The Ties That Bind

“Nor do I intend to.” Unable to resist, Willa glared at the brothers before heading for the gate in the wrought-iron fence that surrounded the cemetery.

“Willie? Hold on.” Edward called.

The housekeeper turned to wait for the attorney to catch up, leaving Willa no choice but to do the same.

Impeccably dressed as always in a custom-tailored suit, silk shirt and tie, and a cashmere overcoat, Edward looked painfully out of place on the ranch. He was huffing by the time he reached them. Exertion and the biting cold had chaffed his cheeks to a ruddy hue and his styled brown hair was windblown. However, if he was annoyed that he’d had to chase after her it didn’t show. His face held only sympathy and tenderness when he took her hand and patted it.

“Willie, I know this is rushing things, but since everyone involved is here, I was wondering if we could go ahead with the reading of the will? I have an early appointment in Bozeman tomorrow.”

Willa’s gaze shot past him to Seamus’s grandsons and the two women. Resentment flooded her. She had been shocked to learn only the day before that her stepfather had rewritten his will to include Colleen’s sons. Willa had no doubt that Seamus had left each of them a sum of money merely to ease his conscience. Still, just thinking about it made her bristle.

“By all means. Let’s get this over with. The sooner they get their windfall, the sooner they’ll leave.”

All the parties named in Seamus’s will had gathered in the study when Willa arrived, including Maria, Pete Brewster and Bud Langston, the ranch foreman. Only Edward was missing.

Willa took a seat in one of the fireside chairs. Everyone was seated except Zach Mahoney. He stood to one side, by the built-in bookshelves, a little apart from the others, with his suit coat thrust back on either side and his hands in his trouser pockets. While his brothers and their wives talked quietly among themselves, Zach kept silent and waited and watched.

Willa eyed him askance, her mouth tightening. She resented all of the interlopers, but especially this one. There was something about Zach Mahoney—something she couldn’t quite put her finger on—that made her edgy and set her temper to simmering. They had barely exchanged half a dozen words, but whenever she was near him her body seemed to hum as though a low-voltage current of electricity were running through her.

Surreptitiously, Willa studied him for a clue to what triggered the reaction, but his chiseled face revealed nothing. Zach wasn’t as handsome as J.T., nor did he have Matt’s street-tough appeal, rather he had the weathered ruggedness typical of a Westerner.

Even dressed in a suit and tie as he was now, it was apparent in the way he held himself, that loose-limbed walk, and most of all, that aura of quiet strength and self-reliance that radiated from him.

Squint lines etched fan patterns at the outer edges of his eyes and deeper ones ran from his nose to the corners of his mouth. Thick, wheat-colored hair created a startling contrast to his tanned skin. A strong, square jaw, straight nose, well-defined lips and cheekbones sharp enough to cut combined to create a face that had a certain masculine appeal, Willa supposed—if you liked those sorts of rough-hewn looks in a man.

As though he felt her inspection, Zach turned his head, and their gazes locked. The hum of electricity coursing through her body became a jolt. Determined to not let him fluster her, she ground her teeth to keep from shivering and stared back into those deep-set green eyes. They glittered like gems in his sun-scorched face, giving him the sharp, dangerous look of a hungry wolf.

Willa’s heart began to pound and her mouth grew dry, but she could not look away. To her relief, the spell was broken when Edward came striding into the room.

“Sorry I’m late. I had to take an urgent call.”

He sat at Seamus’s desk, snapped open his briefcase, and withdrew a legal-looking document. “If everyone is ready, I’ll begin.” Edward slipped on a pair of reading glasses and picked up the document. “I, Seamus Patrick Rafferty, being of sound mind…”

The first few pages consisted of the usual convoluted legalese, the upshot of which was several small bequests to the University of Montana and a few charitable organizations. Maria, Pete and Bud were each to receive a modest lump sum and a guaranteed pension when they decided to retire, plus the right to remain on the ranch for life in one of the cottages scattered about the property, if they so chose.

Turning another page, Edward glanced over his glasses at Willa and the three brothers and cleared his throat. “To my grandsons, Matthew Ryan Dolan, Zachariah Aiden Mahoney and Jedediah Tiernan Conway, and to my stepdaughter, Willa Grace Simmons, I bequeath the remainder of my estate, including the Rocking R Ranch and all its assets, to be shared equally among them.”

“What?” Willa shot out of the chair like a bullet. Shaking with fury, she felt the color drain out of her face. “That can’t be! Seamus wouldn’t leave the ranch to them. He swore over and over that he wouldn’t!”

