Page 68 of Miss Humbug
Cara blushed. “Sorry, Marlowe. I didn’t mean to leave you out.”
Just a natural inclination to forget me. Nothing new.
The disputing continued. Cara clapped loudly twice. “I have the floor!” She used herMom isn’t jokingtone and the guys shut right up. Begrudgingly, Ashe and Shawn sat down.
“This isn’t about men versus women,” Cara continued. “We need to solve the issue with the house. Grans was right—this fighting between us must stop. She shouldn’t have to decide who inherits the house. We should determine who gets the house among ourselves. A group consensus.”
Oh sure, easy. We couldn’t agree without arguing on who had the right tostand by the bookcase,let alone who should inherit a family treasure.
“Ashe and I talked last night,” Cara said. “I showed him research I did on family trusts. One idea we had is to create a trust where all of the grandchildren have equal stake. Then, the house ownership is transferred to the trust. Not to any single person. All of us would own the house. Any decisions on the house and land would require consensus from all partners.”
“So you’re guaranteeing a lifetime of arguing,” Riley added in a dry tone.
“We would need a common goal,” Cara said. “Let’s be brutally honest here. Show of hands: who actually wants to live in this house?”
Murmurs coursed through the room. No one immediately raised a hand. In fact, no one raised a hand at all.
“It’s just…” Riley started. “The house means a lot to all of us. It’s hard knowing Grans wants to move on. I assumed Reece would celebrate every Christmas and holiday here until she left for college—and beyond. Losing the house would be…difficult. But it’s a lot of house to take on myself.”
“The house is beautiful, but we have busy lives,” Brianne said. “The upkeep would be incredibly time consuming. Grans hires a cleaner, and even then, there are rooms she closes off and doesn’t use at all.”
Rafe grumbled but didn’t offer a counterpoint.
“It’s important to keep the housein the family,” Shawn said.
Ashe raised a brow. “You’d move here from Florida?”
He shrugged. “Maybe as summer house.”
Cara scanned the group, assessing the reluctant responses. “If we take out the individual, and combine our interests, we have better options. The house doesn’t need to be a burden.”
As much as I loved the house and jumped on the chance to inherit, the past few weeks had shown me I wasn’t certain it fit to live here and take on the responsibility. But if that was true, why had I been so insistent on winning?
Ethan. Who wasn’t here. He hadn’t been invited and honestly? I hadn’t considered him in the context of this meeting until this moment. When Ashe said we needed to gather and figure this out, I saw this room of people. Not Ethan.
With the competition done, I couldn’t leave him in the dust. He said he’d give up his life for me—wherever, whenever. I couldn’t let him. His life and his dream was his tree farm. His family legacy meant the world to him.
No, I needed to fix this. I needed to give Ethan what he truly wanted and deserved.
I raised my hand. “Hypothetically speaking, if we all decide to do this group family trust thing, then I want to sell a small part of the land to Ethan Sawyer to expand the tree farm. Regardless of what happens to the house, that’s what I want.”
Rafe snorted. “We’re not handing off land to yourboyfriend.”
Shawn wore a smug expression. “Well, well. Everyone assumed I’d be the first to parcel out the land for profit, but turns out Marlowe had her own agenda the whole time. You’re in cahoots with the Sawyers!”
Chatter coursed through the room.
“The Sawyers have been neighbors for decades,” Riley pointed out. “We don’t use that land anyway and it would help a local business. I like the idea.”
“Wearen’t using the land becausewedon’t own it yet,” Shawn said. “And you all hassled me for wanting to sell it off, so that’s the last thing I’ll vote for.”
My stomach turned. This was not going well.
“We need to put to a vote if we’re even doing this family trust,” Rafe said, though with less combative energy than he’d had in previous weeks. “I’m for the trust, but not for dishing out land to whoever we like for the hour.”
A direct hit. As if cycling through guys hourly had ever been my personality. I wasn’t sure how that would even work apart from a reality dating show.
“Agree,” Ashe said. “Discussion is closed on selling any part of the land until the trust is agreed upon and a done deal. All in favor, say aye?” He looked to each of us.
