Page 85 of The Cowboy’s Reckoning

Lil raised her eyebrows at the woman. “Okay then.” Jordan reached for her hand under the table lacing their fingers together.

“Do you know why your husband didn’t leave you the ranch?” he asked Libby.

A personal question, but he figured, in the light of transparency, she might actually solve the mystery.

“We were not close,” she said shortly. “Not for the last decade anyway. Carl was not an easy man to be around. That said, I honestly thought I would inherit my due. I stood by his side, supported him when he needed it. Played the game,” she said in a low voice before clearing her throat. “It was … stunning … to discover that I wasn’t going to inherit the company. After he told me, Greg and I decided to move forward with our plans for this property. I never dreamed … I mean, why would he tell me about the company and not the rest?”

No one had an answer for that.

“We figured buying the ranch back would be relatively easy with the terms Libby offered,” Greg said, “and then we could proceed with the project.”

“But you couldn’t have tenants,” Lil concluded.

“Obviously.” Greg turned to Jordan. “You wouldn’t reconsider?”

Jordan squeezed Lil’s fingers. “No.”

Greg pushed his chair back. “If you change your … never mind.” He’d apparently flashed on his brother’s tactics to get Jordan to change his mind. “You are probably going to be called to give a deposition when I start legal action.”

“Not a problem.” He kind of looked forward to nailing Connery. “Your brother owes us a cow. And barn repairs. We might be filing our own lawsuit.”

*

Libby Weston and Greg Connery left shortly after Jordan had agreed to cooperate with their lawsuit if they needed him.

Almost as soon as the door closed behind them, Meg said, “How am I supposed to concentrate on lesson plans after all this?”

“By knowing that it’s over?” Lil glanced at Jordan and he nodded.

“I think it is. Now we pick up the pieces.”

It was time to head home, tell his family about the new development, but the truth was that he wasn’t in any hurry to leave the Willow Creek. More importantly, Lil wasn’t showing him the door.

“I want to go take another look at the damage,” Lil said.

She started for the door and Jordan automatically followed, wondering if she was talking about more than the barn. She’d been quiet all morning, which wasn’t surprising, given the circumstances, and they hadn’t found a time to be alone. He sensed that they both wanted to hear what Libby Weston had to say before embarking on more important matters. Now that it was time to do that, he was a little afraid. But Lil was surprisingly all business.

And for some unknown reason, maybe that gut instinct of his, he found that encouraging.

It felt like his old Lil was back. Dare he hope?

“Do you think Joe Whitney was ever involved?” she asked as they headed down the walk.

“We might never know. I don’t think Jess will bring up hiring him and I don’t think Joe is going to admit to shooting an animal. That said, Greg was insistent that Jess was not comfortable with guns.” But he was certainly able to cut fences and plug culverts.

Jordan followed Lil to the back of the barn where the scorched boards and pile of black ash and debris spoke of near disaster. They’d come so close to losing the barn, perhaps some of her animals. Lil reached for his hand. He captured her fingers in his and she hung on tightly.

But for how long?

She answered the question more quickly than he’d anticipated. “I’ve decided to quit dodging the truth.” It was a bald statement of fact, one that made his heart jump.

“Okay.”

“Not taking chances sucks because it just doesn’t work. You can’t control the uncontrollable. Can you?”

“You can’t,” he agreed.

She let go of his hand, let out a soft breath as if gearing up to give a lecture. “You called this our barn when you were talking to the deputy.”