Page 132 of The Guy Who Stole My Ranch

She pointed at her plate. “I’ll be here for a few minutes.”

Words could not express all of the feelings I had for this woman. I gave her hand a squeeze before I took a breath, steeled myself, and stood to meet Matthew Grant.

Matthew wore a paisley dinner jacket, which I was sure Courtney would mock him for, and walked with the air of someone who had more power than anyone else.

Most of the time he did, but not usually with me.

Until today.

Matthew’s beady light blue eyes fell on Brooke, and he nodded to her. “Hello again, little lady.”

Brooke nodded back. “Mr. Grant.”

I put my emotions aside and drew on years of training and experience. “Matthew, good to see you.” I held out my hand.

“Where’s your father?” We shook. Matthew tried to squeeze the stuffing out of my fingers, but he had nothing on the folks from Texas.

“I haven’t seen him.”

“We need to talk.” Matthew jerked his head toward a nearby corner in the maze.

I didn’t have to go with him; I could wait until he found my father, but it might be bad for our case if I refused. I turned to Brooke and smiled. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”

“Take your time.” She waved a hand and pulled her phone from…somewhere.

I’d have to thank her for her understanding. Maybe with ice cream and a burger on the way back to her friend’s house.

I held out a hand for Matthew. “Lead the way.”

We’d barely gotten around the corner before someone I didn’t know intercepted us. I recognized Matthew’s failure to introduce me to the man as blatant disrespect, and I managed not to roll my eyes at the petty slight. My phone buzzed, and I hoped it was from Brooke, so I retrieved the device and found that I’d missed a call from Texas. It wasn’t Christian’s number, but since I had a minute, I opened the voicemail.

“William, this is Todd Shaw, Robert’s son.”

What did Brooke’s oldest brother need me for?

“Listen, I just got a call from my friend, Randy, who runs the bank in Whitehill. He’s asking me about a loan for Brooke.”

Brooke hadn’t mentioned borrowing money. Maybe she was planning to leave the ranch and needed the influx of cash to relocate. That didn’t get a chance to sink in because Todd’s next words overpowered everything.

“The loan is for the ranch. It seems she had plans to expand it herself. I think she thought our dad was going to pass it down to her.”

I turned back toward Brooke, even though I could no longer see her.

“Has she mentioned this to you?”

No, she had not. In all the time we’d spent together, she’d never talked about wanting to keep the ranch, and I’d never picked up on it.

“No one else knew either, but this might change my dad’s mind about selling to you.”

Why hadn’t she said anything? I’d asked her not to keep things like this from me.

My mind jumped into gear, and I went through all of the moments at the ranch from the first time I’d seen her at Robert’s to our parting kiss.

All that time she’d been, what, seeing if I was worthy to take over, or had she been trying to get rid of me?

“Call me when you get this.” Todd’s message ended.

Brooke had wanted the ranch, and she’d never said a word to me.

---