“And you didn’t go back with him?” Lem asked, his blue eyes widening with even more surprise.
He knew her so well that she smiled again. “I offered,” she admitted.
“Of course.”
“And he thanked me for wanting to help,” she said. That was when he’d said it, when he’d called herGrandmafor the first time.
“But he declined,” Lem surmised, then he sighed. “Brett is the most like his father. Stubborn. Independent.”
Sadie chuckled. “Is he more like his father or his grandfather?”
Lem shrugged. “Perhaps both. But like his father, Brett is also a loner.”
Lem had never been a loner. He’d always been there for his family, whether they’d wanted his help or not. He had also been there for the entire town he’d served for years as mayor and now served as deputy mayor. And for her…
Lem had always been there for Sadie despite how much they’d butted heads when they were young, when they weren’t as wise as they were now.
“Brett came here,” Sadie reminded him.
“Yes, but then he refused your help.”
“I don’t think he came here for help,” Sadie said. “I think he came here to remind himself he has a place to come if he has to leave the Four Corners.”
“So she is still contesting the will?” Lem asked, his voice ripe with resentment.
Sadie shrugged. “They didn’t talk last night.” She updated him on what Brett had told her.
“But in that text she sent Maci yesterday she said that she would explain everything,” Lem said.
Sadie nodded. “Maybe she’ll do that now. Maybe that’s why her lawyer showed up at the ranch.”
Lem let out a noise that sounded like one of Feisty’s growls when she was tugging on the cuff of someone’s jeans. “We should be there, too,” he said.
Sadie patted his hand. “He said no. But he promised to fill us in on what happens.”
Some tension eased from Lem’s stiff body. “Okay. That’s good.”
“And once we know what’s going on, then you and I will figure out whatweneed to do.” Step in and help with a lawsuit or with what they’d done for so many other of their grandchildren: matchmaking. Because there had been something curious in Brett’s tone when he’d talked about Trish Dempsey…
Something that hadn’t sounded like resentment at all.
CHAPTER THREE
Brett shouldn’t haveleft the Four Corners that morning. Because while both he and Trish were away from the ranch, her lawyer had shown up—or so Blake had told him when he reached him at Ranch Haven.
“Have you told Maci that he’s there?” he’d asked his brother.
“Yeah, I called her first.”
Of course he had. After all, Maci was not only the executor of Frank Dempsey’s estate but also the love of Blake’s life.
“Trish is at Maci’s house with Frankie,” Blake had continued. “She told Maci to ask everybody to meet at the ranch. That’s why I’m calling you. You need to get back here as soon as possible.”
And so Brett had driven as fast as he safely and legally could back to the Four Corners. When he pulled up to the house, dust billowed in behind him. He didn’t see Frankie’s van or Trish’s truck in the driveway yet, or even Maci’s little SUV. But he immediately recognized the flashy black Hummer as the same vehicle that had left tracks near the Four Corners property not long ago.
This lawyer, Nolan Stokes, had personally spied on the ranch as well as hiring Brett’s dad’s assistant to spy for him, too. Had he done so for his client? Or for himself?
Brett didn’t like that the guy was alone here with his brothers, sister-in-law and baby niece. Again, he mentally kicked himself for leaving that morning. It was his job to protect the ranch, and his family as well. That was why he couldn’t get into a relationship: ranching was hard work with long hours. It made it difficult to have a family because the needs of the ranch always came first. That was why Frank’s wife had left him and taken their young daughter with her. And it was why Frank hadn’t gotten more custody time with Trish.
