Hudson hadn’t told me what Lake wanted to do with the place, or any of the details other than for the time being, I had my job and home.
I knew whatever it was Hudson had read in Ruth’s will, he would’ve told it to Lake first. For one, Lake was actual blood family and the primary inheritor. But for two, despite Ruth having been my best friend, I was an employee.
Ruth had told me years ago that she wanted to leave her nephew the book rights. That seemed reasonable. Hudson, once he’d come back from New York from meeting with Lake, had actually told me that Lake worked at a bookstore but had had no idea who his aunt had been.
I put the luggage on the floor in the hall and went back to pick up more pieces. Lake was struggling with two of the largest ones, but he glared at me when he saw me looking, so I picked up the rest instead of trying to help him with his burden.
One of Lake’s suitcases had a squeaky wheel, and it made my headache worse. I grimaced.
When Lake noticed and raised a brow, I rumbled out, “That’s a bit loud.” And nodded at the offending piece of luggage.
Lake glanced at the thing, and his features darkened with anger. “Well, we’re all a bitloud, so you better get used to it.” Then he huffed and marched toward where they could hear his friends talking in the kitchen.
For a moment, I didn’t get it. Then I realized the other suitcase, the non-squeaky one, was violently pink. With all sorts of stickers on it, including unicorns and rainbows and pride flags.
I groaned. “For fuck’s sake…”
Hudson came back just as I had made sure nobody could trip on the numerous bags.
“All right, let’s get this show on the road,” Hudson said brightly, clutching his pretentious as fuck briefcase.
I grunted at the back of Hudson’s head as I followed my friend to the kitchen. Things were changing, fast, and there was no reason to be cheery about it.
* * * *
Twenty minutes later, Hudson, Lake, and I sat around one of the two little four person tables Ruth had loved. She’d never wanted a bigger dining table, insisting they didn’t fit the kitchen or the space allocated for such things. I missed her so much.
We had coffee, and Lake had sent River and Rey upstairs so Rey could pick himself a safe space out of the three guest rooms that were available. One of them was Cook’s, had been for years now, and I had told them so.
I sighed again. “So, what’s the situation?” I asked Hudson, at the last minute remembering it was probably mostly for Lake to decide. “Do I still have a job?”
“Wait, you haven’t told him anything?” Lake frowned at Hudson.
“He’s my friend, but you’re my primary client now, Lake.”
“Ah, okay.” Lake sipped his coffee, glance-glared at me, and said, “Well, this should be interesting.”
That didn’t sound ominous at all. I leveled a look at Hudson. “Spit it out.”
“Ruth’s will leaves all the book stuff to Lake—”
“Yeah, and I already knew that because she asked me for my thoughts on that when she was making sure her affairs were in order after she turned fifty.”
“Right, but there’s the rescue.” Hudson slid a few papers over the table to me. “Her wishes are as follows: If Lake decides to keep the rescue, then you have the cabin and your job for the rest of your life, if that is what you choose.”
I frowned. “What?”
“But if Lake decides to sell the farm, then two thirds of whatever it sells for will be yours, and Lake takes the last third.”
My head felt a bit swimmy, and I put my mug on the table. “I’m sorry,what?”
“If I sell, you get most of the money from the sale. If I don’t sell, you keep your job like you have thus far. It’s not really that complicated,” Lake snarked.
“There’s a caveat, though. Lake is not allowed to sell it yet, even if he wanted to.” Hudson glanced at me and then at Lake and back. “He needs to live here for three months, run the place with you and Sierra and whomever ends up helping. He can only decide after three months, Theo.”
I ran a palm over my face and ended up covering my mouth as I tried to understand. Ruth had…she’d done this so Lake couldn’t make rash decisions. She’d wanted him to see her passion, her life’s work.
“She wanted you to understand this place,” I said, the words coming out gruffly. “Before you sold it.”
