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“Harmless?” Fred mused.
Leo flushed. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“Wouldn’t you?” Fred leaned back in his chair, smiling at the younger man’s confusion. “I’ve sheltered Janie too much. I wanted her to have a smooth, easy path through life. But I did her no favors. She’s not a dress-up doll, Leo, she’s a woman. She needs to learn independence, self-sufficiency. She has a temper, and she’s learning to use that, too. Last week, she stood up to me for the first time and told me what she was going to do.” He chuckled. “I must confess, it was pretty shocking to realize that my daughter was a woman.”
“She’s going around with Harley,” Leo said curtly.
“Why shouldn’t she? Harley’s a good man—young, but steady and dependable. He, uh, did go up against armed men and held his own, you know.”
Leo did know. It made him furious to know. He didn’t hang out with professional soldiers. He’d been in the service, and briefly in combat, but he’d never fought drug dealers and been written up in newspapers as a local hero.
Fred deduced all that from the look on Leo’s lean face. “It’s not like you think,” he added. “She and Harley are friends. Just friends.”
“Do I care?” came the impassioned reply. He grabbed up his Stetson and got to his feet. He hesitated, turning back to Fred. “I won’t insist, but Janie would never have to know if I took an interest in the ranch,” he added firmly.
Fred was tempted. He sighed and stood up, too. “I’ve worked double shifts for years, trying to keep it solvent. I’ve survived bad markets, drought, unseasonable cold. But this is the worst it’s ever been. I could lose the property so easily.”
“Then don’t take the risk,” Leo insisted. “I can loan you what it takes to get you back in the black. And I promise you, Janie will never know. It will be between the two of us. Don’t lose the ranch out of pride, Fred. It’s been in your family for generations.”
Fred grimaced. “Leo…”
The younger man leaned both hands on the desk and impaled Fred with dark eyes. “Let me help!”
Fred studied the determination, the genuine concern in that piercing stare. “It would have to be a secret,” he said, weakening.
Leo’s eyes softened. “It will be. You have my word. Blake Kemp’s our family attorney. I’ll make an appointment. We can sit down with him and work out the details.”
Fred had to bite down hard on his lower lip to keep the brightness in his eyes in check. “You can’t possibly know how much…” He choked.
Leo held up a hand, embarrassed by his friend’s emotion. “I’m filthy rich,” he said curtly. “What good is money if you can’t use it to help out friends? You’d do the same for me in a heartbeat if our positions were reversed.”
Fred swallowed noticeably. “That goes without saying.” He drew in a shaky breath. “Thanks,” he bit off.
“You’re welcome.” Leo slanted his hat across his eyes. “I’ll phone you. By the way, which restaurant is Janie working at?” he added. “I might stop by for lunch one day.”
“That wouldn’t be a good idea just yet,” Fred said, feeling guilty because Leo still didn’t know what was going on.
Leo considered that. “You could be right,” he had to agree. “I’ll let it ride for a few days, then. Until she cools down a little, at least.” He grinned. “She’s got a hell of a temper, Fred. Who’d have guessed?”
Fred chuckled. “She’s full of surprises lately.”
“That she is. I’ll be in touch.”
Leo was gone and Fred let the emotion out. He hadn’t realized how much his family ranch meant to him until he was faced with the horrible prospect of losing it. Now, it would pass to Janie and her family, her children. God bless Leo Hart for being a friend when he needed one so desperately. He grabbed at a tissue and wiped his eyes. Life was good. Life was very good!
Fred was still up when Janie got home from work. She was tired. It had been a long night. She stopped in the kitchen to say good-night to Hettie before she joined her father in his study.
“Hettie said Leo came by,” she said without her usual greeting. She looked worried. “Why?”
“He wanted to check on his bull,” he lied without meeting her eyes.
She hesitated. “Did he… ask about me?”
“Yes,” he said. “I told him you had a job working in a restaurant.”
She stared at her feet. “Did you tell him which one?”
