“Thank God I’m pregnant. I can look fat in my dress and no one will care.”
“You won’t look fat,” Clara chuckled.
“Where’s the ceremony, anyway?”
“You don’t know?” Lizzy asked, surprised by my lack of knowledge.
“Well, honestly, I just let Michael handle all the details,” I said, cramming more cheese and crackers into my mouth.
“It’s going to be by the falls,” Krista answered.
“It would have been nicer on the other side of the river, but Dad has put that side off limits for some unknown reason,” Lizzy scoffed.
“Girls, your father is trying to help someone out. Just leave it alone.”
The other side of the river? “I thought everything on the other side of the river belonged to the Callahans?”
“It does,” Clara answered, “aside from one parcel we bought from them. Well, technically, it was Jim’s property, but when he died, it reverted to John.”
“Who’s Jim?”
“John’s twin. He died…oh, probably seventeen years ago. It was really hard on John. A connection like that—I can’t imagine what it must have been like for him.”
“How did he die?”
“Accidental overdose,” Clara sighed. “He’d been having trouble sleeping ever since his wife died. Poor, MaryAnne. She was never in good health. Anyway, after she died, Jim was a mess. He would take sleeping pills, but when that didn’t work, he drank himself to sleep. And…well, the last time, he overdid it.”
Wow, that was…extremely sad. “That must have been hard on the family.”
“Oh, it caused quite the stir in town. See, Jim owned everything at the upper part of the falls, and the property wrapped around to the outskirts of town. Well, a developer wanted to buy that land off Jim to build some beautiful houses, but Jim wouldn’t sell. And when the property reverted to John, he refused to sell, also. The town was divided over whether or not he should sell. We desperately needed to expand housing, and it was the perfect location.”
“But you can’t force someone to sell,” I pointed out.
“Which was what caused such an uproar. If we tried to force him to sell, what other ranchers would they pressure into selling property?”
Who knew small-town politics would be so heated?
“Anyway, it’s your wedding day. We shouldn’t be talking about things like death and property sales.”
But as they started getting me ready for the big day, all I could think about was one thing.
How this all could be connected to the death of Dakota Walker.
16
MICHAEL
“You ready for this?”Sinner asked, standing beside me in front of the arch my brothers brought in.
“Of course I’m ready.” I glanced over and watched as he straightened his tie. “What are you doing?”
“Getting ready.”
“For what?”
He looked over his suit, then back at me in confusion. “For my job as your best man.”
I snorted in amusement, shaking my head. “You’re not my best man.”
