Page 79 of York

But, fuck, it had been days since we’d been together. I couldn’t tell if her guards were up and she was purposely using our daughter as a way not to be alone with me, or if Denali was just more around than usual.

Either way, I was dying to get alone time with her again.

But this was not the time.

She tensed as she came over to sit off the side of the chaise, knees nearly brushing mine.

“This is bad, isn’t it?”

“I’m not gonna be good at this. So I’m going to blurt it out.”

“Okay.”

“Your parents and your grandfather have died.”

For a long moment, her face was completely blank, like the information hadn’t quite sunk in yet. Then she blinked. Her brows furrowed.

“What?” She exhaled hard.

“Your parents took a hobby plane up and crashed. A year ago. I’m sorry.”

“A hobby plane? How… how could they afford a hobby plane?”

“That leads me to your grandfather.”

“He’s dead too.” Her tone was stretched tight.

“Two years ago, passed of something that he was sick with for a while.”

“Okay.” She nodded, processing. “Okay,” she said, running her hands over her face and into her hair. “Well, that’s… a closed chapter, I guess.”

“Not quite.”

“How not quite?”

“Arty found most of this out because your name flagged some shit online.”

“What kind of shit?”

“A lawyer looking for you.”

She straightened at that. “From Philly?”

“No, no, babe. From Wyoming. They’re looking for you. Arty is going to try to get more information. But it seems like maybe it has to do with the estate.”

“The ranch?”

“No. Well, yes. But no. I’m not sure it’s still operating as a cattle ranch. Four years back, it seems that rare minerals were found on the property.”

Her eyes widened at that.

“I’m assuming you know what that means? I was pretty in the dark.”

“Yeah, no. I remember when I was young, some guy my grandfather knew found rare earth minerals on his property. Something they used for tech, I think. He built this monstrosity of a home with seventeen bedrooms, even though he lived alone.” She paused. “You think some of his estate might go to me? Because my parents are gone?”

“I guess. I don’t have any more information than that, but Arty is going to try to dig some more. But I do have the information of the attorney. You can call, get whatever information you can…”

“This is a lot.”