Green Calder Grass (21 page)

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Authors: Janet Dailey

BOOK: Green Calder Grass
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He wasn’t about to refute that. “How much do you want, Tara?”
Her head came up, her dark eyes wide with confusion. “For what?”
“For Wolf Meadow, of course.”
“I . . .” Tara faltered and looked away, running her gaze through the broken land. “I’m not sure I want to sell it.”
His eyes narrowed with a new wariness. “Exactly what do you plan to do with it then?”
The wind whipped a corner of her silk scarf onto her face. Reaching up, Tara pushed it off her cheek and turned imploring eyes on him. “I know you aren’t going to believe this. It’s hard for me to believe it when I remember how much I hated this empty country with its suffocating sky. But this past year I have come to realize how much I miss it.”
“Are you saying that you plan to live here?” Ty demanded.
“I do,” Tara admitted, then added in appeal, “Is that so terribly wrong?”
“Not on this land, you aren’t,” Ty stated, flat and hard.
For the first time there was a snap of anger in her dark eyes. “You don’t really have any control over that, do you?”
It didn’t sit well that she was absolutely right. There was very little he could do to stop her. He looked away, his glance briefly landing on Buck Haskell, standing a short distance away but within earshot.
“What’s your game, Tara?” His stony gaze sliced back to her.
“Please don’t take that attitude, Ty,” she murmured in hurt protest. “Not everything I do is a game.”
“That has been my experience.” It was not in him to relent.
“You can’t have forgotten how well we worked together this past year. Not so quickly. We are good for each other,” Tara insisted in an attempt to appeal to his reason. “Don’t ruin our relationship because of this.”
“You ruined it yourself when you went behind my back and bought this land.”
“Why does that make you so angry?” Tara demanded in frustration. “Why aren’t you congratulating me for finally getting clear title to it from the government? Does it bother you so much that I succeeded where you and your father failed? This is all about that stiff-necked Calder pride, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s about you and the way you kept your acquisition of it such a deep dark secret. Even though you knew I would eventually find out, you still didn’t have the guts to come tell me. You let me show up here instead.”
“I didn’t know how to tell you. Can’t you understand that?” Tara said.
“I might buy that from anyone else, but not from you.”
“Don’t you see—when I started out, I didn’t say anything in case I wasn’t successful. By not saying anything in the beginning, it made it harder to tell you later. And it became even more complicated when I realized I wanted to make my home here. I never guessed I would come to feel that way, but I do. Is that so wrong?”
“I don’t give a damn whether you live in Montana or Marrakesh, just as long as it isn’t on this land.” His gaze sharpened on her. “But you are bound to know that so why are you doing it?”
Her lips curved in a smile of beguilement. “Isn’t it obvious? I want to be near you.” Tara stepped closer and slid her hands onto his shirtfront, spreading them across his chest. “Even if we aren’t married anymore, that doesn’t mean we still can’t be close.”
Grim-eyed, Ty grabbed her wrists and shoved her away from him. “Goodbye, Tara.” He strode toward the ranch pickup.
“Not goodbye, Ty,” she called after him. “We’ll see each other again. If you have any hope of getting this land now, you will have to deal directly with me. I’ll be flying back to Fort Worth this afternoon. Talk it over with your father then give me a call in the next day or two and we will arrange a time when the three of us can sit down and talk.”
Offering no response, Ty climbed into the pickup and slammed the door. An instant later the engine roared to life. After a reversing turn, the truck charged down the dim track toward the south fence line.
Buck waited a beat then sauntered over to Tara, his side glance inspecting the smooth satisfaction in her expression. “Reckon he’ll call?”
“He doesn’t have a choice,” Tara replied with certainty.
With a push of his thumb, Buck tipped the brim of his hat back. “I guess you haven’t learned a Calder always has a choice.”
“Not this time.” There wasn’t even the smallest trace of doubt in her voice.
Buck wasn’t so sure of that, but he didn’t say so as the wind carried to him the distinctive
chop-chop
of a helicopter’s rotating blades. Looking up, he spotted the big workhorse chopper lumbering out of the eastern sky, a piece of machinery suspended beneath it.
“Here comes the backhoe,” he told Tara then cautioned, “You might want to move back a ways. The dust is gonna be flyin’.”
“That’s fine. The architect and I need to decide on a final building site anyway.” Taking his suggestion, Tara moved away to rejoin the other man, studiously pacing off a section of ground, oblivious to everything else.
 
