The Maverick Meets His Match (8 page)

Stan snorted and drew his bushy graying brows into a
V
. “This business is no place for a woman. A very young woman at that. This is a tough industry, with lots of facets. I’ve seen her work the chutes, and I’ve watched her at meetings with her grandfather, and she’s in over her head.”

Something flared inside Ty, bringing with it a need to defend her. “She’s a good businesswoman, Stan,” he said, resting his clenched fists on his hips. “Has some viable plans for the company’s future.” JM had told him that expanding into the AFBR had been her idea. But having a good idea wasn’t the same as making it happen.

Stan leaned back and looked at Ty with cold, ash-gray eyes. “If that were the case, why are you running the company and not her? JM was a smart man, one whose judgment I respected. Word is you’re now a partner with controlling interest. He wouldn’t have done that, given it to someone outside the family, unless he wanted to sell it.”

“I am a partner,” Ty allowed. He wasn’t about to admit to more.

Stan’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not a stockman, Ty. And odds are you don’t want to be, or you’d have bought Prescott outright from JM. All I’m saying is that I’m interested. But now, while you’ve still got contracts and before Prescott loses its good name. JM was the brains and the shine of Prescott. Without him you’ve got nothing.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Stan looked frustrated as he let out a sigh. “I’ll tell you something, Ty. Something I don’t have to share, but I will. Already rodeos are calling me and asking if I can take them on if they pulled out of Prescott.” He arched his eyebrows, waiting for Ty’s reaction.

Having learned the lessons of hiding his feelings early in life, Ty held his face expressionless. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

Stan ran a hand through his hair. “Think on it. But not too long. Once the rodeo committees get jittery about a supplier, that supplier isn’t going to be worth much. I’d like to do right by JM’s family, but if the company loses value, I won’t be charitable about the price. So maybe you and I should catch up later and have a drink while you’re here.”

“Maybe.” Something about Stan Lassiter rubbed Ty the wrong way. He couldn’t put his finger on why, but just like JM, Ty didn’t trust him. In any event, Ty wasn’t about to appear too eager for the sale. In truth, he needed to see the numbers before he took any steps. Until then, there was no sense in fanning rumors of selling and getting rodeo organizers more nervous than Stan suggested they already were.

Clearly waiting for a reaction that Ty had no intention of giving, Stan stared a bit longer.

“I’ll see you around,” he finally said and thrust out a hand. Ty shook it with a firm grip.

After a slight hesitation, Stan turned and ambled away with an arthritic gait that no doubt came from being in the saddle too long and stepped on one too many times.

Ty looked back at a group of rodeo cowboys huddled at the far arena gates, and took a deep breath. He wouldn’t be surprised if Lassiter was initiating those calls to the rodeo committees. JM had warned him about that. It was one of the reasons he’d asked Ty to step in. Ty may not have supplier experience, but he had a reputation of being a tough businessman. Yet determining what was right for Prescott, for the Prescott family, for Mandy, would not be easy. But he’d promised JM he’d do his best to ensure the family members would have the means they needed for the future, whether from company income or proceeds from a sale, and he would keep that promise. And he’d start by finding the head of the Greenville Rodeo.

Mandy watched Ty kick up gravel as he cleared the pens behind the arena and walked straight toward the stable area where she had been currying her horse, Willow. When his text message said he would travel separately, she’d hoped that meant he’d arrive later, much later. Seemed like he’d actually arrived early. She wondered why.

Working for Ty was going to be the hardest year of her life. Maybe two years. The thought brought a lump to her throat.

She followed Ty’s movements as he drew closer.

He was decked out like he was ready to work. No suit jacket today. Just washed-out denims, worn in interesting places and anchored by an ornate silver buckle he’d likely picked up at one of those little touristy stores that dotted the county roads, and a black Prescott Rodeo T-shirt stretching over his torso, revealing his gym-ripped biceps. His boots were polished, embroidered black leather, and a clean black cowboy hat covered his thick dark hair.

