“Hi,” Kelly said. “Who are you? Am I looking at my little Ari or are you the all grown up Ari?”
He walked in the room, the coat dragging the floor. “I’m the all growed up one.”
Kelly smiled. Seeing Ari’s sweet face always brightened her day.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m working on the books.”
“Books, like my story books?”
“Not like those,” she told him. “These books help me keep track of paying the bills.”
“Oh,” he said. Kelly knew he had no idea what she meant. “Look here.” Kelly pointed at a column of numbers on a piece of paper. Ari put his finger in the same place.
“See that number?”
He bobbed his head up and down.
“That’s how much I need to feed the horses.”
He looked at Kelly. “I have a paper with how much I need, too.”
Ari pulled a folded set of papers from the pocket of his father’s jacket. He put his hand on a number and held it up for her to see. “This is how much will feed the horses.”
Kelly took the offered pages and looked at them. She held back a gasp when she realized she was looking at the contract of sale for the Kendall. It was a copy. Not the original. Her heart thudded, banging against her chest. Where had Jace gotten this? Straightening the document, the underlined words jumped out at her. Three years she read. Then she read the entire clause and saw that it said the original seller had three years to rescind the contract. The tears she’d shed moments ago over being able to support the Kendall, were now tears of gloom. How could Jace do this to her?
For an instant, Kelly wanted to ball the papers up, tear them into confetti-sized pieces and shower the room with them, but she resisted. She needed them intact.
* * *
THE CANE MADE a rhythmic cadence on the hardwood floor as Kelly walked down the hall. Her pace was slower than was necessary even with her condition. She was angry and she was doing her best to rein in her emotions.
Reaching the stairs, she put her hand on the railing and ascended one by one. She could hear Jace singing on the upper floor. His voice became louder with each step. He was happy. How could he be? In his bedroom doorway, she stopped and watched. Jace was entertaining Ari, who was sitting, transfixed, on the bed.
At one point, Jace swung around and saw her standing there.
“Kelly, what’s wrong?” Jace asked, obviously recognizing how upset she was.
“Ari, could you please go to your room? Maybe look at one of your storybooks?”
“Wow! Good idea.”
Once the boy was safely out of earshot, Kelly raised the paper in her hand, and extended it toward Jace.
“What’s this?” he asked.
Kelly said nothing. She waited for him to take the papers. He came toward her. Kelly watched every movement as if in slow motion. As he got close enough to her, she moved a finger and the papers fell open. She knew he could read the red underlined words from where he stopped in his tracks.
“I can explain,” he said.
“That won’t be necessary,” she told him. “This speaks for you.” She kept her voice calm. While her heart was both breaking and beating as fast as a fan wheel, her body was straight and stiff. She looked the picture of control. “I can’t believe you’d betray me like this. You know how much this place means to me. I expect you to pack and leave within the hour.”
Kelly didn’t wait for him to reply. She turned and moved back to the hall. “I will miss Ari. The horses can stay until you make arrangements for them, but they must be gone by the end of the month.”
She left Jace without another word. Kelly limped back to her office and waited for him to go. She flinched fifteen minutes later when she heard the truck doors slam shut and the engine retreat down the driveway. He was out of her sight and no longer a thorn in her side.
Yet her heart bled.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SLEEP WASN’T AN OPTION. Kelly knew it when she got in bed at midnight. Now it was three in the morning and she was still awake. The house was empty. She was alone in the huge mansion. And she was well enough to get around without a mishap if she was careful. Mira and Drew had returned to their home. When they left, Kelly hadn’t yet found the contract. Mira didn’t know Kelly had thrown Jace out. Her cousin wouldn’t have let her be alone if she had.
Pushing the covers aside, she got out of bed. Grabbing the cane she’d left leaning against the night table, she stood up. She didn’t feel the pain in her leg. That in her heart overrode all other. She went to the kitchen and made herself a cup of coffee. She saw the package Mira used to make the coffee Jace liked. Closing her eyes for a moment, she wondered if everything she saw in the house would remind her of him. How long would it be before the ghost of his presence was no longer part of her routine?
Kelly shook her head. She thought it might be a long time. She wondered about Ari. Was he all right? How had he taken the sudden move? Did he miss her? She didn’t even say goodbye to him.
The horses whinnied in the barn. They should be asleep, but they, too, must feel the absence of their friend. She would have to exercise them, feed them and take care of them until Jace returned to collect them or he sent someone else.
The coffee brewed and Kelly took it to her office. It was the one place in the house where she had the least memories of Jace. She opened the desk drawer and found the original contract of sale. She went to the page where the rescind clause was written. She read it. Like the red-lined page on the copy Ari had innocently handed her, three years was typed in a black font. She’d read this contract. Her lawyer had read it. How many people in the law office had read it? That she didn’t know, but someone must have proofed it. Yet none of them, no one, including herself, had noticed that a line that should have said three months actually read three years.
