by Lynda Chance
Mr. Whitfield watched him with a commiserating expression. “I’m sorry, son.”
Josh brought his hand to his face and rubbed his forehead in annoyance and fury at the implications of what he’d just been told. But he played along with the story. “And the second brother and his wife owe a shit-ton of money to said bank while this money has been sitting in the same bank all this time?”
“Well, now, here’s where things get real confidential. Suppose the second brother couldn’t make his payments and the bank had no recourse but to begin foreclosure proceedings. But suppose before that happened, a white knight came in and took over the loan.”
Josh narrowed his eyes as the banker’s voice came to a halt. “A white knight?”
“A white knight is—”
“I know what a white knight is,” Josh interrupted. “I’m asking who it was.”
“I can’t say anything more. It would be my opinion that you need to have a heart to heart with your aunt and uncle. But son, one word of advice. I wouldn’t have this conversation in front of your new bride.”
In the middle of standing to his feet, Josh froze and met the pained eyes of the older man.
“Zachary McIntyre?” Josh asked for acknowledgment, his voice rough as he shook the hand offered to him.
“That’s not for me to say,” the man answered. But Josh could see the truth blazing from his eyes.
Josh walked to the door, feeling like he was on automatic pilot.
“I’ll get that paperwork ready for your wife to sign. Good to see you, son, and good luck on your marriage.”
Josh thanked him and left, his mind in turmoil while he walked to his patrol car and climbed in.
Why? Why would Zach McIntyre pay off the loan? Josh searched his mind for answers to the puzzle. It made no sense. Zach McIntyre held nothing but ill will toward the entire Turner family. Josh had long ago quit giving the other man the benefit of the doubt. If Hannah and Katie both thought Zachary McIntyre was holding a grudge, then why shouldn’t he believe them? So what could Hannah’s brother have hoped to achieve with the move? What could have been his motive? When a bank foreclosure would have left Josh’s family no option but to leave town to search out work, what reason could he have had to forestall a foreclosure?
Whatever reason he had, it couldn’t have been a good one, and Josh felt his guts twist when he thought of the pain this might cause Hannah. Goddamnit! This was another complication his father had caused that Josh was going to have to clear up. How the hell was he supposed to keep Hannah from finding out what her brother had done? Because he knew that whatever motivation Zachary had, it had been a selfish one. That was a given. He had full faith in the bastard. He’d done it for some type of personal gain, and Josh didn’t think it was something as simple as trying to attain the small patch of Turner land that was adjacent to the McIntyre spread.
Whatever the son of a bitch had planned, Josh now had the means to fight him off. Josh had the money to secure the land, the knowledge to stop whatever was planned, and the one thing that Zach McIntyre would never dare hurt. Josh held the ace in the hole. He had Hannah.
****
Josh drove down the dusty lane and for the first time in a long time, took a long look around at their fields. They were parched from the lack of rain, and if his uncle could pull off a crop this year it would be miraculous. As he drove in and parked, Josh looked to the left of the house and noticed that his aunt had enlarged the vegetable garden. In stark contrast to the dry fields, the garden was thriving and looked like it could sustain them for a long time. He knew she hand watered it with a hose, and what they didn’t consume themselves, she canned for the winter or fed to the chickens to supplement their feed.
He knew if it wasn’t for the mortgage hanging over their heads, his aunt and uncle would be able to continue thriving here on the homestead for many years to come. They had plenty to eat, and a good water system for drinking and household use. They weren’t rich by any means, but they managed a good and decent living from the farm.
If only his damned father hadn’t gone and fucked it all up.
He parked and pulled the key from the ignition, determined to make it right.
His aunt was in the kitchen when he walked through. There was no sign of Hannah.
“Where’s Hannah?” He walked to the fridge and pulled out a Coke and popped the top.
“David drove her home to pack some of her things and collect her car,” Diana responded, with a smile on her face. She was stirring a large bowl of something that looked like chocolate.
“Her car?” he questioned in a brittle voice.
“Well, yes, baby. She’ll need her car,” she responded absently as she pulled eggs from the fridge.
Josh thought of the expensive car that McIntyre money had purchased. He didn’t particularly want Hannah to keep the car, but he knew he would have to get over it. There was no good reason she shouldn’t have it, just because he hadn’t been the one to buy it for her. He was smart enough to know that emotions like the one he felt about the car would cause problems in their marriage. And besides, it was only a car. It meant nothing in the scheme of things.
“How long ago was this? Is he back yet?” He turned his mind to the uncomfortable conversation he needed to have with his aunt and uncle. If Hannah would be at the ranch for awhile, this was the perfect opportunity. He needed to know how desperate their situation was.
“He pulled up just before you. He’s out in the barn.” She cracked an egg and turned to face him with a smile. “I’m making you a Texas hot-chocolate cocoa cake.”
