The door creaked as it opened, and Brett turned to watch Trish step inside the house. She glanced from Frankie to Maci to Blake. But she didn’t look at him.
A sharp jab of disappointment took Brett by surprise. He shouldn’t care that she wouldn’t look at him, that she didn’t like him. He didn’t need her to like him. And he didn’t need to like her. But…
He was starting to; he actually understood some of the reasons she’d done what she had. It was clear her mother and ex-husband had had more influence on her than she’d wanted, that they had manipulated her.
Had her lawyer just done the same?
“Are Liam and Elise here, too?” she asked.
“Here,” Liam said, his voice just a whisper, as he ducked out of his bedroom. Elise followed him out and softly closed the door behind herself.
“We just got Lucy down for a nap,” she said.
“Can we talk in the den?” Liam asked.
Trish nodded and whispered back, “Yes, of course.”
Everyone waited, letting her lead the way to her father’s office. When Brett followed the others, he found her sitting on the couch next to Liam and Elise while Frankie, Maci and Blake stood. He couldn’t sit either. The only other seat in the room was Frank’s chair. And he still couldn’t bring himself to sit there.
Seeing that Liam had the baby monitor in his hand, Brett closed the door behind himself, then leaned against it. He didn’t want to wake up Lucy in case voices got raised. But for another long moment nobody said anything.
Finally, Frankie cleared her voice. “So? What did the sleaze convince you to do?”
Trish grimaced. “Nolan really is a good man,” she said. Then she smiled. “Which is what I just told him about the Lemmon brothers.”
“That we’re good men?” Blake asked.
She nodded.
“So he was still trashing us to you,” Brett concluded. “What’s his deal with us? None of us met the guy until the other day.”
Trish shrugged. “I don’t know. I think he just struggles to trust anyone.”
So Brett had something in common with the lawyer after all.
“And he didn’t convince me to do anything,” Trish continued, speaking directly to her cousin. “I had already made up my mind.”
Brett wasn’t surprised. He knew what she wanted for the ranch; she wanted to recreate the childhood she wished she’d had for her children and for other kids as well.
“And?” Maci prodded.
“I want you to do whatever you have to do to settle the estate,” Trish replied.
Maci nodded. “That means that Stokes has to withdraw his request to postpone the probate court hearing. In order for everything to be settled, the judge has to rule that the will is valid, review all the documentation we’ve forwarded regarding the ranch books and inventory, and reissue the deed for the ranch to show all the heirs as the rightful owners.”
Trish drew in a breath and then nodded, too. “I’ll have him do that, and we can get this settled. But…”
“But what?” Frankie asked.
Trish drew in another deep breath, and her face flushed slightly. “I already asked Brett this question, but I’ve wanted to ask you, too.”
Frankie glanced at him. “What question?”
“After everything that’s happened, do you still respect me enough to work with me?” Trish asked. “Or will you not be able to get over it?”
Frankie glanced at Brett again, as if she was waiting for him to share his response before sharing hers. But as Trish had already pointed out to him, he hadn’t answered her. She glanced at him now, but then her gaze bounced back to her cousin.
Frankie shrugged. “I understand some of your reasoning,” she admitted. “You were going through a lot. I wish you had let us be there for you. I wish we would have known what was going on with you.”
