Lone Star Holiday Proposal

“My plans are mine alone. I don’t disclose my reasons.” Rafe paused before adding, “To anyone.”

Nolan carefully closed the folder in his hands and, equally carefully, placed it on the table. “Then I cannot continue to work for you.”

“You’re serious?”

“Never more so. I will not represent Samson Oil unless I have a better understanding of what your aims are in relation to the land acquisitions. Like I said, people are beginning to ask questions and I have a few of my own.”

“It is no one’s business but mine.”

There were times when Rafe’s privileged background shone through—times like this when he held himself above others and believed his will was law. That might be the case back in Al Qunfudhah, his homeland, but the last time Nolan checked it certainly wasn’t that way in Texas.

“Then I’m sorry, but I’m forced to resign. Effective immediately.”

“We have a contract, Nolan,” Rafe reminded him. “You are bound to honor that, are you not?”

“A contract I drew up,” Nolan said on a sigh. “And under the terms of the exit clause, I believe you’ll discover that I’m within my rights to do this. I’m sorry, Rafe. I’ve always liked you and admired your business acumen, but I can no longer continue to work for you. Not under these circumstances. I hope we can still be friends.”

He rose and extended his hand. Rafe hesitated a moment before also getting to his feet and clasping Nolan’s hand in return.

“I, too, am sorry it has come to this. Can I ask you one thing?”

“What’s that?”

“Why? You were happy to continue working under my instructions before. What changed?”

Nolan gave Rafe a bitter smile. “I met someone.”

Ten

Nolan drove away from Holloway with a sense of lightness he hadn’t felt in a very long time. It was as if walking away from his contract with Rafiq had freed him from an invisible cell. It wasn’t that he hadn’t enjoyed his work, because he had. He’d always loved the cut and thrust of law, and property law had brought its own challenges to keep him sharp. But he’d never truly stopped to consider the peripheral effect of what he was doing. Not until he’d met Raina.

Would she allow him back into her life? He wanted to tell her he was no longer acting for Samson Oil, but after the way they’d parted, he seriously doubted that he could just pull up to her front door and expect her to see him.

He activated the hands-free calling in his car and spoke her name. Through the speaker he heard the phone at the other end begin to ring.

Pick up, he silently willed her. Pick up. But after a few short rings, the call was diverted to voice mail. He was disappointed but not surprised. In fact, he wouldn’t have put it past her to have blocked his number altogether.

Nolan left a message anyway, asking her to please call him when she had a chance. As he ended the call he wondered whether she would call him back. Maybe she’d simply delete his message without listening to it. Well, he’d call her back again. Not too soon, of course. Even he respected that he’d done a serious amount of damage when it came to her trust in him. He had a lot of work to do before he won it back.

At a bit of a loose end, Nolan decided to drop in on his parents. Maybe his dad needed some wood chopped. He sure hoped so, because he suddenly had a burning urge to work off some energy and wood chopping felt like just the chore for it.

When he got to his parents’ house, he sat in the car a moment and stared at the home where he’d grown up. He had so many memories from when he was a kid and more from when he’d reached his teens. He still remembered, clear as day, the first time he’d brought Carole over to meet his mom and dad. He and Carole had been in their last year of high school, each with the same goal for their future. Even then they’d hoped to build that future together.

Would he have changed anything if he could? He’d known Carole for what felt like forever, but he still remembered the day when he’d seen her and everything had changed. It was as if a switch had been thrown in his mind and from that moment forward he’d known she was the one for him. It turned out that he’d been a little slow on the uptake. She’d decided long before that she wanted him, too, and she’d waited patiently, biding her time until he woke up to the fact that they’d been made for one another.