The five of them took places in a seating area of the large office.
The lawyer opened his folder again. “First, you both have my sincere condolences. Your great-grandfather was an amazing man, and he will be deeply missed. I’m sure you’re wondering why you were excluded from the earlier portions of the will.”
Both girls nodded.
“You may have also noticed that the family property wasn’t mentioned.”
“It’s one of the things being sold, isn’t it? And the money split?” Tessa twisted the tissue in her hands.
The lawyer shook his head. “It’s not yet certain what will happen to the property. That’s up to the four of you.”
“Us?” Sean asked, sharing a look with Gray. “What do we have to do with it?”
Gray noticed more strain around his brother’s eyes than he would have expected. Was there something else going on?
“Approximately two-thirds of the family farm originally belonged to the Bravermans. The other third was purchased many years ago from the Beach family. Your great-grandfather always felt his father didn’t give the Beach family a fair deal. He gave Mr. Beach what he asked for, but it was far below market value. The Beaches then used the money to move to town and open the bookstore. The house on the property has always been known as the Beach House.”
The first thought going through Gray’s head was that Pop Pop had left the portion of the farm to him and Sean, though why their sisters would have been excluded didn’t make sense.
“So, Mr. Braverman wants to make amends. He’s wants one of you girls to have the whole thing, but only if there is a Braverman-Beach union. Whichever of you inherits the farm also inherits a responsibility to renovate the Beach House and all of the expenses that go with the upkeep of the farm. There are funds set aside for that and to live on while it’s being done. The other will receive the same allotment as the other great-grandchildren.”
“Wait.” Sean held out a hand. “Back up. A Braverman-Beach union?”
“Correct. After the wedding, the couple will move into the house. The Beach House must be renovated in a timely manner. Should the couple choose to move or sell during their lifetimes, except for medical reasons, the great-grandchild will receive the same portion as the other great-grandchildren. The rest of the proceeds will go to designated charities.”
Sean leaned forward as Gray tried to assimilate the information. “We have to get married and live on the farm for all eternity or it gets sold and given to charity rather than split among the family?”
“Yes,” the lawyer confirmed. “There must be a Braverman-Beach couple, or the farm will be sold. You and Heidi would make the most sense, given that you’re already engaged. I’d be willing to say that a wedding when Ms. Braverman returns from Paris is ‘as soon as possible’ given that she’s already working the internship.”
Heidi stared at the ground and didn’t say anything. Tessa glanced at Gray, looking as puzzled as he felt.
“Then we have a problem.” Sean stood. “As much as I’d like to help, as of three hours ago, Heidi and I are no longer engaged. She has accepted a full-time position with the company in Paris and will be living there indefinitely.”
Gray blinked.
“Then I suppose for the farm to stay in the family, Tessa will need to marry one of you.”
Heidi choked back a sob but left the office before anyone could stop her.
Tessa looked a bit shell shocked as her head swiveled between Gray and his brother. “I have to marry one of them, and then I get to live on the farm? For the rest of my life?”
“Correct.” The lawyer shifted in his chair, clearly not completely comfortable with the stipulations in the will. “You could fight the will, but it will take a long time and a fair amount of money.”
Tessa took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. What was she thinking?
Before Gray could say anything, even to convince them the whole thing was crazy, Sean turned and spoke.
“I’ll marry Tessa, if she’ll have me.”
4
Popping up from her chair, Tessa gaped at Sean. “You’ll what?”
Sean remained calm. “I said I’d marry you so the farm stays in the family.”
“You were engaged to my sister like an hour ago.” She still hadn’t wrapped her mind around the fact that not only would her sister be living in Europe indefinitely, but she wasn’t going to marry Sean.
“Yes. But I know you. We get along well. It won’t be a love match, at least not at first, but I won’t cheat on you. I won’t abuse you in any way. And who knows? Maybe someday, we’ll fall in love.”
“I haven’t even agreed to this,” she reminded him.
“You’re not going to let the property be sold.” That was Gray.
She turned to him, a little annoyed he hadn’t offered to marry her too, not that she was sure she’d marry either one of them.
But, at the same time, he wasn’t wrong.
He didn’t look up at her but stared at a spot on the floor in front of him.
“You want me to marry Sean so I can keep the property?” Wasn’t he the one who’d asked her if she wanted to try dating a week ago?
“I want you to keep the property.”
“You did more work on that property than anyone but Pop Pop.”
He still didn’t look at her. “Last week, you made it very clear you didn’t want to date me, so I can’t imagine you want to marry me. The house needs to stay in the family. Heidi is moving to Paris. She and Sean broke up. Since marrying me obviously isn’t your first choice, that leaves Sean. He’s a great guy who will treat you well. You could do much, much worse.”
“Yeah. I could.” But could she actually marry him?
Tessa had always dreamed of being a mother. She wasn’t sure she could be that close to either brother but definitely not Sean. He was too much like her brother already. Besides, she had no idea if he’d ever slept with her sister or not. That idea creeped her out on several levels.