Tanned, taut, and no doubt talented. He strode toward her with that determined, long-legged gait of his, like he meant business. Personal business. She wondered what he thought about her leaving him last evening at that same spot by the creek and if he even attached any significance to that spot. She wondered, too, if he would continue the conversation from the evening before or accept her decision. As her body temperature kicked up a notch with his every step, she wasn’t certain she wanted him to accept her decision, since the idea of marrying him had dusted up thoughts of what that would entail. Touching, kissing, and… Her heart thumped hard against her chest.

Control, that’s what she needed. If she was going to get through these next months, this next year, she needed to control her thoughts, her impulses, her mouth, and, most of all, her attraction to him.

She took a deep breath.

“So you’re here,” Mandy said as he drew close. She threw the currycomb into the box of brushes that sat on the ground next to the stall door, causing a clattering noise. Willow shifted her weight at the sound, and Mandy patted the horse’s satiny neck in reassurance. Remember, control, she told herself.

“I told you I’d be here,” he said. She felt a flutter in the pit of her stomach as he ambled toward her. Knowing she watched a man who held her future in his hands was surely the source of that flutter and not that he looked like a western-wear model.

She pulled on the reins that tied Willow to the post outside the stall to assure they were secure. “It appears you beat us.”

His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I flew down. Wanted to get the lay of the land.”

Of course he flew. She’d known he owned a private plane. Made her shudder just thinking about one of those little puddle jumpers. “And how does the land lay?”

He stopped mere inches from her. So close she could feel his breath on her lips as he looked down into her eyes, like he wanted something from her. Something not business related, but that was just silly. She took a step back.

“Introduced myself to Guy Lager.”

Guy headed up the Greenville Rodeo committee and was the one who signed the contracts and checks.

Mandy had called Guy yesterday to put him at ease. He’d told her he had confidence in her, but that didn’t mean he did.

“Did he share any concerns about the rodeo now that JM isn’t here?” Asking cost her some pride, but she needed to know for the sake of the business. She squared her shoulders for the blow.

Ty nodded.

“Let me guess. You told him you were running things, and his issues disappeared.”

Ty shrugged, as if he couldn’t help how the man felt. Mandy turned away and grabbed the saddle that had been resting on a hay bale. She didn’t want Ty to see how irritated she was. Or how hurt. She’d known Guy Lager a long time.

She swung the saddle up on the mare. The bay horse took a step back. A pat on Willow’s rump, and she settled. Mandy threaded the cinch through the O-rings, her back turned to the man who so easily upset her equilibrium.

“Don’t you think we should have talked to Guy together? I am the Prescott in Prescott Rodeo Company now. I do know the man.”

Ty stepped beside her and swiped a hand across his jaw. She swore that man had a jawline chiseled from canyon rock.

“I would have done that if you were here. I thought catching him first thing was more important.”

No, Ty thought his being there first was more important.

She had too much to do to tussle though. It had been hard enough organizing everything this morning without JM at the helm. She’d done it tens of times before, but this morning was different. She’d never realized how her grandfather’s presence had made her more confident in her decisions. Luckily, the crew had pulled together and got it done, like the family they were. She was thankful for that family.

That family had gotten her through the death of her father, when JM, devastated as he was, had discouraged any sign of grief and buried himself in his work. She imagined they would get her through this too. She was counting on it just as they counted on her to help with a small loan when needed, provide a recommendation when they graduated college or were looking for different work, or find a relative a job during hard times.

She pulled the cinch strap tight and wove it once more through the O-rings. Willow stepped back as Mandy gave several tugs to assure the mare hadn’t puffed out her stomach.

“Is Guy good now?”

“Yes, but if Guy’s concerns are any indication, we’ve got to hit the road, Mandy, as soon as we get back. We’ll visit the key rodeo committees in person to let them know we’re in business, before our competitors place doubt in their minds.”

Our
competitors? “I’d already planned to do that with a few of the large Texas rodeos. Karen’s making the appointments.”

“Good. Tell her to add me into the mix.”

“If you’re so intent on selling, why bother yourself?” she said, snapping out the words.

