Page 53 of My Cowboy Temptation

But for that to happen, I know it’s important that I come clean to Lucas, once and for all.

“Any news?” Lucas asks and nods to my phone that I’ve returned to my front pocket.

“Everything is quiet and secure at the ranch and Callie’s.” I adjust my position, mindful of the ache in my belly from the scratch of Roger’s pocketknife.

“I can’t begin to thank you for what you did last night,” Lucas says.

“You don’t owe me anything, Lucas. I’d give my life to save Callie.”

“I’m sure you would.” He looks over to me. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something for some time.” He rubs his hand over his jaw, as if trying to find the words, and I wait. “You and I have known each other for thirty years. I think of you more like a brother than an employee, and I think it’s time that I repay you for your loyalty.”

“You don’t owe me anything. You and your dad brought me in, gave me a home. I can never repay either of you for your kindness.”

“Figured you’d say that. Well, no matter. I’m getting on in years, as are you, and I’m starting to find an appreciation in things other than just living my life to keep this place afloat.”

“Afloat?” I ask, raising my brows. Between the annual profit from selling the cattle and the value of the land itself and all its structures, Castle Creek Ranch is worth well over a billion dollars, which would hardly put it near the red line of any accountant’s book.

He shrugs. “The point is, I want to focus my energy in more than just one direction, and to do that, I need to know I have someone around who I can trust. A partner.”

“You can trust me,” I say, even as I feel an uncomfortable kick in the gut knowing that what he considers trust might be different than mine. For me, that trust means taking care of everything and everyone on this ranch, making sure first and foremost, however, that Callie is protected and her future is secured.

He probably thinks close to the same—minus my fucking her.

“I know I can,” Lucas says, nodding. “But I think it’s only fair that I express my gratitude by more than words. I’d like to give you a cut of the profits. As my partner.” He talks a little more, going into detail of how he has determined the amount of my share, and I sit there, numb and overwhelmed with my own gratitude and guilt. “I’m not needing your approval on this, Brody. But I am having my attorneys draw something up to make it official.”

I can’t really look at him—I’m still so overwhelmed with what he’s saying, and instead focus my gaze ahead.

His hand pats my back, as if he understands my silence. “Believe me, you’re doing me a favor, old friend.”

Now or never. I crick my neck, side to side as I choose my words. “That really means a lot to me, Lucas. More than you know. And you have to know how much you and your family have become my own family. Which is why you need to know that when this is all over,” I say, nodding out toward the Palmer’s place and the agents lurking in the shadows, “and Palmer’s arrested, you don’t have to worry about Callie and the baby. I’m going to be there for them both.”

“I appreciate that, Brody. You’ve always been there for us both, and I owe you a debt I can never repay.”

“It’s more than that, Lucas.” Just get it out. “I’m in love with her.”

There’s a long stretch of silence, and I can feel his body going stone cold as he processes this. Slowly, he turns his head back to me, and I hold my breath, not sure what to expect. A fast pitch of his fist to my jaw wouldn’t be a surprise, nor would the sound of a click as he took the safety off the semi-automatic pistol he’s carrying.

“I need to assure you of something. Up until Callie returned to Montana this spring, I’ve never seen Callie as anything more than your daughter,” I continue, needing to get it all out there. “But something changed when I saw her again in the spring, and I got to spend time with her. My feelings for her deepened. More than I expected. I love her, and I’m hoping that one day she’ll be my wife.”

“I’m not quite sure what you’re telling me here, Brody,” Lucas says, his voice quiet and dangerously soft. “Are you saying that things have gotten physical between you and my daughter? Have you slept with her?” Then more forcefully as the implications of that hit him, he adds, “Is this baby yours?”

“Hell, Lucas. I wish the baby’s mine, but she assures me it’s some other guy’s.”

He pauses. “But there was a possibility. Because you actually fucked my kid.”

Maybe telling the man when our adrenaline is already sky-high, sitting out here in the middle of nowhere, was a bad idea. Especially when we’re stuck together in the small confines of his truck.

“We both know that Callie is far from being a kid,” I say. “She’s a twenty-four-year-old woman who knows her mind.” For a second, I consider bringing up his own relationship with Cal’s best friend but know that it would be a shit, cowardly thing to do. I went into this relationship with Callie before I knew about Lucas’s, and I’d just be using his as an excuse for bad behavior. “I know that this is a lot, and I never expected or intended anything to happen between us, but then—” I run my hand down my face and through the end of my beard. “I tried to stay away, tried to fight what I felt for her out of respect for you and my relationship with your family. But in the end, I wasn’t strong enough.”

“I have half a mind to beat you senseless,” Lucas says, turning his gaze out to the road rather than me. “But I’m going to reserve that right until after this is over. For now, I’m going to see this Palmer thing through. Then you best keep a wide berth from me while I sit on this. Got it?”

“That’s fair.”

The bright headlights of two semi-trucks blind us, and we immediately sink down in our seats as they pass. We glance out our side mirrors until the red of the brake lights hit the road, and then the trucks turn down the road toward their destination.

And the reckoning waiting.

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