The Maverick Meets His Match (Hearts of Wyoming Book 2)(15)

Looking over her shoulder, Mandy watched as her mother washed and then dried her hands on the checkered towel hanging on the oven handle, adjusting it so it hung just right after she finished.

“Are you saying Daddy didn’t love you when he married you?”

Sheila smoothed her hands down the front of her stylish jeans. “Of course not. But your father wouldn’t have given me a second look if it wasn’t for JM.” Sheila motioned toward Mandy’s plate. “Is that all you are going to eat?”

“I’m not hungry. The coffee will keep me going.” Getting up, Mandy grabbed her plate and scraped the half-eaten egg into the garbage can hidden behind a cabinet door by the sink. Her mother’s cooking was a benefit of living at home. She just didn’t have much of an appetite. She placed the scraped plate in the dishwasher and returned to the table to gather up her papers. “Why do you say daddy wouldn’t have given you a second look?” Her mother had been and still was an attractive woman by anyone’s standards.

“Your father was a bit of a playboy back then. He seemed to like buckle bunnies and models. Much like Ty, if the gossip is true,” her mother said, placing the remaining uncooked eggs and bacon back in the refrigerator and closing the fridge door with a firm press. “Given my height, no one would call me statuesque, that’s for sure. But your father, out of respect for JM, started dating me, and, well, soon there were no more models or rodeo girls in his life. Just me.”

Mandy sat back down and tried to process this new revelation. Surprised as Mandy was, she had to disagree. “This is so different. Daddy wasn’t trying to take over your family’s company. And we’re talking marriage here, not courtship.” Her foot jiggled.

“Your grandfather was just making your arrangement respectable.”

“And binding.”

“For six months. And stop shaking your foot, dear. It’s not ladylike.”

Mandy curled her right leg around her left. Her mother had been trying to cure her of her nervous habit for years, to no avail.

“No court would deny you a divorce if you wanted it once the will was entered into evidence,” Sheila said “These days marriages can be about as lasting as a date, so why not, is all I’m saying.”

“Ah, because I despise the man.”

Sheila shook her head. “Mandy, I’m your mother. I know you better than you know yourself. You do not despise that man. You are attracted to him. And on some level, I think you respect what he’s accomplished, when you can stop envying it.” An image of Ty riding the mare, dressed in slacks and a white shirt, his jaw darkened by a five o’clock shadow, and a lock of hair falling across his brow flitted across her mind, causing a tingle low in her belly.

“I’m not envious of Ty Martin. I might concede to a little lust, but not envy.” Never envy. What did she have to be envious about? Ty wasn’t married, didn’t have children, and though he might be well-off, Prescott Rodeo provided all the money Mandy needed. No, she was not envious.

“Fine, I won’t argue. I just think you should consider it. After all, JM went to a lot of trouble to draft this provision. He obviously thought it was best for you, Ty, and the company.”

Mandy sank her head into her hands. “That’s what I don’t understand. I don’t understand any of it. Did he think me so incapable he had to go through all of this?”

Her mother’s warm hand rested on Mandy’s back. “I don’t think his motive had anything to do with your capabilities. I think he was concerned about the shenanigans the other stockmen might pull. And he was concerned about your happiness. He thought Ty the solution to both, is all.”

Mandy wished she could believe the part about it having nothing to do with her capabilities. As for Ty being the solution, that marriage provision in the will made him the problem. She shuffled the papers before her into a semblance of a pile. Last evening Ty had asked her to consider marriage and told her they were going to wind up in bed together anyway. If she agreed, she’d be playing right into his hands. “JM put up his ranch house for me to lose if I don’t marry, in addition to the threat of Ty selling the firm. He’s put me between the proverbial rock and a hard place.”

If anywhere felt like home, it was her grandfather’s house, built just up the road. It had always been full of people coming and going, even after her grandmother passed away.

Shelia leaned over and picked a stray hair off Mandy’s sleeve. “JM must have seen that spark of attraction between you two. He thinks he can fan it, even from the grave. And he’s willing to put up Prescott shares and the ranch house. That must mean he’s pretty certain of the outcome.”

Mandy shook her head. Obviously, her grandfather had been losing it toward the end. Engaging in fairy-tale notions that weren’t based in reality. “JM was wrong. There is nothing I find admirable about Ty Martin.”

Her mother’s smirk poked her like a cattle prod.

“All right, except maybe his body,” Mandy relented. “You happy?” It was way too awkward speaking about lust with her mother, of all people. “And Ty Martin has never given one hint he’s attracted to me, other than as a way to pass some time.”

We’d be good together.

“Really? I don’t think you’ve been looking too hard then.”