And now she could possibly be turned out of her own home. She’d been here two years, but she felt the Kendall was more her home than any other place she’d ever lived and that included Short Hills. When she first moved into the mansion, the floors needed refinishing, the walls needed spackling, priming and painting. Some of them she’d had to demolish to the studs and replace. Kelly’s sweat was on those walls. It was in every aspect of this house. Her life was in this building. And she wasn’t giving it up without a fight.
She pushed the contract aside and did what she’d been trained to do. She developed a plan, created a defense for herself. By six o’clock she’d finished pulling together receipts and organizing them into categories related to the improvements she’d made to the property. She’d kept everything. She knew every penny that had been put into the Kendall, turning it from a run-down failure to the restored glory it was today.
At nine o’clock she called her lawyer and at nine-thirty she was walking into his office with barely a limp.
“This is an unexpected pleasure,” Harold Crawford said. “I heard you had a good crowd at the open house. I wish I could have been there, but I was out of town. I’d love to see the old house again.”
“Maybe I’ll give you a tour if I live there long enough.”
He frowned as only a lawyer could. “Did you pull my contract?” she asked.
He lifted the file folder. “We had to get it from the archives. It was just printed and handed to me before you arrived.”
“Look at page fifteen,” Kelly said.
Harold flipped to the page.
“Third paragraph from the bottom. Line seven.” She’d memorized the location. He read for a moment, then looked up at her, clearly distressed.
“It is my belief that Jason Kendall is planning to have the sale rendered null and void.”
“Have you spoken to him about this?”
Kelly shook her head. “When I found out I was too angry to do anything except throw him out.”
“We’ll fight this if he does,” Harry said.
“No, Harry, I can’t fight. I’m drained.” At t
hat point, having no sleep, Kelly felt as if she’d aged ten years. “I poured everything I had into the Kendall. Everything. If he fights me, I can’t afford to pay for a defense.”
“This is partly my fault. I’ll see to it that corrections are made. If Mr. Kendall wants to contest the sale, we’ll deal with it.”
Kelly stood up and went to the door.
“Kelly,” Harry called softly to her. “I remember what happened.” He took a moment to scan the papers. Kelly looked at him. “This was the year my secretary was ill. We had a temp in the office—”
“It doesn’t matter, Harry,” Kelly interrupted him.
“It does matter. Don’t worry over this. I’ll get in touch with Mr. Kendall’s attorney and we’ll work it out.”
“Thank you.”
She was near tears, but she refused to let them fall. This matter wasn’t over, but Kelly didn’t want to fight Jace. Why did she ever think that she could take control of the Kendall? She’d paid for it fair and square, but even now it felt as if Jace had a better claim than she did. He’d grown up in those rooms. He could raise his son there. They could bring more horses, really bring the place back to what it once was.
Kelly knew that. She’d seen it in Jace’s work. He didn’t repair and replace the broken fences and everything else like any a contractor. He did it as if he were the owner, as someone who loved what he was doing and who put his heart into it. Kelly felt like a thief taking that away from him. Maybe the error in the contract was there for a reason. She had other options. She could take the job in New York. Perry had said she belonged there. She was good at marketing. She’d get a corner office and a hefty salary that was secure. She could be content with that. She wouldn’t have to worry about sales and payroll or upkeep. She could convince the public to buy toasters or electronic gadgets. She could hawk lipstick or show the public how sexy a new car could be.
She could do all those things. She could be happy without the Kendall. It was Jace that she wanted. She didn’t think she could be happy without him.
* * *
THE NARROW ONE-LANE road that led to the Kendall was at least a mile-and-a-half long, too long for anyone to hear a car heading down it until it was upon the house. Both sides of the road were lined with the white 5-bar gate-style fencing that bordered the lawn on one side and provided access to the parking lot on the other. Kelly came to the door when she heard the heavy sound of engines and truck doors slamming in the driveway.
Her heart lifted when she thought Jace had returned. Through the panes in the door she saw a caravan of three pickup trucks, each attached to double-wide horse trailers. Stepping onto the porch, the heat hit her. A man dressed in jeans and a short-sleeved T-shirt widened his smile when he saw her.
It wasn’t Jace. He must have sent someone for the horses, although three trailers for two horses was overkill.
“Ms. Ashton?” one man questioned.
She nodded, coming down the steps. She no longer needed the cane for support.
“I’m Trey Demerest. I have some horses for you.”
He shoved some papers toward her. Kelly took them and glanced down. “I don’t understand,” she said.
“Mr. Jason Kendall said you board horses?”
Kelly stared at the papers, confused. Jace was gone for good. She couldn’t ask him about any of this.
“The paperwork is all in order,” the man said.
Kelly glanced up.
“Mr. Kendall said you weren’t available when he agreed to have us board the horses here, and that you would need to sign the papers, but we thought we’d bring them and you’d agree, we could leave them. He was sure you’d have no problem with anything.”
“I think you should know Mr. Kendall is no longer here.”
“You still board horses, correct?”
“Yes,” Kelly said softly.
“He recommended the Kendall and I’m satisfied with that.”
“Give me a chance to look these over,” she said.
“Of course,” he agreed. “But the boarding fees are here.” He pointed to a place at the bottom of page one that went into page two. The fees were reasonable, more than reasonable.
