Page 10 of Hero for the Holidays

Something flickered over his face she couldn’t read. Like she’d caught him in a lie. But she wouldn’t betray that. That she could read him like that. That she knew him like that.

“Because ranching is a tough business,” he said. “It’s a tough life. And the whole point of our banding together was to be able to cover the weak spots. The downtimes. Adding more irons to the fire is going to help us do that.”

“Thank you for explaining our jobs to us,” she said, crossing her arms and staring up at him.

She wasn’t just being bitchy. It was November. They would be doing their big Christmas party soon, and they had a budget for that and it wasbusy. His timing was bad. And weird. And stupid.

He ignored her. “I read about a guy who has a giant spread out in Texas. Not only do they have guesthouses and event centers, but they have their own beer. They have a line of jewelry. They have all kinds of stuff associated with the ranch. Think about the kind of brand we have in Four Corners. Think about what we could do if we all banded together. And I mean all of us. Not just the families, but everybody who puts work into this place. Think about what we could do.”

Damn him. Damn him for being inspiring.

“The truth is, I’ve already started work on the barn.”

“Without clearing it with us?”

“It’s my barn, Fia.”

“But the money is going to come out of our general pot.”

“I started it with my own,” he said. “But if you want to share in the profits, I expect an upfront investment. If they can’t come out of the official branch budget... Well, you can all chip in. Invest.”

“No one’s going to invest,” said Fia.

“Hell,” said Wolf Garrett. “I will.”

She should’ve known that Wolf Garrett would be an annoying wild card. He seemed to want to invest just to bother her.

“Hell, me too,” said Sawyer.

And that wasn’t why Sawyer was investing. He was practical, and he’d been one of the founding members of the collective. He would only do it because he believed in it. Which made her want to savage him.

Reflexively, she turned to look at the McClouds. She was burning daggers into the side of her brother-in-law’s head.

Gus, for his part, said nothing.

“I’ll chip in,” said Hunter McCloud.

Tag, Brody and Lachlan all raised their hands in agreement as well, and so did many of the farmhands.

Wisely, Gus kept his mouth shut and his hands in his lap. As did all the Sullivans.

“We’re not going to just take you at your word,” said Fia. “I need a business plan.”

“Really? Did I ask to see a business plan?”

“You kind of did, Landry,” she said.

“Well. It looks like I have backing either way. Thank you, everyone. That’ll be enough to get us kicked off. More information to come. Now everybody can go eat.”

She was fuming. Burning with outrage. The man was a scourge. He was a pain in the ass.

It was just that it wasn’t fair, not that it wasn’t a good idea. It was that it was such a double standard. The Kings had been obstructionist to her expansion efforts, and now they wanted her to get on board with theirs? Maybe not supporting the expansion when it did seem like a pretty good idea was petty. But God in heaven, wasn’t she owed a little bit of petty when it came to Landry King?

You aren’t going to stop him.

No. And she would potentially be done out of the profits when it was successful and made money.

Dammit.

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