“I’m sorry, Willa, but it’s true,” Edward said. “Seamus wasn’t happy about it. However, despite his threats, in the end he couldn’t bear to let the ranch slip out of the family.”

Willa opened her mouth to continue, but Edward stopped her. “Before any of you say anything else, you should know there are conditions attached.”

“‘Conditions’?” Willa repeated in a voice bordering on hysteria.

“Yes. And I feel I must warn you, you’re not going to like them.”

“Uh-oh, here it comes,” J.T. drawled.

“Yeah,” Matt agreed. “I knew there had to be a catch.”

“Exactly what are these conditions?” Zach spoke quietly, never taking his eyes from the attorney.

“You must all live here in this house and work the ranch together for a period of one year.”

“That’s outrageous! I won’t do it!” Willa declared.

“If you don’t—if any of you refuses to accept the conditions, or leaves before the year is up, then none of you inherits. The ranch and all its assets will be sold in a sealed-bid auction. The money from the sale will be held in a trust fund, from which each of you will receive the sum of ten thousand dollars a year. The remainder of the profits from the fund will go to a number of western universities that offer agricultural and ranching studies.”

“Who will be the executor of the trust?” Matt made no effort to hide the suspicion in his voice.

“I will.”

“And the sealed-bid auction? Will you handle that, as well?”

“That’s correct.” Edward met Matt’s hard stare. “I know what you’re thinking—that’s a lot of power for one man. You’re right. Normally a board of trustees would oversee a fund of this size and handle the auction, as well. I tried to get your grandfather to set things up that way, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Seamus was a difficult man, as I’m sure you discovered.”

“Say we comply with these conditions. What happens at the end of the year?” Zach asked.

“At that time, if any of you wants out, you may sell your share of the ranch to one or more of the others, but no one else.”

“I should have expected something like this,” Willa railed. “Seamus always was manipulative and controlling. I just never thought he’d go this far.” Seething, she paced to the window with quick, jerky steps, then made a frustrated sound and swung around. “This is intolerable!”

Enraged almost beyond bearing, Willa turned the full force of her fury on the brothers, addressing them directly for the first time. “This is all your fault.”

“Now wait just a darned minute,” Matt began, but Zach raised his hand and silenced him.

He stared at Willa. His face was impassive but those eyes glittered in his tanned face like green ice. “Let’s get something straight right now, Ms. Simmons. Whatever devious reasons Seamus had for making us his heirs, my brothers and I did nothing to influence his decision. We came here last year for one purpose—to find our mother. Failing that, we were hoping to get some information about her. That’s all.”

Willa’s chin came up at a challenging angle. “Not according to Seamus. He said you were three greedy opportunists, just like your father had been, and that you came here hoping to get your hands on this ranch. When you found out your scheme wasn’t going to work, you left in a huff.”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh, right. I’m supposed to believe you? I don’t think so.”

“Believe whatever you want. It makes no difference to me. Nor does it change anything.”

“It’s just not fair,” she raged. “Your entire lives you spent less than an hour with Seamus. I’ve lived here since I was seven years old.” She thumbed her chest. “I’m the one who worked this ranch every day for the past twenty years, not you three. I’m the one who was here for Seamus. When he got too old to ride a horse, I relayed his orders to the foreman and the men and worked right alongside them. I’m the one who put up with his bad temper and maliciousness. If you hadn’t shown up here, he would have left the ranch to me like he promised.”

“Uh, Willie.” Edward’s expression was a mixture of pity and chagrin. “I’m afraid you’re wrong about that.”

“What?” Willa stared at him with a blank look. “What do you mean?”

“Before Seamus changed his will to include his grandsons, all he was going to leave you was a few thousand dollars. The only reason he gave you a share of the ranch in this will was to irritate them.”

Willa swayed and gripped the back of a chair for support. She felt as though she’d been hit in the stomach with a battering ram. “But…but he always said I’d inherit the ranch someday. He said I deserved it because I was the only one who cared, the only one who’d stuck around. He promised! Why would he say that if he didn’t mean it?”

“Probably to keep you here. You were a big help to him and he depended on you. As you said, he was good at manipulation. Once he was gone, though, you would no longer be needed.”

Another wave of shock slammed into her, and her hold tightened on the chair back, whitening her knuckles. “You mean…are you saying that I would have had to leave the ranch?”

