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“You made the question void before I could even consider how to answer it.”

She looked away, but he wasn’t falling for her demure act.

“It seems like you’ve got something to say to me, so say it.”

“It doesn’t matter either way anymore. We can talk business, Bennett, but what we used to have? It was over before you left. Me leaving after that didn’t make a bit of difference. You made sure of that, so don’t bring it up again.” Heat flashed red on her cheeks.

He tried to ask what she meant, but she shook her head.

“No. Not right now. Maybe not ever. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let go of what happened back then like I’m trying to do.”

He couldn’t do that, not fully, but he didn’t have to let their past get in the way of what he wanted. “Then sell me the ranch, Maggie. Please.”

“No. I may be late to figuring it out, but I want to see my dad’s place run the way he wanted it while it’s still mine. And maybe, maybe, when I have, I’ll talk to you about selling, but not a second sooner.”

Bennett stood there, immobilized.

She shoved the empty coffee mug into his hands and pointed to the front door. “Don’t worry, Bennett, I remember where you live, and I’ll come by if I change my mind. Oh, and I’ll be canceling that lease. You have a week to return my dad’s cattle to his land.”

He shook his head and headed back out into the cold, his offer dead on the table behind him.

Well, heck. He’d gotten it wrong with Maggie again, and for the second time since he’d declared his love for her, she’d thrown his world upside down. It seemed this woman was always gonna keep him from what he wanted most.

Maybe it was time he let her go, for good this time.

*

Maggie’s hands shook as the door closed behind Bennett.

Oh, that man! How dare he use her feelings for him against her? Because that was what he’d done—come into her home and asked her to give up her inheritance because he wanted her land.

And she’d said… no?

She glanced at the three letters from the cattle board, the two from the livestock commissioner, and the rest from the bank all telling her what a monumental mistake it was to turn down Bennett’s offer. And none of that took into account the fact that she had a business deal worth millions waiting on her back home in San Antonio. Mitch’s comment about Orin’s product on backorder wasn’t the first she’d heard. If she struck now, she could fill that gap and climb Steel Born to the top of the ranching food chain.

Why’d you turn that cowboy away? He had the answer to all our problems.

Her snarky subconscious wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t so simple. Something tugged at Maggie’s heart.

Bennett’s offer was a saving grace on one hand, sure. On the other…

It was more than a little suspicious. He’d offered over double what she knew the land was worth, including the cattle, horses, barn, and home.

Was there something she wasn’t aware of? Had he discovered oil on her land?

Maggie dialed Jill while she gathered the bills into a pile and shoved them in her purse. Circling back, she snatched up the penalty letters from the livestock commissioner and the fines from the cattle board and added them. She’d figure out how to make the penalties disappear for starters. Then, she’d get to work on the operation itself. She had one week to get it ready to welcome a couple hundred head of cattle. An unmarked envelope remained behind, and she added it to the pile even though it didn’t look like a bill or sanction.

She fought the urge to scream into one of the threadbare couch cushions. The truth was, she wasn’t sure she should’ve done anything differently when she left for Houston. Her life—current circumstances notwithstanding—was something she’d made. She. No one else.

Her degree, her business, her life in the city.

Would she honestly trade it all in for a small-town romance?

Maybe, but then again, maybe not.

But something had been pulling at her heart since she’d driven back into town, and she wasn’t gonna look away till she figured out what it was.

“Hey there, country gal. How’s the cleanup coming?”