“Excuse me…”
He glanced up from his desk to find Trish standing in the open doorway to his office. “Yes? What can I help you with?” he asked.
She smiled at him. “I just wanted to say again that I’m sorry about what my lawyer did. I had no idea that he’d hired anyone to spy for me.”
Bob shook his head. “I don’t think that it was just for you,” he said. “He had my assistant spying on me even before your father died.”
Trish’s forehead furrowed beneath the stray curls that lay across it. “I don’t know why he would do that. It doesn’t make sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Bob agreed. “I’m about the most boring man there is. I spend most of my time here in the office or upstairs in my apartment above the office.” He flinched over how pathetic that sounded. But that was his fault for pushing his children and his dad away for all the years that he had. He was trying to reach out more, trying to be more social now.
“I know you’re always welcome at the Four Corners,” Trish said.
Warmth filled Bob’s heart. “That’s kind.”
“I’m starting these camps for kids to spend the day and eventually the summer at the ranch,” she said. “We’re going to have a petting zoo and other activities for them.”
Bob chuckled. “I’m not a kid anymore.”
“No, but maybe you’d like to bring some kids.”
“Only grandchild I have already lives there,” Bob said. “But I would love to see more of her and my sons and daughter-in-law. I’ll make a point of coming to visit more often.”
She smiled. “That’s good. And…”
“What?” he asked when she trailed off.
“Nolan Stokes’s new ranch isn’t far from the Four Corners,” she said. “Maybe you should stop by and ask him why he’s so interested in you.”
Bob’s stomach flipped. He was not good at confrontation; he was much better at avoidance. He shrugged. “I’m sure he would have reached out to talk to me if it was something that mattered.”
Trish shrugged. “Maybe. But talking to him might give you peace of mind.”
Or disrupt the little peace he had even more. And somehow Bob suspected the latter was what would happen.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
She came home. Last night. Brett hadn’t been able to fall asleep until he heard her truck pull into the driveway. But even after he’d heard her footsteps in the hallway and her bedroom door close, sleep had still eluded him. He’d wondered what—or who—had kept her out so late.
Stokes?
Not that it was all that late. But with as many long days as Brett worked and with as little sleep as he’d been getting, he had headed to bed early. And despite his restless night, he still woke up early the following morning. He wasn’t the first one up, though, because he walked out to the kitchen to find Trish already dressed and awake. Like him, she had dark circles beneath her eyes, so she hadn’t gotten much more sleep than he had.
“Good morning?” He asked it as a question rather than a greeting.
She nodded. “Yeah…”
“I wondered if you were coming back last night,” he admitted. “Or if my grandparents had scared you away from the ranch.” Or more likely away from him. He was their last single grandson, so he had to be the one on whom they were setting their matchmaking hopes.
“They are very sweet,” Trish said with a smile. “Your dad, too.”
“You met him when you went to see Maci?”
She nodded.
“I wasn’t sure that you were really doing that or just using it as an excuse to get away from them,” he said with a chuckle. “They can be a lot.”
“They were very kind, especially given what they must have thought of me over how I’ve handled everything.”
