by Arlene James
His feelings for her were stronger than his fear. No matter how hard he’d tried, he couldn’t stay away from her. All he’d done was make himself miserable. Eventually, though, he’d seen her hidden strength and independence.
Despite her natural reticence and caution, she’d soldiered on in the face of tremendous difficulty. Her strength was born of love combined with generosity and personal sacrifice. She’d closed out a world that preached self-fulfillment, dependence and monetary success and done the right, best thing, even when all she’d had wasn’t truly enough. In the process, she’d honed astounding talents, using them to create comfort, warmth and peace. The woman hadn’t been inside a church for years, but she’d walked in and taken her place with the Smiths more of a Christian than anyone Jake knew, himself included. She humbled him. He could only pray that she’d forgive him.
A phone rang. Jake ignored it. A few minutes later, Tina stumbled into the kitchen, Wyatt following in his bare feet, jeans and an undershirt. Jake didn’t realize anything was wrong until she started sobbing. He jumped to his feet.
“What’s happened?”
“She quit!” Tina exclaimed.
“What?”
“Kathryn quit. She said she’s moving.”
Astounded, he could think of only one question. “But why?”
Tina swiped tears from her face and folded her arms. “Think about it. I expect you’ll figure it out.”
“Me? Because of me?”
She threw up her hands. “What else?”
Jake didn’t even try to answer that. Instead, he whirled and hit the door, leaving his hat behind. Maybe five minutes later, he whipped the truck into her drive, killed the engine and bailed out, the keys still in the ignition. Just as he raised his fist to knock on her door, he heard an unfamiliar voice, a masculine one, raised in what sounded like anger.
“Don’t pretend I’m being unreasonable! You slaved for your mother but can’t even share anything with me!”
“I offered you monthly payments,” Kathryn said in a tired voice.
“I don’t need monthly payments! I need a lump sum. Now!”
“I told you I’d sell the house,” Kathryn said tremulously. “That’s all I can do.”
Sell her house? Jake opened the door without knocking and walked inside, confused and struggling not to rush to her aid without all the facts. One of the hallmarks of Kathryn’s character was her calm, deliberate, careful manner. He would try to follow her lead in this, at least until he found out what was going on.
Her head turned at the sound of the door. Sadness mixed with resignation weighted her expression. She sat in the armchair, her entire body drawn into a tight, wary stillness, while a large, intimidating, middle-aged man with an unkempt mop of faded, thinning hair stood over her, bent forward slightly, his thick hands coiled into fists. One of those beefy fists clutched a sheaf of papers.
Jake’s first instinct was to knock the bully over, but something, perhaps the dullness of Kathryn’s eyes, told him that would be a mistake. She looked ready to shatter. He went to stand beside her chair.
“Honey, what’s happening?”
“This isn’t your business,” the man growled. “Whoever you are, get out. This is between me and my daughter.”
Daughter.
It was as he thought. Still, the word jolted Jake. He looked into the angry face of the long-absent Mitchel Stepp, seeing nothing of Kathryn in the bloated eyes, veined nose and heavy jowls.
Laying his hand on Kathryn’s shoulder, Jake squeezed, letting her know that she wasn’t alone.
If it were up to him, she would never be alone again.
But first things first. One problem at a time.
Faith.
They would work it out. God would help them work it out.
Chapter Fourteen
“Anything that concerns Kathryn concerns me,” Jake said calmly. “And my family.”
“I don’t know you, and I don’t care who your family is,” Mitchel Stepp sneered.
“Jacoby Smith,” Jake said, not bothering to offer his hand.
“Smith,” the older man repeated in a considering tone. “There’s that Smith on Loco Man Ranch. What’s his name? Dodge?”
“Dodd. He was my uncle.”
“Was.” Suddenly, Mitchel Stepp’s belligerence faded somewhat. “Old Dodd is gone, then, and you got the ranch.”
“Me and my brothers,” Jake clarified.
