“Not exactly. Sure, those terms aren’t usually offered from commercial lending institutions for private homes. But my sister’s the bank manager at Wild Heart Savings and they’ve made this loan for other clients.”
“I need more details than that, Aaron.” I sat down. “Delsey said something about a balloon payment in five years. What if I can’t pay it?” I thumbed the sheets, not believing with the stroke of a pen and my name on the paper, the house would be mine.
“Based on the addendum Delsey included withdrawing any retroactive rights to the land should you do the deal with the energy company, you can probably pay off her loan in the first year, never mind waiting five years.”
“That gas rights deal is a no-go, Aaron.” I waved my hand over that addendum.
“Mineral rights,” Aaron corrected. “It’s technically called mineral rights. Gas being one of them. You don’t want me to send a formal request to the energy company to survey your land? Once you buy it, that is.”
“Negative. My plate is full taking care of Maddie. I barely have enough time to ask her if she did her homework, I can’t be bothered with any of that.” I kept my real concern to myself, even though what I said out loud had validity as well.
Aaron sat back and tapped his fingers on a desk blotter. “I know Farley Atkinson.”
My blood bubbled under my skin. The sumbitch lawyer who gave up on me after the accident. “Okay.”
“I’m not prepared to bad mouth a colleague, we all make mistakes.” He glanced at his Harvard Law School degree over his shoulder. “We, meaning other lawyers, of course.”
“Mistakes?”
“Farley got drunk one night and spewed details of your case at The Whistling Frog.” Aaron leaned forward with a hand in the air. “Now, he didn’t mention you by name, but how many other people’s family...” He stopped and took off his black Stetson. “And I am sorry for your loss.”
“Losses,” I grumbled.
“I stand corrected.” But he stayed seated and twisted around. From a credenza behind him, he took out a folder.
“What’s that?”
“It’s you.” He opened the folder. “Briefs for the hypothetical lawsuits I would make for you. Logan, you work for Cord Renner. Why didn’t you come to me in the first place?”
I shrugged. “Farley shoved a business card at me in the hospital when I was there with Maddie. Aaron, I was in a fog for months.”
He nodded. “I understand. This is why an excellent lawyer is even more important. I can still help you. And I’m no ambulance chaser, Logan.”
“Help me with what?” I leaned back, preparing for a snake oil salesman’s pitch.
“Lawsuit with your insurance company.” He held up one set of papers. “The freight company. The bank who had the note on your daddy’s second mortgage.”
My heart spiked. “How did you know about that?”
“It’s a small town, Logan. You shouldn’t have had to pay the shortfall. I can get it back for you.”
“Why? Why would you do all that?”
“Because this is a small town, and I don’t want to see the little guy get screwed. Cord Renner is a good client of mine. You’re a part of what makes him successful.”
“I never wanted to get rich,” I mumbled. When I went to rub some sweat from my brow, a sting of pain reminded me of Kyle. His threats. I couldn’t stay dead broke. But I couldn’t be flashy rich like Cord Renner or Rafe Sutherland. “Or greedy.”
“Being made whole is not getting rich. Making sure Maddie has everything she needs for the rest of her life after what happened to her is not being greedy.”
I held my chin, my eyes on Delsey’s home sale contract. She assumed I’d do a mineral rights deal, too. The way she side-stepped to protect my pride above all else got to me. She could have shoved a check at me. One she knew I’d never cash. No, she went out of her way to make helping me seem as far away from charity as she could.
And I yelled at her like a dope. The dope I’d been in high school. It never sat well with me that I had no claims with the freight company. Or that Maddie’s medical bills were all out-of-pocket expenses. I just had no energy to fight.
Delsey gave me back that energy.
And had she not made me the house offer, I wouldn’t have contacted Aaron who wanted to do the fighting for me. Give me some salvation.
The weight of the last year drained from me. Help I didn’t want, but knew I needed had arrived. On my terms. No, it wasn’t charity. It was what I was owed. Maybe.