“I’m afraid so,” Edward said gently. “The Rocking R would have been sold in a closed-bid auction, just as it will be if any of you refuses to abide by the conditions.”

And she would have been left out in the cold.

Willa closed her eyes. She knew that later, when the hurt was not so fresh, anger would resurface and come to her rescue, but at that moment all she wanted was to curl up in a tight ball and wail out her misery until she was nothing but a hollow shell.

The pain was so great she forgot for a moment where she was, and with whom. Then she opened her eyes and cringed when her gaze fell on the brothers. The knowledge that she had meant so little to Seamus was devastating enough, but having that revealed in front of these men compounded her humiliation. They had the grace to avoid looking at her, but somehow that oblique act of compassion made her feel worse than if they’d gloated, as she had expected them to do.

Gathering her tattered pride around her like a cloak, Willa lifted her chin, squared her shoulders and pulled herself up to her full five feet three inches. Ignoring the others, she turned to the attorney. “I’ll challenge the will. Other people heard Seamus promise me the ranch. Maria, for one.”

“That’s your right, of course. But you should know it will be expensive and it could take years. In my opinion, in the end you’d lose. I’m telling you this as a friend, Willie, not as your stepfather’s attorney. Trust me, the will is air-tight.”

“I see.” Her full mouth folded into a bitter line. “Then I guess I have no choice but to accept the conditions.”

“Maybe you don’t have a choice, but we do,” Zach said.

“Oh, please.” She shot him a look of patent disbelief. “Surely you don’t expect me to believe that you would actually turn down the bequest. Yeah, right.”

“This may come as a shock to you, Ms. Simmons, but we had lives of our own prior to Seamus’s death.”

“That’s right,” Matt snapped. “I say to hell with it. And Seamus. I’ll be damned if I’ll let that old tyrant dictate to me how and where I live my life.”

“I agree,” J.T. chimed in.

Zach nodded. “I’ll admit, that was my first knee-jerk reaction, as well.”

“You fools!” Fear that she might actually lose all claim to the ranch wiped away every other consideration. “Do you city slickers have any idea what such a rash decision would cost all of us? What we’d be giving up? I don’t like what Seamus has done any better than you, but only an idiot would toss away a fortune of this size. Tell them, Edward.”

The attorney rattled off the appraised value of the ranch and last year’s revenues.

Matt let out a low whistle, but J.T. was more vocal.

“Holy cow! This place is worth a freakin’ fortune!”

“The Rocking R is one of the largest ranches in this part of the country, and our firm’s most important client.” Edward paused.

“You have exactly two weeks from today, both to make up your minds and to do whatever you need to do and move in. Once you do that, the year begins.”

“Mmm. Two weeks isn’t much time. We need to talk it over before we make a decision,” Zach said.

“Of course. I understand.”

“Well, I don’t,” Willa snapped. “What is the matter with you people? You can’t seriously be thinking of refusing? No one throws away a chance like this.”

“Miss Simmons, if we do this, it’s going to change all of our lives. Yours included. The least we can do is talk it over calmly and take a vote. So why don’t you sit down.”

“I don’t need to talk it over. I can give you my vote right now. I detest the very idea of sharing the Rocking R with you people, but this is my home, and I’ll do whatever I have to to keep it. Even if that means putting up with a bunch of greenhorn freeloaders.” She stormed out and slammed the door behind her.

Edward winced. “I’m sorry about that. I do hope you’ll excuse Willie.” Standing, he slipped his reading glasses into a leather case and put them and the will into his briefcase and snapped it shut. “I know it doesn’t seem so now, but she’s really a nice person and normally quite good-natured and easy to get along with.”

“We understand. She’s upset, and apparently with good reason.”

Matt rolled his eyes at his wife’s comment. “Spoken like a psychiatrist. You ask me, she’s a spoiled brat.”

“That’s not fair,” Maude Ann protested. “From the sound of it, Seamus has been stringing that poor girl along for years.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Edward said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really must be going. It’s a long way to Bozeman. When you’ve reached a decision, give me a call. If I’m not at my office you can reach me on my cell phone,” he said, handing each of them his business card.

He turned to leave, then hesitated. “Uh…it’s true that the Rocking R Ranch is a sizable inheritance, but I feel I must warn you, if you decide to stay you’ll earn every penny you get from it. Running a ranch this size is far from easy, and nothing is guaranteed. A poor calf crop, a string of bad luck, a few slaps from Mother Nature can hurt even a place this size. It won’t be a piece of cake.”

