What was he?
More sensitive than she would have thought, because he’d been willing to leave her alone to have this conversation with just Frankie and Maci. That was what she’d wanted when she’d driven to Maci’s house that morning.
But now…
She knew that it didn’t matter. Her father’s will had entwined her life with the Lemmons’. Hers and Maci’s and Frankie’s.
“Stay,” she said. “I promised that I would explain what was going on to everyone.”
“Why you’re contesting the will,” Maci said. “We all deserve to know the reason.”
Maybe Maci most of all, because she’d written it. And as Frankie had told Trish in a voicemail, Maci had been incredibly stressed out over it. So much so that she’d even passed out once or twice.
Realizing that she was still touching Brett’s hand, Trish jerked hers away and turned back toward her friend. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t so much as contesting it as just stalling so it wouldn’t be settled before my divorce was. I wanted to make sure that the man my father disapproved of me marrying wouldn’t get any part of it. Dad was right about Harold. He wasn’t in love with me. He was in love with my stepfather’s money and with moving up the company ladder. And because of his obsession with money, I didn’t want him or my mother to find out about the inheritance. She took his side in the divorce.” After her mother’s betrayal, Trish had been reluctant to trust anyone, but Nolan Stokes had genuinely wanted to help her. And he’d advised her to trust no one but him, not even the women she loved like sisters. He’d been concerned that they would betray her for the Lemmon brothers, just as her mother had betrayed her for her ex.
“You should have told us that,” Frankie said. “We could have been there for you through your divorce.”
Not wanting Frankie to hate Stokes any more than she already did, Trish didn’t blame him. “Harold and my mother were watching my every move once I filed for divorce. I think they might have had cameras planted in the house, too. I couldn’t talk on the phone because I didn’t want to risk him finding out that my dad had died. I didn’t want my mother to know either. She definitely would have used it in some way to get me to drop the divorce proceedings. I wouldn’t have put it past her to come after the ranch then, too.”
Brett cleared his throat. “So you’re saying you contested the will in order to protect the ranch?”
She sighed. “And to protect myself, too,” she admitted. “I couldn’t handle much more at the time…” She touched her belly. “I—I hadn’t had much luck with IVF before this pregnancy.” Tears rushed to her eyes. “I had several miscarriages…” A tear trickled out.
Suddenly Frankie and Maci were there, one on either side of her, their arms wound tightly around her. “Aw, Trish, you should have told us,” Frankie said. “I would have been there for you all the way. I would have beat up your ex and your mom. I would have taken care of you.”
Trish wrapped an arm around Frankie and held on tightly. Then she wrapped her other arm around Maci. She’d missed them so much, but that had been her fault. “Even before the divorce, I pushed you both away, just like I did my dad.”
“Why did you do that?” Frankie asked, her voice cracking with emotion.
Trish groaned. “My stupid pride. I didn’t want you all to know that my dad had been right about Harold, and that I’d been a fool again. And after I pushed you all away, I didn’t know if you would come. If you would care…”
“We love you,” Maci said. “You’re our sister.”
“I’m sorry,” Trish said. She was so very sorry for all the stress she’d caused, not just the two of them but herself as well.
And the others…
She still didn’t know what to do about the Lemmons. She pulled away from Frankie and Maci then. They both had tears streaking down their faces. Blake wrapped an arm around Maci, as if to comfort her.
But Brett didn’t step forward to comfort Frankie. Elise did. She wrapped her arm around her shoulders. And for a moment Trish wondered if Brett might comfort her. But he stayed near the door, and it was clear from the look on his face that he wished she hadn’t stopped him. This was obviously way too much emotion for him, and that reminded her of her father, when he’d struggled to deal with the drama she and Frankie and Maci had sometimes found, like the summer that ranch hand had tried to simultaneously date the three of them.
“I’m sorry,” she said to all of them. “I know I handled everything so badly. Probably the worst way that I could have.”
“You had help,” Frankie said, her voice sharp with irritation again. “That sleazeball lawyer—”
“Nolan is really a good guy,” Trish insisted. “He fought very hard for me in the divorce. Since that’s over, we’ll be able to settle the estate.” She’d had to promise Nolan that she wouldn’t sign anything and make any final decisions without consulting him, though. Or he wouldn’t have left her alone just now.
“How?” Brett asked the question. “How do you want to settle this, Trish?”
The thought of wrapping this up suddenly filled her with dread. Maybe because she hadn’t seen her father in the hospital or attended his funeral, she’d been able to hold on to him by not dealing with the estate. But now, in order to do this, she would have to let him go.
She drew in a breath to steady herself as tears rushed in again. She blinked them back and focused on Brett, on his dark eyes. “I want to know what my father really wanted. What his wishes actually were for the Four Corners.”
And then she would have to respect them. But she wasn’t sure that she would be able to live with them if that meant living with the Lemmon brothers.
Or maybe just this Lemmon brother.
* * *
