There were a few clicks before he heard, "Ronni Turnberry."
"Ah, yes, finally. This is Jonathon Wells. I represent Matthew Collins, and I received a message you wanted to speak with me? I hope this is about a domestic partnership agreement I've advised my client to put into place," he offered in order to take the dominant role in the conversation. It seemed he should show her he wasn’t about to be taken in by a gold-digger and his attorney. He was there to fight for Matt’s rights and his ranch, and the sooner the woman learned he wasn’t a pushover, the more leverage he’d have in the negotiations.
He heard her speaking softly to someone, so he waited for her to respond. "I’m sorry, Mr. Wells for the interruption. Uh, no, this isn't about any type of domestic partnership agreement, though I wish to hell it was. My client wants to add Mr. Collins to his trusts and deeds to the properties involved in the trusts. He also wants to set up a separate trust for Ryan Collins, whom I'm assuming you'll represent as well," she explained quickly. Jon could hear her turning pages on the other end of the line, but he wasn’t about to be distracted.
He was, however, confused by her comments. "Miss Turnberry, I'm pretty sure your client paid Roberta Collins fifty-thousand dollars for her to terminate her parental rights and disappear from their lives. I had the opportunity to get a look at her bank account, not because she ever admitted to any wrongdoing. I can't advise my client to reciprocate with regard to titled property or joint ownership of the livestock and machinery involved at the Circle C. I'm sure your client's a nice person, but Matt's already been fleeced by his ex-wife. He's not looking for another gold digger."
When the line went dead, he was surprised. "Hello?" Clearly, the connection had been dropped, so he let it go. He wasn't sure what Tim Moran was trying to pull, but he'd call Matt and have a discussion. It was time to check in with his client…or give him a reality check with regard to the way the real world worked.
"I don't know, Audie. This isn’t exactly my strong suit, you know," Jon responded to his friend's question regarding what would be his choice of an engagement ring, if he were in the market, as they perused the 'Tiffany & Co.' website. They were in Audrey’s office eating sushi from a little place down the street they both loved while they perused the site.
It had been a week since their dinner and his breakup, or the shedding of unnecessary baggage, as Jon thought of it. Audrey and he had been busy with clients, but when she asked him to stay and help her out with something after the workday ended, he agreed. Had he known it was shopping for engagement rings…the last thing he thought he'd ever do…he'd have invented a crisis of his own to get the fuck out of there.
"Come on, Jonny. If you were going to ask Mr. Right to marry you, what would you choose?" Audrey pushed.
He rolled his eyes as he bit into his salmon skin roll. After he swallowed, he looked at the offerings she'd chosen and laughed. "I sure as fuck wouldn't get a guy anything with the descriptor of 'princess cut', but I'd guess Lyla might like it. She's a bit high-may, right?"
His friend slapped him on the arm. "She's a dance teacher, Jonny. Of course, she's a bit of a prima donna. She's taught ballet for eight years, and she deserves something called ‘a princess cut’. Just because she doesn't worship the ground you walk on doesn't mean she's not right for me. I love her, and it's time for me to show her and all the world I want to spend the rest of my life as her wife. I'm ready for the commitment," she told him.
Those words, literally, shook him to his core as he sat next to her. He had no idea she was so ready to walk the aisle because she hadn’t mentioned anything with regard to how serious things had become between her and Lyla. If Audrey told her parents she was getting engaged to a woman, he'd need to tell his own parents some things he simply wasn't ready to divulge. When he delivered the news he wouldn’t be marrying Audrey Langley, the first thing would be the disappointment at his announcement, then the inevitable, “Why?” He couldn’t imagine answering that question for is parents. He just wasn’t ready.
Audrey had to be mistaken with regard to being ready to get engaged to the evilest creature Jon had ever met in his life. He needed to get her thinking more in his lane. "Come on, Audrey. You're no more ready to settle down and adopt babies than me," he reasoned.
Just then, they heard the night bell ring before she could respond to Jon’s observation. Audrey picked up her phone and pressed in the code to answer. "Langley & Wells, Audrey speaking."
