“Oh yeah. Cause you’re alsosuperhumble and don’t evenknowwhat a catch you are.” That gets a snort from Jude.
Wyatt just smirks. “Sutton’s got his hands full with you, doesn’t he? It’s always the quiet, calm men that end up with the sassy women.”
I put my hands on my hips and cock my head to the side. “And how do you know so much about sassy women?”
“Seen a lot, witnessed a lot of happily ever afters with them too,” he replies. “My dad married his best friend after years of knowing each other and believe me, when you meet Mags, you’ll understand why I say she puts the S in sassy.”
“That’s nice though right? Watching your friends and family meet the love of their lives? Well, apart from all the work that goes into hosting a double wedding,” I say, waving at the wall of hay behind us.
“Too true.”
“Hey, Can I ask you two about something? Sutton’s not home yet and you two are already here. So…”
They two men exchange a silent look before Jude blows out a big breath. “Sure. What do you want to know?”
“My uncle mentioned something about a rivalry between your family and the Wilsons. I was wondering what that’s all about?”
Wyatt snorts. “The Wilsons think they should have some of our land–”
“All of it if Sully ever getshisway,” Jude mutters.
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“Sully and our grandfather never got along and we never knew why. All we knew while growin’ up is that the Wilsons were the enemy,” Jude explains. “The few times we’ve seen Sully around town since Gramps’s passin’ and us movin’ here, he’s made it clear that we don’t belong here and should go back to where we came from.”
I gasp. “That’s not very welcoming. The Coopers belong here just as much as the Wilsons, right?”
“Yeah.” Jude smiles. “But when we were cleanin’ out Gramps’s stuff and makin’ the ranch livable, we discovered that our grandfather–ever eccentric and unpredictable–had some family secrets he wanted us to uncover, so he left us some clues to find along the way.”
“Really? That sounds…”
Jude snorts. “Cool? Frustratin’? Revealin’? All of the above?”
“Long story short,” Wyatt starts, “a long time ago, a Cooper man and a Wilson woman fell in love. Henley and Marion lived here on the ranch but tragically, Henley died before his time. Marion was so grief stricken that she couldn’t live here without him, so she moved back to Wilson Ranch with their two sons.”
Marion? Maybe a great grandmother to the current Marion aka Em?
Jude continues. “The agreement was that the Wilsons would look afterourfamily’s ranch until Henley and Marion’s sonswere old enough to take over. That somehow made the Wilsons think they had a claim to this land as well as their own. That’s somethin Sully is stubbornly holdin’ on to and has vowed to fight until the end.”And there it is. The answer to why Sully’s fighting so hard now.“He says there’s a gentleman’s agreement to back him up, but no one can find any proof of anythin’ like that existin’ and I don’t see how our ancestors wouldevergive up some of our land.”
“A gentleman’s agreement wouldn’t be on paper though, would it?” I say, thinking out loud. “It would be a handshake, somethingverbaland informal. There’s no way that couldeverbe proven, not if it was generations ago.”
Funnily enough, I cantotallysee the man I met today holding a mean grudge. Uncle George said as much when he called me.
Something occurs to me. ‘Wait… if a Cooper and a Wilson had children, doesn’t that mean you are all related to each other.”
Jude grins. “Yep. Distant cousins. Not that Sully cares about that. He wants the land, the ranch, and the mountain for the future generations of Wilsons. Lucky for us, Derrick–that’s the oldest son–isn’t interested in any of it. He’s happy with what his family has got and just wants to get on with his life. His sister lives in Palmer so it’s just him and his brothers running the place now. Sully too, I guess. But he’s too old to be doin’ anythin’ other than be hellbent on complainin’ to anyone who’ll listen about us Coopers.”
“OK. You’re saying it’s not really abigrivalry or anything. It’s justoneWilson,” I say, thinking out loud.
“Oh no, my grandfather hated Sully with a passion. Those two could not be in town at the same time by all accounts. It was a whole thing,” Jude explains.
“But not since you’ve moved back?” I ask, fully invested in the story now.
Jude shakes his head. “Not since Derrick approached us at the Lair and said he wants to work with us to put this grudge to bed once and for all. Derrick’s a good man. He’s just caught between family loyalty and knowin’ what’s right. This land has–and always will–belong to the Cooper family. That’s why Gramps made us come back here together.”
“I thought he wanted you here for two years?” I say, thinking back to something Case told me the day I arrived.
“Yeah, but that was just to get us here. We decided months ago that we weren’t goin’ to leave. We know we belong here. This land is in our blood. The mountain was always meant to be our home. Gramps just made sure that we found our way back here,” Jude says.
