Page 65 of Christmas with the Cowgirl
He felt as if his head were reeling.“How did I not know…any of this?”
“You and me both,” Jackson said, staring at the woman who had just become his wife.
“She doesn’t discuss it,” Nic said.“Except for what good she can do, she doesn’t like to even think about it.Everybody in town talking to her about it all the time got annoying, so she turned the day-to-day business aspect over to a firm in town, and moved them into the stratosphere doing it.”
“More to the point,” Jackson said, as if he were beginning to figure out what all this had to do with right now, “it sounds like she has no need at all to turn a big chunk of her ranch over to Flint Productions just for the bucks.”
“But…like I said, we didn’t even talk about money, really.”He was feeling as if he’d been crossing a footbridge without looking down and it had suddenly ended, leaving him like some cartoon character treading air.“So why would she get so mad?”
“What, exactly, did you tell her?”Nic asked.
He wasn’t comfortable sharing like this, but he was also desperate to understand what the hell had gone so wrong.So he related the conversation, hoping this woman Riley was so close to would have an answer for him.
“You told her you’ve been thinking about this since you first went to her ranch and saw the place in your painting?”Nic asked.
He nodded.She gave him an eye-roll and a half shake of her head.
“What?”He sounded as bewildered as he felt.
“Damn,” Jackson said, in the tone of someone who had just had the light dawn.
Miles, who was known for his cool calm, for never pitching a fit, for being the polar opposite of Swiffer, was about ready to grab something, anything, and throw it across the room.Probably fortunately, before he could let fly some foul tirade, Jackson stepped in.
“Remember Amy Mitchell?”
Boggled, Miles gaped at his friend.What on earth did the predatory blonde who had thought the pathway to having him produce her rather silly script had been through his bedroom, have to do with this?
“She’s unforgettable, and not in a good way,” he said, “but what the—”
He broke off as it hit him.And hit him hard.
“No,” he said, almost involuntarily.“No, you know I would never do anything like that.”
“I know it,” Jackson said.“And Nic knows it.But does Riley?”
“Riley,” Nic said gently, “who nearly married a guy it turned out wanted some of that cash to pump into his own failing business.”
He blinked.Thought of what he’d told her about finding money to finance this project.Opened his mouth to speak, found he had no words ready, and closed it again.After a moment he tried again.
“But I had no idea about this.”He gestured at the thing Christi had called her Texas Clipper.In that slightly derisive tone, as if in disbelief that anything so clever could come out of a state she’d never deign to set foot in.
Nic’s tone was still gentle.“But Riley would assume you knew, because it’s common knowledge here, and she knows everyone talks about it.So if you needed to persuade her, but also knew she didn’t need money…”
“And you think she thinks…that’s why I…why we…” He couldn’t even finish the thought.
And crazily, it seemed to make Nic smile at him.“I’m glad that’s so astonishing to you.It proves it never occurred to you to try and seduce her into saying yes.”
The combination of grimace and wince that took over his face was almost physically painful.His gut also wasn’t too happy with the idea of even trying that.His brain seemed to be swirling.But this was crucial, and he had to be sure he understood.He felt as if he were floundering.In desperation he reached for that story-telling skill he used when working on a new idea.
Order.Chronological order.That’s what it was.It was all about the order things had happened in.Riley had assumed he already knew about the clip, and her wealth, and thus thought the only way in was to seduce her into saying yes.Whereas in fact, he’d begun falling for her before he’d even known the vista in his painting was reality on her ranch.
He’d just about fallen like the proverbial ton of bricks that first day, when she’d brought over the new pony for Jeremy.He remembered how he’d felt, as if the earth had shifted under his feet, at his first look at her.He’d never really believed in that kind of immediate response, outside of what worked well on film.But he couldn’t deny his own reaction.It had been hot and instant and real.And even if he had doubted it in the beginning, the last couple of weeks had incinerated those doubts.
But not for Riley.All he’d managed to do was create those doubts in her.
This was his own fault.The old phrase “ignorance is no excuse” kept floating through his mind.It was true he hadn’t known Riley had no need for the biggest bargaining chip in Hollywood: money.But even though he hadn’t known that, he should have been more open with her about the idea that had been moved from a want to a possibility when he’d discovered the vista he’d wanted to capture was here, waiting.Now she likely would never believe him if he told her.
And he didn’t think there was a fix for the fierce, hollow ache inside him that ran from his chest to his gut.
