Nolan believed her father had betrayed her when he’d split her inheritance up with strangers. “Are the Lemmons making you think that you have to give up your share so that she doesn’t get it?”
“No, of course not,” she said. “They don’t know that I would sign away my rights.”
“And they don’t have to know,” he said. “There is no way that your mother or your ex-husband can get their hands on your inheritance.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, and I would be happy to show you the laws about inheritance,” he said.
“I need you to meet with my partners and Maci and assure all of us of that,” she said.
Her partners.
She had just as fully embraced the Lemmons as her father had. What was the deal with them?
“I presume I will see you all this weekend at the party?” he said.
“What party? Where?” she asked.
He chuckled. Sadie March Haven was certainly living up to her legend with her persistence in tracking him down and making him promise to appear at her party. “At Ranch Haven,” he said.
“You were invited to a party at Ranch Haven?” she asked. “What kind of party?”
“A welcome home party,” he said. “For you, Trish.”
Now her gasp rattled the phone.
“I must have ruined the surprise,” he said, but he didn’t feel guilty about it. There would be other surprises at this party. A lot of them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
While Trish hadbeen on her phone with her lawyer, Grandma Sadie had called Brett with the invitation for the party at Ranch Haven for her.
A welcome-home-to-Willow-Creek party.
And, when Trish had ended her call with Nolan Stokes, she’d informed Brett that his grandmother had already invited her lawyer.
Why?
Was this one of her and Grandpa’s matchmaking schemes? But if so, then the match they might be trying to make was between Trish and her lawyer?
A fierce jealousy caught Brett by surprise. He’d never felt anything like that before. The feeling continued to gnaw at him days later as he drove Trish out to Ranch Haven.
Or maybe he was just unnerved because Trish was. Despite her lawyer’s assurances about her mom and ex-husband’s threats, she’d been different since their visit. Quiet.
He missed her excitement over her camps and the petting zoo. And he hated that she had dark circles beneath her beautiful eyes, like she hadn’t been sleeping. He wished that he’d managed to get rid of Belinda and Harold before they’d upset her like this.
“You’re not worried about this party, are you?” he asked as he made the turn onto the long driveway that led back to the enormous two-story house with the wings that Sadie had built onto it years ago.
“I don’t understand why they would throw me a welcome home party,” she said like she had a few days ago when her lawyer had told her about it. “I’ve only met them once. And after my parents divorced, I didn’t live here…just those summers and holidays I spent at the Four Corners.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, either. Grandma sure seems to like parties, or at least she likes getting all of her family together.”
“But I’m not family,” Trish said.
He chuckled. “I think Grandma and Grandpa tend to make everyone they meet part of the family.”
“Through matchmaking?”
