Chapter Ten #2
“That’s been happening to me a lot lately,” she admitted.
Usually around him. “Thankfully, you caught me in the bunkhouse before I fell.” She touched her belly, concerned over what might have happened to her babies.
Then her stomach stiffened, the skin stretching taut across it.
Were the babies having a growth spurt? She doubted she had much more room to give them.
And she had seven weeks left to go in her pregnancy.
She had an appointment soon with her current ob-gyn, but she would rather switch to one in Willow Creek so she didn’t have as far to drive. And so that she would be prepared if the twins came early as twins sometimes did.
“I was worried that you might have started working on the bunkhouse yourself,” he said. “I was heading that way when I heard you singing. Being good with animals—I guess that’s another family talent you and Frankie share.”
She smiled. “Well, I don’t have any scars from singing. But I don’t come close to Frankie’s talent.”
“No desire to go on the road with her and her band?”
She touched her belly again. It was still hard. “And the babies? She’s going to have enough trouble trying to bring Cocoa with her. I don’t think she could handle all of us.” Especially when Frankie hadn’t really let her back in, not as close as they’d once been.
The Lemmon brothers, at least Blake and Liam, and Liam’s wife, Elise, had been more welcoming to her than the two women she’d considered sisters. But because they’d once been so close, she had probably hurt them the most when she’d pulled away from them.
Just like she must have hurt her dad.
A pang struck her, first in her heart and then in her side, as regret overwhelmed her for a moment.
“Yeah, and it would be hard to run your petting zoo and kids’ camp from the road,” he said.
“You’re not going to fight me over those?” she asked.
He sighed. “I don’t think it’s going to work, but since I’m obviously outnumbered, I don’t get a say.”
She flinched now with another little jab of pain. “That doesn’t seem fair,” she remarked. She knew how hard he’d worked. She’d recently sat down and had Blake show her the books for the ranch, and she’d seen the years that Brett had deferred his salary in order to keep it going.
“How else are we going to run the place?” he asked. “Having one person in charge doesn’t seem fair either.”
“Are you worried that I want to be that person?” she asked.
“You are a Dempsey, Frank’s daughter,” he said. “You thought once that you should have been the only heir—”
She gasped at another sharp jab. “I never thought that. Frankie was like another daughter to him. Maci was, too.”
“But me and my brothers were strangers,” he said. “Just ranch hands.”
Heat rushed to her face. “I’m sorry. I made some assumptions that I shouldn’t have.”
He sighed. “I think I did, too.”
“That I was greedy and selfish and uncaring?” she asked, curious what he thought of her.
He grimaced. “Maybe.”
“And now?”
He blew out a breath. “I don’t know, Trish. I still don’t know you.”
“Maybe that’s because you’ve been avoiding me,” she said with a slight chuckle.
“What?” he asked, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him. “I’ve just been working…”
“From before dawn to after dark?” she asked. “You always work that hard?”
“During calving season.”
She patted Cocoa’s head. “This is the last calf birthed. I think you’re avoiding me.”
He sighed again. “I’m avoiding the situation. I don’t know how this is going to work with so many cooks in the kitchen.”
She gave an exaggerated shudder. “You won’t catch me in the kitchen. I’m not much of a cook. I’m kind of surprised by how much cooking you and your brothers do.”
“Dad taught us when we were younger,” he said. “It was probably when Mom had cancer the first time, but we didn’t know it. They didn’t tell us until it came back. We were all out of the house then.”
“I’m sorry about your mom,” she said.
He nodded. “Thanks. It’s been a couple of years now, but we still miss her. Dad the most. He’s been struggling I think.”
“I can’t imagine how hard losing his wife must be for your dad. Due to my stupid pride and stubbornness, I didn’t even see my dad that much the past seven years, and I’m missing him so much. I can’t imagine losing someone who was a part of your everyday life like that.”
“You weren’t a part of your husband’s?” he asked.
She snorted. “He’s not dead. But he wasn’t really around much either. We had our separate lives. He had work and golf. And I…” She rubbed her stomach. She had the dream of being a mother.
“What did you have?” he asked when she didn’t continue. “What are you, Trish? Singer? Animal lover?”
She patted her hard belly. “Mother. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.”
“Why?”
“Because I love kids. I was going to college to become a teacher when I met my ex-husband during my summer internship at my stepfather’s company.”
“And you quit college?”
“Eventually,” she said. “After we got married. I only had a year left. It was another reason my father disapproved of my marriage. He thought my husband should have encouraged me to finish instead of pressuring me to quit.”
“He was right,” Brett said.
“He definitely was,” she wholeheartedly agreed. “He really wanted all his girls to be self-sufficient.”
“That’s why he paid for Maci’s law school.”
“That and he loved her.” Just like he’d loved the Lemmons, too. That was why he’d included them in his will; Trish had no doubts about that any longer. And she could see that that love was mutual. The Lemmons were grieving her father, too.
“He loved you,” Brett said. “So much…”
Guilt and regret coursed through her now, and maybe that was the cause of the pain she suddenly felt.
She nodded. “I know.” She hadn’t always believed it, though.
She’d let her mother plant doubts in her mind, and maybe she felt the guiltiest about that, for not being as loyal as she should have been.
“Because he loved me, he wanted me to be self-sufficient,” she said.
And she wished so much that she’d listened to him then, that she’d never lost touch with him.
“I can keep the petting zoo and the camps self-sufficient from the ranch. As an intern and after I left school, I worked at my stepfather’s business in marketing and events.
I can handle the camps on my own. You don’t have to invest any money or time in them.
I’ll take care of it myself, both financially with my divorce settlement, and laborwise. ”
Brett shook his head. “No, Trish.”
Frustration bubbled up inside her. “No?” She shook her head.
“That’s not for you to decide. All the months that I was on bedrest for fear of losing my babies, I could think of nothing else but my dad and the ranch.
I know that I’m not cut out to be a rancher.
I couldn’t be out riding a horse all day like you and your brothers and Frankie.
But I love this place. I loved my summers here with the animals.
” With her dad. With her sisters. “And I want other kids, not just mine, to have that experience.”
He held up a hand and said, “Trish—”
“No!” she yelled again. “I know what I want. And nobody’s going to manipulate me into giving up my dreams. Never again!” Then she felt another cramp. And not just in her side but across her entire belly.
What was happening?
Was she going into labor?
It was too soon.
Way too soon.
* * *
Frankie’s steps slowed as she approached the barn. She could hear Trish’s voice and a low rumble that sounded like Brett’s. They were having an intense conversation from what she could overhear, and she didn’t want to intrude.
Frankie understood what had driven her cousin to do the things she had.
But Brett had worked so hard on the ranch for Uncle Frank.
He’d been more than an employee; he’d been a friend, probably the best friend Uncle Frank had ever had.
The two men were so much alike. Frankie loved Brett like she loved Trish, like they were family.
And if they were fighting, she wanted no part of it. So she turned to head back to the house.