Chapter 4 #2
Mason Bishop had been caring for the land long before Hallie had come to run the estate.
When the rodeo lost its appeal, he left the adrenaline and bright lights for a quiet life in Honey Hollow, working as the groundskeeper for the estate.
He took great pride in keeping the land and equine facilities in tip-top shape.
He tended to the sprawling fields, stables, and outbuildings, and had kept my grandma’s gardens blooming long after my granddad’s waning dexterity forced him to hand over the honor.
Hallie tossed her head, red hair spilling down her back as she laughed.
Mason glanced at the papers on the desk and quickly put two and two together. “Still trying to figure out the will?”
“There’s not much to figure out,” I said. “It is what it is.”
Mason leaned against the doorframe and stroked his silvering beard. He wasn’t much older than me, but he had gone gray early in life. It worked for him.
“You’re not actually considering marrying him, are you?” he asked Hallie.
She dabbed tears from the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard. “Been there. Done that. Wore the white dress. Passed go and collected my two hundred dollars. Never again.”
Mason raised an eyebrow. “The lady doth protest.”
I chuckled under my breath.
“ ‘Never’ is one of those words that’ll jinx you,” Mason teased.
Her eyes narrowed on him. “Then allow me to clarify. I’m never, ever, ever getting married again. Ever.” She clasped her hands in her lap. “Now, back to taking Northern Virginia’s most eligible bachelor off the market.” Her maternal gaze turned to me. “How the hell are you going to pull this off?”
“I need to find a wife.”
“You got a girlfriend back in Maryland?” Mason asked.
“Three exes,” I said. “Two are married now. The third is best left in the past.”
“How about DC?” Hallie asked.
“I don’t shit where I eat.”
Hallie wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Any former flings in Honey Hollow that you can call up for the biggest favor known to man?”
“I don’t think my middle school girlfriend remembers me,” I quipped.
“Whoever this is going to be…she can’t be just anyone.
For starters, Lewis has to believe it. So does the estate’s executor.
And we have to be married long enough for Lewis to drop it.
She’d be in on the whole thing and would have to keep the circumstances of the marriage a secret. ”
“There’s no database of eligible women down at the Moo Brew, is there?” Mason joked.
“That’d make it a hell of a lot easier,” Hallie muttered. “I can ask around, but if word gets out that you’re looking for a wife, Lewis will find out that you’re not actually engaged.”
“We need to keep this quiet,” I said. “You and Mason are the only ones who can know. Well, y’all and whoever the new Mrs. will be.”
Hallie stared vacantly at the grandfather clock as it steadily ticked away. Slowly, her expression shifted. Mason noticed too, watching as she silently worked out something in her head.
“What about Cath?” she said after the longest minute known to man.
Mason’s eyebrows lifted. “Catherine Foster? Is she still living in town?”
Hallie nodded. “Until she gets her momma’s place packed up.”
Catherine’s pale blue eyes flashed in my mind like a premonition. The way her hand had felt on my arm. The kindness in her voice at the funeral. The fondness with which she spoke of my granddad. The moment we had shared at the luncheon. Her gentle words and reassuring hand.
And she was Miss Virginia.
She fit the role for sure.
“She still lives in Honey Hollow?” I asked.
“She was living in Roanoke. Moved back a few months ago,” Hallie said with a sad sort of smile.
“Her momma got real sick all of a sudden and passed quickly. Cath lived with her while she was on hospice. As far as I know, she is still closing out her affairs. I don’t know when she plans on going back to Roanoke. ”
I did the math in my head. I had lost my parents as a kid, but Catherine losing her mom at twenty-five was still far too young.
“She lost her job when the nonprofit she worked for closed. She’s been job hunting but hasn’t had any luck,” Hallie continued.
“She’s still Miss Virginia for a few more months and has responsibilities with that, so it makes finding something permanent hard.
Chances are she’ll have to leave Honey Hollow to find something that pays well. ”
“You two are close?” I guessed, recalling Catherine saying Hallie invited her to the funeral.
Granted, Hallie had been the one to organize the funeral and invite everyone.
Hallie nodded. “Small town and all that. I used to stay with her momma when Cath needed a break, and she hangs out with Zach when I need a night off.”
Catherine Foster…She had a connection to the family. We had known each other when we were kids. Sure, she was ten years younger than me, but twenty-five wasn’t that young.
