Rich Rancher's Redemption

“I don’t get it,” she said softly, tipping her head to one side as she watched him, trying to gauge what he was thinking. “Why would you want to do this?”

“Do I need a reason?”

She laughed shortly. “Well, yes.”

“Fine.” He sat back in his chair and studied her in the golden glow of the overhead lamp. “I figure if you can bake a pie like this in that tiny excuse for a kitchen in the apartment—there’s no telling what you could pull off with the room to grow.”

“Hmm.”

“This is a straight-up business deal,” he said, and Jillian met his shadowed gaze. “We’ll have the family lawyers draw up the paperwork—”

“I don’t know…” She laid one hand against her belly in a futile attempt to ease the butterflies racing around inside. This was all happening so fast she couldn’t be sure about what to do. But in the next instant, Jillian told herself that this was the chance she’d been waiting, hoping for. Did it matter that Jesse was helping her? Again? Once she paid him back, the business would be hers completely, and wasn’t that what was really important?

As if sensing that she was waffling, Jesse looked into her eyes and said, “The shop on Main has most of what you’d need. Anything else required we can get. Have you set up and running inside a month if you want it.”

“A month.” She could have her own shop in a month. Jillian took a deep breath and held it, hoping to steady the nerves, the questions, rattling her. It didn’t help. A month. All she had to do was forego her pride and accept Jesse’s offer. But was it pride keeping her from accepting his help? Didn’t other businesses have investors? Why shouldn’t she?

“Or sooner,” he tempted.

Sooner. She chewed at her bottom lip and mentally raced through the colliding thoughts in her mind. The pros. The cons. The temptations and dangers of being too close to Jesse Navarro. About giving up the very essence of herself—her self-reliance. Since she was a child when her parents disappeared from her life, Jillian had learned to count on herself. Her grandmother had taught her to go for what she wanted but to never expect someone else to get it for her.

She’d worked and saved and maybe in another year or two, she could pull off opening her own shop under her own power. Sure, she’d still have needed a business loan, but she would have taken as little as she could because the thought of being in debt was terrifying. But if she was willing to bend, she could have that dream much sooner than she could have imagined. All she had to do was get past the life lessons that had guided her for so long.

Really, what was wrong with his offer? She wasn’t really giving anything up. She would still do the work and build the business on her own. It was as if she were getting a loan from a bank. Only this bank happened to be gorgeous and starring nightly in her dreams.

As Jillian considered everything, her mind a whirlwind of disjointed thoughts, she realized something. She wanted to do this. Why should she wait years to have what she could have now? Self-reliance would still be her mainstay as it would be up to her whether her shop was a success or not. She wouldn’t lose anything by accepting Jesse’s offer. Instead, she could take a stand and start building the future.

Then she considered Mac in all of this. Her baby girl. Jillian wanted so much for her. If she waited until she’d saved all the money she might need, it could be two or three more years before she could open a shop. And that meant it might be years before she could find a bigger apartment—or a house—and she wanted that for Mac. Her little girl deserved to have her own yard to play in. She’d seen Mac with Brody, here on the ranch where the kids had room to run and play and make all the noise they wanted to without worrying about upsetting the person in the next apartment.

If she accepted Jesse’s help, she’d be able to put her dreams on the fast track and that meant a better life for Mac. Wasn’t that what coming to Texas in the first place had been all about?

“I can practically hear you thinking,” Jesse said wryly.

“It’s a lot to think about,” she admitted and watched him savor another bite of pie.

“Not so much really,” he said and set his fork down. “You’ve got talent and a plan. I can help you with getting started on that plan. Pretty straightforward.”

“When you put it like that, sure,” she said.

“So is that a yes?”

Jillian looked into his eyes and knew she was going to say yes. If there was still some hesitation inside her, she could understand it, but she wouldn’t let it sway her. Maybe it was just time to throw caution to the wind and take the chance being offered. She took a breath, held his gaze and took the plunge. “I think so.”