Nodding, I said, “You said you have a sister at the bank who can make me a loan like this?” I tapped the loan approval letter from Delsey’s LLC.
“From what she’s said at Sunday supper. Why?”
“If I can get financing for the house on my own, would it affect the actual sale of the house? They’re two separate deals, right?”
Aaron nodded. “They are. But Delsey’s LLC is ready to give you the cash.”
I shook my head, my pride rearing up. “How certain are you that I can recover from the insurance company, from the freight company, and even that bank?”
I just couldn’t imagine with all that life had thrown at me, the punishment I felt I somehow earned by doing something awful, like pick on Delsey, that something so amazing could just be handed to me.
But it wasn’t just handed to me. I’d shown Delsey I ain’t the same cruel prick from high school. Losing my parents and Janey and now taking care of Maddie would only have slowed Delsey’s steamroll over me. I’d shown her how I’d changed. I’d...earned this.
Except, I lost Delsey in the process. A woman I loved.
“Nothing is guaranteed,” Aaron said. “But I’m pretty good at what I do. I wouldn’t put my reputation on the line to end up with a loss in my column.” He smiled. “Trust me, Logan. It won’t cost you anything for me to try. That’s no sweetheart deal, either. Standard in the legal world.”
“Okay,” I mumbled. “Let’s give it a try.”
Aaron narrowed his eyes on me. “That puffiness under your eye looks like the start of a shiner. Anything I can do there? Restraining order, perhaps. Those are cheap.” He grinned. “You got enemies, Logan?”
“One. Kyle Weatherby. Maddie’s dad. No-good sumbitch might sue for custody unless I start paying him off.” I lifted my eyes to Aaron. “That’s where that second mortgage on my daddy’s house came from.”
“Kyle Weatherby?” Aaron typed into his computer then sat back and rubbed his chin. “Quite the colorful fella, according to the Texas correctional database. Maddie’s dad you say?”
“Janey put him on the birth certificate.” I sniffed, not to cry, but to control my anger. “He conveniently claims to be the daddy when he—”
“Has he ever paid your sister child support?”
I scoffed. “No.”
Aaron grunted, typing some more. “Well, let’s see how he responds to our request for eleven years of back child support. I’m guessing he’ll get good and gone again. And this one is on me. I have a personal disdain for deadbeats.”
I LEFT AARON’S OFFICE and on the street, relief washed over me to finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. One that ironically wasn’t a damn freight train. For now, all the to-dos were in Aaron’s court. And if he couldn’t collect, I didn’t owe him a dime. But the house would be mine, and Kyle would get his long-awaited payback.
Aaron had said he’d ask his sister to have someone at her bank reach out to me to start a home loan application. Paying off my debts left me broke, but my credit score remained solid.
One thing in my life.
Maddie had been approaching a turning point, anyway. I’d asked Delsey for a couple of more months because I had the clear-enough mind to realize the medical bills were getting paid down. And with the grant from the VA, the ongoing expenses for her new prosthetic were now taken care of.
Anything Aaron could collect would just make me whole. And give me the cushion I needed for another rainy day which could be at a
ny moment taking care of a child.
All of my Blue Lake winnings were supposed to go to Maddie’s future. And now I could make good on that promise I’d made to her mother, my sweet sister.
That feeling of being pulled from the water hit me again, my body trembling with hope. Mads and I had really made it through the darkness. Even the amount of mental attention to be present for her lessened with every month. She’d been growing more and more independent. In one twenty-four-hour period, she’d had her first little date and her first period and yet soldiered onto that school bus this morning even though I knew she missed Delsey.
Damn. I did, too. The fact that she hadn’t even called to say she made it back to Houston okay killed me. She’d landed in Wild Heart with a bang and left with a whimper. Two people whimpering to be accurate.
Me and Maddie.
Delsey
I AMBLED TO WHAT HAD been Truitt’s conference room, drumming chipped fingernails against my phone. Laughing, I starting peeling away the flakes. For once, I didn’t care to be made up like a beauty pageant contestant.
