“Yeah, we know what everyone else is saying about the millionaire cowboy with a heart of gold. Way to make us look bad,” Caleb mocked.
Noah tossed his brother a quick glance, noting the humor in his voice. But when he shot a look at Mack, he knew this conversation wasn’t going to end well. Mack still looked upset. His face was set in hard lines. He wasn’t here to make Noah feel better about himself. He was here to make him pay for his mistakes. Noah sighed. “What do you want?”
“Answers,” Mack shot out before Caleb got the chance. “Why did you keep this a secret?”
Noah shrugged. “I didn’t want the attention. I didn’t want anyone to look at me differently. I just wanted to keep being…” He shrugged again and sighed. “Noah.”
“Clearly money wasn’t going to change you,” Caleb chuckled. “You hid it better than I did.”
Noah lifted a brow.
Caleb chuckled again and ran a hand through his unruly hair. “I invested the money Mom and Dad gave me, too. It paid off enough to give Sammie and me a good head start. But based on what I’ve figured, you went and blew my savings out of the water.” Caleb glanced at Mack then thumbed at him over his shoulder. “Mack here is the only one who just let it sit in savings until he could decide what he wanted to do with it.”
Mack made a face that was a mix of exasperation and irritation, which only made Caleb chuckle again.
“Look, I get it. I kept my money a secret from Sammie, too. Our folks never really taught us to share that sort of information.” He inhaled deeply. “But at the same time, you were running a huge charity. It might have been nice to know, in case you needed help. I feel like you’re some masked superhero that no one saw coming.”
Noah’s lips ticked upward at the corners. “Thanks, but I’m not a hero. I just… wanted to help.”
“Well, you did more than that,” Mack admitted. “But now that the world knows, you’re going to have to figure out where you want this to go. Are you going to keep running it?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” Noah snapped, immediately defensive. “It’s what I’ve poured my whole life into.”
“And what about Jane?”
Noah fell silent at Mack’s words.
“You dragged her into this mess, and she deserves answers.”
Shooting to his feet, Noah clenched his hands into fists. “Don’t you think I’ve tried? I tried all night at that event. Then again after it. She wants space.”
“So, what are you going to do in the meantime? Just mope up here in the barn until she’s willing to hear you out?” Caleb asked. “Because that’s not how problems get solved. You know that, right?”
Noah glowered at his brother’s judgmental tone. “You have no idea what’s going on.”
“No, but I do,” Mack growled. “Jane feels like you betrayed her.”
The knots in Noah’s stomach tightened painfully, leaving him breathless.
“She thinks that you orchestrated this whole thing, and she can’t figure out why. I don’t think she believes you would do it to hurt her… but she also doesn’t believe that it was just something that slipped your mind, you know?”
Noah’s nails dug into his skin as he continued to glare at his brothers one at a time. “I think you should go. I told you why I kept it a secret. I told you what I plan to do. Heck, I’ll tell you that I made some good investments of my own and that they paid off enough for me to start this venture without thinking twice about the cost. But I’m not going to sit here and have you tell me that I ruined everything with the woman I love.”
Caleb stared at him with a more curious look than Mack’s hardened one. “Yeah. Sure. Okay. We’ll go, but I want you to know that we’re not built to sit around on our hands and wait for problems to work out. Running from your problems will only make them worse. You should keep trying to talk to her.”
“Leave, Caleb.”
His brother shrugged and moved toward the ladder. But Mack didn’t move. Noah’s scowl matched his brother’s almost perfectly.
“Both of you need to leave.”
Mack took a step toward him. It was more menacing than Noah had thought his brother capable of. When he poked Noah hard in the chest, Noah stumbled back a step. “I was friends with Jane before you were. I know how her head works. I know what it means to her to earn her place in this world because people in her life don’t accept her accomplishments the way they should.”
Noah’s thoughts immediately went to her family and how they seemed happier about Jane’s relationship status than her job. It still didn’t sit right, but there was nothing he could do about it.
“Jane probably doesn’t feel like she earned her promotion. And she made more than one comment regarding the possibility that she got the job since she knew you. I think that’s what’s bothering her the most.”
“Well, there’s nothing I can do about it, now is there?” Noah growled. “I didn’t recommend her for the job because she was the girl I loved. I recommended her because she’s dang good at what she does. I tried telling her that, and she still refuses to accept it.”
