“You thought I was going to keep the ranch,” Caleb reminded her.

“But I believed you when you said you wouldn’t,” she countered.

“You want points for that?”

“Or a merit badge.” The joke was out before she could stop it.

Caleb gave a half smile. Then he seemed to contemplate her for a long, drawn out moment. “I should just sell the damn thing.”

“Well, that would be quite the windfall, wouldn’t it?”

“You think I’d keep the money?”

She stilled, taking in his affronted expression. Oops. She swallowed. “Well…”

Caleb shook his head in obvious disgust, his tone flat. “I’d give the money to Reed, Mandy.”

“Reed wants the ranch, not the money,” she pointed out, attempting to cover the blunder.

“Then why isn’t he here fighting for it?”

“Excellent question,” Travis jumped in. “If it was me, I’d fight you tooth and nail. Hell, I’d lie, cheat and steal to get my land back.”

“So, where is he?” Caleb’s question was directed at Mandy.

“I’m going to find out,” she vowed.

Two days later, Mandy was no closer to an answer. Caleb, on the other hand, was moving his alternative plan along at lighting speed, having decided it was most efficient for him to stay on the ranch for now. He had a real-estate broker on retainer, an appraiser marching around the Terrell ranch and a photographer compiling digital shots for the broker’s website. He’d told her that if they didn’t find Reed in the next few days, the ranch was going on the market.

Trying to keep her activities logical and rational, despite the ticking clock, Mandy had gone from checking Reed’s web-browser history for hotel sites, to trying his cell phone one more time, to calling the hospitals within a three-hundred-mile radius, just in case.

At noon, tired, frustrated and hungry, she wandered into the Terrell kitchen. She found a chicken breast in the freezer, cheese in the refrigerator along with half a jar of salsa, and some tomatoes, peppers and onions in the crisper.