Page 49 of Winning His Wager
And waited.
He’d grown more and more frustrated by the moment. Until he’d eventually gotten sidetracked arguing with Devaney, and practically forgot about Dylan running off with her boss and everything. Which was no doubt what Dylan’s little sister had intended. Dylan owed Devaney one for that one.
Dylan enjoyed watching. She always enjoyed watching him argue with Devaney. It was hilarious.
Their grandmother had finally stepped in and ended it.
Guests were listening, after all.
Besides, Dylan was twenty-three, an adult. Her father couldn’t stop her from going to Finley Creek. Even with aman.Oh, the scandal.
Her grandmother had just hugged her and told her to enjoy herself. And to besafe.
Dylan half wondered if her grandmother was echoing the condom thing without sayingcondomout loud. Flo Talley had a wild spirit, after all.
Charlotte met them at the airport. She looked so beautiful in the Texas sun. Dylan ran a hand over her wacky hair. Charlotte’s reddish brown looked so perfect and shiny.
Well, perfect and shiny wasn’t exactly who Dylan Brown-slash-Talley was. Far from it.
She did watch Fletcher with Charlotte though. When she didn’t think they were paying attention to her. Charlotte hugged him. Charlotte touched Fletcher a lot. He touched her too, but it was kind of the way he touched Dusty. Casual, and not nearly as often as Charlotte touched him. It gave Dylan plenty to think about.
Charlotte had been friendly with Dylan. Dylan wasn’t so sure they would ever be bestest cousins ever, but maybe they’d get along okay someday. Charlotte had been on her way in to work a shift at the TSP. She was a forensic scientist—who was moonlighting as an actress for Rowland Bowles—and Dylan had heard that a lot of bad things were happening to some of Charlotte’s friends right now. Charlotte looked exhausted. She was splitting her time between movie studios in Finley Creek, L.A., and Masterson, plus trying to help her friends in Finley Creek when she could. When the movie thing ended, Dylan hoped life got a bit less chaotic for her cousin.
“Wait until you get a look at this guy’s place. He’s one of the Texas Barratts—Brandt’s eldest cousin, actually. Brandt’s other cousin owns the movie studio where Char is working out of down here. But Houghton Barratt and Travis Deane are teaming up—Barratt’s invested with Deane, and his company is responsible for the soil monitoring technology and software we’ll be using,” Fletcher told her as he drove the rental truck through the small city of about sixty thousand people. “Did you get ahold of those women you were looking for?”
Dylan nodded. It had surprised her, but Quade had asked her specifically for this one favor. She was going to try to make it work.
She was a woman on a mission. Quade’s newly discovered aunt lived in Finley Creek—with her family and some of Quade’s own younger sisters and his cousins. Quade’s aunt Heather had been through hell lately, she was connected to Charlotte somehow, and Quade had asked Dylan to make sure Heather was okay if their paths crossed, or anything. “Yes. I texted Quade’s cousin Cara. We’d exchanged numbers when she was up here that week. She said they were all being held captive at the Castle of Ostentatiousness now, and if I was coming down so you could meet with Travis Deane, I’d probably find her eventually. That they weren’t going anywhere any time soon. Purple and pink duct tape and threats from Brandt Barratt’s older brothers were mentioned.”
“Okay…I’m not sure I understand.”
“I don’t either. Cara said her entire family is being punished right now—for kidnapping Brandt’s older brothers. I am not sure on the details, really. I’m going to ask Meyra for details when I can.”
“I’ve been to Barratt’s house. They do call it the Castle of Ostentatiousness. If your friends are there, you’ll most likely see them.”
“Great. I can hang with Cara while you meet with Travis Deane, right?” She wasn’t exactly too keen on the idea of hanging out alone while he was busy. She was starting to think Fletcher was becoming a bit of a security blanket here, or something. Probably the whole plane thing.
Dylan had never been alone in a strange place like this before. She had usually had one of her parents or sisters with her.
Just how much her father’s isolating of her and her younger sisters had impacted her was starting to become more evident. She wasn’t going to be afraid of new things, Dylan just wasn’t. She was going to make sure the twins and Dorie got to do new things. Somehow. They deserved full lives too.
Maybe it was a bit too late for her, but they were still young. She was going to have to save them somehow.
“You can come with me if you want. I think you’ll like Travis’s setup. And I’ll make sure you have time to visit with your friends. Then we can do something we can’t do in Masterson. How does that sound? We’ll have that entire extra day to do something fun.” He shot her a look she couldn’t understand. “Just the two of us.”
“I think I would like that very much.” She wanted to be with him. Him, specifically. His house as an escape had nothing to do with it.
What was the man doing to her?
Besides changing her whole world completely anyway?
31
Dylan foundone of her favorite places on earth in the agronomy plant owned by Travis Worthington-Deane in Finley Creek. Fletcher met his friend—a man who reminded Dylan of Fletcher in a lot of ways, including being built along the same rather delicious lines. Travis Deane was a good natured man, though; not nearly as cranky as her cowboy. And a good family man. He had his daughter with him, clinging to his hand as she toddled around her father’s empire, jabbering at them all. Dylan eventually ended up with Alonna riding on her hip. She was a very pretty baby with pale blond hair and big green eyes and a very mischievous grin. Alonna loved Fletcher too.
Dylan definitely wanted a half-dozen kids of her own someday. No question about that. There was a sitter waiting, who took the little girl when they actually got inside the agronomy building. It was the largest agronomy facility Dylan had ever seen—not that she had seen many, but she had watched YouTube videos and had taken plant sciences classes online. This was her first time in a real facility.
There were growth rooms, inoculation rooms, plant packaging rooms, seed rooms, and soil testing labs, and people who answered all of her questions. She must have spoken with the lab technicians for an hour while Fletcher and Travis were in the conference room discussing some of the experimental feed grasses Fletcher was going to plant on some of his most isolated fields the next season—which would begin soon.