Page 15 of Must Love Mistletoe

“She’s talking about your deep and abiding feelings for the woman,” Seth added. “Don’t bother denying it.”

“Excuseme?”

“What he means to say is that most everyone in your family thinks you’ve been in love with Beth for years,” Maddie saidhelpfully. “Unlike Beth, who has absolutely no idea you’re in love with her at all.”

“She buried her husband last weekend!”

“I mean,technicallythat’s true.” Maddie nodded. “She also asked you to marry her this morning, so I think you’re good to go.”

“That was abusinessoffer.”

“Told you he was thick,” Seth murmured, but Maddie hadn’t finished with Cal yet.

“What if she’s sweet on you too—”

“She’s not,” he argued bluntly.

“And hasn’t even let herselfthinkthat way, until now. And what if her love language is so rusty she can’t figure out how to let you know she’s interested in more than just business? Let’s face it, your love language involves doing farm chores for her—it’s not as if you’re giving her obvious cues.”

Love language?“What the ever-lovin’ heck are you talking about?”

“Ask her on a date,” Seth said. “Make your move. Shoot your shot. Preferably soon.”

Did they really all know? Was he that transparent? No. Out of the question. They all knewnothing. Seth was bluffing. “Even if that was a consideration,and I’m not saying it is, why can’t a man take his time?”

“Because we’re buying Beth’s ranch and figuring out who wants which bits of itnow.”

“You said it was all tradeable,” Cal reminded him. “Put me down for the nine percent, you pick up the major shareholder stake in Red’s place, and I’ll manage it the way you tell me to. I’ve followed Mason’s lead for years. I can sure as rain tolerate yours.”

Seth met his hard gaze without flinching. “You’re a hard man to help.”

It wasn’t Seth’s job to help his fool older brother get by. “Don’t need your help.”

Seth turned to Maddie. “Thick and hardheaded.”

“Mm. Still kind of lovely, though. Cowboy pride.” Maddie smiled at him and it felt a lot like approval, although for what he did not know. “Beth, too, has pride, which is why she probably won’t ask you to marry her again. Once bitten and all that.”

“Do you mean to say any future marriage proposals will have to come from him?” Seth asked with studied innocence.

“Yes.”

They were watching his every move, like wolves stalking a wounded deer. “Is this scripted? Because it sounds like something you practiced on the way over.”

“You mean did we discuss how to let you know that Beth has some fairly strong and not entirely platonic feelings for you? That she’s working through?” Maddie asked thoughtfully. “We may have touched on it on the way over, yes. We also discussed the guilt an honorable man might have carried around on account of having feelings for his best friend’s wife. That he might still be carrying, because he’s loyal to a fault. Loyal to amemory. Even though he’s now free to announce his feelings.”

He picked up his whiskey and downed it in one swallow. “Stop meddling.”

“I may have mentioned how lovely I thought second chances were,” Madeline offered with unbearable delicacy.

Cal looked to Seth pleadingly in the face of Madeline’s relentlessness. “Help.”

Seth poured him a refill. “Think about it.”

Chapter Six

It was fifteenhours since Beth had come clean to Savannah Casey about the wild marriage proposal that had so offended her hardworking second son…

Fourteen hours since Seth had taken a seat at his mother’s kitchen table and drawn up a plan for buying her ranch while still allowing her and Sam to keep a stake in it…

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