But could she be that intimate with Gray? Or would she settle for the house but never having a family?
“It’s up to Gray,” Sean said. “I’ll marry you. Keep the property. Pray we learn to love each other someday. Or, if he’s willing, you marry your best friend.” He shrugged. “Whichever you prefer.”
That made it sound like Sean would prefer she marry Gray.
“Wait.” She turned to the lawyer. “As fast as reasonably possible. What does that mean? Do I get a couple of weeks to think this over?”
He sighed and shook his head. “Your great-grandfather said within twenty-four hours of the will reading. Because Heidi was already living out of the country, I was willing to fudge on that, and didn’t think anyone would object. If she and Sean aren’t getting married, and she’s not coming home anytime soon, then technically, your great-grandfather wanted you to marry one of these gentlemen by tomorrow. However, since it’s Saturday, you can’t get a license until Monday.”
“I have to be married by Monday to keep the land and the house and everything that’s been in my family for the last hundred and forty years?” This couldn’t be happening.
The lawyer shook his head. “No. You can wait until Tuesday. The day after you can get a license.”
When the will was being read and she and Heidi were excluded, Tessa had wondered what her great-grandfather might have in store for them. Except for a split-second, it never even crossed her mind that he would have written them out altogether.
“And these two are my only choices?” she clarified.
“Unless there’s another Beach cousin around that I don’t know of, I suppose. He didn’t specify which branch of the Beach family.”
“There isn’t,” Sean told her.
Tessa took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “Fine. If it’s the only way to keep the farm, then I’ll do it.”
Not exactly how she pictured finding out she was engaged.
And neither one of the brothers were who she thou
ght would be on the other end of the aisle.
The lawyer broke into her thoughts. “Then which brother do you want to marry?”
“Only one has offered to marry me.” That meant she was going to marry Sean.
There were far worse options.
“If you want to marry me, I’ll marry you.” Gray stood. “You’re my best friend. If you’ll have me, I’ll spend the rest of my life helping take care of the farm and the Beach House and you.”
They were both willing to marry her? She had her choice between the brothers?
Sean shrugged. “Works for me. If Tessa wants to marry you, that’s fine with me.”
Which meant she was back to just one option, but she wasn’t sure it was preferable.
But she didn’t have to decide right this minute.
She didn’t have to get married for two-and-a-half days.
Tessa turned and grabbed her bag. “I’ll let you know by Monday.”
With that she walked out of the office. Maybe she could find her sister. Heidi was right to have talked to Sean first, but she needed to talk to her big sister about the decision to move to France indefinitely.
Maybe Heidi could give her some advice about what to do with this decision.
Grandma Vi or even Mama Beach would probably be better.
But she still wanted to talk to Heidi. Tessa now understood why her sister had been so closed-mouthed and sad for the day or so she’d been in Trumanville.
Tessa walked out of the building without talking to anyone else and went straight to her car.
She didn’t leave though. Not right away. Instead, she just sat for a moment and tried to come to grips with what she’d learned. The house would be hers. It wouldn’t go to some other family who wouldn’t appreciate the history.
With a sigh, she turned the key.
Then started to cry when nothing happened.
When Gray walked out of the lawyer’s office, the first thing he noticed was Tessa with her head on the back of her hands as they rested on the steering wheel. Her shoulders shook.
Sean followed him out the door. “Are you going to marry her?”
Gray shrugged. “I don’t think she wants to marry me. She didn’t even want to go on a date with me last week. Why would she want to marry me?”
“You’re her best friend.”
“So?” Gray shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry about Heidi.”
“Thanks.” He sighed. “I’m really not surprised. I think I knew as soon as she got the internship. I hoped she’d come back as soon as it ended, but I had a feeling she would love it. I wouldn’t mind visiting someday, but to live? No thanks. When I heard she’d found a flight home, I suspected this is how it would end.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “I’ll be fine. I miss her. I love her, but I came to grips with the fact we were probably going to break up a few weeks ago.”
“Are you really going to marry Tessa?”
“I don’t think she wants to, but if she refuses to marry you, then I suppose I would.”
“You don’t want to love the woman you marry?”
“Of course I do, but that’s not always reality. Look at Mia and Lani. They’re both deliriously happy, but they weren’t in love with their husbands when they got married.”
“Point taken.”
Gray walked to Tessa’s car and knocked on the window.
She startled but looked up at him then cracked the window. “What?”
“It won’t start?” The thing was a rust bucket.
Tessa sniffled and shook her head.
He tilted his head toward his car. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride. I’ll have someone tow it to Yocum on Monday.”
She rolled the window back up, grabbed her bag, and unlocked the door. Gray opened the door as she climbed out. As soon as he shut the door, he wrapped his arms around her. She rested her head against him.
“Thank you.” Tessa leaned more heavily against him.
“I’m here for you, Tess. Always.”
An SUV pulled up near them. “Don’t forget I get to be the best man.”
Gray rolled his eyes at his brother.
“See you in a couple of days.” Sean grinned as he rolled his window up and drove off.
