Page 63 of Meant for Her

“You don’t have to do that,” her mother said. “Malia and I can clear the table.”

“I know, ma’am, but things will go faster if we all pitch in.” This came from Luke.

Most likely, he just wanted to get away from her dad, and she couldn’t blame him.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

The next day at work, Malia had to work hard to focus. It had been difficult to take her mind off the dinner last night. Not that she’d say the dinner was a disaster, but even after Ryan showed her parents that he knew something about wine, her dad didn’t treat them much different.

Malia was impressed with Ryan’s wine knowledge. She couldn’t help but wonder what other talents he or Luke possessed that they hadn’t told her about. Ryan said that Luke could cook, but so far, she hadn’t experienced it.

Her mind swung back to her dad’s rather poor attitude. He could be stubborn, that was for sure, pummeling the men with questions about how they bred their cows, what they fed them, how often they did a perimeter check of their property, and why hadn’t they hired a few hands?

She had to hand it to Luke and Ryan for keeping their cool. Malia might not have. For the most part, either Luke or Ryan had been able to answer each of her father’s questions. Even after all that, her dad didn’t appear to have softened toward them very much.

After tossing and turning last night, she’d figured it out. Ten bucks said that even if the men had the same size ranch as her dad and the same number of cattle, her father wouldn’t approve of them. Why? He knew she had aspirations of being a doctor, and being with the men might interrupt her plans. Not only that, she was the only girl in the family. While her father was protective and wanted the best for her, he didn’t want to give her up. Not that she visited them all that much now, but if she moved in with Ryan and Luke, no telling how often she’d stop by.

That was just her opinion. The men had a different take on the evening. They—or rather Ryan—had been upset that he’d failed to impress the great Josh Granger. She told them that was nonsense, but Ryan was determined to show her dad that they were worthy.

Thankfully, the Emergency Room had a lot of run-of-the-mill cases today that she could take care of in her sleep. It wasn’t until her lunch break that she had the chance to call Mason.

“Hey, I heard you introduced your two men to the family last night.”

She wondered who had let that slip. Most likely it had been Seth. “I did.”

“How did it go?”

Malia didn’t have the time to go into detail, but she wanted to tell him something. “I thought the men held their own, but Dad was determined to prove they weren’t worthy of being with a Granger.”

Mason chuckled. “If Alex and Liam hadn’t been such excellent trainers, Dad might not have been pleased to lose Tawny either. The thing is, I think she stops by more now than before.”

Maybe Malia and the men could spend more time at the Granger ranch. As a bonus, they might actually learn a few ranching techniques. Luke would balk at doing that, but she bet Ryan would agree.

“That’s not a bad idea. I called because I wanted to see if you learned anything about Don and Les Bradley? Could they be behind the cattle rustling?”

“For starters, they are human.”

“Darn. Could they know about shifters and have paid a few of them to steal cattle?”

“Anything’s possible,” her cousin said. “I did ask around, but I didn’t hear anything bad about them.”

That might be a dead end. “There was a man, a Pete Rizolli, who worked with Luke and Ryan’s dad, Emory Lattimore. We think he might know why the father was killed.”

“What does that have to do with the cow theft?” Mason asked.

She explained her theory about Emory owing some gambler money. The person might have waited until Luke and Ryan had something worth stealing. “What do you think?”

“I won’t discount any theory. Let me check him out. Do you know where he is?”

“No, and the men don’t either. And one more thing?” she asked.

“Sure.”

“This is a long shot, and I’m not sure the men would want this, but could you see if you can find a Tara Williams Lattimore? She might have a different last name now.”

“Is she a sister?”

She needed to have a long sit down with Mason. “No. She was their mother who left town about twenty years ago. The dad wasn’t a nice man.”

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