Chapter Twenty-Three
Brett stuck close to Trish to make sure that she wasn’t overwhelmed with all the people and noise like he usually was. Like his dad was. He’d seen him escape to the patio a short while ago.
That was where Brett usually went, too. But not today. Trish was meeting so many new people and he wanted to be there to support her. To answer any questions she might have and to make sure that nobody judged her.
But she kept looking around, and he felt that unfamiliar jab of jealousy again when he realized who she was looking for. “No sign of Stokes yet,” he mumbled.
She shook her head. “He said he would be here.”
“Can you trust him?” he asked, and he wasn’t asking out of jealousy now.
He understood why she needed to talk to her lawyer in person.
The man had assured her that the ranch was safe, but Brett knew Trish needed some proof from her lawyer to relieve the fear Brett had seen in her since her mother’s visit.
“I thought I could,” Trish said. “But I’ve trusted the wrong people before.”
Like her own mother and her ex-husband. He wanted her to know that he wasn’t like them.
“You can trust me, Trish,” he promised. “I would never lie to you or try to manipulate you.”
He only wanted to support her. And it wasn’t because she was pregnant and vulnerable like Frankie had said; it was because she was Trish.
She was strong and creative and sweet. And he’d fallen for her and for the babies she carried.
He wasn’t sure when it had happened, and he certainly hadn’t wanted to.
But he had, even though he knew that she wasn’t ready for a relationship so soon after her divorce. He had to accept that she might never be ready.
But just as he’d vowed to help his brothers run the ranch and protect their relationships, they could do the same for him. If Trish was ever ready, Brett figured he just might be able to make a relationship work without anyone or anything suffering. Not even him.
* * *
Trish wondered about Brett’s sudden intensity. Did he think she still had doubts about him and his brothers? That she still wondered if they could be the con artists that Nolan had made them out to be?
She’d seen with her own eyes how hard they worked on the ranch.
And in the books, she’d seen how little they’d been paid for all that hard work.
They were good men who’d helped out her father, not because they knew they would be in the will, but because they were just good men.
Selfless and honest and so willing to help anyone and everyone.
Brett had been so helpful to her in bringing her plans for the ranch to fruition.
She’d even caught him feeding and caring for the petting zoo animals that he’d helped her pick out.
He seemed particularly drawn to the skunk, maybe because it couldn’t protect itself anymore.
And Brett was just naturally protective of everyone around him. Of his siblings. And of her.
He was being protective of her at this party, too, sticking close to her side, introducing her to everyone and making sure that they were nice to her.
She knew that he was protecting her. She didn’t need his protection, though, because everyone was so friendly and warm.
But she did appreciate how close he stuck to her.
He looked so handsome today in dark jeans, a white Western shirt and his black cowboy hat and boots.
Her heart fluttered every time she looked at him, and her skin tingled from how he held her hand.
Other people had noticed. Sadie wasn’t the only one who’d caught their hand-holding and smiled. Lem had hugged them both, and she’d heard some of the others murmur, “Sadie strikes again.”
Sadie had had nothing to do with Trish’s feelings for Brett. They were all because of him, because he was such a good man. She’d been determined to only love her babies and put them first. But she couldn’t imagine Brett ever hurting them or anyone else.
Not even her.
He was too selfless to do that; he always put everyone else before himself.
It would have been impossible for her not to fall for a man like that.
But knowing how willing he was to make sacrifices for everyone else—that was the last thing she wanted him to do for her.
She had to make sure that the ranch was safe for him because he’d made it clear over and over how he intended to always put that and his family first.
“I know I can trust you,” she assured him. She could also love him, if it wasn’t so soon after her divorce. But had she ever had a real marriage?
Harold wasn’t who he’d pretended to be when they’d started dating, so she hadn’t ever felt as close to him as she already did with Brett.
Most of her marriage, they’d lived separate lives.
She’d gotten married to start the family she’d always wished she’d had, a family like the Havens—full of love and affection and acceptance.
But she’d been more alone in her marriage than she’d ever been.
So no, it wouldn’t be too soon for her to fall for someone else when that someone was a man like Brett, who was genuine and dependable and honorable.
Tears stung her eyes as emotion overwhelmed her.
She did love him. She loved him so much that she would give up her share of the Four Corners if there was any chance that Harold and her mother could get a piece of it.
“Where is Nolan?” she muttered. She needed him to assure her that the ranch was safe.
“Nolan?” a female voice repeated.
Trish was surprised to see the ER nurse standing next to her in the kitchen.
“Sue, right?” she greeted her. She’d only met the woman once, so she didn’t think she was here to welcome Trish home to Willow Creek.
Was she related to the Havens as most of the town seemed to be either by blood or marriage?
She noticed the woman’s ring finger was bare. And then Bob, Brett’s dad, appeared behind her. His face was flushed, and so was hers, like they’d either been arguing or they were just embarrassed.
“Uh, welcome back to Willow Creek,” Sue said. “I just wanted to say that before I left…” She looked anxious to get out of there.
Trish could see how it might be overwhelming to be around so many people and kids. But as an ER nurse, the woman would be used to chaos.
“I’m glad you came,” Trish said, although she was also confused.
“Look who else finally strolled in…” Frankie remarked. Like Brett, she’d been keeping close to Trish, probably being as protective as he was. “The sleazeball lawyer…”
“He is a not a sleazeball,” Trish said, automatically coming to Nolan’s defense.
