Chapter Three #2
“I’m sorry,” Brett said, his deep voice gruff with regret. “I didn’t see you there…”
“So you’re sorry that I heard, not that you said it,” she concluded.
He sighed, then nodded.
Appreciative of his honesty, she smiled.
Then she turned toward Stokes, uncertain of his honesty.
He’d helped her with her divorce, but she wasn’t sure if he was acting in her best interest regarding the will.
Maybe he thought she deserved to inherit the entire ranch, but, like Brett Lemmon, she wasn’t sure that she really deserved any of it, let alone all of it.
But she didn’t want any of it for herself. She wanted it for her children. She wanted to give them the childhood she wished she’d had. And that idyllic childhood was here, at the ranch. She patted her belly, drew in a breath and told Stokes, “You can leave. I don’t need you here.”
She was going to make sure that she didn’t need anyone ever again. She was going to take care of herself and her babies.
“Trish, this is a mistake,” Nolan persisted. “You can’t trust these people.”
“She can’t trust you!” Frankie exclaimed. “You’re a sleaze, spying on us, threatening us—”
“I have never threatened anyone,” Stokes interjected, his voice sharp with defensiveness and outrage.
Trish smiled at how offended he was and probably rightfully so.
He was well-known and respected for being a champion for the weak and the poor.
That was why he’d stepped in to help her all those months ago, or so he’d told her.
But Trish didn’t want to be weak. And thanks to the divorce settlement Stokes had helped her get, she wasn’t poor either.
She wasn’t rich, but she would have enough to support herself and her babies.
If she could live here at the ranch, if she could make it what she wanted it to be for her kids, she might even have enough to buy out the Lemmons, if they would let her.
“You’re not denying the spying,” Frankie pointed out, her face close to Nolan’s as she argued with him. “Go ahead and try to take us to court. Maci will be sure to expose you as the sleazeball fraud that you are.”
“I am not a fraud,” Stokes said. “You’re the one who has been conned, and you’re not astute enough to realize it.”
“Are you calling me stupid?” Frankie asked, her face flushed with anger.
Stokes didn’t deny it. He added, “And disloyal. You’re betraying your cousin for strangers.”
“You’re the only stranger here,” Frankie said.
“And your client told you to leave,” Brett said. “But then you don’t care about respecting other people’s wishes…”
Stokes glared at Brett. “You don’t know anything about me.”
Brett shook his head. “No, I don’t. And I don’t want to, and I don’t need to. Trish, your client, asked you to leave.”
“But you’re the one who really wants me to go,” Stokes said, “so you can take advantage of her like you took advantage of her dad.”
Exclamations of outrage came out of the mouths of everyone in the room.
Even the baby began to cry. And Trish’s head started to pound with the pressure and stress of the confrontation.
She hated conflict; it was why she’d always caved to her mother’s and even Harold’s wishes.
It had been easier than fighting them or even worse yet, disappointing her mother.
But, like the baby, she’d had enough.
“Stop!” she shouted, flinching at the volume of her own voice.
For a second, even that beautiful little girl stopped crying.
“All of you need to stop arguing,” she said. She turned back to her lawyer. “And you need to leave—”
“But they’re going to—”
“No!” she interjected. “Nobody’s going to take advantage of me or coerce me into anything I don’t want to do.
” Ever again. She’d promised herself that when she’d started her divorce proceedings.
It wasn’t just her marriage that had made her feel powerless; she’d felt that way her entire life because of her mother.
But after taking back her name, her life and her dreams, she was empowered and stronger now than she had ever been.
“You heard her,” Brett said to Stokes, and he glanced at her.
She wondered if that was a glimmer of respect she saw in his dark eyes.
But then she remembered what she’d heard when she’d walked into the house, how he’d been talking about her.
He obviously didn’t respect how she’d handled her relationship with her father.
If she had the opportunity to make different decisions, to talk to him again, she would take it in a heartbeat.
But it was too late to undo what had been done.
And tears stung her eyes again.
“Walk me out,” Stokes implored her.
“What? Aren’t you astute enough to find that obnoxiously big vehicle of yours on your own?” Frankie said, her husky voice even huskier with sarcasm.
A smile tugged at Trish’s lips as she noticed the annoyance on Nolan’s face. He was used to being revered for his intelligence and his appearance. The man was very good-looking, so he probably wasn’t used to anyone, especially a young woman, talking to him like Frankie was, with so much disdain.
Then Trish remembered that Nolan had gone through a horrible divorce of his own before helping her with hers. So there had been another woman in his life who’d treated him badly, who’d actually walked out and abandoned not just him, but their children as well. Guilt jabbed her.
“I’ll walk you out,” she said, relenting. She had to get him away from Frankie before her cousin was even meaner to him than she’d already been. But maybe it was easier for Frankie to blame him for the holdup with the estate than it was for her to blame Trish.
Desperate to get him out of there, Trish headed to the door and held it open.
Nolan waited another long moment before he finally walked out onto the porch with her.
When she pulled the door closed behind them, she caught the speculative look that Brett was giving them, as if he wondered if there was more than just a client-attorney relationship between them.
And maybe there was.
They had bonded over their mutual disillusionment with marriage and their commitment to stay single from now on; they had become friends and allies. They both felt that being a single parent would be much safer and healthier for their children.
Maybe Brett suspected there was something romantic between them, but romance was the last thing that either she or Nolan Stokes was interested in.
The only thing they shared was their determination to give their children the best life possible…
on their own, without having to depend on anyone else. Period.
* * *
Nolan Stokes dragged his feet across the front porch of the Four Corners ranch house. “Trish, you really shouldn’t be here on your own. It’s not safe.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “Nobody is going to hurt me.”
After everything she’d been through, it was amazing that she could still be so trusting. That wasn’t a mistake that Nolan would ever make again. To trust…
It wasn’t worth the risk. It was much better to be safe than sorry.
And he was worried that if she stayed here, she would wind up being sorry that she had.
“We should just handle this in court,” he persisted.
She shook her head and smiled. “Frankie is my cousin. She won’t hurt me.”
“She might be the worst of them,” he said, his pride stung from all the insults the young woman had hurled at him.
Nobody had spoken to him like that in…maybe ever.
Not even his ex-wife. She hadn’t said anything at all; she’d just left him and their children in the middle of the night.
She’d written a note, but even in that, she’d said very little.
Trish’s smile slid away. “She’s family. Like my sister, just like Maci is,” she said. “They won’t hurt me.”
“The Lemmons have fooled them—”
“Stop,” she said, like she had in the house moments ago. “I don’t think the Lemmons have done anything wrong.”
“I don’t trust them,” he insisted.
“Why not?” she asked. “Do you have proof of any of your suspicions?”
He nearly growled with the frustration overwhelming him. “No.”
“Then I’m fine,” she said. “You can leave.”
“Promise me you won’t agree to anything until you speak to me again,” he implored her.
He was genuinely worried about her. He also didn’t want to leave the Four Corners.
And it wasn’t just because he felt like he was about to abandon his client.
It was because he was close…to finding out the truth.
Not just about the Lemmon brothers and how they had come to be included in Frank Dempsey’s will. But also about himself.
About who he really was…