Her reassurance does nothing to unclench the knot in my stomach.
“Let’s just… go in,” she says gently. “They’re waiting.”
She leads me inside without another word. She’s close enough that I feel her body heat slip under my shirt, close enough that the entire walk through the hall feels like a test of willpower I’m losing, one breath at a time.
Her fingers brush mine only once, accidentally, I think, but it’s enough to send a sharp, traitorous jolt up my arm.
I can’t do this. Not with her right here, knowing exactly what her skin tastes like. I nearly turn back around, but it’s too late.
The living room opens up ahead of us, and the Morgan men look up in unison—four pairs of eyes, assessing, suspicious, sharp as barbed wire. With Ella beside me, it feels like walking into judgment day.
Zane leans back against the mantle. Jace is perched on his wheelchair, not to be mistaken for weakness; he’s like a soldier ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. Beck’s arms are crossed, face unreadable. Hank sits at the head like an old king who’s already made peace with whatever verdict he’s about to hand down.
Great. A tribunal.
My heartbeat thuds painfully behind my ribs.
“Cole,” Hank greets, voice deep, measured. “Thank you for coming.”
I stand straight, shoulders squared. “Of course.”
My eyes flick to Ella instinctively, as if I need confirmation that this isn’t a trap. She gives me the smallest hint of a smile. It’s barely there, but I feel it everywhere.
“Sit,” Zane says.
Ella quietly moves to stand beside her father, close enough to hear everything, far enough to pretend she’s impartial. Except she isn’t.
“How’s work?” Jace asks, tone neutral but loaded.
I clear my throat. “Busy. Trying to stabilize things since the divorce.”
Ella’s eyes flick to mine, a soft sympathy, but it’s gone just as quickly as it appeared.
“We heard,” Beck says. “About the settlement.”
My jaw tightens. “Yeah.”
Silence stretches. I brace myself. Any second now, they’ll mention what happened, and I’ll be sweating through this shirt and begging the ground to open up.
Then Hank clears his throat. “We have a proposition for you.”
I blink. “A proposition?”
“Yes,” Zane affirms. “We’re building houses. One for each sibling, right here on the ranch.”
Relief floods my system. So this is what I was called here for, and Ella was apologizing for telling them about the divorce, and not what happened between us. I feel like I just escaped a bear trap.
I stare. “All of them? That’s—“
“Big,” Jace finishes. “We know.”
“It’s a multi-home development,” Beck adds. “You’re going to be handling everything—land grading, materials, everything from the ground up.”
I sit back.
Holy shit.
Hank meets my gaze. “We want Dawson Construction to be our first consideration.”
