plain and simple. He’d always liked Sal Torino, too. Who knew the old guy was off his rocker?
