Page 147 of The Best Thing He Never Wanted

She stood there for another moment, then turned around and went back to the house.

After she picked up Blane’s baklava on Monday morning, she’d stop at the lawyer’s office as well. Everyone seemed to know everyone here. Perhaps if she described the man, her lawyer would be able to tell her whether he was the one making the claim.

Back in the kitchen, she spotted him again through the window. He was closer to the house now, and a shiver went down her spine. Just as she reached for her phone, it beeped with a text. When she saw Blane’s name on the screen, she almost answered him, but deliberately stopped herself. She didn’t trust herself not to ask him what he thought about the man outside. And just because he was a security expert, that didn’t mean she should start pestering him with every little concern. He was too far away. She didn’t want to worry him, and besides, her safety wasn’t his responsibility.

She called the lawyer instead. “Hello, this is Bea Hartley. I’m sure you’re not working today, with it being Saturday, but I wondered if you could give me a call on Monday, please. I’d like to know exactly who the man is who’s filed the claim over the land. If it’s possible, I think I’d like to speak to him directly. Anyway, call me back when you can. Monday is absolutely fine.”

She ended the call and stood there in the kitchen, feeling a little dismayed. She’d been in such a lovely mood when she arrived back. Then she remembered why and smiled—Sifis.

Perhaps she didn’t have to decide anything permanent yet. Sabine had already suggested a trial run. She could foster him for a while and see how they got on together. And, she admitted to herself, there were worse things than having a little dog in the house who already distrusted strangers—especially men—and wasn’t shy about saying so.

~ ~ ~

When Blane finished running errands in town on Saturday morning, he loaded two huge ready-to-bake pizzas onto the back seat of his truck before climbing in. Living forty miles down the valley from town meant take-and-bake was as close to delivery as he was going to get. And he loved his pizza.

They weren’t both for him, though. Tanya and Alana loved pizza too, and he was going to stop in at Emmett’s place on his way home and hang out with the girls for a while. If Harper had a problem with him showing up with pizza, she could stick one in the freezer. But he wasn’t going down without a fight. She was the one who’d told him yesterday that the girls were missing Uncle Blane.

When he turned into Emmett’s driveway twenty minutes later, it dawned on him that he was a little early for lunch. He chuckled. It probably didn’t matter; Harper likely wouldn’t let him stick the pizza in the oven right away anyway. He could hang out with the girls for a while, then go back to the ranch and eat his own. Mav would give him shit for it—he seemed to be on some kind of health kick these days, but Blane didn’t care. It wasn’t like he didn’t work out most days, and good pizza was a worthy reason to add a couple of miles to his run in the morning.

He was glad to see both Emmett’s and Harper’s trucks outside, and before he’d even parked, Tanya came running from the greenhouse.

“Uncle Blane! Uncle Blane! Mama Bear said you might come soon. I’ve missed you.”

As soon as he was out of the truck, she wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Missed you too, Button. How’re you doing?”

She kept her arms around him and tipped her head all the way back to look up at him. “All the better for seeing you. How are you doing? Have you been busy?”

“Yeah. Guess I have.”

“You train all the teams, don’t you?”

“You know I do.”

“Can I come to some of your training? Especially when you teach them rappelling and stuff?”

He chuckled and ran a hand over her hair. “Not sure I want you in on a training session with all the guys. But if your dad says it’s okay, you and me can go out one day and I’ll teach you.”

“Yes!” She let go of him to punch the air. “That’d be awesome. Can Nat come too?”

He cocked an eyebrow. He knew who she meant—Nat was Ford MacFarland’s girl—but he wasn’t sure he wanted to volunteer himself to teach two thirteen-year-old girls how to rappel down the side of anything. Tanya was enough trouble on her own.

Before he could answer, Emmett came out the front door. “Tanya, let the man get out of the driveway before you start organizing his life.”

“But he said he’ll teach me to rappel!”

Emmett stopped. “He did, huh?”

Blane scowled at Tanya. “Said if your dad says it’s okay.”

She grinned. “He’ll say yes.”

“Will he?” Emmett asked.

“Eventually.”

Blane laughed.