 
A thick and heavy silence hung over the den, weighted by the news Ty had brought back with him. Chase sat behind the desk, grimly contemplating its many ramifications. Ty stood at the window, one hand braced against its frame, a thumb of the other hooked in his back pocket while he stared blindly at the sprawl of ranch buildings beyond its glass. A high and angry tension ridged the muscles along his jaw and darkened his eyes to blackened pinpoints of suppressed rage.
The big leather chair creaked as Chase rocked forward. “It won’t be long before the range telegraph gets wind of this and flashes it to every corner of the ranch. We won’t be able to ignore it.”
Ty slammed his hand against the window frame, the sharp hard sound of it shattering the room’s stillness like a clap of thunder. “She wants something. What the hell is it?”
“We won’t know that until we meet with her,” Chase stated.
“I hate playing into her hand.” Ty swung from the window, no longer able to contain the simmering energy inside.
“At least we know the stakes are Wolf Meadow.” Chase settled back in his chair, turning thoughtful again.
“And she isn’t bluffing about building a house on it or that chopper wouldn’t be flying in a backhoe.”
“So it would seem,” Chase murmured in absent agreement. “But what is she doing with Buck Haskell on the payroll?”
“I didn’t ask. More than likely it’s pure spite on her part.” Too impatient to sit, Ty wandered over to the front of the desk.
“You do realize that Jessy will be calling the minute they land in Fort Worth to see what you found out,” Chase said, then added, “I wouldn’t tell her anything yet.”
Ty’s head came up, a questioning frown knitting his brows. “Why not? It won’t come as any great surprise to her. Jessy has been convinced Tara was up to something for more than a year.”
“I wasn’t thinking about Jessy,” Chase replied, a touch of grimness about his mouth. “It’s Cat I’m worried about. She’s always looked up to Tara. This will be a blow to her. Why ruin her shopping trip if it can be avoided.”
“You don’t know Jessy.” A dry smile tugged at one corner of Ty’s mouth. “She isn’t going to buy the idea that I didn’t learn anything.”
“Admit that you did, but explain that it looks like you won’t be able to tell her the new owner’s name until they get home tomorrow. Which will be the truth, as far as it goes. You can explain later about Cat. She’ll understand.”
Knowing his wife, Ty couldn’t argue with that logic.
 
