“You can’t halt the sale?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Maybe.”
Uncertainty was written through every feature. I gawked at her. “You do the books.”
“I do thebar’sbooks.” Guilt crossed her face.
I’d been hadby a schoolteacher.
Panic expanded in my chest, squeezing my lungs. The last-ditch scramble to keep Percival in the James name was slipping through my fingers.
“Fuck.” I stuffed a hand through my hair and paced the bedroom. I’d married the girl who did the bar’s books, and her brothers would hate me. They’d close the sale faster just to spite me. “Fuck!”
“Hey,” she said in a calming voice that ought to upset me, but my tension notched down. “You don’t want kids and I don’t have as much power as you thought. That doesn’t mean we can’t help each other.”
I propped my hands on my hips and faced her. “How’s that? You’re going to ask them nicely after you show up with me as a husband?”
“You’re going to Bourbon Canyon?”
“I can’t do much from here,” I snapped. “We’ll change your flight so we can go together.”
She ignored my outburst and flicked a finger up. “Okay, one, asking nicely gets you pretty darn far. And two, I’m still part of the family. We act as a united front. If you’re part of the family, they’ll listen to you. Or maybe give you a role after the sale.”
Fury ramped up my blood pressure. “Golly gee, I can managemyland that someone else owns.”
“It’s not your land,” she said bluntly. “That’s the crux of the issue, or you wouldn’t have me in your bed.”
Damn. She cut to the heart faster than any high-level investor I’d met.
She lifted her hands, palms in the air. “Look, it’s not ideal, but you and I seem to be the only way we can each get what we want. My brothers have no problem buying the place you think should be yours, but would they hesitate if they were buying it out from under your dad’s grandson or granddaughter? Would your dad reconsider if he thought that?”
Her meaning sank in. Her brothers didn’t give a shit about me. Even if they were sympathetic to my situation, they had long since decided it didn’t matter. We’d last parted ways yelling at each other. They thought they were supporting my delusional dad with his decision.
But if there was an innocent kid, a niece or nephew, who would lose their legacy? Would that make them pause long enough for me to get through to Dad that he was making a goddamn mistake? Would the thought of a grandkid make Dad reconsider?
Was it worth having a kid to find out?
I had ruled out kids to prevent them from going through what I had. But Autumn had a big family. If something happened to one of us, there’d be plenty of aunts and uncles for the kid to lean on.
A child.
A baby.
The image of my mom’s smile doused my anger and stabbed right into my heart. She would’ve loved to have a grandkid.
She was the reason why I’d been determined not to.
But the only slice of heaven Mom loved in the world was getting sold, and if that kid could help me save it?
“You have a deal, wife.”
Autumn
When I woke, I smacked my lips together and squeezed my eyes shut. I needed a gallon of water and some fresh fruit ASAP. Between the drinks and the salty food, I was dying of thirst.
I pried an eye open. God, it was bright in here.
The soft smell of laundry detergent mingled with the scent of cedar citrus. Gideon.
