The Texan's Forbidden Fiancée

After another lapse of silence between them, she sat up straighter and turned slightly to face him. He sat watching her.

“If we do this and do find bones, how will we know whose bones are Milans and whose are Calhouns?”

“Take them to the county medical examiner. We can get some kind of DNA test and they can sort out the two families.”

She nodded. “That sounds reasonable. And I walk away with the treasure?”

“Absolutely.”

She lapsed into more silence before she broached the topic. “I know you want to lease some of my land for your energy company. Why not go elsewhere? It’s a big world.”

“So it is, but your land looks promising and is an area that we think may be a big play. It’s also cheaper and easier for us because it’s close to our headquarters. Labor is available here. Trained men who do this if we need to hire more. It’s dollars in the bank instead of going off a long distance.”

“That sounds reasonable. Suppose we put a high, high price on this.”

“You can price yourself out of the market, but energy companies, I think, are generous when they want something. Are you going to give us a chance?” he asked, looking at her and smiling, making her heart turn over again. Longing swamped her again. Too easily he could trigger those feelings.

“Don’t push me, Jake,” she said and he became silent again.

She thought about his original offer, still trying to look at it from all possible angles. When they stopped in front of her house, the driver came around to hold the limo door. Jake accompanied her to her door.

“Want to come in a few minutes? Would your driver mind?”

“No, he’ll wait. He’s getting paid for whatever he does.”

She unlocked the house and turned off the alarm. “We’ll go into the study,” she said, glancing at Jake to see him looking around.

“I forgot—you’ve never been inside this house. Seems ridiculous in some ways, but understandable in others. My ancestors would be turning over in their graves if they knew I’d invited a Calhoun inside.”

Jake smiled again. “I still feel the feud is arcane, ridiculous. Come into the present.”

“I agree, but we decided long ago to stop fighting it,” she said. As he walked beside her, he looked around. “Is any of this art hanging on the walls yours?”

“Not in the hallway, but in here it is,” she said, leading him into a study that held a large wet bar. “The painting over the mantel is mine,” she said and he crossed the room to look at the large painting of a field of bluebonnets, a tall oak in one side of the field and a stream running through it. “You’re not a contemporary artist. This is a beautiful painting and you’re very good.”

“Thank you. The painting on that wall by the window is mine, too,” she said and he crossed the room to look at the painting of three horses in a field, a cowboy holding the reins and standing by one. “That’s good, Madison. Very impressive. I can see why you’ve been a success.”

“Thanks. Would you like a drink?”

He shook his head. “No, thank you. Let’s just talk.”

She motioned with her hand. “Have a seat,” she said, sitting and crossing her legs, pulling her skirt to her knees and catching him watching her.

“I’ve been thinking about this all evening, Jake,” she said slowly, watching him intently. “I will in fact give you a final word tomorrow night....” She wouldn’t commit until she talked to her brothers; after all, she had to protect Milan interests. “But I’m thinking about accepting your proposal.” She speared his eyes with her own. “Under one condition.”

Three

Jake tried to avoid showing any emotion, but his heartbeat sped up and he had a flash of satisfaction. She was going to agree to let him on her ranch. He barely paid attention when she said she had a condition. He couldn’t imagine anything she could come up with that would stop him from accepting.

“Sure. Let’s hear it,” he said.

“I want to take a couple of my ranch hands and accompany you.”

As if cold water had been poured over him, his enthusiasm chilled. “You don’t trust me? Madison, if I surveyed your land, it wouldn’t get me any further with you on signing a lease,” he stated, sitting up straight in the chair. “I don’t intend to survey, but why would you want to go with me?”

“First of all how would I know if you found the treasure if I wasn’t along, except pure trust that you would inform me about it? That isn’t going to happen,” she said, her voice sounding cold and harsh, something he had never heard from her before.

“I expected you’d want one person to go with us—I figured one of the men who works for you. There’s no reason for you to go with us and it would be a waste of your time to have to sit and watch us dig.”

“You said nothing about someone who works for me going with you.”

“That’s your decision.”

She faced him, looking calm and composed again, the flash of anger gone. She shook her head. “That’s my condition. Take it or leave it. I go or you don’t.”

He stared at her a moment and then shrugged. “Sure, come along. If you think it over tonight and still want the same agreement, that’s fine. You have yourself a deal,” he said, holding out his hand. “If we find the treasure, you get it. I get my ancestors’ remains. We’ll just have to see if we do find a deed, what it says and who the land goes to. You go with me to search for the treasure.”

She placed her hand in his to shake while she smiled at him. “Deal.”

Her hand was warm, soft, and when they looked into each other’s eyes, he realized it might be torment to work with her beside him every day. He released her hand and the moment was gone, but it had dampened some of his enthusiasm. He didn’t want to get emotionally involved with her again and he didn’t like this constant flashback to that time in his life when she meant everything to him.

“I can go in tomorrow and clear my calendar. I don’t think we’ll search for more than a week, but I’ll clear my schedule for two weeks just in case. I can be ready to go Tuesday. What about you?” he asked.

“My time is my own. I think it would help if you would give me a copy of the map and let me study it. We need to have an idea where to go before we start. If you can send me an electronic copy of the map tonight when you get home, I can start studying it. Then tomorrow night, if you’d like, you can come over and look at maps of the ranch with me. You’re a geologist—I’m sure you can figure out some things from those photos of the ranch.”

“Sure. That’ll be good. I’ve already scanned in the old map, so I can send it easily.”

“Good. We’ll get started tonight.”

“You’re going to lose a lot of time to work on your art.”

She shook her head. “No, I won’t. I’ll take my sketch pad with me—because I don’t intend to dig. You’re the one so eager to do this.”

“You’re the one who will benefit from it if we’re successful,” he reminded her. “But you don’t need to dig so much as one shovelful of dirt.”

He stood. “I’ll go home and send you a copy of the map. Give me about an hour.”

At the door he paused. “Thanks, Madison, for agreeing to let me do this. Hopefully, it will be a productive venture.”

“I hope so. Thanks for dinner,” she said, following him into the hall.

“I’ll call you when I get home,” he said, walking away, aware she stood on her porch and watched him. As the limo pulled away, she still stood on the porch—a small figure in the moonlight.

They were going to search for the treasure together. Not what he had expected, but it was okay. The main thing was she had agreed to let him look. He hoped he succeeded in finding everything he was searching for. Again, guilt assailed him, but all he had to do was think about the day he had planned to elope with her. As he rode, he pulled out his phone to call his brother Josh, but there was no answer. He didn’t want to call Mike this late because Mike had a two-year-old son and he would be in bed.

He called Lindsay next to tell her. His sister was jubilant over his success with Madison.

After finishing his call with Lindsay, he thought about Madison. Was she looking forward to the search? He knew she hadn’t accepted because she wanted to be with him. It had been obvious that tonight had been a strain on her and she disliked being with him.