“What?” he asked, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him. “I’ve just been working…”
“From before dawn to after dark?” she asked. “You always work that hard?”
“During calving season.”
She patted Cocoa’s head. “This is the last calf birthed. I think you’re avoiding me.”
He sighed again. “I’m avoiding the situation. I don’t know how this is going to work with so many cooks in the kitchen.”
She gave an exaggerated shudder. “You won’t catch me in the kitchen. I’m not much of a cook. I’m kind of surprised by how much cooking you and your brothers do.”
“Dad taught us when we were younger,” he said. “It was probably when Mom had cancer the first time, but we didn’t know it. They didn’t tell us until it came back. We were all out of the house then.”
“I’m sorry about your mom,” she said.
He nodded. “Thanks. It’s been a couple of years now, but we still miss her. Dad the most. He’s been struggling I think.”
“I can’t imagine how hard losing his wife must be for your dad. Due to my stupid pride and stubbornness, I didn’t even see my dad that much the past seven years, and I’m missing him so much. I can’t imagine losing someone who was a part of your everyday life like that.”
“You weren’t a part of your husband’s?” he asked.
She snorted. “He’s not dead. But he wasn’t really around much either. We had our separate lives. He had work and golf. And I…” She rubbed her stomach. She had the dream of being a mother.
“What did you have?” he asked when she didn’t continue. “What are you, Trish? Singer? Animal lover?”
She patted her hard belly. “Mother. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.”
“Why?”
“Because I love kids. I was going to college to become a teacher when I met my ex-husband during my summer internship at my stepfather’s company.”
“And you quit college?”
“Eventually,” she said. “After we got married. I only had a year left. It was another reason my father disapproved of my marriage. He thought my husband should have encouraged me to finish instead of pressuring me to quit.”
“He was right,” Brett said.
“He definitely was,” she wholeheartedly agreed. “He really wanted all his girls to be self-sufficient.”
“That’s why he paid for Maci’s law school.”
“That and he loved her.” Just like he’d loved the Lemmons, too. That was why he’d included them in his will; Trish had no doubts about that any longer. And she could see that that love was mutual. The Lemmons were grieving her father, too.
“He loved you,” Brett said. “So much…”
Guilt and regret coursed through her now, and maybe that was the cause of the pain she suddenly felt. She nodded. “I know.” She hadn’t always believed it, though. She’d let her mother plant doubts in her mind, and maybe she felt the guiltiest about that, for not being as loyal as she should have been.
“Because he loved me, he wanted me to be self-sufficient,” she said. And she wished so much that she’d listened to him then, that she’d never lost touch with him. “I can keep the petting zoo and the camps self-sufficient from the ranch. As an intern and after I left school, I worked at my stepfather’s business in marketing and events. I can handle the camps on my own. You don’t have to invest any money or time in them. I’ll take care of it myself, both financially with my divorce settlement, and laborwise.”
Brett shook his head. “No, Trish.”
Frustration bubbled up inside her. “No?” She shook her head. “That’s not for you to decide. All the months that I was on bedrest for fear of losing my babies, I could think of nothing else but my dad and the ranch. I know that I’m not cut out to be a rancher. I couldn’t be out riding a horse all day like you and your brothers and Frankie. But I love this place. I loved my summers here with the animals.” With her dad. With her sisters. “And I want other kids, not just mine, to have that experience.”
He held up a hand and said, “Trish—”
“No!” she yelled again. “I know what I want. And nobody’s going to manipulate me into giving up my dreams. Never again!” Then she felt another cramp. And not just in her side but across her entire belly.
What was happening?