“Mr. Kendall required an account with a draw for the feed, veterinary services and such. You’ll find those details on the next page.”
“Who owns these horses?” Kelly asked.
He placed a hand on the cowboy hat he wore and removed it. With a smile of bright white teeth, he said, “I do, ma’am.”
“Where were they before? Don’t you have a farm?”
He shook his head. “I live in Baltimore, but I love horses. So do my wife and two daughters. The horses were boarded at the Rinkhard farm, but the family is retiring, selling everything and moving to Florida. They asked us to find another place for them. Mr. Kendall recommended this place. I hope everything is all right.”
Kelly nodded. “I’m sure it is, but I still need to read this agreement.”
Again Trey Demerest smiled. “Mr. Kendall said you’d want to check it out. Do you mind if I see the barn while you do that?”
She smiled in return. “It’s around the back.” She pointed in the right direction. “If you follow this road, it will end at the barn.” Trey and the two other drivers started that way.
Kelly took the contract to the porch and sat in one of the white rocking chairs the tourists had thought were so quaint. She read the agreement. It was above the norm. She didn’t know how Jace had gotten them to agree to these details, but the fees were above average, the amount to be drawn would cover even something major and it would be refreshed monthly.
Visitations would be done by prearrangement and was mainly limited to family. If they were to race, the owner would arrange to have them transported to and from the site. Race horses, she thought. These were race horses.
Kelly wanted to cry by the time she got to the end of the agreement. Jace had done this for her. He’d found her horses to board to help with expenses. She would have no out-of-pocket costs. All she needed to do was provide the place for the horses to board. Everything else was taken care of in the agreement. There were six horses; she couldn’t exercise them all herself, but there’d be enough funds to cover hiring a groom.
By the time the trio returned, Kelly had finished reading.
“Everything in order?” Trey asked.
“More than in order,” she told him. “You do realize the fees in this agreement are above average?” Kelly was a fair person and she wanted to charge a fair price. She didn’t want to give the impression that she was cheating or overcharging.
“This is the Kendall,” he said. “We negotiated the fees accordingly. I’m comfortable with them. I believe the horses will get the best care here. And I’m willing to pay for it.”
Kelly smiled. “About the groom?”
“He’s a friend of mine. He’s losing his job at the Rinkhard...”
“Emmett Cruz?”
“You know him?” Trey asked.
“Horse country is a small community,” she told him. “I know him and I’d be proud if he worked here.”
The expression on Trey’s face was approving. “Emmett’s a natural with horses, likes to be with them all the time.”
“I know. There’s a small cabin out by the barn. It’s livable, but I’ll make sure everything is in working order for him.”
“Thank you. And if there are any repairs necessary, send me the bill.”
“That’s very generous,” Kelly said.
“So it will work?”
“It will work,” she agreed.
Trey produced a pen from inside the truck’s cabin and Kelly signed the papers on the hood.
“All right, guys. Let’s unload,” he instructed.
As they started the trucks and headed for the barn, Kelly watched them, speculating where Jace was. Sadness settled over her. She missed him. More than just wanting to thank him for this incredible gesture, she was used to having him around. She missed se
eing him and Ari play in the morning and she missed sitting across from him at the dinner table each night.
She liked the way he smiled, the way he was thorough with his work, yet he took the time to make sure everything was correct. She liked the way his mouth seemed to fit hers as if the two of them were equal halves of the same whole.
The three trucks with trailers, now empty of horses, started back down the one-lane road. Kelly felt bereft. Why hadn’t Jace told her he’d done this? Had she given him the chance? She didn’t know when he’d met Trey Demerest. Had he been about to tell her when she’d thrown him out?
He could have canceled the contract. Jace had no power to make contracts for the Kendall. He could have called Trey and told him the deal was off.
Yet he hadn’t. Kelly would have said Jace wasn’t that kind of man. But then she discovered he’d hired an attorney and that her purchase of the Kendall could be null and void. At least it could be rescinded if Jace came up with the tax money. Sheldon would then have to be involved because the property would revert to him, since he was the original owner in this case. Jace could then buy the Kendall from Sheldon, if he could find the means to get a mortgage. Bottom line, to even find out, he would need his brother, since Sheldon was the rightful heir.
And because of the letter Kelly had given him, Jace knew where his brother was.
* * *
THE GROCERY STORE, like the hair salon, was the place to hear all the gossip in Windsor Heights. Since Kelly hadn’t been in the salon in a while, she opted for the grocery store. Besides, there’d likely be more people there. Pacing slowly up and down the aisles, picking up milk and bread, condiments and paper products, she scanned the faces of the other customers. She wanted to find someone she knew. Unfortunately, she saw no one who could give her a tidbit of information about Jace.
He’d gone without a word. And while she didn’t agree with his tactics or what he might do, she wanted to know where he was and that he and Ari were safe. She also needed to thank him for the extra horses now boarding at the Kendall. Kelly had all kinds of reasons to explain her presence if she could only find him.
Summer on Kendall Farm Page 15