“He’s not giving you money,” Kathryn stated firmly.
Mitchel shook the papers at her. “Someone’s giving me money! My lawyer says so! I can sell this house on my own, you know. My name’s on the deed, not yours.”
“Mother’s will—” Kathryn began.
“Gives you half. That’s all. Just half. And probating that will to get your name on the deed will cost you a pretty penny. Save us both all the trouble.”
Kathryn swallowed, her gaze dropping to the floor. “I said I’d sell the house.”
“Oh, no, you won’t,” Jake declared, tightening his hand on her shoulder. “Not until we talk to our lawyer.”
Kathryn tilted her head back, looking up at him. “Our lawyer?”
Jake dropped to his haunches, bringing his face close to hers. “Sweetheart, the ranch keeps Rex Billings on retainer. He’s a fine lawyer and a good friend. I know he’ll help us.”
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead before pushing up to stand and again face Mitchel Stepp. “We’ll talk to our lawyer and get back to you.”
“Don’t waste your money on lawyers. No lawyer’s going to tell you anything I haven’t already,” Mitchel insisted. He smacked the papers in his hand with the other. “I got it all right here. Sell and be done!”
Biting her lips, Kathryn looked up at Jake. “I guess it can’t hurt just to talk to Rex.”
“That’s my girl.”
Tears filled her eyes. She looked tired enough to pass out where she sat.
“Time for you to go,” Jake said to Mitchel Stepp. Leaving Kathryn’s side, he pushed the older man toward the door.
“Get your hands off me!” Stepp blustered, smacking Jake with the papers in his fist.
Jake snatched the papers out of Mitchel’s hand and stuffed them into the back pocket of his jeans. Mitchel tried to retrieve them.
“Give me those!”
“Not on your life. These are going to our lawyer,” Jake decreed, hustling the man out the door. “I’m sure you’ve got copies.”
Mitchel blustered and balked and glared, but he quickly stood on the porch looking in. Jake closed the door in Mitchel’s face and threw the dead bolt. Then he simply turned to Kathryn, who surged to her feet. He opened his arms, and she flew to him. Folding her close, he tucked her head beneath his chin.
“It’s okay, honey. It’s all going to be okay.”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“We’ll get through this together. All of us. You’re not alone. Remember that.”
She bowed her head. “Didn’t Tina tell you?”
“That you quit? Yeah, she told me. But it isn’t so. You know it isn’t so. You just said that because you thought you were going to have to sell your house and move away.”
“Jake,” Kathryn whispered, “you should know—”
“If it’s about the job, Kathryn, we’ll discuss it later. Right now, we’ve got to figure out this mess with the house. Let me call Rex.”
Disentangling himself, he took out his phone. Meanwhile, Kathryn went to the window and peeked through the sheers.
“Someone was waiting close by,” she murmured. “They’re picking him up now.”
“Good riddance,” Jake said just as Callie answered the call. After hearing why they wanted to consult Rex, she advised them to come over right away. “We’ll be there in fi
fteen minutes or less,” Jake replied before breaking the connection. “Can your father get into the house?” Jake asked Kathryn, looking for his hat.
“No. I had the locks changed about a month after he left. He’d been taking anything of value for years to buy his booze. One day after he disappeared, an oxygen tank went missing. I couldn’t take the chance he’d help himself to anything else. He’d have sold Mom’s wheelchair if he could’ve gotten his hands on it.”
“Addiction is a horrible thing,” Jake said, touching his head and remembering that he’d left his hat at home. He patted the front pocket of his jeans, then threw the dead bolt and opened the door. “You drive, hon. I want to call Wyatt. My truck’s behind your car. The keys are, uh, in the ignition.”
Kathryn lifted her eyebrows at that but said nothing as she snagged her bag from the closet and went out the door. As she drove them through War Bonnet, at a decidedly more sedate pace than he had on his way to Kathryn’s, Jake gave Wyatt a blow-by-blow recitation of Mitchel Stepp’s words and manner.
