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Mason shot Carter a dark look. “Aren’t you listening? She walked away from a life I wanted to give her so she could have more.” Looking back on that argument, it had become a blur. He still couldn’t make sense of why she had been so willing to walk away. He couldn’t recall her being angry—just disappointed in him. For what? Because he was fighting for a future where he could take care of himself?

“But you’re still working for Abrams, right?”

“No, I’m not!” he hollered. “I quit. Money only causes problems. Agreeing to work for the guy just so I could get my foot in the door of a decent future was the problem.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Carter said quietly. “Sounds like Harley wanting her money was the problem. Please tell me you didn’t burn those bridges.”

Mason couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He stared at his brother, unsure of where to go from here. “Are you saying I should go back there and take the job from a guy who didn’t think I was good enough to date his niece? Mr. Abrams was in on the whole thing. He knew that Harley would choose the other guy. He practically pushed her toward him.”

“I don’t know what’s going on with you and Harley or whoever this other guy is. All I know is that we’ve been working our butts off to make something of ourselves. I would guess that if Wade heard you talking about all of this, he would disagree with you, too. That property and those connections would help—”

Mason threw his hands into the air. “If you think it’s so important, how about you go over there and ask for the job? I’m sure he’d be happy to take another Keagan under his wing.”

Carter snapped his mouth shut, a mask of unreadability now plastered to his face.

“What? You don’t like that idea? Let me break it down for you again. In order to get money, you have to make sacrifices. For you, you’d have to agree to learn the operations of the place and manage everything on your own.”

“Yeah? Sure doesn’t seem like you were required to sacrifice anything,” Carter snapped as he got to his feet. “From what I can tell, you walked away from something because you were upset she didn’t pick you. News flash, just because Harley chose an inheritance she’d been counting on for her whole life over you doesn’t mean she was being vindictive. The amount of time you spent with her lasted only seconds compared to the lifetime she had to look forward to her future… one that you weren’t originally pictured in.”

Mason couldn’t decide if he was impressed by Carter’s insight or infuriated by it. Carter didn’t understand what Mason had lost because his heart had never been on the line. Shaking his head, Mason got to his feet.

“Where are you going? Are you getting your job back?”

He had no energy to respond to his brother. Carter hadn’t listened. He didn’t get it, and he likely never would. This sort of situation was only written about in books. Mason moved to the ladder and started down.

Carter’s face appeared overhead. “If you can pay me more than Wade and Elijah, I’ll come work for you.”

Mason shook his head again. “Drop it, Carter. I’m not going back.”

“That’s a mistake,” Carter called after him. “You’re walking away from something great out of pride.”

He froze at the base of the ladder and then glanced up at his brother. “And you’re blindly telling me to do something that would only cause me additional pain.”

Carter rolled his eyes and disappeared from the edge of the loft.

The conversation Mason had with his brother left a bad taste in his mouth. If he were to go back to Abrams to get his job back, he’d be haunted by all the memories he had of Harley. He was better off keeping his nose in his book and avoiding ever stepping foot on that property again.

28

Harley

Harley stared out the window of the private jet. They were finally on their way home.

Home.

The word didn’t fit the same way it had when she’d left for Colorado. Staring out at the Rocky Mountains, she realized just how much she’d miss this place when she was gone. There was a heavy weight resting on her shoulders now. At the beginning of summer, that weight had been due to the unknown and the work she knew she’d inevitably be forced to do.

Now, it hit her differently.

Now, she was leaving a different kind of home. She felt a connection with Copper Creek she’d never thought possible. More than that, she’d felt a connection with a certain cowboy she would never see again.

Not for the first time, she wondered if she was making a mistake. Her heart ached from missing Mason more than she would have ever thought possible. At night, it got so painful she found it hard to fall asleep, and when she finally did, it felt like only moments before she had to be up in the morning.

Anthony was great. She received no pushback from him whatsoever. It was as if he knew doing so would destroy the agreement they’d made. She couldn’t tell if he was scared or just grateful that someone was willing to jump into the role of his deceased wife.

“You don’t look happy.” Anthony’s deep voice dragged her from her view. She turned in her seat to stare at him with a flat look.

“I told you I didn’t want to spend money on stuff like the private jet.”