One More Taste (One and Only Texas #2)(18)

How did she do that?

She smoothed her hand over a dent above the front wheel. “How’d you get this dent? It seems fairly new because the paint’s scraped.”

What was she getting at? First, she rifled through his bedroom and probably every other room in his house, and now she was brazen enough to interrogate him about his truck? Why? He was just curious enough to humor her question. “The day Ty and I finalized the contract, on my way to the resort, the truck broke down and hit a boulder.”

“You hit a boulder? Okay, that’s random.”

“I wasn’t in command of the truck at the time.” He glanced at his steering wheel, debating. He was under no obligation to explain himself to this woman. None at all. Except, what was the harm in confessing to her? He had nothing to be ashamed of.

Except that you believe in ghosts.

There was that. “The official diagnosis was a brake fluid leak.”

“But what really happened?”

“You’ll think I’m insane,” he said.

“Try me.”

She said it like a challenge—and he was never one to shy away from one. “All right. I know my dad’s looking down on me from on High. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want me to drive his truck onto the resort property. Even as a ghost or a guardian angel or whatever, he’s still holding a grudge against this place. So, the truck breaks down whenever it gets near the resort.” He allowed himself a rueful smile. “Doesn’t matter which road in to the resort I try to take. As soon as I get to the gate, it dies. Every time. Sometimes it doesn’t even let me get that far.” It was the first time he’d ever voiced his belief to another person, and it sounded even more insane out loud. “Crazy talk, I know.”

“No. Not at all.” Her gaze shifted to the truck as though studying it with fresh eyes.

“You don’t think I’m crazy, believing my dad’s spirit is tampering with his truck?” He refused to use the word haunting.

“I don’t.” She rubbed her chin, a speculative frown curving her lips. “You’re working at the resort where he wasn’t welcome. Do you think he doesn’t want you here?” She leaned in close to the side mirror as though it were the truck’s ear and whispered, “Is that what you’re trying to tell Knox? That he should give up this crazy idea and leave the resort managing to Ty’s branch of the family?”

A surge of protectiveness had him reaching out his arm and tugging her away from the mirror. As crazy as believing in ghosts was, he harbored the even crazier feeling of not wanting anyone else talking to his dad, invading such sacred territory. “You’re patronizing me.”

“I’m not. I’m really not, and I’m sorry if it came across that way.”

He paced to the crest of the hill and stared down at the blaze of light and activity on the resort. “I understand that you want me to leave so your life can go back to normal, but even if I did leave, you can’t go back to the way it was. The resort was bleeding money. If I hadn’t bought into it with my private equity firm, then the resort would’ve either been sold to someone else or closed down.”

Her hand touched his shoulder, turning him to look at her. Her face was pale, her eyes huge. “Are you serious?”

Damn, he’d miscalculated. She hadn’t known that the resort had been on the verge of bankruptcy. Given how close she and the Briscoes were, that surprised him. “Did you mistake me for someone who likes to joke around?” He was gambling that tossing her own words from the previous night back at her might distract her from his inadvertent oversharing, but no dice.

“What happened? The resort’s always booked solid. Every year we seem to get more and more crowded. I don’t understand how we could be in financial ruin.”

The proof was clearly laid out in the accounting records, but he knew Emily wasn’t looking for him to spout cold data as an answer. “The what and why hardly matter now because I did buy into it. And I know how to transform a failing business into a profitable one. I’ll have Briscoe Ranch turned around in no time.”

On a sigh, she gave a slight full body tremor as though shaking away the unpleasant truth. Straightening to her full, proud height, she turned back toward the truck. “Right now. Let’s do it. Let’s drive your truck onto the resort.”

The hasty change of topic had his mind racing to catch up. “It’s not going to work.”

“If we can push it over the top of the hill, it’ll roll downhill on its own. Even your ghost daddy can’t defy physics.”

Knox was pretty sure Dad could, but more importantly, “Could you not call him Ghost Daddy—ever?”

“Fine.” She extended her open palm. “Where are your keys?”

My God, she was serious. “Don’t you recall a little story I told about the brakes malfunctioning? The truck rolled into Lake Bandit and was barely salvageable. We can’t take the chance of the brakes failing again and the truck crashing. Or worse, hitting a resort guest.”

To his great frustration, she crouched again with her mouth near the side mirror. “Tell you what, Clint. I know you don’t want Knox here. I don’t either, but he is here. And he’s right that it’s probably the best for the resort. So instead of being an asshole, why don’t you support your son? Hmm?”