Page 40 of The Last Dance You Saved
I pushed a finger into my jaw, attempting to ease the tension that seemed to have taken permanent residence there this week.
I picked through the paperwork, landing on the architectural designs, noting the name on them was Ryder Hatley. He’d done the work himself. An all-around renaissance man. For some reason, it made me like him when I didn’t even know him. “They had cabins built?”
“A dozen or so, and they converted an apartment over the barn. We have the old homestead, the bunkhouse, and Levi’s cabin. Plus, there are a dozen rooms here in the main house we could use if we added bathrooms to them all. We’d actually have more space than they do even as it stands now.”
I’d started to flip through the business plan Hatley had outlined to the bank when Adam’s hand came down on top of it. “She won’t let you get involved.” His voice was dark. “We don’t want you here. Spencer leaving you in charge of the ranch’s trust on Fallon’s behalf was an oversight. He meant to change it to Lauren and me, but you know how he was with things like this. He put them off as long as he could.”
The irritation I’d felt since finding him in the vault grew. “You don’t have to tell me what my brother was like. He always put the ranch first. He knew what he was doing.”
“People change. You weren’t around to see it. The ranch was failing on his watch, and it was eating at him. He and Lauren were fighting daily. He was angry and cruel.”
Not Spencer. He never would have been cruel to Lauren.
Except, he had been once before. He’d broken her heart when he’d left her behind to go to college and told her they shouldn’t see each other for a while. But that was the one and only time I’d seen him hurt her. Even after he’d found out she was pregnant with my child, he’d only taken it out on me—a singular hit before he’d stormed away.
Adam reached across me to his laptop, closing the lid, but I caught a glimpse of an open email before he shut it, and my insides froze when I saw the Puzo name. The sinking feeling I’d had since arriving yesterday that Fallon was right about something being off with Adam morphed into real concern. Adam was somehow involved with Puzo. Did it have something to do with the ranch, or was he just the money man for the mob family? Would Adam have gone so far as to kill Spencer? I wasn’t convinced yet that he would have, but I intended to find out.
“We can easily fix Spencer’s oversight,” Adam said. “All you have to do is sign over the control of the trust to us, and then you can go on your merry way like you’ve always wanted.”
Before I’d shown up at the ranch, it would have been tempting, even if it would’ve given my daughter another reason to despise me. Now, she’d see it as another abandonment, especially with her concerns about Adam.
I wasn’t sure why Spencer had trusted him when we’d both been damn good at smelling liars and deceit growing up. It was how I’d ferreted out the money laundering at Puzo’s club when I’d been working there. Back then, I hadn’t understood the danger it put me in. Without thought, my hand went to my chest and the scar that remained. It ached, as if telling me something. As if telling me to watch my six all over again.
Instead of responding to Adam’s dig, I tossed back, “What the hell are you doing getting mixed up with someone like Puzo?”
His eyes darted to the closed laptop as he pushed his glasses up again. “He’s a smart businessman who’s taken an active interest in the area. He sees the potential in not only our town but the ranch. He knows if we had something drawing people to the area, even more than just the slopes in the winter and hiking in the summer, the entire community would prosper.”
“And he thinks the Harrington Ranch could be that draw?”
“Sure. Why not?”
Could it really be that simple? I’d told Sadie I didn’t believe in coincidences, and it was true. Puzo had come to Rivers because of me and my family. But had he stayed because he’d seen something I’d been too blinded by hurt to see? “Puzo hates me with a passion you probably wouldn’t understand, so I find it hard to believe his interest in the ranch is truly benevolent.”
Adam scoffed. “Of course, what would I know? I’m just some stupid, small-town businessman, and you’re some genius, world-savvy entrepreneur. You always did think your shit didn’t stink.”
I bit my cheek in an effort not to snap back. Instead, I sounded tired when I said, “You were never stupid.”
He looked surprised I’d even given him that much.
Fallon walked into the office with her friend, Maisey. While I’d never met any of my daughter’s friends in person until Spence’s funeral, I’d heard about them and seen pictures of them. I made it a point to touch base with Fallon almost every day in some form, whether it was by text or a video or voice call. But seeing the way she’d clung to Maisey at the reception had made me realize how much of my daughter’s life I’d missed experiencing because of my own damn stubbornness. Because of hurt I’d refused to let go of, and now it was too late. Too late for Spencer and me, at any rate.
The two girls were wearing yoga pants and tight tank tops that made me want to throw sweatshirts at them and tell them to cover up. The hair at their temples was sweaty and curling, and a sheen covered their faces from the workout with their trainer. I’d wanted to catch a part of it while I was here, and now I’d missed it because of the discussion with Adam.
Fallon’s glance darted between me and her uncle as if trying to determine what I’d found out, and I just shook my head. Disappointment drifted over her face.
“Mom told me to order pizza for dinner. She wants me to find out what you both want,” Fallon said. I grimaced. Knowing my dislike for pizza, ordering it was either Lauren’s or Fallon’s way of striking out at me.
“Meat lovers,” Adam said without even glancing up from the Hatley document he was scanning. No please. No thank you. A grunted out, high-handed demand. It pissed me off. He acted like everything here belonged to him and was his due when, in truth, he only owned a one-acre parcel down the road. In actuality, he was nothing more than an employee. Interesting that he was the only full-time employee left when they could have contracted out his work much easier than some of the hard labor.
“Thank your mom for me, but I’ll just find something here,” I said.
“After we eat, Maisey and I want to take the boat out on the lake, but Mom won’t let me without an adult. She says it’s my consequence for taking the plane. I have to earn my solo rights back,” Fallon said scathingly. While I knew for a fact Lauren wouldn’t have let Fallon pilot the Cessna all alone, she likely had let our daughter behind the wheel of almost every other vehicle on the ranch. When I was her age, I’d driven nearly everything with a motor, but I’d never learned to fly the plane. Dad had reserved that privilege for Spencer.
When I didn’t respond, Fallon rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and asked in a pained tone, “So, will you go with us?”
I hadn’t even touched the long list of things I needed to do for Marquess Enterprises today, let alone looked through the ranch’s accounts, but I’d also never spent time on the lake with my daughter. Never spent even one second playing with her here in the place she loved, and I suddenly wanted to give that moment to both of us.
“What’s your mother doing?” I asked.