He looked anxious. “No.”
She met his eyes. “You don’t have to worry, Dad. It’s none of Leo Hart’s business where I work, or whatever else I do.”
“You’re still angry,” he noted. “I understand. But he wants to make peace.”
She swallowed, hearing all over again his voice taunting her, baiting her. She clenched both hands at her sides. “He wants to bury the hatchet? Good. I know exactly where to bury it.”
“Now, daughter, he’s not a bad man.”
“Of course he’s not. He just doesn’t like me,” she bit off. “You can’t blame him, not when he’s got Marilee.”
He winced. “I didn’t think. You lost your only friend.”
“Some friend,” she scoffed. “She’s gone to spend the holidays in Colorado,” she added smugly. “A rushed trip, I heard.”
“I imagine she’s too ashamed to walk down the main street right now,” her father replied. “People have been talking about her, and that’s no lie. But she’s not really a bad woman, Janie. She just made a mistake. People do.”
“You don’t,” she said unexpectedly, and smiled at him. “You’re the only person in the world who wouldn’t stab me in the back.”
He flushed. Guilt overwhelmed him. What would she say when she knew that he was going to let Leo Hart buy into the ranch, and behind her back? It was for a good cause, so that she could eventually inherit her birthright, but he felt suddenly like a traitor. He could only imagine how she’d look at him if she ever found out….
“Why are you brooding?” she teased. “You need to put away those books and go to bed.”
He stared at the columns that wouldn’t balance and thought about having enough money to fix fences, repair the barn, buy extra feed for the winter, buy replacement heifers, afford medicine for his sick cattle and veterinarian’s fees. The temptation was just too much for him. He couldn’t let the ranch go to strangers.
“Do you ever think about down the road,” Fred murmured, “when your children grow up and take over the ranch?”
She blinked. “Well, yes, sometimes,” she confessed. “It’s a wonderful legacy,” she added with a soft smile. “We go back such a long way in Jacobsville. It was one of your great-uncles who was the first foreman of the Jacobs ranch properties when the founder of our town came here and bought cattle, after the Civil War. This ranch was really an offshoot of that one,” she added. “There’s so much history here!”
Fred swallowed. “Too much to let the ranch go down the tube, or end up in the hands of strangers, like the Jacobs place did.” He shook his head. “That was sad, to see Shelby and Ty thrown off their own property. That ranch had been in their family over a hundred years.”
“It wasn’t much of a ranch anymore,” she reminded him. “More of a horse farm. But I understand what you mean. I’m glad we’ll have the ranch to hand down to our descendants.” She gave him a long look. “You aren’t thinking of giving it up without a fight?”
“Heavens, no!”
She relaxed. “Sorry. But the way you were talking…”
“I’d do almost anything to keep it in the family,” Fred assured her. “You, uh, wouldn’t have a problem with me taking on a partner or an investor?”
“Of course not,” she assured him. “So you found someone in Colorado after all?” she added excitedly. “Somebody who’s willing to back us?”
“Yes,” he lied, “but I didn’t hear until today.”
“That’s just great!” she exclaimed.
He gave her a narrow look. “I’m glad you think so. Then you can give up that job and go back to college…”
“No.”
His eyebrows went up. “But, Janie…”
“Dad, even with an investor, we still have the day-to-day operation of the ranch to maintain,” she reminded him gently. “How about groceries? Utilities? How about cattle feed and horse feed and salt blocks and fencing?”
He sighed. “You’re right, of course. I’ll need the investment for the big things.”
“I like my job,” she added. “I really do.”
“It’s a bad place on the weekends,” he worried.
“Tiny likes me,” she assured him. “And Harley comes in at least two or three times a week, mostly on Fridays and Saturdays, to make sure I’m doing all right. I feel as safe at Shea’s as I do right here with you.”
“It’s not that I mind you working,” he said, trying to explain.