Jon watched her and saw a slow smile. "Please hold while I connect you." She put the call on hold and turned to him, holding out the receiver. "It's Matt Collins, and he's not happy."
Without waiting for his response, she hit the button to connect the call, so Jon had no choice but to answer. "Hi, Matt. How are you? How's the family?"
"You busy this weekend? We need you to come out to the ranch for a meetin' with Tim's lawyer, who called him today and said you were an unreasonable jackass. We need the two of ya to work together to help us out with some financial arrangements we're going to make. Tim’s lawyer told him she'd call ya and you two could start the paperwork, but she called him this evenin’ to say you ain’t feelin’ so cooperative. Timmy's upset, and when he's upset, I ain't happy myself, Jon. What'd ya say to her?"
Jon swallowed, remembering the stupid phone call from earlier. He should have known the female attorney would be a problem for many reasons he wasn't ready to articulate to his client over the phone. "Tell me when to be there. I'd like to meet Miss Turnberry in person. She has some explaining to do as well, Matt." He heard the cowboy laugh and he remembered how the two became acquainted.
Matt had called Jon after receiving a referral from Ed Marshall, a farrier Jon had assisted by drawing up a Will. Matt had apprenticed under Ed when Jon was just starting out at Langley & Wells, and he'd actually had to study probate laws to assist Ed, having specialized in family law in law school.
Ed Marshall had tended to Jon’s mother's horses over the years so when he asked her for a lawyer to help him with estate planning, she gave him Jon's name. From that connection, Matt became his very first solo client when the bull rider notified him his wife had taken their son and then later when Matt ultimately filed for divorce.
Next thing Jon heard, his client was being harassed by his former mother-in-law, and there was a new man in his life who was muddying up the waters. From what Matt told him in El Paso, Tim was a younger man, and he brought nothing to the table as far as Jon could ascertain.
It seemed to be a classic set-up of Matt being taken to the cleaners for everything he had by a young Lothario, and Jon wouldn't let the man lose anything more than he'd already lost to Roberta Collins. He'd defended Matt's best interests and won the custody case. He'd persevere in the palimony case as well.
"Saturday at the ranch. No need for anything formal because we're casual here. You can stay at the house. We just finished the remodel," Matt explained. That was troublesome news as well because Matt hadn’t bothered to notify him regarding any plans for improvements at the ranch.
"Remodel? You remodeled the ranch house?" Jon asked. Matt hadn't asked him to review any contracts or estimates, not that real estate law was actually his specialty, but he could muddle through it in order to protect his client. He prayed to heaven the man hadn't gotten taken to the cleaners by an unscrupulous contractor…perhaps a friend of the gold digger he believed Tim to be? It was all quite disquieting and a little too convenient for him to believe it was above board. He truly prayed the man hadn't taken a loan at the bank.
When Matt laughed, Jon was a little startled. "Come out and bring comfortable clothes. If ya wanna ride, we'll set ya up with a good, gentle horse. Take care, Jon," Matt told him as he hung up without waiting for a response from the lawyer.
Audrey laughed next to him. "That's the hot bull rider, right? That look tells me he's not following your rules,” she teased, pissing Jon off even more.
Of course, she listened to Jon better than he listened to himself and her
superior retention skills had helped get him through law school as well. It still pissed him off she knew him so well. "He's a nice guy, but he doesn't…well, he's too trusting. Anyway, are you sure you're ready to come out to your parents?" he asked, turning the discussion back to the situation at hand. He didn’t like the pressure she was gently exerting, but he’d have been a fool to think she was going to pretend to be his girlfriend for the rest of their lives.
Audrey smiled as she took his hand and held it between both of hers. "Not yet, okay? I'm just going to ask Lyla to marry me and once she gives me an answer, we’ll move forward from there. Jonny, I'm not asking you to blow up your world. I'll give you some time before I tell Mom and Dad I'm engaged…that is if Lyla says yes," she stated with a tender smile.
Jon nodded and pointed to a three-karat, emerald cut, diamond ring set in platinum with sapphire trillions on either side. "If I was a girl, I'd say yes to that ring." He leaned forward and kissed Audrey on the forehead before he cleared up the dinner mess and left her alone in her office.
