Trish blinked, but there was still a sheen of tears in her light brown eyes. She nodded. “I know. I’m sorry.”
Frankie released a shaky sigh and nodded. “I know. And yeah, we can do this…all five of us can run this ranch…although…once the estate is settled I’ll probably be on my own way, back to the road.” She didn’t sound all that excited about returning to her old life, though, not like she once had.
“I still have some concerns about running this ranch together,” Trish began, and she sat up a bit straighter on the couch. “I feel like I’m at a real disadvantage.”
“I’ll show you the books,” Blake said. “Bring you up to speed on everything we have going on.”
Brett knew he’d already offered, but Trish had been more interested in whether or not she could work with him and Frankie. “I don’t think that’s what she means,” he said, then had to clear the gruffness from his voice. “She has plans for the ranch.”
“The petting zoo and kids’ camps,” Liam said.
“I love that idea,” Elise added. “I think it would be great for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to get a taste of living on a farm. We can teach them responsibility, too, by having them help take care of the petting zoo animals.”
Trish smiled. “And here I was worried that you would all vote against my idea.”
“Ah,” Blake said. “You thought all the Lemmons would stick together and side against you.”
“And Frankie,” she added with a glance at her cousin.
“How will this work?” Frankie asked, and she looked at Maci. “If someone wants to do something on the ranch, do we have to put it to a vote?”
Maci shrugged. “Frank didn’t put that into the will. I guess he assumed you would all figure it out.”
“Maybe he assumed that some people would sell their shares to the others,” Brett said with a glance at Trish. “That they wouldn’t actually be interested in running the ranch.”
Trish cleared her throat. “If that was what he thought, he would have been wrong.”
Brett had respected Frank for how much he’d loved the ranch and his family, for how hard he’d worked to try to hang on to them both. “But was it wrong to assume that somebody who hadn’t shown any interest in the place for years wouldn’t want to be part of the day-to-day running of it?” He shrugged. “That seems logical to me.”
Trish sucked in a breath, and the color left her face.
A pang of guilt struck Brett. He hadn’t wanted to upset her. But he also had to defend his friend since Frank wasn’t here to defend himself. Annoyed with himself more than anyone else, he shook his head. “I can’t deal with this right now, with talking about petting zoos and kids’ camps that we don’t have the money or the manpower to get up and running. We need to focus on the cattle, on what actually makes the money to keep this place going.”
He turned and pulled open the door and then walked out. He couldn’t stand around while Frank’s daughter destroyed the ranch that he had worked so hard to save. But he didn’t know how to fight her and her ridiculous ideas when he didn’t want to hurt her or her feelings. Clearly, she’d already been through a lot in her life.
If only she would just sell her share and leave…but he had a feeling that she wasn’t going anywhere. So would he have to? Because he wasn’t sure how he was going to work with Trish Dempsey, let alone live with her and the twin babies she was going to bring into the world soon.
* * *
Brett clearly didn’twant to work with her. Or live with her.
And she wasn’t sure if he just really didn’t like her plans for the petting zoo and camps, or if it was her that he didn’t like. That hurt, and the sting of pain stole her breath for a moment.
Elise reached out and patted her hand. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine.” She’d known it wouldn’t be easy coming back to the ranch. But then, she’d been more concerned about dealing with the loss of her father than with the others who were still living at the ranch. And sitting here in his den, with the scent of leather and sweet cigars on every breath she inhaled, she felt as if her dad was still here in some way.
No matter what Brett Lemmon thought, her dad had to have known how much she’d loved the ranch, too. How much she’d loved him.
“You look really pale,” Maci said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Trish nodded. “Just tired.” She patted her stomach, where the babies moved restlessly. Even when she was in bed, she didn’t get much sleep. She had to keep getting up, keep moving to find a more comfortable position.
“Don’t let my brother upset you,” Blake said. “He’s just really protective of the ranch. And it’s been tough going for years.”
“But it’s turned around now, right?” Trish asked.
Blake sighed. “It’s getting there. I wanted to make the beef business organic, make sure that there were no harmful chemicals in our feed that could be passed on to consumers.”
