His gaze strayed to the staircase at the opposite end of the living room. His old bedroom was up there. Where, apparently, Mandy had been sleeping. Of course, she could have been lying about that, simply amusing herself by messing with his head.

Then again, even if she had slept in his bed, why should he care? He didn’t. The woman could sleep wherever she wanted.

Her footfalls sounded on the kitchen tiles. Seconds later, she strode through the archway between the kitchen and the living room, tucking her phone into the front pocket of her jeans. “Seth’s going to send a couple of hands.”

“Send them where?”

She did a double take. “Here, of course.”

“Why?”

“To help you out.”

“I didn’t ask for help.” Caleb didn’t mean to sound ungrateful, but he didn’t need Mandy waltzing in and making decisions for him. He didn’t know what happened next, but he knew he’d be the guy calling the shots.

She blinked. “I know. I did it as a favor.”

“Next time, please ask permission.”

“You want me to ask for permission to do a favor?”

“I want you to ask permission to meddle in my business.”

“Meddling? You call lending you two highly qualified hands to take care of your ranch while we look for your brother meddling?”

Caleb took in the determined tilt of her chin, the squared shoulders that said she was ready for a scrap and the animated flash in her jewel-bright eyes. He decided it wasn’t the right time for a fight.

“Next time,” he told her more softly, “please ask first.”

“I wouldn’t worry about there being a next time.”

Fine. No problem. He’d dealt with everything else in his life without help.

He’d find his brother. He’d find him fast and get his life back to normal.

He couldn’t help thinking about how his financial lawyer, Danielle Marin, was going to react to him being stuck in Colorado.