Chapter Sixteen
Zoey headed past Swiss Bliss Salon and wondered if the hairstylist there knew how to remove a weave. Her head was super tender near her head wound, and the pull of the extensions near the area pinched. She hadn’t worn her hair au natural in a couple years, but she was all for it now that it ached. Hopefully, Hunter liked her curls. They’d made up after their fight, but she still felt like things weren’t … secure. It was a strange feeling—like trying to stand on a lopsided pumpkin in cowboy boots. One wrong move and she’d fall on her behind. She didn’t want to fall with Hunter, though she’d obviously fallen for him.
At the stairwell in the back of the building, she saw a plaque for Collins and Brown, Attorneys at Law, with an arrow helpfully pointing upstairs. She grinned and jogged lightly up the steps, mindful that too much pounding would send her head into a pounding all its own.
The day after the cattle drive, after she and Hunter had confessed their love for one another, Zoey had become more determined than ever to buy that land. Purchasing the property was no longer just an investment in her company or a way to protect the Westbrooks’ grazing rights; now it was an investment in her future. She felt crazy for thinking it, but at the same time, she felt right. And never had she felt quite like that about anything besides rodeo, and especially not about a man. She just couldn’t shake Hunter, not that she’d really tried or that she wanted to. At all.
She’d called the number she’d seen on the sign on her first date with Hunter, and she had gotten Collins and Brown. Turned out there was no Collins anymore, but there was a Nicholls. Which was weird, but whatever. She made an appointment with Nicholls, and today, she was moving forward with her plan.
At the top of the landing, a little bell hung over the door. She pushed the door open into an office that looked like it’d been styled in the ’60s by a private detective: wood floors, big clunky metal desk with a lamp on it, and shelves with rows and rows of law books with leather spines. A small hallway led to a bathroom on one side, and what looked to be an office with a frosted white window in the frame on the other.
Any bets this place was designed by Collins, the retired attorney?
Also, now she wanted to watchPerry Mason. Her dad had loved that show. She’d bet she could get Hunter, and even Brandon—with Allie’s help—to binge-watch for an evening. Oooh! A double date. Or even better, a triple and get Cash and Jo involved. That was so happening.
“Hello?” she called out.
The door with the frosted window opened, and out stepped a man in a suit.
Her jaw dropped. “Holy crap! You look like Gene Kelly!” A young Gene Kelly. Same broad shoulders, same light eyes—he even had a dimple in his chin—only his hair was a dark blond instead of brown.
The man chuckled. “I’ve never heard that one before.” He extended his hand. “I’m Liam Nicholls. You must be Zoey Carroll?”
She nodded and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.” He led her over to the desk and pulled the leather swivel chair back for her. She sat, grateful for his gentlemanliness. He grabbed a folder on his desk and the fold-up metal chair that sat behind it, which he brought around the front to sit by her.
Zoey decided right then that she liked this guy. There was something so impersonal about sitting behind a desk and facing off with a client, and he was the opposite of that. She also vowed to have two chairs in her future office so she could sit with her clients.
“Thanks for meeting with me on such short notice,” Zoey said. “My sister-in-law, Allie Ward—Carroll now—said you gentlemen are usually pretty busy during the festival.”
Liam nodded. “As I’m discovering. I only moved back to Harvest Ranch last Christmas. But yes, we handle all the legal aspects of the festival for the town, which keeps us pretty busy.” He extended a hand again. “But when someone calls and tells us they want to buy one hundred and twenty acres, you’d better believe we’ll make time.”
“About that,” Zoey asked, “I’m confused as to why a land purchase would be going through an attorney instead of a real estate agent.”
Liam chuckled. “You’d be surprised how often we get that question. The landowner has put us in charge of his estate—he has no interest in being directly involved with any of it.” He said this as if it was rehearsed, though if they had to answer this question a lot, she supposed it would be.
“Who is he?” Zoey asked; they’d only ever referred to him as “the landowner.”
Liam chuckled as he opened the file folder. “That’s the million-dollar question. He prefers to remain anonymous.” He looked through the file, then handed it to her. “This is what the owner is asking for the land.”
She took the folder and looked through the papers, line by line. The land was reasonably priced. In fact, at this range, they’d be fools not to snatch it up. Plus, the money they’d make back by planting an orchard there would be more than enough to compensate them in only a few years.
“You should know that the owner has an agreement—an easement, if you will—with the Westbrooks.” Liam leaned back in his chair. “If the owner sells the land to you, the Westbrooks lose their grazing rights, and the owner would prefer that not happen.”
Zoey nodded. “That won’t be a problem. If Carroll Family Farms ends up buying this land, we’ll have you draw up an official easement agreement for the Westbrooks, with a notary and everything. I would want it to be very clear that as long as we own the land, they have grazing rights.”
Liam blinked at her.
She wasn’t done yet. “I also need to find out how we’d go about getting an access road. We’ll need permission from the city for that, but it’ll be necessary if we want to get irrigation in for the orchards. I’ve looked at the maps, and we’d probably need about twenty feet on each side of the Westbrook/Carroll property line to make that happen.”
“You’ve given this a lot of thought,” Liam said. “Cash Evans mentioned you were an astounding businesswoman. He was right.”
She grinned. “Well, I still have to convince my business partners that this is a sound investment.” She didn’t mention that her business partners were her brothers.
“I have no doubt you will,” Liam said.
Their meeting lasted half an hour as they went over the logistics of what would need to happen, and at the end of it, Zoey took the file Liam had prepared for her. Next step was to set up the meeting with her brothers. If they wanted this idea to be successful, they’d have to plant their fruit trees within the month if they wanted a harvest next summer and fall.