At the door, I smoothed my skirt.
Tess and Stanton followed me, their heads held high, and mine as well. Even though, not every day a woman CEO got fired from her own board. Despite Tess going nuclear on the media front, animal cruelty wasn’t something I could walk away from unscathed.
When a hate machine gun got turned on you, it was hard to get out of its path. I didn’t mind stepping down as CEO. But I planned to fight to stay in charge of the lab. The job I actually wanted.
Inside the boardroom, I was blinded by the chalky white hair and pasty skin of the men on my board. Businessmen. Heartless and only looking to make a buck. Why didn’t a cosmetics company have any women on the board? How had I missed that?
Probably the same way I missed how underhanded and cold Truitt was.
Or how warm and loving Logan was.
That’s what I got for burying my head in my lab.
Rick and Jacob, my security guards followed me to my firing squad as well then stood against the back wall. I smiled at my men before I made my way to the head of the table. One last time. A shine at the base of Jacob’s sleeve caught my attention. His prosthetic arm. The arm he used to protect me earlier. Warrior.
A blinding flash hit me. My warrior princess back home. Maddie. Her leg. Then equations swirled at me. Metals. Compounds. Acrylics. The VA lab. I could...
“Mac, thank you for coming. Let’s make this quick and painless,” Mel, the chairman of the board greeted me from the other end of the table near the door.
“Painless,” I mumbled then a buzzing went off around me, distracting me.
“Mac?” Mel put his hand on my back and I jumped, the contact feeling odd.
“Where’s that noise coming from?” I held my throat as it got louder, my head still fuzzy from the attack of my brain shooting all kinds of ideas at me.
“It’s your phone, Mac.” Mel pointed to it, looking annoyed that I snubbed his chance to touch me.
The name across the screen made my heart pound. Barry. My accountant. The contracts with Logan.
“Hang on, Mel.” I swiped at my phone. “Barry. Talk to me.”
“Got it. An Aaron someone just faxed over the signature page. I countersigned for you and sent it back. It’s done.”
“Signature page? There were two deals.”
“The home sale one is done. But he’s getting the financing from somewhere else. By law, he has sixty days.”
That stubborn SOB. But he was buying the house. And based on the selling price, when we close escrow, he’ll have paid his rent.
Logan no longer owed me any money.
The answer we didn’t see coming. Man plans and God laughs.
I’d wanted to throw Logan out of my house.
Look how that worked out?
I fell in love with him.
Look how that worked out?
Holding the phone against my forehead, I breathed and sent one last look at Jacob’s gloved hand, silver-plated and blue paint disappearing up his suit jacket sleeve.
“I’ll make this easy for everyone.” I took one last breath. “I quit. I assume you need me to sign something?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Logan
I looked down at my boots covered in dust and horse shit, feeling this was who I was. A horse trainer. And proud of it, as I did what I did best, made a horse respect me and follow my commands.
The few weeks since Delsey left had been grueling. All I’d heard from her was her accountant’s signature on the deal to buy her house. Now, the lawyers talked behind the scenes. I got that loan from Aaron’s sister. A decent thirty-year mortgage rate with a hardship zero-down allowance.
I stopped fighting the goodness of other people’s hearts who wanted to lend me a hand, or a couple of hundred thousand dollars. The land had potential. For something.
“You really aren’t going to see if there’s gas on your property,” Jamie asked, leaning on the training post.
“Nope. Have other irons on the fire.” I kept my eye on Chloe in the ring with a new horse we were training for the B&B guests.
Maddie hung out next to Jamie. I had her atop of Stately earlier getting her sea legs back for horse riding. Chloe smiled and waved to her. She had a little sister, something Maddie would never have. My heart ached for her. Even if I got married and had a kid, it’d still be just a cousin. All of that felt more unlikely than ever. First, I hadn’t had the time or the energy or even the heart to love a woman.
Now I did, and she... She didn’t want me. Or Maddie.
“Sometimes that much money is nothing but numbers on a piece of paper,” Cam said, rocking his son in his arms and we all knew he’d rather have that baby than any amount of money.
