He and the surveyor had just come into view of their vehicles when an old truck roared up the driveway. Mason tensed, reaching down to grab Ric’s collar as an old man climbed out wearing a furious expression.
“Can I help you?” he asked cautiously, his free hand ready to draw the pistol from its holster on his hip. He liked being able to carry here with his weapons permit. The surveyor stood off to the side, watching warily.
The old man stormed toward Mason, a pissed off expression on his bearded, weathered face. “You Baldwin?”
“No. I’m his business partner.” He stood his ground and moved in front of Ric, reading the aggression and rage in the man’s posture and expression. “Who are you?”
“Ray Gladstone. I own this property,” he snapped.
Mason frowned. “That’s not what the title on it says.”
The man’s face twisted. “I don’t give a goddamn what the paperwork says!” He thumped a finger into his chest. “I own this land, it’s been in my family for five goddamn generations, and I won’t sell it to anyone.”
What the hell was this? This was the first Mason had heard of any internal friction with the owners. “Ray, the seller already accepted our offer. As soon as the bank—”
“My family can go to hell. I never agreed to the sale, so you can take your offer and shove it where the sun don’t shine.”
Okay, then. “You need to take this up with whoever is on the title. Not me. But it’s already a done deal.” Almost.
The old man’s eyes widened with fury. Mason braced himself as Ray came at him, taking a swing at Mason’s face, but he ducked and moved out of the way. He wasn’t going to hit an old man, no matter how angry the guy was.
“Hey,” the surveyor snapped, storming toward them.
Mason held out a hand to stop him, his gaze trained on Ray, who had caught his balance and whirled to face him, shaking with rage. There was no way he was getting into a fight with an old man. Old-timer had no idea he was facing off with a former JTF2 operator.
“We’re not doing this. You need to take it up with your relatives,” Mason told him firmly. “And if you harass me or my partners again, I’m calling the police.”
Ray straightened and took a deep breath, glaring holes into Mason’s face. “I’m warning you, get out of here now. This land isn’t for sale. Not while I’m still breathing.” With that he spun and stormed back to his truck.
It reversed and roared down the driveway, its tires kicking up gravel and dirt as Ray sped away.
Mason looked over at the surveyor, who looked stunned. “Know him?”
“Not really. Seen him around town at the bar a couple times. Damn.”
Mason nodded. “Thanks for coming out.” He let Ric in the passenger side of the Jeep, then got in and fired up the engine. A seed of worry took root in his gut. Ray might be pushing eighty, but he was mad as hell and might cause enough trouble with his relatives to get the deal pulled.
On the drive back to town he called Tate to tell him the news. “Ray Gladstone?” Tate said, sounding confused. “He wasn’t listed on the title.”
“I know. But you might want to talk to whoever was, to make sure this won’t be a problem. He threw a punch at me.”
“Wow. All right, will do. You heading back to town now?”
“No, I’m gonna take Ric for a hike first.” He needed to blow off some steam and clear his head.
He drove to a spot he’d found soon after moving to Rifle Creek, and called his mom in Calgary on the way. “Hey,” he said when she answered.
“Mason! How are you, babe?”
He loved that she still called him that. She’d fostered dozens of kids in her lifetime, but he was the only one she called babe. Just hearing her voice made everything better, erasing the anxiety beginning to churn in his mind. “Good. May have a little hiccup with the property we offered on, but I hope not.” It was the best available piece of land in the area, and he was already in love with it. He didn’t want to lose it now.
“Why, what happened?”
He explained the situation. “It’s probably nothing. Just got me thinking.”
“Yeah, too much, probably.”
That made him grin. She knew him better than anyone, even himself. “Yeah, probably.”
“You know what? You can stop worrying right now, because I have a good feeling about all this. It’s going to work out and you’re going to be happy there.”
He shook his head fondly. “I need to introduce you to Nina. Between your gut feelings and her insane optimism, you two could conquer the world together.”
“Tate’s girlfriend, right? I’d love to meet her. By the way, how’s the new digs working out for you and your boy?”
She and Ric loved each other to a ridiculous degree. “So far, so good.”
“Yeah? Landlord’s nice?”
“Yeah, she’s real nice.” A little frosty to him, maybe, but she’d still let him rent her suite when he’d needed a place. She must like him a little. “And I think she’s starting to warm to me a little. We’re going to a wedding together this weekend.”
Nancy was quiet a second. “Mason, you tell me everything right now.”
He chuckled at the demand, easily picturing her leaning against the kitchen counter in her faded jeans and a sweater, her long gray hair up in a ponytail, all her attention on him as she stared out the window above the sink. “She needed someone to go with her. It’s a three-day thing at a guest ranch near Billings.”
“You’re spending three days with a bunch of strangers for her?” She sounded skeptical.
“Yep.”
“So then you’re into her.” Satisfaction dripped from every word.
Oh, he was into Avery. More than he’d been into any woman in a damn long time. If she wasn’t Tate’s partner, he would definitely be trying to get her into bed. Not that he was going to say that to the woman he considered to be his mother. “I’m just helping her out.”
“Oh.” She sounded disappointed. “So you’re…not together?”
He smiled at her tone. “No.” Not yet. But hopefully that would change. He was going to take advantage of their forced relationship status to see how far he could move the needle with her this weekend. He was sick of her ignoring him. He wanted her to notice him, and know he wasn’t the only one affected by the chemistry between them. “But I think I just may have found my footing here.”
“I think so too. But Mason?”
“Hmm?”
“If you decide she’s special to you, promise me you won’t walk away.”
A sinking sensation filled his chest. His immediate reaction was to get defensive, to deny he would do that. But she was dead on. That’s exactly what he did when things got too intense—he walked.
Until Nancy, who’d taken in another scared, angry kid and kept him despite all the shitty things he’d done, all the ways he’d acted out. Pushing her and everyone else away because to him it was a foregone conclusion that they’d eventually dump him too.
But not Nancy. She’d stuck with him through everything, had raised him with firm but kind rules and boundaries, tons of love he still wasn’t sure he’d deserved, and eventually taught him to trust her. She was the only person in his entire life he’d ever felt complete security with.