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CHAPTER NINETEEN
Phoebe awoke to the sound of Jacob talking on the phone. She opened her eyes, saw she was on the couch, and then remembered spending the night on the couch with him and Annie.
Annie was still asleep, sprawled across the couch, her arms around Cupcake.
Phoebe kissed her daughter's head and then slid off the couch. Jacob was in the kitchen, and she could smell the coffee he was brewing.
He looked over as she neared, and the smile he gave her made her whole insides melt. It was so warm, so inviting, so tender. "Hi," she whispered.
Jacob held out his arm, and she walked into his embrace, letting him pull her against his side. "I'm going to put you on speakerphone," he said into the phone. "Phoebe's with me now."
She rested her head on Jacob's chest. His tone and body language were relaxed, so she wasn't worried about whoever he was speaking with. Bella maybe? "Hi," she said into the phone.
"Hi Phoebe. My name is Ryan Wilson. I'm working on redoing Jacob's will right now. I have a couple questions for you, if you have a moment."
Phoebe looked at Jacob in surprise. "It's five in the morning."
He nodded. "Yeah, I didn't want to waste time. What if I got run over by a bunny on the way to the barn this morning? Things need to be in order."
Emotions clogged her throat as she took the phone. This amazing man she'd just met was making sure her daughter would always be taken care of. "You're like a guardian angel."
He grinned. "I'm no saint, and I think you know that. This feels right. That's all."
"Thank you," she said earnestly.
He nodded. "Talk to Ryan. Get it figured out. Ryan, whatever she wants is fine with me."
"Right on. Ready, Phoebe?"
"Yes, of course." She stepped away from the kitchen to talk to Ryan. As she worked out the details with Ryan, she saw Annie wake up. Her daughter saw Phoebe was on the phone, so she wandered into the kitchen with Jacob. He hoisted her up on a stool, and they began to mix blueberry muffin batter together.
The man was a natural with Annie. His kindness and patience were off the charts, which she never would have expected based on his description of himself that first night. Last night had been amazing. She'd kept waking up during the night, realized she was tucked in with Jacob, Annie, and Cupcake, and then fallen back to sleep with the most wonderful sense of happiness radiating through her.
Ryan asked her another question, and she realized she was so caught up in Jacob and Annie that she hadn't been listening at all.
She turned to the window so she could focus, looking out at Jacob's beautiful lawn. "Can you repeat that?"
"Yes, indeed. Jacob would like to leave forty million dollars to Annie and you. It will be in a trust, but you can take out whatever you want."
She gripped the phone. "Forty million dollars?"
"Do you want more? He said more is fine if you want it."
"No, God, no." She glanced back at the kitchen. Jacob was wearing an old, faded tee shirt, jeans, and no shoes. His whiskers were the effect of more than a day or two without shaving. His hair was just a little too long to be fashionable. He looked like a ridiculously handsome hermit, not a man who tossed forty million dollars at strangers in his will. "That's too much. She doesn't need that."
"He said that's the minimum. You can start a foundation if you want. Whatever you want. Just so you know, I'm adding in a clause that says if you are found guilty of killing him, you and Annie forfeit your inheritance."
Phoebe started laughing. "Killing him?"
"Money is a powerful motivator. I've advised him against doing this, seeing as how he just met you, but he's adamant."
Phoebe paused. "Is the forty million a large part of his estate?"
"No."
Wow.
Ryan continued on to describe the trust, and that Jacob's will would list Bella and Lucas as Annie's guardians if he were her parent at that time. By the time he finished, Phoebe was in tears again.