“Let me take you home.” He kept his arm around her shoulders as they walked to his car. Gray opened the car door for Tessa.
“Your place or the farm?” he asked as he backed out of his parking spot.
She sniffled. “Um, the farm. Holly already moved out. She was going to soon anyway, but since Pop Pop passed, she wanted us to be able to sell as soon as possible.”
The rest of the drive was spent in silence. Gray couldn’t be sure what was going through Tessa’s head, but he knew her almost as well as she knew herself. She was probably thinking about the plan her great-grandfather had concocted.
That’s why Gray had grabbed the ring box the lawyer had set on his desk after Tessa left. Maybe that’s why Sean knew Gray would marry Tessa in the end, even though Gray didn’t know that yet.
He parked the car on the drive. Before he could get around to open Tessa’s door, she’d opened the door and went into the house.
With a sigh, he followed her inside.
She had set her stuff down and sat on the couch in the living area.
“He’s really gone,” she told him as he sat in the chair opposite her.
“I know it’s hard. I miss him, too, but I know it’s a lot harder for you, especially with the bombshell he dropped on you today.”
“On both of us and Sean and Heidi.”
“Heidi may have dealt with it the most directly by just leaving, but that leaves the three of us to decide what to do.”
Tessa stared at her hands. “Sean offered.”
“He did.”
“Before you.”
“You didn’t want to date me last week. I didn’t think you’d want to marry me. Plus, I was still in shock, just like you.”
He stared at Tessa as she continued to look at her hands.
She finally looked up, tears glistening in her eyes. “I don’t want to marry Sean.”
Gray nodded. “I know. And you don’t want to marry me either.”
Tessa sniffled. “It’s not my first choice, but there’s no other way to keep the farm.”
That wasn’t exactly what a guy wanted to hear when contemplating marriage. “What is your first choice?”
“That Pop Pop would have just left it all to me without the clause, but that’s not reality.”
“What do you want to do? Marry Sean? Marry me? Sell the land?”
She looked around the room. “Pop Pop gave away almost all of the furniture to other people.”
Gray watched her, wondering where she was going with this.
“All of the bedroom furniture except the new furniture in the master suite upstairs was given to someone else.” Another sniffle. “I picked out that furniture. I helped remodel the whole house. Do you think he was planning for me to have it all along?”
“That would make sense.”
“Why give it to either one of us? To whichever one of us is willing to marry a Beach boy?”
“How well did Pop Pop know Heidi?” Gray asked gently.
“Pretty well?”
“As well as he knew you?”
“No, but he knew her well.”
“Then would he expect Heidi to stay here when she has a chance to live in Paris indefinitely?” He leaned back and watched her.
She sighed then pulled her legs to her chest. “No. He would have known she’d stay in Paris and that Sean wouldn’t follow her.”
“Therefore, he knew it would be you here, with either me or Sean.”
Tessa swiped at her cheeks. “Probably.”
“He knew you would want the farm, more than anyone else.”
“Yeah.”
“Can you handle all of this by yourself?”
She shook her head. “Probab
ly not. Especially not the renovations of the other house.”
“So he set it up to make sure you could keep the farm, but that you wouldn’t have to handle it alone.”
“That’s probably the best way to look at it.”
“Then that’s probably the way to look at it.”
Tessa nodded.
Gray stood. It wasn’t the time to push her. He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you at church in the morning.”
With that, he left her to work through it on her own. He couldn’t make this decision for her, but he needed to be there when she did.
5
It turned out Heidi had made it to the airport before Tessa and Gray reached the farmhouse. She’d texted Tessa and told Tessa that she could use Heidi’s car indefinitely.
That worked in Tessa’s favor. The mechanic hadn’t found anything wrong with her car, but Tessa didn’t trust it. She just needed to get to the airport to pick it up.
Sunday morning, she skipped Sunday school but went to first service. She preferred the hymns most of the time anyway. At least Madi had been willing to pick her up so she could get to church.
She stayed in the back. Maybe she could get a Lyft or Yfir to the airport after church ended.
“How are you, dear?” Mama Beach sat in the row in front of her and turned to talk to Tessa.
“I’m okay. I miss Pop Pop.”
“I heard he left you the farm.” Mama Beach reached out and rested a hand on Tessa’s arm. “It’s a small consolation, but I know how much you love it.”
Apparently, Mama Beach didn’t know about the stipulations. As close as she was to her nephews, neither one of them seemed to have talked to her.
“I do love the farm.”
Mama Beach squeezed her arm. “You and Gray will be fine. I’ll be happy to do the wedding if you’d like me to.”
Or maybe one of them had.
“Thanks, Mama Beach. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Fortunately, further conversation was stalled by music starting to play. Mama Beach gave Tessa one of her famous Mama Beach hugs, whispered words of encouragement then went to sit by her husband.
By the time the singing actually started, the seat next to Tessa was no longer empty. Gray sat next to her, though he didn’t say anything.
Small Town Girls Don't Marry Their Best Friends: Contemporary Christian Romance (Beaches of Trumanville Book 3) Page 3