Page 13 of Keeping it Real

“What the hell for?”Alek demanded.

Collin looked a little sheepish as he cleared his throat.“Jamie left you something.”

Four

So much foronly spending a few minutes in Alek Bergeron’s orbit.

In fairness, that ship sailed the minute Sheridan allowed him to put his arms around her.Fool that she was, she leaned in and hugged him back.She blamed her weak moment on exhaustion.Pure and simple.Never mind how good it felt to have him holding her for those couple of moments.He was one of her few remaining connections to Jamie, and no matter how much she wanted to protect her heart by avoiding Alek, the pull was as strong as ever.

At least on her side.

She’d grown up enough not to kid herself any longer.Alek’s hug was a gesture of sympathy.Nothing more.He was simply acting as a surrogate big brother,she reminded herself.Don’t read anything into it.She wasn’t going to make that mistake of opening her heart up to him again.

She led Collin and Alek to the small office behind the bar.As relieved as Sheridan was to know there was a will that would keep her from having to go to court to be declared Finn’s guardian, she couldn’t for the life of her imagine what her brother would have left Alek.The pair hadn’t spoken in nearly a decade.

No one objected when Peri Bergeron and Aunt Eileen slipped into the office behind them.

“Finn?”Sheridan asked her aunt.

“He’s fine,” Aunt Eileen reassured her.“His breathing is back to normal.Alan is keeping him occupied in the kitchen.What’s this I hear about a will?”

Collin took the seat behind the desk.He gestured at Sheridan to take the only other chair in the room.She shook her head.Her body already felt like a wrung-out dishrag.As it was, she was holding it together by sheer force of will.If she sat down now, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t slide onto the floor and never get back up.She propped her shoulder against the file cabinet instead.

“I’m good right here.Read away,” she urged Collin.“You’ve got a two-hour trip back to Boston to make.I don’t want to keep you any longer than necessary.”

Alek held the chair out for Aunt Eileen as Collin pulled out several folded sheets of paper from the envelope.He cleared his throat.

“This will was executed several days after Finn’s birth,” Collin began.“Obviously, Jamie left everything to Finn should something happen to him and Madison.But as we all know, circumstances changed dramatically a few years later with Jamie’s injury and the loss of your father.”

“My father left the bar to Jamie and the house to me,” Sheridan interrupted.“Finn should be in good shape financially.”

Collin opened his mouth only to abruptly close it again.He swiped at his brow before continuing.“Actually, he sold the bar to a restaurant consortium two years ago.They kept him on as an employee because his status as a local celebrity kept people coming through the doors.”

Sheridan suddenly wished she’d opted for the chair.

“What?!”Aunt Eileen cried.

Collin offered up a sheepish shrug.“The pandemic was hard on a lot of places like this.And a young family has ...expenses.”

Aunt Eileen shot to her feet.“He shouldn’t have done that!This bar has been in my family for nearly a hundred years.Passed down from son to son.The house was paid for.He could have taken out a mortgage.”He could have asked Sheridan to pull some money out of it.She wouldn’t have refused.”She looked over at Sheridan.“Right?”

She was suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.“Jamie had already taken money out of it,” she explained to her aunt, hating that her family’s dirty laundry was being aired in front of Alek and his mom, neither of whom likely ever had a money issue in their entire lives.“Four years ago.Jamie insisted on paying off my student loans.He said he would have done it if he was still playing.We co-signed for a home equity loan.Jamie was making the payments.He wanted me to start my career debt free.”

“I don’t understand.Jamie had over a million dollars in the bank before he was injured,” her aunt argued.“Between that, the income from the bar, and a free place to call home, he had more than enough to pay for your nursing school and still live comfortably in this small town.”She glared at Collin as if this was all somehow the agent’s fault.“Please tell us the idiot had a life insurance policy.”

Collin nodded.“Finn is the beneficiary of a hundred-thousand-dollar policy.”

“Lucky for Finn, his asshole father hadn’t figured out a way to grab the cash from that yet.Otherwise, he would have screwed his own son the way he screwed over his sister,” Alek said, his tone sharp enough to cut ice.“And me.”

He was wrong.Jamie hadn’t screwed over Sheridan.He was simply being Jamie trying to repay her for caring for Finn when he was a baby.Trying to step into their father’s shoes he never intended to have to fill so soon in life.Jamie never figured he’d need a head for money, either.As for the part about Jamie screwing Alek over, well, he was being unfair there, too.Mainly because he didn’t know all the facts.

And whose fault is that?

Alek took hold of his mother’s elbow and steered her toward the door.“I can’t listen to any more of this.Whatever he left me, I don’t want it.”

“It’s not that simple, Alek,” Collin said.“He left you his son.”

“What the ever-lovingfuck, Collin?”Alek shouted.

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