But it was Sue’s reaction that stunned her. All the color drained from the woman’s face as she stared at the man who’d walked into the kitchen.
He was staring back at her—at her and at Bob. Nolan’s eyes weren’t just similar to Sue’s; they were exactly the same. They had to be related.
“Oh, no…” Sue whispered.
Trish found herself touching the woman’s arm, steadying her like Sue had done for her when she’d tried to get dressed at the hospital. The poor woman looked like she was about to pass out from shock.
But how was seeing Nolan Stokes a shock to her?
* * *
Nolan had braced himself for this, for all eyes to focus on him the minute he walked into the house of the formidable Sadie Haven. He was used to that kind of attention. Sometimes he even commanded it. At least in a courtroom.
But one gaze unsettled him.
Or maybe two.
Frankie Dempsey stared at him with her usual contempt, and for some reason that bugged him. It bugged him how little she thought of him, and maybe that bugged him because for some strange reason he found himself thinking about her. All too often.
But the gaze that unsettled him the most came from eyes that looked exactly like his and like his children’s eyes. He was glad that he hadn’t brought the kids like Sadie had urged him to.
He didn’t want his children here for this, though he would have to explain everything to them soon. But first, he had to explain it to everyone else.
Trish was his client, and hopefully also a friend since he had so few. So he addressed her first, “Welcome back to Willow Creek, Trish.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek. And both Frankie Dempsey and Brett Lemmon sucked in a breath like he’d slapped them.
So Brett was jealous.
He grinned.
And Frankie?
She certainly wasn’t jealous of him. She couldn’t stand him. But she had no idea…
Nobody did.
“I’d like to speak with you,” Trish said softly, “with my partners…like I told you on the phone a few days ago.”
He nodded. “Looks like your partners are all here.” Sticking close to her like Brett and Frankie were. There was a crowd of people around them, too.
Including the woman with his eyes and the man who stood just behind her looking confused.
Did he really not know?
“As I told you on the phone, Trish, you don’t have to worry,” he said. “Your mother signed away her claim to the ranch long ago in exchange for a big check from your father. She can’t touch the Four Corners.”
“And Harold?”
He shook his head. “He can’t either. Even if you hadn’t been divorced before you claimed your inheritance, a spouse doesn’t automatically share an inheritance.
Your share of the ranch is yours alone. So you don’t have to sign away or give up your inheritance to protect the ranch and your—” he stared at all of them “—partners.”
Frankie and Brett whirled toward her. “You were willing to do that?” Frankie asked while Brett just looked stunned and something else.
In love…?
Nolan actually felt a flash of pity for him. Love had brought Nolan nothing but pain.
He turned back to that other couple now, the woman with his eyes and the man standing behind her. “Hey, Mom, Dad,” he greeted them.
And now everyone gasped while the woman got even paler and started to shake.
He raised his voice even louder like he did in a courtroom to project.
“Seems like I’m the only one who knows this, so let me share a deep, dark secret.
My parents gave me up for adoption when I was born. They are Sue Lancaster and Bob Lemmon.”
From the look of complete shock on Bob Lemmon’s face, Nolan finally believed that his biological father had had no idea that he had another son.
Sue shook her head as tears filled her eyes, the eyes she’d genetically passed onto him and he onto his children. “I wish you hadn’t done this…” Tears trailed down her face. “Not like this…”
He’d only met her twice. The first time had been nearly a year ago when he’d finally decided to figure out why he’d been given up for adoption, why nobody had wanted to keep him. First his biological parents, then his wife.
He hadn’t told Sue his name then, or anything about himself.
He’d wanted answers, not to answer any questions himself.
And then, several weeks ago, when Sadie Haven Lemmon had started digging around about him, he thought he’d better give his biological mother a heads-up that her secret was probably going to come out.
“I gave you the chance to tell him if he hadn’t known,” he reminded her.
“But I didn’t know if he knew or not…” she whispered.
“I didn’t know,” Bob said. “I had no idea…” He kept shaking his head like he still didn’t believe it.
“I paid your assistant to get something with your DNA on it,” Nolan admitted. “I can show you the results if you need proof that I’m your son. Your oldest son.” He glanced at Brett then to see how he was taking the news that he wasn’t the firstborn anymore.
Brett looked as stunned as his father. Not upset or mad. Just surprised.
The only person who looked mad was Frankie Dempsey. But that would probably be the way she always looked at him. She shook her head. “This was a real jerk move even for you, Stokes,” she said.
And then he finally saw himself how she was seeing him, as someone who’d snuck around and stirred up trouble and had now caused a big scene at a party for her very pregnant cousin.
He’d been so hurt and angry over his wife leaving not just him but their children, too, that he hadn’t been thinking clearly.
His kids’ pain had affected him most, and he’d blamed himself for it, for the reason they’d been abandoned.
Something had to be wrong with him or with the people who’d brought him into this world.
And he’d let his anger build, not with his wife, but with his biological parents, with Sue Lancaster and with Bob Lemmon.
But now that he could see more clearly and see what he’d done, he had to admit that Frankie Dempsey was right. He was a jerk.
No wonder his wife had left him and that he had no friends and family. Except he did have family…
Nearly everyone in this house was related to him by blood or marriage. And now he had probably just alienated every single one of them just as he had Frankie Dempsey.
Yet, for some reason, alienating her seemed to bother him most of all.