Rode Hard, Put Up Wet: Cowboy Romance (Rebels & Outlaws 2)

Glen smiles, a look that tells Philip what he already knows. A look that tells him that he's lost whatever he'd stood to hopefully gain.

"Twenty's high, Phil. But I can do you a favor, this once."

Callahan's jaw tightens. Glen Brand isn't the kind of man that you want to owe a favor to. But the alternative isn't any better.

Chapter Thirty-Two

There was a mile's difference between a polite conversation about her intentions with the property—if she should buy it, and what it was worth to the company, all while she was secretly hoping to find a way to get back together with the man on the other side of the table—and trying to figure out how much she was honestly willing to spend on it.

And there was an even bigger difference between asking him out to dinner and asking him to sell his property outright. Even if the dinner was supposedly to discuss it.

It's strange how nervous she is, as if someone's sitting on her chest and forcing all the air out of her lungs. She's not even calling him yet. She's just trying to figure out the math on her starting bid.

Making the bid can come later.

But she's got to come with a number in her head, even if she shouldn't come right out and say what that number is. And right now, she's drawing a total blank.

She's too close. It's not hard to realize it. She can't just get close to the guy, know everything about his life, know why he cares so much about the property, and then put that away whenever it's convenient.

She's going to feel for him. Sympathize with him. But that's not something that she can afford to just allow to control her perspective, either. She's got to make decisions that are right for her and for her father's company.

Which means, whether she likes it or not, she can't afford to high-ball him and get him with big numbers. Not if it's more than the property is worth for her and for Lowe.

And looking at the numbers… it's hard to say. If it were on the open market, and she were just buying any three or four acres of land, then she would only be looking at paying two hundred thousand.

Now, that's developed land. There's no way it would sell for two hundred. Not if he were selling to anyone else. They'd see the house, they'd see the barn, they'd see the stables. It's practically a ready-made horse ranch. The only work you'd need to do would be getting the horses.

Which means that she might be looking at… as many as double that, possibly. Is that too much? Four hundred? She's not sure.

The price ranges vary so wildly that it's not clear. More than that, though, he's still not looking to sell. Four hundred would be what he'd get if he were happy with selling, hired himself a realtor and got it sold.

What she's trying to do is to tempt him into selling in spite of that. Her lips pinch.

Normally, she'd say to double it again. Eight hundred thousand dollars is hard to turn down. Hard for anyone. It would be hard for her to turn it down, even if it were a matter of losing on of her locations.

But that raised serious questions of what the land was worth to her.

Eight hundred thousand… that's a lot of money. When you think about writing a check that large, you have to be sure before you put the pen on the paper.

Is it worth it to you? Do you have the money to spare? Can you go any lower anywhere?

And the answer is, as much as she can't stand it, no it's not worth eight. Six. It's worth six. If she stretched, she could justify seven.

The last hundred thousand is hard to justify, and it's hard because of the second question. With two new locations going up, which should be turning a profit within a year, cash flow won't be a problem—a year from now.

But by then it'll be too late. She'll be the lame duck who promised on the Callahan ranch and couldn't deliver. And she's going to need money to grease the wheels until she gets through that critical first year.

Eight hundred takes them dangerously close to the red. They'd survive it, but it would be a matter of tightening belts, of no Christmas bonuses, the boys waiting on their raises. Can she justify it?

She closes her eyes. It's worth a lot to her. It's worth her reputation. And eight hundred thousand dollars is barely a drop in the bucket to show the entire world that you're not to be messed with.

But it's not her job to think of things from the perspective of whether or not it's good for her. She has to think of things from a wider perspective. From the question of whether or not it's the right decision for the company.

And the reason that she keeps going through the numbers again, top to bottom, is that it's not.

She wants it to work. She doesn't want to low-ball, offer him something he'll never take in a million years.

But there's no question that he's not going to get eight. She looks down at the paper again. Tears it away from the rest of the notebook and starts again. She's got to find a way to make it work. She's got to.