He wished her well in her pursuit of happiness, however futile he believed it to be. Maybe heterosexuals found a happy-ever-after, but all the men Jon had ever met had ulterior motives. Monogamy wasn't a word synonymous with gay culture, or so Jon believed. There would be no ‘Mr. Jon Wells’ other than himself.
A Mercedes S-Class Coupe wasn’t designed to traverse the country roads Jon encountered on his drive out to Holloway. Of course, when he got there, he prayed he wouldn't tear up the undercarriage on the gravel he believed he'd find on the driveway. He was pleasantly surprised to find he’d imagined it all completely wrong.
While the entire scene was like something out of a Norman Rockwell print, it wasn't as primitive as Jon believed it would be. The driveway was actually paved with elegant stones, and the house was quite lovely and inviting, unlike his parents' ostentatious estate in the country. The fields and outbuildings behind the house were impressive and well-kept, and he decided the Circle C was really very picturesque as he looked around. He parked in front of an open garage door and hopped out of the Mercedes to survey the sights surrounding him.
For as long as Jon had represented the bull rider, he'd only seen a few snapshots of the ranch during the divorce settlement phase. Matt always came to him in Richmond, and to date, Matt had never invited the lawyer to the Circle C. As Jon looked around, he knew those pictures he’d seen a few years prior were definitely dated. There were more buildings than he'd anticipated, and everything was immaculate and striking in the designs of the buildings and the strict color palette of creamy beige siding with forest green roofs.
Jon observed the cattle grazing lazily in the pastures, and he noticed several hunky men moving amongst them. One of which he recognized as Tim Moran, Matt Collins’ little plaything. Jon had met him at the hearing regarding Ryan's custody. "The gold-digging boy-toy," he reminded himself.
Tim was atop a light-brown horse with a dark mane and tale. They appeared to be doing some sort of dressage-related exercises in the field because the horse was prancing right and left as it seemed to toy with a small cow. Another cowboy on a gray horse twirled a rope high in the air before flinging it to land around the cow's neck. He watched Tim jump from his horse and toss the cow on its side, tying its feet with a shorter rope. The entire production appeared to be skillful, but Jon had never dealt with cattle so he wasn't judging their actions, only observing their performances.
The tall cowboy with the straw hat on his head hopped off his horse and walked over to where Tim had the cow on the ground, leaning over to give it some sort of an injection. From what Jon could see, the guy was over six feet and he had reddish-brown hair which was peeking out from under his beat-up hat. He had a slim, muscular build, and as he shouted something to Tim which Jon was unable to hear, he saw the smaller blonde laugh and shake his head. After the cow was injected with yet another something, it was released and ran away from the two men in the field.
The slender cowboy walked over to Tim and said something else as he petted the horse Tim was riding, and the two of them laughed again before the man walked back to the tall, gray horse he was riding, hopping up on the back as he recoiled the rope. In Jon's mind, he was like a cowboy from a movie…a really sexy movie. It was something to behold in person.
Jon walked to the back of his car to retrieve his weekend bag as a BMW Z4 Roadster convertible in bright copper with the black, ragtop down came zooming up the driveway. He stopped what he was doing to observe a petite, platinum blonde in a Philadelphia Phillies hat hop out before tossing the cap into the car as she took down her hair and smoothed it with her fingers. She was a beautiful woman about Jon's age, so he was guessing it was Rhonda Turnberry.
"Ms. Turnberry? Jon Wells," he introduced, extending his hand in greeting. He was unprepared for her to give him the up-and-down, and if she wasn't a potential adversary, he might consider giving her some attention. He might even be able to get it up for the beautiful woman…stranger things had happened in his life.
She extended her hand and gripped his strongly. "How do you do? I believe our clients are going to test your patience this weekend. By the way, I don't believe your client has kept you up-to-date regarding changes to their situation. You need to get him alone and have a conversation.
"You pissed me off, Mr. Wells, with your pompous attitude on the phone regarding Mr. Moran. I can only imagine how the Moran-Collins' reacted when they discussed it," she jabbed as she went to the back of her little convertible, pulling out a Louis Vuitton bag. She slammed the trunk and turned to Jon with a look of displeasure on her face.