Zach didn’t need anyone to tell him about the hardships and perils of ranching. He knew them firsthand. In college he’d earned degrees in ranch management and business and before going out on the rodeo circuit he’d been general manager of the Carter Cattle Company, better known as the Triple C, a huge spread near Ridgeway, Colorado. Zach, however, saw no need to mention that to the attorney.

“Well, this is certainly an unexpected turn of events,” Kate said when Edward had gone. “From what you told Maude Ann and me about Seamus, I thought we’d attend a funeral, then go home with five dollars or some such slap-in-the-face bequest.”

“Yeah, we all did,” Matt agreed. “I wonder what made the old man change his mind?”

“My guess is, during our first visit here he somehow picked up on the strain between us,” Zach said. “The old coot probably took sadistic delight in that. Like Manning said, he cooked up this whole thing to stir up trouble and make claiming the inheritance as difficult as possible.”

“Right,” J.T. agreed. “Wherever he is, he’s probably laughing himself silly right now.”

“He’s got us in a bind, that’s certain. If just one of us refuses to go along with the conditions, we all lose.” Matt swept the others with a regretful look. “Much as I hate to, I’m afraid I’m going to have to be the bad guy. Maudie and I can’t just abandon Henley Haven and pick up and move here. The kids we foster need her care.”

“Yeah, well, if it makes you feel any better, I can’t ask Kate to give up the Alpine Rose, either. Her parents spent years restoring that house and she’s turned it into a profitable business. Added to that, she grew up in Gold Fever. It makes no difference to me where I live. I can write anywhere, but I won’t rob her of her home.”

“Before you two start making any noble sacrifices, don’t you think you should ask Kate and me what we think?”

“Maude Ann’s right. What kind of wife would I be if I stood in the way of your inheritance? Besides, I wouldn’t have to sell the bed-and-breakfast. I’m sure I could hire someone to run it for me. And while it’s true that I love the Colorado mountains, have you looked around? It’s not too shabby here, either.”

“The same applies to Henley Haven,” Maude Ann stated emphatically. “I can get another psychiatrist to take over for me, and Jane will stay on. And there’s no reason why I can’t continue to work with abused children. I’m sure there are some here in Montana who need my help.”

“But what about our own kids? They—”

“Will love it here,” Maude Ann insisted before Matt could finish. “Can you think of a better place to raise five rambunctious children than on a ranch? Or to shelter others? The wide-open spaces will be good for them. And the drier climate will be good for your leg.”

Matt frowned at the mention of his disability. It had been seventeen months since he taken that bullet that had ended his career as a detective with the Houston Police Department and left him with a permanent limp.

“Still…I don’t know.”

According to J.T., Matt had become more flexible since marrying Maude Ann, but it was still his first instinct to resist change of any kind. Watching him, Zach could see the struggle going on inside his taciturn brother.

“We’re talking about a complete change in lifestyle and careers,” Matt argued. “I don’t know anything about ranching. Neither does J.T.”

“No, but Zach does,” J.T. said in a thoughtful voice, beginning to warm to the idea. “And you and I can learn.”

“Maybe. Still, we all have to live together in this house,” Matt said.

And that, Zach thought, was the real crux of the problem. He, J.T. and Matt might be brothers, but they didn’t really know one another. A year ago they had made contact again, but a lifetime apart had created a chasm between them that they couldn’t seem to breech.

Kate said they didn’t try, and maybe that was true. At best, their relationship was distant, with currents of disquiet and wariness, even an undefined resentment running just below the surface, making them guarded with one another. For whatever reason, the fact remained that they were strangers.

“It will be awkward, I guess,” J.T. agreed. “But it’s not as though it’ll be forever. Let’s not forget that we’re talking about a fortune here. And regardless of what Willa Simmons thinks, we are the rightful heirs. We’d be fools to turn it down. Surely we can manage to rub along together for a year. At the end of that time if anyone is miserable, they can sell out.”

Matt looked at Zach. “You’ve sure been quiet. What do you think?”

“I think I should stay out of this discussion and let the four of you decide. All of you know that owning a ranch is my dream. I’d put up with anything, even Ms. Simmons, to own a part of this place, but I don’t think it would be fair for me to try to influence you.”

“Yeah, but do you think we could live and work together for a whole year?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. I’m sure Seamus figured if he threw us together we’d be at one another’s throats inside of a week. But one way or another, we won’t know unless we try. One thing is certain, though. It’s what Colleen would have wanted us to do.”

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