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“You can’t have forgotten hoe worked together this past year Not so quickly We are good for each other,” Tara insisted in an attempt to appeal to his reason “Don’t ruin our relationship because of this”

“You ruined it yourself when you went behind ht this land”

“Why does that ry?” Tara de overnment? Does it bother you so much that I succeeded where you and your father failed? This is all about that stiff-necked Calder pride, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s about you and the way you kept your acquisition of it such a deep dark secret Even though you kneould eventually find out, you still didn’t have the guts to come tell me You let me show up here instead”

“I didn’t kno to tell you Can’t you understand that?” Tara said

“I ht buy that from anyone else, but not from you”

“Don’t you see—when I started out, I didn’t say anything in case I wasn’t successful By not saying anything in the beginning, it made it harder to tell you later And it became even more complicated when I realized I wanted to uessed I would co?”

“I don’t give a da as it isn’t on this land” His gaze sharpened on her “But you are bound to know that so why are you doing it?”

Her lips curved in a suilement “Isn’t it obvious? I want to be near you” Tara stepped closer and slid her hands onto his shirtfront, spreading them across his chest “Even if we aren’t married anymore, that doesn’t mean we still can’t be close”

Grirabbed her wrists and shoved her away from him “Goodbye, Tara” He strode toward the ranch pickup

“Not goodbye, Ty,” she called after hietting this land now, you will have to deal directly withback to Fort Worth this afternoon Talk it over with your father then give e a time when the three of us can sit down and talk”

Offering no response, Ty climbed into the pickup and slaine roared to life After a reversing turn, the truck charged down the dim track toward the south fence line

Buck waited a beat then sauntered over to Tara, his side glance inspecting the smooth satisfaction in her expression “Reckon he’ll call?”

“He doesn’t have a choice,” Tara replied with certainty

With a push of his thuuess you haven’t learned a Calder always has a choice”