"I hope you have a kinder disposition and don’t make the mistake of talking down to Tim and Matthew the way you did to me when we spoke the other day. I'm not sure where the hostility was coming from because Tim wants to share his assets with Matt and set up a trust for Ryan, but you made it known you didn't approve of anything Tim wanted to do for the Collins men.
“I'd suggest you gather your thoughts and come to the table with a very good reason why you believe Tim’s desire to share his good fortune with that family is so distasteful to you," she snapped as she walked up to the front door of the ranch house and rang the bell.
The door opened, and Jon saw Matt's mother greeting the petite woman at the front door. The smile on Jeri Collins' face was as bright as he remembered from the day the judge ruled in favor of Matt at the custody hearing. He saw Jeri look in his direction and smile, waving at him.
He decided to take his chances with the men at the barn, so he waved and pointed to the barn, leaving his case on the hood of his car. He'd purchased a new pair of low-rise, square-toe boots off the internet, but he was discovering they likely wouldn't fare well in a barn lot full of horse and cow manure.
As he was approaching the lot, he saw Matt's father, Marty, heading from the back of the house. "Mr. Collins, Sir, how are you?" he asked as the two men strode toward the gate leading to the front of the barn lot.
Marty stopped to shake Jon's hand. "I'm good, Jon. How 'bout you? Nice of ya to come out for the weekend. Oughta be a doozy," the man joked. Jon had come to know Martin Collins as a jovial man with a kind disposition, but a temper that would flare pretty quickly if he felt his family was being threatened.
"I, uh, understand I've stepped in it with Matt, based on a conversation we had the other evening. You feel up to giving me any clues about what's got him so pissed?" Jon asked the patriarch of the Collins family in the off-chance the man was willing to give him a head's up.
Marty stopped and placed his hand on Jon's shoulder. "Well, I'm not too sure about this particular issue, but I do know the boys have a lot of plans in the mix, and Tim was upset about the discussion you had with Ronni, that pretty little blonde gal. She said you were an egotistical jackass on the phone, or so I heard. Well, I guess you'll get to hear all about it over the weekend," Marty explained as Jon looked up to see Tim and the tall cowboy riding back toward the barn.
; "What were they doing?" Jon asked as he continued to follow Marty, changing the subject to something aside from the figurative spanking he was expecting from his client.
"Oh, they were vaccinatin' calves. Mickey just moved here a few days ago, and he's a hell of a hand on a horse, plus, he's the only one besides Timmy and Nando who'll take care of the horses. The rest of these hands are cowhands, and they don't like carin' for the four horses that live here now. Of course, Josie's at our barn right now because she's in season and Matt's not ready to breed her yet. Nando comes up to the house to take care of her at our barn twice a day," Marty explained.
As Jon listened, he was grateful he understood half of what Mr. Collins was saying. His parents had the farm in Dillwyn where his mother had several thoroughbreds of her own she used for breeding, and even Jon had a gelding at the farm he enjoyed riding when he got out to the country on weekends. With regard to caring for the cattle, Jon nodded and smiled, feigning an understanding of what the man was saying. Cattle really weren't his thing, but he couldn’t afford for Matt Collins to know that information.
When Jon walked into the barn with Marty, he took a better look at the tall cowboy he'd observed in the field earlier. Up close, the guy was off of a runway…well, a runway where all the models were cowboys and REALLY…FUCKING…HOT. The man’s eyes were positively hypnotic.
"You boys finish with the calves already?” Marty asked. Jon saw the tall cowboy smile and nod.
“I saw y’all vaccinatin' one of the bull calves Matt wants to put down there by the river after he ships Smokey Joe. He started buildin’ that covered pen down there yet?" Marty quizzed. Jon still had no idea what they were discussing, but watching the burnished brunette with the bright green eyes was quite fascinating.
"Joe’s shippin’ out next week," Green Eyes replied.
Marty nodded. "I heard he's a mean bastard. You watched him at all?"
Loving the Lawyer (The Cowboys of Katydid Farm Book 2) Page 5