“I know that. You’re just worried that I might get in over my head. Tiny doesn’t let anybody have too much to drink before he makes them leave. Mr. Duncan is emphatic about not having drunks on the place.”
Fred sighed. “I know when I’m licked. I may show up for pizza one Saturday night, though.”
She grinned. “You’d be welcome! I could show you off to my customers.”
“Leo wanted to know where you were working,” he said abruptly. “He wanted to come by and see you.”
Her face tautened. “I don’t want to see him.”
“So I heard. He was, uh, pretty vocal about the way you snubbed him.”
She tossed back her hair. “He deserved it. I’m nobody’s doormat. He isn’t going to walk all over me and get away with it!”
“He won’t like you working at Shea’s, no matter what you think.”
“Why do you care?” she asked suspiciously.
He couldn’t tell her that Leo might renege on the loan if he knew Fred was letting her work in such a dive. He felt guilty as sin for not coming clean. But he was so afraid of losing the ranch. It was Janie’s inheritance. He had to do everything he could to keep it solvent.
“He’s my friend,” he said finally.
“I used to think he was mine, too,” she replied. “But friends don’t talk about each other the way he was talking about me. As if I’d ever gossip about him!”
“I think he knows that now, Janie.”
She forced the anger to the back of her mind. “I guess if he knew what I was doing, he’d faint. He doesn’t think I can cook at all.”
“I did tell him you had a cooking job,” he confided.
Her eyes lit up. “You did? What did he say?”
“He was… surprised.”
“He was astonished,” she translated.
“It bothered him that you snubbed him. He said he felt really bad about the things he said, that you overheard. He, uh, told me about the fight you had at the ball, too.”
Her face colored. “What did he tell you?”
“That you’d had a bad argument. Seemed to tickle him that you had a temper,” he added with a chuckle.
“He’ll find out I have a temper if he comes near me again.” She turned. “I’m going to bed, Dad. You sleep good.”
“You, too, sweetheart. Good night.”
He watched her walk away with a silent sigh of relief. So far, he thought, so good.
Chapter Six
The following Wednesday, Leo met with Blake Kemp and Fred Brewster in Kemp’s office, to draw up the instrument of partnership.
“I’ll never be able to thank you enough for this, Leo,” Fred said as they finished a rough draft of the agreement.
“You’d have done it for me,” Leo said simply. “How long will it take until those papers are ready to sign?” he asked Kemp.
“We’ll have them by Monday,” Kemp assured him.
“I’ll make an appointment with your receptionist on the way out,” Leo said, rising. “Thanks, Blake.”
The attorney shook his outstretched hand, and then Fred’s. “All in a day’s work. I wish most of my business was concluded this easily, and amiably,” he added wryly.
Leo checked his watch. “Why don’t we go out to Shea’s and have a beer and some pizza, Fred?” he asked the other man, who, curiously, seemed paler.
Fred was scrambling for a reason that Leo couldn’t go to Shea’s. “Well, because, uh, because Hettie made chili!” he remembered suddenly. “So why don’t you come home and eat with me? We’ve got Mexican corn bread to go with it!”
Leo hesitated. “That does sound pretty good,” he had to admit. Then he remembered. Janie would be there. He was uncomfortable with the idea of rushing in on her unexpectedly, especially in light of recent circumstances. He was still a little embarrassed about his own behavior. He searched for a reason to refuse, and found one. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, I almost forgot!” he added, slapping his forehead. “I’m supposed to have supper with Cag and Tess tonight. We’re going in together on two new Santa Gertrudis bulls. How could I have forgotten… got to run, Fred, or I’ll never make it on time!”
“Sure, of course,” Fred said, and looked relieved. “Have a good time!”
Leo chuckled. “I get to play with my nephew. That’s fun, all right. I like kids.”
“You never seemed the type,” Fred had to admit.
“I’m not talking about having any of my own right away,” Leo assured him. “I don’t want to get married. But I like all my nephews, not to mention my niece.”
Fred only smiled.
