“No, I’m perfectly serious.” She pulled one of her sweatshirt sleeves over her hand to dab at the corners of her eyes.
“Me, too.” He waved his coffee mug at her, going for the money shot. “Not to make you listen to a grown man whine, but my sons lost their mother at a very young age, and their aunt is currently out of town indefinitely. You’re all my boys have right now on the maternal side of things. If you want me to beg you to stay at Garrett Farm, I’ll beg.” He set his coffee cup down, preparing to hit his knees if that’s what it took.
He all but physically felt her crumble beneath his pleading. “Well, when you put it like that…”
Success!He felt like giving a whoop of delight and dancing around the kitchen like his boys did when they were excited about something. However, he didn’t want to do anything that might alarm her. “Thank you,” he said simply. It wasn’t easy speaking in a normal voice, but he was pretty sure he pulled it off. “I’ll make it worth your while. I promise.”
She gave him an incredulous look. “I’m more concerned about you not regretting keeping me around.”
There wasn’t a chance in the world of that happening, but he didn’t tell her that. “How about we review what we know about your situation and come up with a game plan?” He was convinced that was the best path forward.
She fixed him with a look that was part wistful and part hopeful. “Okay, you win, Private Investigator Tolliver.”
It was difficult to keep the snarl out of his voice with what he said next. “If I understand correctly, your ex wants you to think you’re in so much danger that you have no choice but to reconcile with his sorry hide.” What a monster! He’d gone out of his way to cripple her financially, trying to make her feel like reconciliation was her only option. It was emotional abuse on steroids.
Halle gave a sad chuckle. “Yep, that’s what he said.”
“Danger that he’s personally responsible for dragging you into,” Owen pointed out icily, “by getting himself involved with some unscrupulous people who strong-armed him into selling your farm to them.”
“Yes.” She nodded warily.
“By what I choose to think of as Divine intervention,” he continued in a smoother voice, “Mr. Loser Windbag and his crooked associates didn’t move fast enough, and I bought your farm before they could.”
She smiled faintly at his insulting nickname for her ex.
He waggled his eyebrows at her, liking that he’d made her smile. “But instead of turning around and making me an offer for the farm that I couldn’t possibly turn down, these same crooks are on their way to hold you personally responsible fortheirmistake.” His mouth twisted in disgust. “Give me a break! My five-year-olds could’ve come up with a better story than that.”
She sat up straighter. “I agree it doesn’t make sense.” She seemed to glean some comfort from that.
He did, too, now that they were dissecting everything her ex had told her. “Garrett Farm must play an integral role in whatever they’re planning.” Another thought struckhim. “At what point did you decide to move back to the farm to oversee the daily operations?”
Her lips tightened. “When I ended my engagement. I contacted the school superintendent in Heart Lake that very day about applying for a local teaching position.”
“Good for you.” He added her actions to the mental timeline he was building.
“In hindsight,” she moaned, “it was really, really,reallystupid of me to add my ex’s name to my accounts and home deed before we were married. Running the chicken farm from long distance was just so stressful, and I’d convinced myself I was marrying a financial genius. It made sense…until it didn’t.” She squeezed her eyelids shut as she recounted the horror of what came next, including the lawsuit to win back the deed to her farm. “But he short-circuited that process for me as well, the weasel!” She opened her eyes. “I thought I was paying a lawyer to handle my court case by proxy. Instead, I must have been dealing with one of his goons. I didn’t figure that out until I pulled my car up behind your moving truck.”
Her words made him repeat his earlier question from a different angle. “So, James didn’t know you were moving home?”
She shrugged. “If he did, he didn’t hear it from me.”
Owen finished his coffee and set the mug in the sink. “He sure went to a lot of trouble to make sure everything looked like business as usual here on the farm.” He was referring to whoever had been impersonating Jensen via the fake phone number.
“That he did.” Halle sounded perplexed.
“Which leaves us with these takeaways.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Number one, he tried tosell your farm to someone else besides me. Number two, he kept you away from home as long as possible. And after items one and two fell through, he now wants you back. When we figure out what these three things add up to, we’ll know what he and his crooked associates are up to.”
“I’m not convinced he truly wants me back.” Halle scrunched her nose. “Or that he ever wanted to marry me in the first place. Maybe his meltdown over the phone tonight was just his way of getting me away from the farm. Again.”
“Getting you away from the farm,” Owen repeated, marveling that it had only taken a single cup of coffee to get her creative juices flowing again. “You may be on to something there.” It was an angle he hadn’t considered, probably because his analytical mind was so good at overthinking things. “If your presence on the farm is what he and his associates find threatening, then what are they trying to hide from you?” Whatever it was, it had to be on site.
“I wish I knew.” She adopted a faraway look.
“Let’s find out,” he urged, moving to the island to rest his palms on it and lean her way. “Tomorrow is Saturday. Well, technically, it’s already Saturday.” According to the time displayed on the microwave, it was past midnight. “That means no baseball practice. Nothing but regular ol’ farm chores. It’ll leave us with plenty of time to explore every inch of the property. If we run across anything suspicious, we’ll call the police.” Hopefully, Lonestar Security would have its installation team present within a few hours, providing additional oversight and accountability.
Halle sat perfectly still for a moment as she weighed his words.
His blood pressure rose a few degrees while he waited for her answer.
