Mary Brady - Winning Over the Rancher

They all leaned in a bit toward Baylor.

He leaned in as well and folded his hands over the papers on his lap.

“It has been nice meeting you, Ms. Morgan. Thank you for putting so much work into your proposal. We have your card if we have any further questions.” Baylor’s words were polite, even regretful sounding, but she read body language well enough to clearly read “thanks, but no thanks.”

A shock wave of failure overtook her. She hadn’t expected a go-ahead, but she hadn’t expected outright rejection, either. She knew getting accepted or declined was a combination of personality, design and dollars, but Baylor Doyle didn’t even want to give her a chance. He clearly had the power of decision here and she supposed there must be a family reason for that.

She pushed to her feet, rebalancing her weight carefully.

Curtis rose from his seat and so did everyone else.

“You’ve given us a lot to consider with your proposal. What we’re going to have to do now is to talk among ourselves.” The patriarch’s words seemed to abate the finality of Baylor’s pronouncement, but not by much.

Evvy gave her a warm smile. KayLee suspected Evvy was kind to everyone, even a rejected designer. “Your plans are elegant and resourceful, KayLee. You won’t be heading for home yet today, will you?”

Home? She almost laughed. She didn’t have a home.

“I’ve got a room at the inn in town. I thought I’d get a good night’s sleep and I’ve always wanted to get to know Montana better.” Oh, blab and dither. Stay professional. “Anyway, thank you so much for the opportunity to share my ideas with you. It’s been a pleasure. I hope to hear from you soon.”

She gathered her bag and the papers she would need, leaving her proposal and credential information for the Doyles, hoping she had a reason to stay in town and not flee back to…where?

Well, she was competent and strong. She’d find something, if not here, somewhere else. That was her anthem and her prayer, and she was sticking to it.

“Anyone in town will help you with whatever you need.” Amy’s tone seemed to offer an apology for the group, and her smile their regret.

Her husband, Seth, put a hand on Amy’s waist and nodded his agreement. “If you need anything, you can call out here, too.”

They truly were good people and from what Mr. Doyle had said, when completed, this project needed to boost the ranch’s income, not be a drain on it. Besides cattle and summer cabins, KayLee wondered what income ranches in Montana used to stay afloat.

She really didn’t know as much as she thought about the area where she proposed to work.

Her inadequate coat seemed to appear from nowhere and Baylor held it up for her to slip into. When they walked her as a group to the front door, she wanted to grab each one of them and ask what more she could have done. Instead she nodded to each in turn. “Thank you all. You’ve been very kind.”

And then she fled.

When she paused at the bottom of the wooden steps, it seemed as if she were about to leap off with no possibility of knowing if she would ever land, let alone land safely.

She lifted her chin, sucked in a breath of clean Montana air and patted her belly. It’s okay, Baby, she thought, Mama’s got your back.

She stepped into the oblivion called the rest of her life.

AFTER K. L. MORGAN DROVE away in her tiny blue Ford, Baylor herded the rest of his family back to the den. Though they had come docilely enough, none took their seats.

Standing was a better fighting position.

He shoved the hair away from his face, leaned forward and placed his hands on the back of an upholstered chair. Deliberately, silently, he held the gaze of each one of them. When none of them so much as blinked, he spoke quietly. “Have you all gone nuts? Did you all not notice K. L. Morgan is pregnant? I’m only a good judge of cows and horses, but I’d say very.”

“And you’d hold that against her?” Amy challenged as she moved over to stand next to his mother and Holly.

“I think you know me better than that, but we need someone who can get the whole job done and get started yesterday.”

“She can do the job, Bay,” Holly said as she approached him, Amy and his mother at her side. “And she said she could start right away.”

“I don’t doubt she believes she can start this job. She might even believe she can get it done, but that doesn’t make it so.” Baylor took a seat on one of the couches, but none of them followed his lead.

“She graduated from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UCLA and she presents herself nicely.” His mother gave him a benign mother smile when she spoke. “And her bid was lower than any one else’s.”

His sisters-in-law glared at him and his father and two brothers were in a tight knot, no doubt trying to figure out how to handle him. Just why he needed handling, he had no idea. They all knew that every single one of their futures rested on this project. He had promised himself and all of them, he’d see to the development of the Shadow Range Eco Ranch, and he was fairly certain K. L. Morgan was not going to be part of that promise.

Now they formed a semicircle around him with arms crossed over their chests, except his mother. She had picked up a stack of papers from the coffee table.

“And what about the baby’s father?” Baylor asked.

“SHE GOT HERE BEFORE you got a chance to read the background report on her.” Baylor’s father pointed to the stack of papers his mother held. “You should read the information before you make any decisions.”

What could possibly be in the report? Something that would make K. L. Morgan less pregnant? The pleading on the faces of the women and the blank I’m-not-moving-an-inch looks on the faces of the men made it pretty mandatory he at least take a careful look.

“I’ve obviously missed something big,” Baylor said as he took the report and straightened it—as if his mother would let anything be messy, “because you people have all but given her the nod for the work.”

“We thought you’d be happy when you found out she could start straight away.” Lance stated what must have been the family opinion because every one of them nodded. “No one else could offer that. She gets the job underway and you’re out of here.”

“And if she gets the job started and then falters, or doesn’t get the job started at all, that’s a lot of wasted time and money we don’t have.”

“And you’d feel stuck in the valley with the rest of us,” Seth said, following up Lance’s defense.

Baylor took a patient breath. “We might none of us be ‘stuck’ in this valley. This ranch has to make enough money to pay the bills.”

“I could work more at the attorney’s office,” Holly volunteered.

“And I could go back to the diner.” Amy glanced at her sister-in-law.

“If it comes to that—” Lance started.

Baylor looked up at all of them from the couch and held up a hand. “Wait, just wait. We’ve been through this more than once. With everyone here working as much as they do on the ranch, we’re already falling behind on the work that needs to be done.” They needed to get the calving finished and the shed in good repair for the following spring, the branding had just started, the barn needed a new roof, there was a lot of fence to ride before the cattle could be moved and the new stock had to be integrated into the herd when it arrived. There wasn’t an end to the list, but they all loved it. “Trey needs you, Amy. And, Holly, the more hours you put in off the ranch, the more we’ll have to replace you here.”

“What about me?”

Baylor shook his head at his mother. “Mom, even if you hadn’t just had your knee replaced, I’m sorry, but there aren’t jobs in this valley big enough to bail out the ranch. If we get this project going with the livestock and the lumber, we can pay off debt and provide a decent living for all of you. And then maybe there’ll be Doyles on the Shadow Range for another hundred and twenty-five years.”