He nodded.
“He’s worried about Trish,” Maci said.
“What about Trish?” Frankie asked, as she walked in the door Maci had left open. “Where is she?”
“Brett thinks she went to see her lawyer,” Maci said.
Frankie sucked in a breath. “Well, better that she goes to him than that he comes here again.” She shuddered. “I don’t want to see him ever again.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be an option,” Brett said.
“Why?” Blake asked. “What happened between the two of you today? Liam and I saw you walking back to the house together. Where were you?”
“The bunkhouse,” he replied.
“You thinking of moving out there?” Liam asked as he carried Lucy out from the kitchen. He must have been cooking because delicious aromas drifted out with him. “I hope Lucy’s not chasing you out of the house.”
“I don’t think it’s Lucy he wants to get away from,” Frankie said. “It’s Trish.”
It was Trish. But now that she was gone, he had a strange feeling. Like a hollowness. That was probably just about the ranch, though. He was worried that lawyer still might talk her into going after all of it.
“But she was out there, too,” Blake said. “Why?”
“She wants to start a kids’ camp at the ranch,” Brett said.
“She was serious about that?” Frankie asked.
“She mentioned it to you, too?”
She and Maci nodded. “She seems really excited about it,” Maci added.
“It’s a stupid idea,” he protested. “It will expose us to all kinds of liability.”
“And children,” Liam said, chuckling. “Isn’t that really what you don’t want? A bunch of kids running around the ranch?”
“Who’s running around the ranch?” Elise asked from the kitchen doorway. “Come and eat. It’s all ready.”
“Children,” Liam said and shared with his wife Trish’s desire to start the camps.
“I love that,” Elise said.
“Brett doesn’t,” Liam said.
He shook his head. “That’s not the case. I would have loved it when we were kids.”
Blake and Liam nodded.
“It would have been great to spend our summers on a ranch,” Brett acknowledged. “It might have made up for our parents moving us to the city. But now, with all the work we already do around here, why would I want to add more work? Because that’s all this will be, more work and more trouble.”
“And more kids,” Liam said with a mocking grin.
“I love Lucy,” he said. “And I love being her uncle. But this camp idea… I’m just not sure that it’s feasible.”
When no one else said anything, he sighed and added, “But I’m not going to worry about the camps and her petting zoo idea until I know what she’s decided about the will.” None of it would matter if he wasn’t able to keep his inheritance of the ranch.
“So you think that’s why she’s meeting with her lawyer,” Maci said. “Because she’s made a decision?”
He nodded. “I think so.”
