The Maverick Meets His Match (Hearts of Wyoming Book 2)(73)

But reality was, it would never happen. Not now. Not with the figures that showed the Prescott family would be better off investing their money in stocks and bonds than in horses and bulls.

“You say Stan Lassiter offered you only eighty percent of this figure?” she said, looking up from the paper and casting her cool, green-eyed gaze on him.

Ty nodded.

He wanted more than to do right by her. He wanted her to agree he was doing right by her. He wanted her approval—and understanding. He was working to make her a wealthy woman—not to rob her.

But the frostiness in her eyes said she was having none of it.

“And you have had no other offers?”

“I haven’t officially announced yet that PRC is for sale. I wanted to wait until I had good numbers. Stan just jumped the gun. I think he wanted to see how desperate we were.”

Mandy straightened. “I am not desperate. I don’t want to sell.”

“If we could get an AFBR contract, we’d be able to increase the value of the company considerably as well as make it even more attractive to buyers.”

“I’m only interested in making it more attractive to keep. You acknowledge PRC is profitable?”

“The profit margins aren’t big enough, Mandy. Especially when you take into account the tenuous nature of things. Take this herpes virus that was afflicting horses last year. Rodeos get cancelled, stock gets sick. Suddenly you have a bad year. You’d get more with less risk by selling and leaving the money invested.”

“I see you calculated an eight percent return on the proceeds from the sale. Think you can get that these days, because I’d like to know where?”

“I assumed some of the money would be invested in the stock market, and in that case, the estimate is conservative.”

“Invest so bankers and gambling Wall Street types can loot it? And you have the nerve to talk about risk?”

“Recent events keep me from arguing that point, but let’s hope that was an aberration.”

She snorted.

“I should have the figures for the development of the ranch in the next day or two. I’d like to go over them with you.”

“You have not been listening. We are not selling the ranch. That’s nonnegotiable.”

“All I’m asking is for you to look at the figures. Just want you to know what you’re turning down.”

Mandy sighed. “After the roundup and barbeque.”

Ty had wasted no time in getting Trace’s agreement to a deal on the cattle, and Ty had arranged for the roundup to take place near the end of the week. Mandy had decided to throw a good old-fashioned barbeque for all the hands who participated, and she’d invited two of her friends to join them, one who had a son near Delanie’s age and the other who had a rodeo bronc rider for a husband, who was also supposed to be a decent roper. Since it was happening right before the Cheyenne rodeo, even Tucker promised to be there.

Trace would bring Delanie when he selected his cattle, and Mandy had agreed to watch the tyke while she set up and her mother and Mrs. Jenkins handled the cooking chores. It was damn decent of her. She kept saying that Trace was family, but they both knew differently.

“When will you give me an answer to my question? About having a baby?”

Ty fiddled with his pen. He owed her an answer—one way or another. “Same day you look at the figures for the ranch.”

“So if I say no to the deal, you’ll say no to the baby.”

“Only one way to find out.”





*


A soft breeze wrapped around Mandy as she grabbed Delanie, dressed in her tiny denim jeans, T-shirt, and cowgirl boots, from Trace’s arms and settled the little girl in front of her on the saddle. Willow had stood still, as if sensing the precious cargo entrusted to her. The psychologist Trace had found with Ty’s help must have made some difference, as Delanie now allowed her father to hold her. Such a simple thing, yet so complicated for one so young.

Trace touched the brim of his hat and whirled around the quarter horse he’d brought over in a much-used trailer, to face the herd milling in the open field. The cattle swirled up dust as they moved, and their lowing filled the air.

Trace had insisted on paying the going rate, but Mandy and Tucker had agreed that Trace should get a discount. As if they really were family.

She wished it were so. But Ty’s inability to see beyond the dollar signs on a page made any happily ever after unlikely, however much she was attracted to him physically, however much she admired his business acumen—though not when it came to Prescott Rodeo. Of course, if he agreed to a child, he would be part of her life, part of her child’s family forever.

It was a risk. She’d seen glimpses of promise in Ty—but the substance remained elusive.

She was looking forward to this mini roundup, watching Delanie, and hosting a barbeque for those helping out. She was happy the occasion had coincided close to the start of the Cheyenne rodeo occurring that weekend. It meant Tucker could participate. And Libby’s husband, Chance, had offered to help when Mandy had invited them to the midweek barbeque. Libby would meet up with her husband at the barbeque, after the dealership she managed closed. Cat would be coming also, with Jake. She was anxious for both her friends to meet Ty, and little Jake might prove to be the perfect playmate for Delanie.