“And? What do you think she decided?” Liam asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. When we were in the bunkhouse and she was talking about her plans, I reminded her how much work a cattle ranch is. Maybe she’s changed her mind about wanting to be part of it.”
Or she just wanted it all for herself now so she could turn it into what she wanted without any resistance from him.
* * *
“I made my decision,” Trish said when Nolan Stokes opened the front door of his new, two-story modern house. With its metal and glass and sharp roof lines, the place looked like it belonged downtown in some big city, not in the middle of fields and pastures. Even the barn matched the house with its sharp angles and black metal.
“Come in,” he said as he stepped back for her to enter past the ten-foot-high entrance door to the foyer.
The ceilings soared even higher in the wide-open spaces. He gestured in one direction and said, “The kids are still eating…”
Through a doorway, she caught a glimpse of dark cabinets and a long table where three kids sat staring at plates of vegetables. There were two girls with pale blond hair. One was probably seven or eight, and she sat next to the younger one, who was probably just three. Her hair was wispy with little tendrils curling softly around her face. A boy, who was probably somewhere in the middle of their ages at five or six, had black hair and Nolan’s pale blue eyes.
“They’re beautiful,” she murmured.
“They’re stubborn,” he said with a sigh. “Nobody wants to eat their vegetables.” He raised his voice. “And they know they don’t get dessert until they eat at least half of them…”
The boy sighed but picked up his fork and stuck it into a spear of broccoli. The older girl lifted her chin, and the younger one stuck out her bottom lip.
Instead of getting irritated, Nolan laughed. “Who knew my toughest negotiations would be with my own children?”
Babies are a lot of work.That was what Brett had told her just that afternoon. And Lucy was still a baby. The work didn’t stop when they got older.
And Trish had decided to do this on her own. But plenty of people did. Nolan Stokes was doing it. She could, too.
She had to.
She didn’t have a choice now.
“Here,” he said as he slid open a pocket door off the foyer. “Let’s step into my office, so that they have time to hide their vegetables without me catching them.”
She laughed now. This was a side she never would have suspected him of having. “You’re a good dad,” she said as she followed him into the room with its high ceiling, tall windows and dark furniture.
He sighed. “I have no idea what I’m doing half the time, like moving them out of the city to this ranch,” he said. “Hopefully they survive to adulthood.”
She touched her belly. For her first few pregnancies, she hadn’t let herself think much beyond the pregnancy. But these babies were doing well. They would make it, and then she would have to figure out how to get them to adulthood.
“What about you, Trish?” he asked. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“As a mother?” She shook her head. “All my mother taught me was what not to do.”
“Sometimes that’s the most important stuff to know,” Nolan said. “What about the will? What are you going to do about that?”
“I’m not going to fight it.”
He groaned. “You’ve only been there a couple of days, and they already coerced you into giving them what they want. No wonder they were able to get your dad to change his will.”
Trish shook her head. “The only person who ever coerced my father was my mother. After her, I seriously doubt he would have let anyone else do that.”
“You don’t believe that the Lemmons conned him?”
“No,” she said. “I believe they worked hard, and my dad always rewarded hard work.” That was why he’d paid for Maci’s law school.
“But you are his rightful heir,” Nolan said. “You shouldn’t have to share what’s yours with strangers.”
She might have only been at the ranch for a couple of days, but the Lemmons didn’t feel like strangers anymore. Especially not Brett. He wasn’t happy she was there, but he had been kind to her. He’d also been very honest today, and that had scared her. But he was right. Ranching and raising kids were both hard work.