“Let me say right here, right now, I wouldn’t pass up being a rich so-and-so,” Walker said, coming out of the barn after finishing his monthly checkups. He censored himself around the girls. Sometimes.
Sighing, I went into my phone and checked the time. “Oh shoot, we gotta get to Maddie’s appointment.” I handed the training reins over to Jamie, who signaled he wanted to take over since it was Chloe on the horse. “Mr. Superstar Musician. Don’t let the lights get caught in your eyes.”
“Too late,” Jamie laughed.
“Dr. Rhodes.” I greeted Walker.
“You going to your VA appointment with shit on your boots?” Walker whispered to me, an odd cadence of worry in his voice.
“I plan to get cleaned up.”
“Good.” The reformed lovesick bachelor rocked on his heels.
“Mads, I’ll be in the truck in a minute.” When she was out of earshot, I said to Walker, “I’ve not heard from her.” I couldn’t even say her name. “It’s been three weeks.”
Maddie had cried reading she’d been forced to quit her job at the cosmetics company in Houston. I’d been expecting to turn the corner somewhere in Wild Heart and bump into Delsey. No, a woman of the world like her wouldn’t live in a small town anymore.
A woman of her sophistication would live in New York, or Los Angeles, or Paris even.
Deep inside, I was blazing mad she’d not stayed in touch with Maddie.
So, I hadn’t bothered to call her either.
Walker smiled and tipped his hat to me. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
WE’D NOT BEEN BACK to the VA hospital since that afternoon with Delsey. The first time they’d taken forever to approve our visit. This time I’d given them Maddie’s name, and the gate practically opened on its own.
“Thanks,” I said to the uniformed man who gave me back my license. “Are you excited, Mads? To get your new leg?”
She exhaled. “No. I’m gonna have to get used to it all over again.” She rubbed her knee and the spot under her jeans where the temporary prosthesis began. “I just got used to this one.”
“I’ve never been one to sugarcoat stuff with you, but you’ll have others, too. You’re
still growing.”
Don’t remind me.” She rolled her eyes. “This looks different.”
I’d been focusing on where to park and missed the wide flesh-colored portico stretching out from the main entrance door to the parking lot.
Had I gone to the wrong building? “Are we in the right place?”
“Yeah. One-Fifty. It’s painted on the pink awning in black. Why so fancy?”
I shrugged and downshifted to get into the parking spot.
Keeping my hand on Maddie’s shoulder, we trekked to the curb and under the awning. In the vestibule, I cursed again, knowing for sure we’d gone to the wrong place. White leather sofas with pink pillows and black lounge chairs weren’t very military.
Exhaling, I squeezed Maddie’s shoulder. “Sorry, Mads. They must have moved stuff around. I’ll find out which building it is.”
“Look!” Maddie yelped, pointing.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Logan
I forgot where I was. A woman strutted through double doors that had opened on their own. Walking on a cloud like an angel with platinum blonde hair pulled back in a braid, she wore ridiculously thick black glasses on her pale bare face. Even from several feet away, I saw the scars.
Delsey glided toward me wearing a lab coat and ugly-ass black shoes, throwing me back in time to high school. That was the Delsey I tortured for years.
No matter what I’d done and said a few weeks ago to the other Delsey, the glamorous, flawless woman who didn’t need any praising, this woman needed to know what high school Logan Grady really wanted to do with her whenever I’d seen her like that back then.
Just like that. Because, really, all that plain and simpleness, did it for me.
I rushed across the marble tile floor, ignoring the heavenly-looking lobby. I’d get to that later. I needed Delsey. In my arms. My mouth on hers. I’ve never wanted her more.
It all zipped up for me in that moment. That hole in my heart. That dull ache I’d gotten used to and started ignoring. It was gone. Because I loved her, and fuck-all, I was going to tell her.
The Cowboy's Rebel Heart: An Enemies to Lovers Second Chance Romance (Wild Texas Hearts Book 4) Page 23