Frankie sucked in a breath. “He isn’t family, and you don’t need him anymore. You have Maci.”
“I understand,” Maci said. “He represented you in the divorce. And they could even go after him over that. He should be informed.”
Frankie groaned. “Let me know when he’ll be here, and I will make sure that I am somewhere, anywhere, else.”
Trish wondered about that. The estate was settled, so why was Frankie still here and not back on the road?
The ranch was probably in her blood, too, like it had been in Trish’s dad’s and like it was in Trish’s. She loved it here. But if there was any chance that her mother or her ex could get their hands on a share of her share, she would rather give it up to the others. To the people her father had really wanted to inherit and stay here.
But she hoped it wouldn’t come to that, that between Maci and Nolan, they could make sure that Trish’s father’s wishes were granted.
She glanced around the table then and she wondered for the first time if her father might have had other intentions. Everybody talked about how Sadie and Lem liked to matchmake.
Could her father have intended something similar? Blake and Maci were together, but that was more in spite of the will than because of it. Could he have wanted her and Frankie with Brett and Liam?
Elise hadn’t met Liam until after Trish’s dad died. She couldn’t imagine Liam with anyone but Elise. They were so in love. And Brett and Frankie were so much like brother and sister.
But she and Brett…
They were definitely not like brother and sister. He wasn’t family to her like Liam and Blake and the others felt like. But he wasn’t exactly her friend either.
He was just her partner. And it would have to stay that way for both their sakes now. She had already caused too much drama at the ranch, and now it was about to ramp up again. She touched her belly where a little foot was insistently kicking.
They wanted out. They would be here soon. And she wanted to raise them here on the ranch. She wanted to raise them without the drama, without the turmoil. But she wasn’t sure how to make sure that she ensured their future without risking everyone else’s.
* * *
Nolan shouldn’t haveanswered his phone, and he stared down at the cell in his palm as if it had betrayed him. But it wasn’t as if he’d had to answer it. He’d been pretty sure who’d been calling because the persistent woman had kept trying to reach him at his office. Then she’d figured out where he lived.
And now she’d somehow learned his cell number. She was as resourceful as she was persistent and so he’d finally answered her call. Maybe he shouldn’t have been avoiding her all this time. Maybe it was inevitable that it all come out anyway. All the secrets.
His cell rang again, and he swiped to accept. “Stokes.”
“Nolan, it’s Trish Dempsey.”
For a second he’d thought it might have beenhercalling back, making sure that he would really keep his word. She didn’t know him; he always kept his word.
But it was Trish.
“Haven’t heard from you in a while,” he said, and he sat up a little straighter in the chair in his home office. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” she replied.
He sighed. “I don’t want to say I told you so…” But he wasn’t surprised that he could.
“It’s not about the ranch,” she said. “Well, it is about the ranch. But not in the way that you’re probably thinking it is.”
He smiled at her vagueness. “What are you talking about?”
“My mother and ex-husband showed up at the ranch today,” she said. “They found out my father died, and they’re claiming I defrauded them for not disclosing that during the divorce. They’re going to try to get the ranch away from me and from the others.” Her voice cracked in his phone. “We have to make sure they can’t do that.”
“They can’t,” he said.
“If there is any chance, though, I will do whatever I have to so that they don’t get even a share of it,” she said. “If I have to give up my share to the others, I will do that.”
“Trish—”
“No, I’m serious,” she said. “My mother getting her hands on this ranch again—” he could almost hear her shuddering over the phone “—that would be the ultimate betrayal of my father.”