 
Late on Sunday afternoon the twin-engine Beechcraft taxied toward the hangar apron where the welcoming committee of Ty, Logan, and Quint waited for it. Upon reaching its tie-down area, the pilot slew the craft around and cut its engines.
Frank came out of the hangar shed at a waddling trot, toting the wheel chocks. Grunting with the effort, he jammed a set around each wheel, then scrambled around to slap a hand on the cabin door. As soon as it swung open, he latched it back and pulled the steps down.
When Cat came into view, Quint broke from his father’s side and ran to meet her. “I’m glad you’re home, Mom. We missed you a lot.”
“I missed you, too.” She crouched down to wrap him in a hug and smack a kiss on his cheek then straightened, tipping her head up in anticipation of Logan’s welcoming kiss.
He didn’t disappoint her as Jessy emerged from the plane. Her glance ran straight to Ty in an unspoken question. Ty didn’t need to hear the words to know what she was asking—whether he had learned the identity of the new owner. He responded with a barely perceptible nod then moved forward to greet her.
“Welcome home.” He dropped a light kiss on her lips.
“You have no idea how glad I am to be back,” Jessy murmured.
“An ordeal, was it?” Ty smiled at this rare woman who was his wife.
“And then some,” Jessy answered with a mock roll of her eyes.
“Did you two succeed in buying out the stores before you left?” Logan teased.
“We made a gallant effort at it,” Cat responded in kind.
“Did you find a new jacket for me, Mom?” Quint asked, his gray eyes alight with hope.
“I certainly did.”
“Where is it?” Quint wanted to know.
“Yes.” Logan picked up the question. “Where is this haul you made? I expected you two to be loaded down with packages.”
“They’re in the baggage compartment. Get your arms ready,” Cat warned. “You have some heavy-duty carrying to do.”
Frank opened the hatch to the luggage compartment, paused, and shot a wide-eyed look at Cat. “Good Lord, Miss Cat, you did buy out the stores there.”
He hauled box after box out of the rear compartment—long boxes, tall boxes, fat boxes, shoeboxes, and hatboxes. Cat sorted through them as they came out, identifying what belonged to whom. When she had finished, all but two were in her own stack.
Ty stared from the two lonely boxes to Jessy in disbelief. “Is that all you bought?”
“Don’t you wish.” Cat laughed. “That is merely what your wife brought home with her. Jessy has the most incredible eye for what looks great on her.”
The compliment was so unexpected that Ty couldn’t keep from sliding a skeptical glance at his wife. Jessy had a kind of natural beauty that was simple and strong, but she had never been one to spend much time worrying about what to wear. He had counted on Cat’s fashion sense to guide Jessy in purchasing the appropriate clothes for the auction.
“I’m serious.” Cat caught the doubt that had flickered in his eyes. “On Saturday, I must have had her try on twenty different outfits that looked sensational on the hanger but didn’t suit her at all. Finally, we were in this one shop and I had already selected two or three things for Jessy to try on when she walked over to a rack, pulled out a short jacket in a brick-red wool, and grabbed a pair of black jeans off the shelf and a high-crowned black hat with a concho band. Then she said to me, ‘I’ll try this on first.’ When she walked out of the changing room, my chin hit the floor. Except for the blond hair, she looked exactly like one of those cowgirls in a Doreman Burns painting. It’s a perfect outfit for the open house.”
“What did you buy for the auction?” Ty asked, his curiosity aroused, taking more interest in the subject than he might have before this weekend’s turn of events.
“A pair of suede jeans and a matching shirt.” Even now, Jessy had lost interest in the subject.
“Sounds plain, doesn’t it?” Cat said. “But Jessy is striking in it. I guarantee heads will turn. She found the set in the men’s side of the store, tried it on, and the search was over. Of course it didn’t fit properly. But fortunately it was the work of a local designer. Rather than do a lot of major alterations to the outfit, a new one is being made just for her. It should be here in a couple of months, complete with matching boots and hat. Believe me, she will be sensational in it.”
“I believe you.” There was satisfaction in the thought that Jessy would be the one making the fashion statement, something that had always been Tara’s province.
“Enough about clothes.” Jessy said with her usual bluntness. As far as she was concerned, the subject had been exhausted long ago. There were more important matters at hand. “Were you able to learn who the new owner is?”
“Actually I knew it when I talked to you yesterday, but Dad and I decided to wait until you were back to tell you,” Ty admitted, watching as Jessy mentally braced herself. He slid a glance at his sister, aware that she would be the one shocked by the news. Logan shifted closer to Cat. “It’s Tara.”
“No.” Cat stepped back from him, bumping into Logan, her green eyes round with denial and disbelief. “She wouldn’t do that. You made a mistake.”
“There is no mistake, Cat,” Ty stated with a gentle firmness. “I talked with her myself.”
“But . . . why? Why would she do it?” Cat looked at him with heart-touching bewilderment.
“Her reasons don’t really matter,” Ty replied. “She owns it and we have to deal with that.”

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