“Jake,” she began again as soon as he ended the call, “you really should know...” Breaking off, she bit her lips.
He reached across the divide between their seats and smoothed his hand over the back of her neck beneath her thick, silky hair. “You should know some things, too, honey, but we’ll talk later. I promise.”
She nodded, looking troubled. Jake wouldn’t let himself think about what she might have to tell him. Whatever it was, they’d work through it. He would not, could not, believe that it might be insurmountable. That wasn’t in the plan.
Impossible was never part of God’s plan.
* * *
They made good time, but Wyatt was closer and beat them to Straight Arrow Ranch. Kathryn parked behind Wyatt’s truck at the side of the road, and the three of them walked through the trees to the front porch of the ranch house. It was newer by a few decades than either the house at Loco Man or the Pryors’ farmhouse, but it wasn’t exactly a modern structure. Callie greeted them at the door, looking wan and hollow-eyed, then quickly excused herself.
Rex came out of a room on the right of the foyer, a worried expression on his face. He glanced down the hallway in the direction Callie had gone then smiled at Jake, Kathryn and Wyatt. “Hey. Callie told me y’all were coming.”
“We don’t want to intrude,” Kathryn said, watching Callie disappear through a doorway, “or keep you from other business.”
He shook his head. “Naw, not a bit. I’m sticking close to the house for a while because Callie’s just so sick with this baby. Dad and Alice are watching the other kids for us so she can get on top of this.”
“Tina’s having her issues, too,” Wyatt commented, “but it’s more the afternoons for her. I thought it was supposed to be morning sickness.”
Kathryn turned on him in shock.
“Is Tina pregnant?” Jake yelped, his eyes wide.
Wyatt grimaced. “I wasn’t supposed to say anything for at least another month.”
“Oh, my word!” Kathryn exclaimed. No wonder Tina wouldn’t buy any clothes for herself! And all that talk about gaining weight.
Jake clapped his brother on both shoulders. “That’s excellent news!”
“Not to mention fast work,” Rex chortled.
Grinning, Wyatt said, “Tina’s going to kill me, but how are you supposed to keep something like that to yourself?”
“She won’t stay mad too long,” Rex teased. “No more than seven or eight months, anyway. A word of advice—learn to change diapers with your eyes closed. Comes in handy in the middle of the night.”
“Thankfully, we’ve got Kathryn to help shoulder that burden,” Wyatt said, but then he frowned and turned to her. “I thought we did, anyway.”
“We’ll talk about all that later,” Jake interjected. “Right now, Kathryn’s got a crisis of her own to deal with.”
“Come on into the office,” Rex said. “I want all the details.”
Wyatt went across the room and leaned against the windowsill while Kathryn and Jake sank into a pair of wood-and-leather chairs in front of Rex’s battered old desk. Jake handed over the papers he’d taken from Mitchel. Rex settled behind the desk and looked them over while Kathryn succinctly explained the situation.
He pulled a sheet of paper out of those on his desk and handed it to Kathryn. “Is this an accurate copy of your mother’s will?”
Kathryn scanned the paper, frowning. “Yes. There were several copies, but the last time I looked, I only found one.”
Rex passed over some papers. “How about this?”
She recognized the insurance policy. “Thank God! I thought I’d lost those.” She shoved the papers at Jake. “My father must’ve taken these before I had the locks changed.”
“But why?” Jake asked, scanning the papers. “He’s not the beneficiary of either the will or the insurance, so what good would this do him?”
Rex spread his hands. “Spouses have certain entitlements in Oklahoma that no will can circumvent. Insurance isn’t one of them, but he might not have known that. He might even have shown these to a lawyer, hoping to find a legal way to subvert Mia’s wishes. Or he might’ve just wanted to check out how much Kathryn would get so he could hit her up for part of it. Kathryn was young, after all, and no one knew how long Mia would live.”
