Broken Love (Broken #4)(46)

“Really?” she asked lifting her eyebrow. “Seems to me you’ve been in a funk since the engagement.”

Taking a long drink of his water, he shrugged. “It’s only because now I won’t get the house in Helena and I was really hoping to sell that bitch off.”

My mother’s eyes widened in horror. “Nate, you would never do such a thing.”

He winked and kissed her on the cheek. “Well, I guess we’ll never know since Ryder beat me to the altar.”

“I’m not there yet,” I said.

He looked up and thought for a moment. “That’s true. Maybe if we invite Vanessa to hang out, I might have another shot at the house.”

“Shut the f*ck up, you *.”

“Ryder!” my mother shouted. “Do not use that language in my house!”

“He started it by bringing up Vanessa.” Pointing to Nate, he smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You know not to bring her up.”

“Why? I thought there was nothing there.”

“There isn’t!”

“Ryder. Why are you getting so upset?” my mother asked.

Nate chuckled and responded in a jacked up version of a lovey-dovey voice, “I know why. His love bug left him all alone and he’s sad.”

Walking up to Nate, my mother smacked him across the back of the head. “Knock it off. Christmas is in a few days and I’d really like it if we had no bickering.”

“Like that’s ever going to happen,” my father mumbled. Tossing his keys onto the table, he kissed my mother softly on the lips. “Hello, sweetheart. How was your day?”

“It’s been good. Even better now that you’re here.”

“Oh, for the love of Christ. That’s disgusting!”

My father turned to look at Nate. “It’s always good having you home, Nate. Always good.”

Laughing, I stood and followed my father to his office.

“So, how did the meeting go?”

Sitting in his chair, he sighed and shook his head. “Not as well as I wanted. Seems Chuck thinks he can sell for higher than his place his worth.”

“He’s determined not to keep it?”

He shook his head. “He won’t even give his daughter a chance to learn the ropes and try to run it.”

With a halfhearted laugh, I pushed my hand through my hair. “Well, I honestly find it hard to believe Destiny truly wants to run that ranch, Dad. I think what she wanted was to marry a rancher who would run it for her and allow her to keep her beloved acres. Do I think she could run it? Yes, if she put her mind to it.”

“Most likely. When I first got there and she asked how everyone was, I told her you were engaged to be married. I thought she was going to fall apart before my eyes and her father didn’t act much better.”

“So, he would rather sell it off to someone else than let us buy it?”

With a quick nod, he replied, “Pretty much.”

An idea hit me as I smiled. “What if we put an offer in on it, but he didn’t know it was us. Go in under another name.”

Trying to hide his smile, he answered, “That’s deceitful.”

“How? He’s being a dick about it when he knows damn well that ranch would thrive under our control. We could even work it into the deal that they would retain a certain amount of land, for Destiny. Word it differently though.”

Leaning back in his chair, he rested his chin on his index fingers. “It could work.”

“Then I say we give it a try, but only if he doesn’t come around.”

With a firm nod of his head, he dropped his hands. “All right. Let’s give him some time to come to his senses, then we take this approach.”

My cell rang in my back pocket with Ava’s ring tone. With a smile, I reached for it and excused myself as I walked out of my father’s office.

“Hello?”

“Ugh.”

“I’m glad to know my voice turns you on so much.”

“I told them. It didn’t go very well.”

Swallowing hard, I felt my stomach drop. “How bad?”

“Well, considering I tried to kind of throw it into the conversation at dinner, it could have gone worse. My father is currently debating if he wants to fly up there and kick your ass.”

“What?”

With a chuckle, she sighed. “Oh man … not really. But they both think we’re rushing.”

“Do you? Do you think we’re moving too fast?”

The silence scared me until she blew out a deep breath. “I called my manager at the boutique and told her I wouldn’t be coming back. It’s kind of a good thing you asked me to marry you, because she really loves my replacement.”

With a chuckle, I breathed a sigh of relief. “Tomorrow I’m going to see if Liza will take me in to Austin. I’ll need to pack up my apartment and all of that.”

My cheeks were beginning to ache from the huge smile I had on my face. “I still have to go back and take care of my place. We can do it together.”

“I like the sound of that. I don’t think it will be too hard to sublease my apartment. I have the ideal location for downtown Austin.”

“What about Maurice?” I asked while my mother motioned for me to help her with getting the dishes on the table.