Page 27 of River Legacy
“Ha! You have no idea. She’s a spitfire, always has been.”
“I almost forgot. I met your brother CJ earlier.”
“What?” Ryder shot her a surprised—and worried—look. “Where?”
“Upstairs. I was just going into Tilly’s room when he came down the hall.”
Ryder let out a curse under his breath.
When he spoke, it was through gritted teeth. “He wasn’t supposed to be on the ranch.”
“He was very curious about me. When I told him who I was, he recognized the name. Apparently, he had called my father about selling the ranch months ago.”
Ryder hit the brakes so hard and so fast that if she hadn’t had her seat belt on, she might have gonethrough the windshield. “Sorry,” he said quickly as he pulled to the side of the road. “Are you okay?” She nodded. “CJ told you he had contacted your father about the ranch?”
She nodded. She’d known he wasn’t going to like hearing it, but she hadn’t expected him to take it as badly as this.
“That explains how your father came into our lives. It was all CJ’s doing.” He cursed, then apologized as he got the pickup going again. “No wonder your father has been so persistent.”
“But when you were in Billings you made it clear to him that the ranch wasn’t for sale, right?”
He glanced over at her. “Have you forgotten that we’re talking about your father?”
“Sorry, you’re right. I shouldn’t have brought it up.” She really was sorry. She didn’t want it to ruin their night. Honestly, sometimes she just needed to keep her mouth shut and wait for a better time. She just hadn’t expected Ryder to take it so hard.
“No,” he apologized. “I’m glad you told me about seeing him and about him contacting your father before he was locked up. I wondered how your father even knew about the Stafford Ranch.”
“I’m sure that after talking to your brother, my father researched the ranch, the area, talked to a local geologist—”
“That’s if my brother hadn’t already told him about the methane gas on the property.”
She reached over and touched his thigh. “I’m sorry. But if my father hadn’t been trying to buyyour ranch and hook me up with Claude, we would never have met.”
He chuckled. “A silver lining, huh? For that I am grateful.” She sure hoped he felt that way. She hated that she might have made things worse. He’d saved her from what was going to be a very ugly weekend with her father and Claude. He was right, though. She could have handled them both, but she feared what it would have done to her relationship with her father.
When Ryder looked over at her, she saw that he was enjoying her being here. It filled her with a strange kind of joy. She realized how much she’d wanted him to like her, because she really liked him. She thought about how patient he’d been with her driving lessons. Ryder Stafford was a good man.
“It’s just that my brother worries me,” he said. “CJ was always our mother’s favorite. He could do no wrong. We all knew that he thought of the ranch as his own. I’m sure my mother thought that he would run the ranch one day, as the oldest. He certainly tried to run all of us off so he could have it to himself sooner. But I never thought he’d actually try to sell it.”
“I saw on our horseback ride how much the ranch means to you.”
“There are some things in life that don’t have a price tag on them,” he said as she spotted the lights of a town ahead.
She wished what Ryder had said was true but feared that wouldn’t stop her father. She told herselfthat there was no way CJ could get his hands on the ranch and no way Ryder was ever going to sell it. But what worried her was what her father planned to do about that.
“Is that Powder Crossing?” she asked, hoping to lighten the mood that had filled the cab of the pickup. The last thing she had wanted to do was spoil their night together since it was all they had. But she’d known that Ryder needed to know about CJ and what she’d learned. After meeting CJ, she’d realized that her father wasn’t the only one wanting to take the ranch away from him.
Ryder reached over and squeezed her hand. “Tonight is about having fun. Welcome to Powder Crossing.”
She saw at once how small the town was. It almost looked like a Western movie set. A line of pickups was parked in front of the apparently only bar in town. A couple more were parked in front of the hotel and the café. The general store looked closed.
“Is this as lively as town gets?” she asked as he parked in a spot near the café. She could hear country music coming from the bar across the street.
“Saturday night in Powder Crossing,” he said with a grin. “You are in for a treat.” His cell phone rang. He checked it and declined the call. It rang again a few seconds later. He frowned.
“Take the call if you need to, it,” Victoria suggested.
He shook his head and hit Decline. He was aboutto shut off his phone when it rang yet again. With a sigh, he said, “This time it’s Brand. I’d better take it. What’s up?”
