“Mmm-hmm. Rowan sounds awesome.” Christine’s smirk indicated she and Jessie weren’t just talking about Rowan’s organizational abilities.
Zack smiled, but didn’t answer. Maybe this was good. If he were to take Rowan up on her offer, it would be more believable if there were rumors they’d been seeing each other. Not that he was seriously considering it. Was he? He stroked the cat and handed her back.
When Zack didn’t rise to the bait, Christine grasped Ruby’s paw between her fingers and waved it. “Bye, Dr. Zack.”
He chuckled. “Bye, Ruby.” His cell rang as they left his office. Teagarden Jones, the estate lawyer. Zack frowned and answered.
“Good morning, Zack. Say, I have a letter here from an attorney representing Clarissa Vogel.”
“Oh?” That couldn’t be good.
“They’re proposing a meeting next week to discuss the timetable for the settlement of the estate. Meaning, presumably, that she’s not satisfied with progress to date.”
“We’ve given her every advance she asks for,” Zack said. “What difference does it make to her when final settlement happens?”
“Exactly. Highly suspicious. I’m still hopeful the misplaced will might turn up. Anyway, a week from tomorrow?”
Zack checked his schedule. He could rearrange some appointments. “Afternoon okay?”
“Yes. My assistant will send you the time and a copy of the letter. It mentions Becca.”
“What about Becca?”
“Nothing specific. Just as a topic of discussion.”
Now, what did that mean? “Huh.”
“Exactly. See you soon.”
“Thanks, Teagarden.” Well, wasn’t this just a wonderful way to start a Monday?
The day kept him too busy to worry much, but at the end of the afternoon when he’d finished vaccinating all the new calves at a dairy farm, he received an email verifying the time next Tuesday. On the drive back to the clinic, his phone chimed, and a notice of a new text message popped up on the display in his truck. He pressed the button.
A mechanical voice read, “From Rowan O’Shea. 4:10 p.m. Any chance I could come over this evening? I can cook. Picked up some wonderful veggies at the farmers market this weekend.”
Finally, some good news. Zack pulled into the clinic’s parking lot and before going inside texted back. Sounds great. Six?
I’ll be there.
* * *
“ANY THREES?” Rowan asked Becca.
“Go fish!” Becca sang out.
“Drat.” Rowan drew an ace she had no use for and glanced at her watch. As much as she enjoyed the time she’d spent cooking and playing with Becca, she needed a chance to talk with Zack alone. He’d seemed preoccupied this evening, as well. Twice, he’d had to ask Becca to repeat a question.
“Zack, do you have any sixes?” Becca asked.
“You know I do.” He handed three of them over.
“I just drew it,” Becca explained gleefully. “I win!”
“Good for you,” Zack told her. “Now it’s bath time.”
Becca paused, as though considering begging for one more game, but the firm look he gave her seemed to change her mind. “You’ll both read with me tonight?”
“Of course,” Rowan told her. “Sooner you get your bath, the sooner we’ll read together.”
“Okay.” Becca ran up the stairs, with Ripley at her heels.
“I’ll run the bath while you brush your teeth.” Zack followed them up. “Be right back,” he told Rowan.
“I’ll be here.” Rowan returned the cards to the box and added a last glass to the dishwasher before pushing the button. While she waited, she checked her email. One from Coralie. An invitation, addressed to her and Sutton, inviting them to a dinner party in three weeks as though they were still together. Unbelievable.
The computer printer in the corner clattered and a printed paper emerged. She went to investigate. Reading upside down, she deciphered the letterhead as belonging to a law office in Anchorage.
“See anything interesting?” Zack asked, startling her.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to butt into your business.”
“I was teasing. Teagarden got a letter from an attorney representing Clarissa, and he sent me a copy. I was just printing it out.” He picked up the paper as it slid from the printer. “If you don’t mind, I’d like you to look it over.”
“You want my opinion? I’m not a lawyer.”
“But you’re logical and intelligent. I think I’m reading a few things between the lines, but I may be imagining it. See what you think.”
Rowan leaned against the counter and read the letter. Then she read it again, more slowly. Like most legal writing, it seemed to use a lot of words without saying very much at all. “So basically, she’s calling a meeting to discuss the settlement of the estate.”
“Yes.”
“Which, I assume, means she’s either not satisfied with the job you’re doing so far, or she wants to double-check your numbers.”
“That was my interpretation.”
“What do you think about this mention of Becca?”
Zack gave a grim smile. “What do you make of it?”
“Well, coming as it does at the end of a paragraph discussing division of property and such, I would see it as a veiled threat that if you want custody of Becca, you’d better give her everything she’s asking for.”
“That’s one interpretation. But there may be another motive.”
“What’s that?”
“The way the law is written, Clarissa gets effectively half the estate, and the other half is divided between me and Becca. If she has custody of Becca, then more than likely the judge would also award her control of Becca’s share.”
“But that’s Becca’s money. Clarissa would have to save it for Becca, or at least spend it on her welfare, wouldn’t she?”
“In theory. In practice, maybe Becca needs to be driven in a new BMW. Maybe Becca needs to stay in the most expensive suite in a hotel. Who makes that decision? Her guardian.”