She had the grace and decorum of someone who would marry into a family like the Wilders. Or at least the family that everyone saw from the outside looking in.
From the other side of the window, I was the kind of man who would marry the reigning Miss Virginia.
I was the kind of man who would take the mantle as the head of the family and carry on the legacy of the estate.
I was the kind of man who would be supportive of my half brother running the family’s charitable foundation.
But on the inside, it was a shit show.
“You’re actually considering this?” Mason said in disbelief. A caustic laugh slipped from his chest like it was the most ludicrous thing in the world.
Granted, it was.
“You’re really going to ask that poor girl to do this for you?” he pressed.
“I can make it worth her while,” I said. I just needed to figure out what would sweeten the offer enough for her to bite.
“Hayes,” Mason said. “You can’t—”
“What’s the alternative?” I asked. “Because I’m all ears.”
Hallie looked over her shoulder at Mason. “I’m not working for Lewis.”
Mason sighed. “I don’t want to work for him either, but…this is nuts.”
“But nothing,” Hallie clipped. “If Hayes doesn’t keep the property, Lewis will sell it off and then you won’t have a job, regardless of who owns the land.”
The front door slammed, rattling every window in the house.
“I’m here!” Lewis’s shout echoed through the house as he stomped in.
Hallie cursed under her breath.
Mason bristled, coming out of the doorway and positioning himself closer to Hallie.
Lewis strolled past the study, then backed up when he spotted people. “Oh good. I thought I was gonna have to walk all over the damn place.” He tossed his keys at Mason. “Park it in the shade, but not under a tree. I don’t want anything scratching the paint.”
Mason let the keys hit the floor as he stared blankly at Lewis.
Hallie’s eyes tracked the fancy key fob. “Huh. I didn’t know they made brooms with a remote start.”
Lewis turned his attention to Hallie. “My things are in the trunk. See to it that they’re delivered to my room. I need my suits dry-cleaned and hung. I like my ties and underwear pressed too.”
“I can point you in the direction of the iron,” Hallie sassed with a smile.
Lewis scoffed, aiming his ire at her. “You think I do my own laundry?”
Mason stiffened and balled his fist, ready to defend her honor.
But Hallie wasn’t having it. “Well, I’m sure as hell not going to do it for you,” she countered. “I look after the house, not you.”
Lewis looked at me with beet-red cheeks and huffed. “It’s impossible to find decent help these days.”
“They’re not the help,” I said with barely restrained rage. “If you treat them like that one more time, you will not set foot in this house again. Have I made myself clear?”
“Oooh. Look at Mr. Big-for-His-Britches,” Lewis sneered. “You think you’re hot shit because you got the estate? Spoiler alert, you aren’t.”
I stood from my seat behind Granddad’s desk. “Those gates have always been open to both of us, and I intend to keep it that way. But if you want to test my patience, be my guest.”
“Where’s the wifey?” he hissed, then broke into a belligerent cackle. “Sorry—fiancée. Gotta say, the hot blonde you were snuggled up to at the funeral is a nice piece of ass.”
I swallowed.
Lewis must have caught my reaction to his assumption, because his eyes narrowed. “Or is this some kind of conspiracy to keep me from getting everything I deserve?”
“You will get exactly what you deserve,” I said coolly. “Mark my words.”
“I’m filing that petition!” Lewis barked over his shoulder on his way toward the stairs.
Mason closed the study doors to keep our colluding away from curious ears, but I didn’t speak until I heard a door slam as Lewis sulked in the room he occupied whenever he came to the estate.
“I’ve gotta go home to Bethesda for a few days, and then I’ll be back,” I said as I debated whether to wrap the sandwich Hallie had made me or take it on the plate and bring the plate back.
“With a wife?” Hallie asked under her breath with a hint of sarcasm.
“With a plan,” I countered softly. “I work remotely most of the time. I’ll just move my home base here so I can keep an eye on things. I’ll get a hotel in DC when I have to.”
“And then?” Mason prodded.
I stood and braced my hands on the desk as I stared at the will. “And then I’m going to ask Catherine to marry me.”
Hallie laughed quietly in disbelief. “And you just assume she’s going to say yes?”
I looked up, glancing between Hallie and Mason. “Money talks. And I’m very good at making it say what I need it to say.”