“Glad I got these away from him,” Jake said, laying the papers on the desk.
Kathryn shook her head. “He must’ve been upset when he realized the amount of the policy had been reduced. We did that because we couldn’t afford the premiums. Mom’s old boss arranged it so the policy was fully paid with the premiums she’d already sent in, but he retired and the agency had no record of the amendment. I thought I’d misplaced our copy, and the insurance company said they couldn’t verify the changes or process payment without solid proof.”
Rex folded his arms against the edge of the desk. “Whatever Mitchel’s reasons for taking these, the bottom line doesn’t change. The proceeds of the life insurance are yours. Period. Other items mentioned in your mother’s will are yours. Furniture, household goods, bank accounts...”
“There was just enough in the bank to bury her,” Kathryn said.
Rex nodded. “The house, I’m afraid, is half his. Even if they divorced, unless there was a property settlement, he’s entitled to half the value of your house.”
Kathryn sighed. “They didn’t divorce. At least I don’t think they did. She never got anything saying he’d divorced her.”
“He likely wouldn’t have chanced it if he had any hopes of contesting her will,” Rex said.
“So what do we do?” Jake asked, taking Kathryn’s hand in his.
“I’m sure he has legal counsel. Just the fact that he waited six months after your mother’s death to make his first demand tells me that. He doesn’t want to look too predatory.”
“He looked plenty predatory this morning,” Jake put in.
“Sounds like his patience has worn thin, so we negotiate,” Rex said. “We try for a buy-out price that you can live with. And we cash in the insurance policy. Maybe he’ll take that. Maybe he won’t. But we’ll cut the best deal we can.”
Jake squeezed Kathryn’s hand. She gently removed it and smoothed the edge of Rex’s desk with her fingertips, thinking through Rex’s advice.
“The insurance won’t be enough,” she predicted. “He told us he has a lawyer, so he knows everything you just told me. I’ll have to sell the house.”
Jake slid an arm across her shoulder. “No, honey. Wait. We can come up with the cash. I know we can. I have several thousand at my disposal. That and the insurance money ought—”
She cut him off. “What are you saying? I can’t take your money. That’s for the shop.”
“You’re more important than the shop,” Jake said softly. “Saving your home is what mat
ters now.”
“Loco Man looks after its own,” Wyatt interjected. “We have funds. We can handle this together.”
Confused, Kathryn shot to her feet, moving away from Jake, who also rose. She’d had this all settled in her mind even before her father had shown up that morning. Selling the house was the only real option. The insurance money just meant that she could easily start over again somewhere else. Away from everyone and everything she loved. But how could she stay and die a little every day, watching Jake pull away from her again? In time, he’d find someone else, someone like Jolene. What would she do then? How would she live with that?
“I’m not part of Loco Man,” she gasped, barely holding it together.
“Of course you are,” Jake insisted, coming toward her. “A huge part.”
She shook her head, backing away. “No. Not anymore.”
Jake looked at Wyatt, as if for help. Then he rubbed a hand over his face and turned back to Kathryn. “I’m part of Loco Man,” he said. “And you’re part of me.”
Kathryn folded her arms across her middle, shaking her head. Nothing made sense anymore. It hadn’t since the first time Jake had kissed her. He reached out, and she backed up a step.
“Please don’t.” She could barely think as it was. If he touched her now, she’d lose her mind.
“Just listen to me,” he said. “I can put off opening the shop for a few months. Or...or sell it to someone who can see it through.”
“No!”
“I’ll borrow money, then, take out a loan. I’ll make it work. But I can’t let you lose your home, not when I can see what it’s doing to you.”
“Stop trying to rescue me! Don’t you understand? It’s not about the house. I just can’t...” Be around you anymore. Having friends was wonderful, but it just wasn’t enough with Jake. She turned to Rex. “Do whatever you think is best, but I’m calling a Realtor today.”