“They’re in bad shape,” he said.
“It can be fixed up,” she said. She wasn’t thinking about anyone living there full-time. Clearly her father had wanted the Lemmon brothers to live in the house. So she imagined instead all the possibilities for the bunkhouse. She could envision the space as it had once looked, years ago. It could be that fun open area again that had once housed a pool table and ping-pong table. She and Frankie and Maci had had so much fun here, and the kids who would come for the camps would, too.
“It would take a lot of money just to get the electrical and plumbing up to code,” he said. “Let alone fix the structural things.”
“Does the ranch have that money?” she wondered aloud. Or would she need to use her divorce settlement?
“Didn’t Blake show you the books?” he asked.
“He offered,” she said. “But then I went out to find you and Frankie.”
“To find out if we can respect you,” he said.
“And you never told me if you could,” she said.
“I don’t know you, Trish,” he said.
“And I don’t know you,” she pointed out. Yet, when he’d held her, his arms had almost felt familiar to her. Or maybe they’d just felt safe, like she was home.
But Brett Lemmon wasn’t home. The Four Corners was.
“So you still haven’t made a decision about the will,” he said.
She had made her decision, but she intended to keep the promise she’d made to Nolan Stokes. “I want to talk to my lawyer again before I make any rash decisions.”
“Like packing up everything you own in a truck and trailer and driving for hours to move into a house with strangers?” he asked, his mouth curving into a slight grin.
She laughed. “Yeah, like that.”
“Why did you do that, Trish?” Brett asked her, his head tilted as he studied her face.
She patted her burgeoning belly. “For them. I want to raise them here where I was happiest.”
He sucked in a breath. “I wish your dad knew that.” He blinked as if he was fighting the same tears that were rushing up on her. “That this is where you were happiest.”
“I hope he knows,” she said. “I loved it here. I loved him.” And Frankie and Maci.
“Then why did you stay away so long?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Pride. Stupidity. Stubbornness.” She had so many regrets. But she would be careful to make sure she didn’t do anything else she would wind up regretting.
He didn’t say anything then, just stared at her as if trying to figure her out.
“I can’t undo the past,” she said. No matter how much she wished she could. “All I can do is focus on the future.”
He nodded in agreement. “And what do you see in that future, Trish? And who?”
She patted her belly again. “Them.” Her children were most important to her now, and doing whatever she had to in order to secure their happiness. “They’re all I really need.”
“Not Frankie or Maci?”
“I would like them back in my life,” she admitted. “But I know I pushed them away.” And maybe she’d done irreversible damage with Frankie at least if not Maci as well.
“So your plan is to raise your babies alone?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Babies are a lot of work,” he said. “Lucy showed me that.” He shuddered now like she had when she’d seen the mouse.