Ty shook his head at her like she was a child who wasn’t listening. She was listening. She just didn’t like what he’d been saying. And her question was a legitimate one.

“I’ve told you. I don’t know yet which way makes sense. Until I do, I intend to do everything in my power to make sure the company remains viable.”

“That way you’ll get the best price for it—and for your share of it. Isn’t that right, Ty?”

He held up his hand as if surrendering, but he didn’t fool her. He was well aware he held all the cards. A hand of four aces, in fact. He was in control of everything. She kicked at the dirt, and dust sprayed on his shiny, no doubt new, Tony Lama boots.

Ty glanced at his boots and then lifted his gaze to stare straight into her eyes. He had intense brown eyes, and those eyes held her like he’d placed his hands on her body. “You think what you want, Mandy. I doubt anything I say is going to change your opinion. But the bottom line is that either way, we need to hold on to our customers.”

Our
customers again.

She swung up on Willow. She needed some space.

“Where are you headed?” he asked, his hands resting on his hips.

If he understood rodeo, he’d know. “We’re moving the stock into the pens.”

“You brought a horse for me, I hope.” Sun glinted in those eyes of his, creating a disconcerting sparkle.

“Was I supposed to?”

“Mandy, I’m taking over JM’s role. That means I’m involved in everything to do with the rodeo, including work behind the chutes.”

She tugged lightly on the reins, holding Willow in place. “We can’t have two bosses behind the chutes.” She’d been running the crew for the last two years. She thought it was her grandfather’s way of breaking her in. Apparently not.

“You’re still the boss of the crew, but I’m going to oversee things, just like JM did. And my presence will back you up as you earn the men’s respect.”

“The men respect me.” But even as she said it, she knew it was false. They respected her as a woman, as JM’s granddaughter. But not yet as head of the company. As one of the few women in the rodeo stock industry, she’d have to prove herself worthy—to the men and herself. Because Ty’s presence meant she hadn’t proved worthy to her grandfather. The hurt was still raw…the knowledge still stung.

She let out a resigned sigh. “Harold’s unloading the parade horses. He’ll mount you on the mare from the other evening.”

“Lead me to Harold, and I’ll choose my own horse.”

Mandy nudged Willow into a walk. This was going to be a long weekend.

Ty observed the unloading of the steers from atop a bay gelding that seemed to have a little more kick in him than the horse last evening. He didn’t want to calculate how many years it had been since he’d worked with livestock.

Once he’d headed off to college, he’d been pretty much persona non grata around the old homestead. Neither his father nor his brother, Trace, seemed to expect much from him, and he hadn’t been inclined to give much, since he saw a different future for himself. After his father died from a sudden heart attack, the will was read, and Trace was left the ranch. All Ty was left were memories, and not necessarily good ones. His father’s will stated that Ty was taken care of by virtue of JM’s scholarship and the education it had bought.

Ty had been determined to make sure his father was correct, and he’d never had cause to look back. Until now.

“Hey, cowboy. You’re doing pretty good.” Harold Prescott, mounted on a fine-looking black horse, had shouted that review from across the fenced alley where the bulls paraded. It was only half a compliment, Ty knew. The undertone of surprise was the other half.

He nodded an acknowledgment and looked around to locate Mandy. She’d turned her horse around and was trotting back toward the pens, probably to check on the animals. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help noticing every rounded curve of her body, including her fine butt glued to the saddle. Maybe he just needed to get her out of his system. Given he might have to suffer through two lust-filled years, maybe he should find out for sure if there could be anything between them.

It didn’t take long to pen the bulls. Harold knew what enclosure suited which bull. Ty guessed bulls were a lot more like people than most folks realized. Some didn’t mind sharing—others needed to be left alone.

Ty definitely fell in with the latter bunch as far as people were concerned. Yet here he was, managing a group of cowhands who had known each other for decades or whose family members had worked here for as long.

No doubt the rodeo hands had all heard about the will by now. JM had told him nothing much got by the crew. They would know he was now the boss, not Mandy, even if she was still managing the day-to-day operations, as she had under JM.