“I’m ready!” Becca called from the top of the stairs. Fluff pricked up her ears and then bounded toward the stairs.
“Be right there,” Zack answered. To Rowan, he whispered, “We’ll talk more once she’s asleep.”
Becca, perhaps sensing that Zack had other things on his mind, wheedled for an extra chapter. When that was done, they tucked her in, kissed her good night and were tiptoeing from the room when Becca announced, “I’m thirsty.”
“Do you want me to bring you a glass of water?” Zack asked.
“I want Rowan to do it.”
Rowan filled a glass in the bathroom. When she returned, Becca sat up in bed, disturbing Fluff, who had curled up on her pillow. The cat jumped down and ran out the door.
“Make her come back,” Becca said.
Zack laughed. “You know I can’t make a cat do anything. I’m sure she’ll be back once you’re still and quiet.”
Becca took one drink and set it on the nightstand. “Do you know the story about the Lost Little Bunny?” she asked Becca.
“I don’t think so.”
“It’s right there on the shelf.” Becca pointed. “Can we read it together?”
Rowan exchanged glances with Zack. Becca was clearly testing boundaries, but maybe she just needed some extra attention tonight. At Zack’s faint nod, Rowan picked up the book. “Why don’t you lie back and close your eyes while I read it to you? Zack, I’ll be down in just a bit.”
“Okay.” He kissed Becca’s forehead once more. “Good night, Becks. Sweet dreams.”
Rowan read the story, about a cottontail rabbit that wandered off and lost its mother but was adopted by a mother cat who cared for her along with her own kittens. As she read, Fluff glided back into the room and jumped onto the
bed. By the time Rowan finished the story, Becca’s eyes had drifted shut.
“Good night.” Rowan kissed her cheek.
“Kitty was a good mother,” Becca mumbled, without opening her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Better than the mother bunny. She let him wander off and get lost.”
Rowan thought about defending the mother bunny. After all, she had a whole litter of little bunnies to watch, and she had told them to stay close. But when it came down to it, the cat had been the one to care for the little lost bunny. “I’m glad the cat was there for him.”
“Kitty loved him lots and lots.”
“She sure did. Sleep well, sweet girl.” Rowan tiptoed out of the room. The parallels weren’t lost on her. A parent was the one who took care of the child, who loved them “lots and lots.” Like Zack loved Becca.
When she came downstairs, Zack was assembling a sandwich. Surprising, since he’d taken second helpings of chicken enchiladas. “Didn’t get enough to eat?”
“This is Becca’s lunch for camp tomorrow. One less thing to do in the morning.” He tucked the sandwich into a plastic container. “I meant to ask—how did it go with your mother?”
Rowan sighed. “She apologized, sort of.”
“That’s good, right?”
“It would be, except her apology is for ‘rushing me,’ and she still seems to think I’ll eventually come around. She also let slip that Sutton’s mother was pressuring him to propose and start a family. Our two mothers have been plotting together since day one, and I just let myself be led along.”
“Sounds like an arranged marriage—well, sort of.” He tucked the sandwich into an insulated lunchbox, along with a bag of baby carrots.
“Sutton’s mother and my mother both grew up in Virginia, were in the same college sorority and married men they met on their own. This isn’t a cultural thing. It’s meddling, pure and simple.” Rowan selected the ripest plum from a bowl on the counter and handed it to him for the lunch. “Anyway, I’m done. I love my mother, but she’s not in charge of my life. Not anymore.”
“Good for you.” Zack set the lunch in the refrigerator and paused to listen. “It’s starting to rain. Want to go sit on the deck?”
“You like listening to the rain?” Rowan grinned. “I thought I was the only one. Whenever I’d suggest it, my friends acted like I was trying to catch a cold.”
“Well, as a medical professional, I can say sitting on a covered deck in a light rain does not cause colds. At least in dogs. I can only extrapolate to humans.”
Rowan laughed. “I’ll risk it.”
They sat together on a wooden bench just outside the kitchen door. Ripley tagged along and settled on the floor, his chin resting on Zack’s foot. Drops pattered lightly on the metal roof. As the rain grew heavier, two robins swooped down onto the grass and gathered worms.
“That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about my visits to the farm,” Rowan said. “Being in nature. Hearing the birds, smelling my grandmother’s lilacs, seeing an eagle glide over the mountain. You know, that summer I met you was the last time I was in Alaska for more than a few days at a time. I should have made a point of coming more often.” Rowan drew in a breath of fresh, cool air. “I might have made better life decisions.”
“You think you make better decisions when you’re outdoors?”
“Don’t you?”
Zack gave a little smile. “I do, now that you mention it.”
“Speaking of decisions, have you given any more thought to my proposal?”
Zack didn’t answer immediately. The pattering on the roof slowed as the shower began to play out. “I’ve hardly thought about anything else,” he admitted. “I had made up my mind it was too much to ask.”
“You had made up your mind...?” she prompted.
“Until today. This letter has me worried. I had a short phone consultation with a family lawyer today. She didn’t hold out a lot of hope for my custody suit, until I asked if a girlfriend would make a difference.”
