Page 106 of Keeping Kaitlyn

“I love you, Luke.” Opening my eyes, I watch the sun rise over the mountains. “Thank you.”

I love you too, and you don’t have to thank me, Kaity—it’s what best brothers are for.

SIXTY-ONE

WENTWORTH

While Kait was upstairs showering,I used the scanning app on my phone to scan the paperwork her dad gave her to sign to dissolve her claim on the ranch and sent it to Conner.

Me: I need you to find the landmines.

He texted me back right away.

Con: Alright. Give me a few minutes.

While I waited, I called my brother. He still hasn’t answered my text from this afternoon so when he picked up, I was more than a little surprised.

“Hey.”

“Hey?” I bark it out on a laugh. “That’s all you have to say to me?Hey?”

“What do you want me to say, Went?” he asks on a tired sigh like dealing with me is more than he can handle right now.

“I don’t know—” I bite back angrily. “Maybe explain to me why the hell you didn’t tell me that sonofabitch fired you for helping Kait, or maybe about how that Brock Morris fuck threatened to accuse you of killing her after we left, so he could blackmail Abbey into marrying him.”

“I didn’t tell you about Tom firing me because there was nothing you could do about it,” he tells me, his tone infuriatingly rational. “And I didn’t tell you about Brock because she didn’t want me to. Kaity was gone, she was free, and that’s the way Abs wanted it.” I hear the rasp of his hand slide over his face before he sighs. “What did Tom want with Kaity?” he asks, making it clear the subject is closed.

“The ranch is held in a trust and the way it’s set up, Kait is next in line to inherit it,” I tell him, keeping my voice low and even. “He essentially wants her to sign it over to Abbey.”

For a long moment, Damien doesn’t say a word while the puzzle pieces of the last six years click into place. Why Brock was suddenly so eager to marry Kait. Why he blackmailed Abbey into taking her place when Kait ran away.

He wants the ranch.

“The Double M shares a fence line with the Barr TT,” Damien tells me. “According to valley lore, the land it sits on used to belong to Elias Barrett, the guy who founded the town. He lost it to a long dead Morris in a game of poker. The Barretts have been trying to get it back, even since.”

“So, if he’d managed to marry Kait, Brock would’ve essentially inherited both ranches,” I say carefully. “With Kait off the market, he had to move on to Abbey for his plan to work.”

“I’m sure the first thing Brock and his father plan to do when Kait signs those papers is knock down the fence and combine the ranches,” Damien says, his tone tight and laced with bitterness. “If the Barr TT is held in a trust, it can’t be sold but that would hardly matter—even under Morris’s control, the Barr TT would have its lost land back which would make it triple the size of any other ranch in the valley.”

For a moment, neither of us say anything because there’s nothing to say. No way for either of us to stop it. Clearing my throat, I make the decision to let it go. All of this stopped beingmy brother’s problem a long time ago. “Kait’s mom said you’re working a ranch in Cut Bank?”

“Yeah.” For a second, I don’t think he’s going to elaborate but he does. “It’s a good ranch. Good people and they pay me fairly—I can’t ask much more than that.”

“Kait fixed it,” I told him. “She dragged me from one end of the town to the other, telling everyone who would listen that she and I ran away together the summer she was supposed to marry Brock. He can’t lie about what happened to her. He can’t use it to?—”

“It doesn’t matter,” he says, cutting me off before I have a chance to finish. “There’s nothing left in Barrett for me. It’s best for everyone if I just stay away.”

“She has a kid,” I tell him. “You know that, right? Abbey?—”

“Like I said—there’s nothing left for me in Barrett.” This time when he cuts me off, his tone is hard. “Look—I’ve got to get up early in the morning. Call me before you head out—I’ll try to meet you somewhere if I can.”

Damien hangs up, ending the call before I can argue.

Wokenup by the soft clap of the front door, I sit up to watch Kait walk down the front porch steps and across the driveway through the large bay window that overlooks the lake before she disappears down the side of the hill. A few minutes later she appears again, walking along the dock to stand at the end of it in the half light of dawn.

Finding my phone, I carry it over to my duffle where I dig through it for a pair of sweats. Pulling them on, I step out onto the front porch and take a seat in the chair I practically lived in while I stayed here so I can keep an eye on her.

Swiping my thumb across my phone screen, I note the time—5AM—before checking my texts. Like I thought there’d be, there’s a message from Conner.

---