Josh had suspected she was making him one. She knew it was his favorite. She’d been on cloud nine since he had announced that he and Hannah were married. He knew that even though his aunt already loved Hannah after getting to know her so well as Katie’s friend, his aunt’s maternal mind was now hovering around the fact that since he’d married a hometown girl, he was more likely to settle close by, if not completely on the farm. Josh also knew that his aunt worried about him being a law enforcement officer. She was always worried he’d move to Dallas or Houston where there was more crime and a need for a much larger force. But now that he’d married Hannah, he knew that she’d figured out in her mind that he’d probably stay in Redwood Falls forever.
And she was right. If he had anything to say about it, he and Hannah would live here forever.
He walked over and kissed her forehead. “Thanks, you know that’s my favorite.” She beamed up at him and touched his cheek, while he continued in an even voice, “I need to talk to y’all about something, I’m going out to the barn to get Uncle David. We’ll be back in a minute.”
Diana must have missed his serious tone because she kept smiling and just nodded her head.
****
Ten minutes later, his aunt’s cake was in the oven and all three of them were sitting at the kitchen table. His aunt and uncle sat quietly and watched him expectantly.
Josh sat for a moment in the only home he had ever had with the closest thing to parents he had ever known and wondered why they hadn’t told him about their problems. His mind supplied the only possible answer. They were trying to protect him. Protect him from the pain of what his father had done. Protect him from the worry about the mortgage.
He was relieved that he could put their minds to rest in that aspect at least.
They had no way of knowing all that money wasn’t already spent and gone.
He cleared his throat and got down to it. “I know about the mortgage. I know about Chris selling out before he died.” He paused and watched the emotion play across their faces as they listened to him and then looked at each other. Diana made a choked noise and his uncle reached for her hand.
They were silent, so Josh continued, “Why’d ya’ll keep this from me?”
His uncle cleared his throat, and spoke in a roughened voice, “You’d already been through enough, son. You couldn’t have done anything about it anyway and we didn’t w
ant to worry you when you were under stress.”
“What stress are you talking about?”
“My brother had hurt you enough, Josh. You were only beginning to recover from everything he’d put you through. You were just beginning to show signs of true happiness with Hannah. We didn’t want you to know.”
Josh fisted his hand and bit his lip and tried to remember they had done it out of love. And truth be told, what could he have done? He had been powerless at the time; he didn’t have much money and he’d been too young to have been much help.
As much as he wished they had shared this with him at the time, he knew why they hadn’t. But that was over. It was time to move on.
“Okay, fine. Where’s the situation at now?” he asked.
“It seems to be stable at the moment. About three years ago, we almost went into foreclosure, but Zach McIntyre took over the loan and we worked out a payment plan,” his aunt responded.
“Zachary McIntyre.” Josh realized his voice sounded bitter and unbelieving at finding out his worst fear was true. “Why? Why would he step in to help when he doesn’t like our family? He didn’t know about me and Hannah at the time, so what was his motive? It doesn’t make sense.”
His uncle was silent and his aunt answered once again, “We didn’t think it made good sense either, but we didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth and I guess we just put it down to him wanting to bury bad feelings.”
Josh didn’t buy it. “I don’t think so. It doesn’t sound like the Zach McIntyre we know.” He studied the older couple. “I’m damn glad I’m not having to say this in front of Hannah, it would make her unhappy, ya’ll understand that, right?”
His aunt answered quickly, “We won’t say anything to her, baby. That’s your business with your wife.”
Josh got back to the problem at hand. “He had to have a reason. I need to know what it is.”
“We don’t know what it could be,” his uncle said.
“Okay, well—I’ve got some good news.” His mouth broke into a half grin, knowing he was about to take the majority of the burden from them. “Ya’ll ready?”
“Yes! Quit that,” his aunt remonstrated when he remained silent for too long. She reached out and tapped him on the hand. “What news?”
Josh looked at his uncle and refused to utter the word father when he referred to the man who had sired him. “Chris didn’t have time to spend all the money before he died. He put it in a joint account with my name on it and it’s at the bank in town. I just found out about it this afternoon.”
The blood drained from both of their faces. “How much?” his uncle asked.
“A little over three-hundred grand.”
“Oh my God,” his aunt whispered in a stunned tone.
“How much do we owe him?” Josh asked.
“Three-hundred and twenty thousand. That’s how much we borrowed originally and the payments we’ve made have only gone to interest,” his uncle answered.
Josh looked the other man in the eye and nodded his head in satisfaction. “I’ve got more than enough to make up the difference. We’re paying him off.” Josh caught himself before he referred to his brother-in-law as the bastard, refusing to create any more animosity, even in his own head.
His aunt jumped to her feet at his words. “Josh, no! That’s your money. You deserve it for what you’ve been through. We can’t take it.”
The chair he was sitting in made a scraping noise in the silent room as Josh slowly pushed back from the table and came to his feet. He focused his attention on the woman standing before him, wringing her hands in agitation. He slowly walked to her, wrapped his arms around her and held her gently to him.