“A girlfriend helps?”
“It depends. A short-term girlfriend would be irrelevant or possibly work against us. A fiancée might be a plus. But then she said it was a shame I didn’t have a nice nurturing wife with a sterling reputation.”
Rowan gave a wry smile. “Does a broken engagement damage my sterling reputation?”
“I doubt it. Although it happened so recently—”
“My grandmother can attest to the fact that I had already made up my mind the engagement was a mistake as soon as it happened. You and I have known each other since we were sixteen. If anyone questions our sudden decision, we can say that when we met again, that friendship caught fire and we fell in love.”
“And we got married so quickly—”
“Because I love you and I love Becca, and you need me now.”
He thought that over for a moment. “It almost sounds plausible.”
Plausible. Right. For a moment there Rowan had almost gotten carried away and believed her own story. She licked her lip. “I think we can sell it. I mean, I really do care about you and Becca.”
“And I care about you. That’s why I’m not sure this is a good idea. You’d be giving up a lot.”
“What I’d be gaining is more valuable. I’d gain distance and time to think what I really want my life to be.”
“It’s not as though you need to marry me to change your life. You’re an adult. You can quit your job and go wherever you want.”
“Exactly, and where I want to go is here. Alaska has always been my sanctuary. Becca deserves a sanctuary, too, and I want to make that happen.”
“You really feel that way?”
“I do.”
He paused, looking toward the woods, where the fronds of a wild fern bobbed and swayed from the rain dripping through the overhead trees. “I always said I’d never marry.”
“Because of your dad. I get that. I’ll sign an agreement that I have no claim on any of your property when the marriage ends.”
He laughed. “What, a house mortgaged to the hilt, a truck I’m still paying for and a bunch of college loans?”
“There’s your inheritance. I don’t want you to worry I’ll try to grab any of it.”
He shook his head. “Don’t tell Clarissa because I don’t want to give her any more incentive, but I plan to disclaim and let my share go to Becca. That’s what Dad told me he was going to do, and it’s only fair. He paid child support to my mom and paid for my undergraduate degree. Would have paid for vet school, too, if I’d let him.”
“Why didn’t you let him help you with vet school?”
“We had an argument. He was in the middle of a divorce with his third wife, and she was attempting to break the prenup after she caught him cheating. I said I didn’t blame her, that it was a sleazy thing to do. He implied that if she got a big payout, he couldn’t afford to be so generous with my education, so I told him to take his money and—” Zack shook his head. “Anyway, we didn’t talk for several years.”
“What brought you back together?”
“Becca. Just before she was born, Dad searched me out and apologized. He wanted me in Becca’s life. She’s the reason I came back here. Fortunately, Christine was looking for a partner in the vet clinic. She’d just married and moved out of this house, and so I bought it.” He reached down to ruffle Ripley’s ears. “It was clear from the beginning that Clarissa had no interest in parenting. Dad was thirty-four years older than Clarissa, and he had some health problems. I believe he knew he might not be around to raise Becca and he wanted to make sure I was.”
“But he didn’t say so, directly?”
“He hinted. A couple of times, when they would leave Becca with me while they traveled, he said something like she was in good hands with me. There’s no way he would have failed to m
ake a will mentioning Becca.”
“But you didn’t find any sign of it?”
“No. Just some old ones from before he married Clarissa, inside the fire safe in his study.”
“Wouldn’t he have destroyed the old wills when he made a new one?”
“Dad liked to hang on to documents. He said you never knew when you might need to go back and prove something you thought was long settled.”
“What happens if you don’t get custody of Becca?”
He shrugged. “Clarissa will leave her in the care of a nanny or someone while she runs and plays. At least until the money runs out. At Clarissa’s current burn rate, that would happen around the time Becca turns eighteen.”
“What about school?”
“Maybe she’d hire a tutor.”
But there was so much more to school than lessons. Rowan had changed schools five times as a child, but she’d still benefited from the structure and interaction of a classroom. Where would a shy child like Becca find friends if she was stuck in a hotel suite with a nanny? “Becca needs to stay here, with you. We need to make a judge see that.”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s get married. Now. Tomorrow. We could fly to Vegas.”
“Tomorrow?”
“I guess you probably have work scheduled tomorrow. But soon. Before the meeting, anyway. This weekend?”
“You’re absolutely sure about this?”
“I’m sure.”
Zack was quiet, contemplating. Rowan was tempted to point out, once again, what was at stake. That’s what her mother would have done. Instead, she waited, letting him weigh his options. The rain had stopped now, and the sun had dropped below the level of the clouds, sending a shaft of light into the woods to turn the clinging raindrops into sparkling diamonds.
“One year.” He watched her face. “That’s what you said, right? A gap year to figure out what you want to do.”
She nodded. “A year. And then we’ll get an annulment.”
Zack nodded. “I’ll talk with Christine and Maggie tomorrow and make arrangements to cover for me this weekend. I’ll see if Becca can stay with Charlotte overnight.”
Harlequin Heartwarming June 2021 Box Set Page 36