He lifted her chin and stared down into her agitated eyes; eyes already swimming in tears. He took a deep breath and attempted to convey his feelings. “I don’t want to dredge up old wounds, or talk about who owes who what, but as it stands right now, we’re a family. Ya’ll, me, Katie, and now Hannah.” She bit her lip as she listened earnestly to him. “I don’t care whose name the land is in. I know that ya’ll love me.” He looked down into his aunt’s eyes, eyes spilling with silent tears. “I know this will always be my home, every bit as much as it will always be Katie’s.” He lifted his thumb and wiped a tear from her cheek as he heard his uncle clearing his throat from the emotion lodged within. “I have ya’ll to thank for that. For loving me, for making me whole again.” His fingers tightened on her face. “It’s our family, our land, our money. And nothing you can do or say will stop me from using it to secure our home. Don’t even try.”
Josh had never seen his uncle cry, not even when his brother had died. And he didn’t cry now, but the sheen of tears was unmistakable in his eyes. “What can we do for you, son? Everything can’t be about us, what about you and Hannah?” the older man asked.
Josh let out a pent-up breath and told them what he’d been thinking about. “You know the strip of fencing on the south side of the property adjacent to the McIntyre spread?”
His uncle answered, “Sure. Where the old well house is?”
“Yeah. I’d like about two acres for a home site. I want to build a house for Hannah. That’s the place I want, where she can be here, with me, but she’ll always be able to look across the fence and know she’s at home, surrounded by everyone who loves her.”
“Oh, sweetheart, yes.” Diana laced her hands together and smiled. “That’s a wonderful idea. Don’t you think so, David?”
“Absolutely. We couldn’t be more pleased.”
After more talk and plans about the future, his aunt and uncle agreed to take the money to pay off the loan, but only if they added Josh’s name to the property deed for the entire six-hundred and forty acres. Josh knew it would be the only way to sooth them about taking the money, so even though he didn’t think it was necessary, he agreed.
****
Late that night while Hannah was taking a bath and David was dozing on the couch in front of the television, Diana motioned for Josh.
He followed her to the back of the house, and she began speaking in a flood of heated, whispered words. “Your uncle doesn’t know what I’m about to tell you. And I pray to God that it means nothing, but you’ve got me worried with all those questions about why.”
At his enquiring expression, she continued, “About Zachary’s reasons.” She took a deep breath. “When the bank began the foreclosure process, Zach took over the loan and gave us three years to come up with the money. It was a balloon note.” She searched his face. “When the three years was up, I told your uncle that Zach extended the time frame. But that’s not entirely true. What David doesn’t know is that at first Zach seemed like he was going to foreclose, but then he suddenly changed his mind, for no reason that I could understand—I admit, I was so thankful that I didn’t try very hard to understand, but—”
“But what?” Josh asked, feeling like he was on the cusp of finding out a glimmer into the other man’s motivation.
He watched as Diana’s face blanched of all color and then she whispered, “I told Katie.”
For a long moment Josh didn’t put two and two together, didn’t understand what his aunt was trying to say to him. “Katie?”
“Yes, I—I was so worried about not having the money to pay Zach, and hiding the fact from your uncle that Zach was ready to start foreclosing on us, that I had to tell somebody. I told Katie.”
Josh was getting a seriously bad feeling in his gut.
“You told Katie, and then—?”
“And then about a week later, suddenly Zach was giving us more time to pay.”
Realizing the implications, Josh slashed his fingers through his hair and barely managed to cut off the stream of obscenities that almost spilled from his mouth. He refused to utter the curses that his aunt hated to hear. Her lessons had been drummed in his head so many times about his colorful language, that even now, he was able to cut off the vitriol that tried to erupt from his mouth.
His lan
guage was not the only thing he needed to protect his aunt from. What the fuck had the bastard done? The fact that Diana had told Katie and then they were given a reprieve was too suspicious to be coincidental. He felt a surge of anger at the other man and fear for his cousin. A fear that he had to hide from his aunt. He couldn’t have her worried about Katie. It would drive her insane.
He would have to handle it alone.
He set out to soothe her. “It’s okay. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,” he lied. “Don’t say anything, and don’t worry about it. I’ll check it out. Soon. I’m sure there’s no connection.”
That was an out and out lie.
He was damn sure there was a connection.
It irked the shit out of him that he’d have to wait until tomorrow to delve into this. It was already too late; he’d have to let it go for the moment. Josh was tense, pissed and worried, and he could think of only one thing that would make it better.
****
Josh walked into his childhood bedroom and found Hannah sitting at the desk where he’d done his homework when he’d been growing up. She had a hand mirror propped up, and she was combing the tangles from her wet hair. She turned toward him when she heard the door open and close.
Josh stared at his wife and let her presence infiltrate his system and bring him the peace he needed. She was so beautiful, so delicate, and so his. He felt a surge of unadulterated satisfaction, and knew that no matter what else happened in his life, if he could always have Hannah, he could face anything.
As he watched her, she finished what she was doing and slid around on the stool until she faced him. As she calmly waited for him to say something, he felt his hunger for her surge and a tidal wave of lust hit him hard. Had there ever been a day when he hadn’t wanted her? As he studied the pretty lines of her face, her eyes glanced off his and began to roam around his room. She must have gotten tired of waiting for him to speak, because as she looked around the small bedroom, her eyes got dreamy and she said, “Do you know how many times I wanted to be in this room?”