5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Remington

Turned out my father’s will was with his lawyer, a nervous man with stark white hair named Dell Rivers. Dell wore a tweed sports jacket, bolo tie, jeans, and cowboy boots. I couldn’t say I remembered him from my youth, but the second I stepped foot in his office, he yelped my name like he’d been expecting me.

Maybe Hannah Kelly had given him a call.

The other possibility—the one I didn’t like to think about? Each day that passed, as I grew older and the world weighed on me bit by bit, I looked more and more like Graham. The one person I never wanted to emulate looked back at me in the mirror each morning, and that was a real kick to the teeth.

Either way, Dell recognized me and invited me in. I hadn’t made an appointment, but considering Sugar Brush wasn’t a bustling metropolis, I had a feeling Dell’s calendar had more than a few open spots.

He handed me a copy of the will, but my head was aching something fierce, making the letters swim. Luckily, Dell volunteered to read it to me.

As much as I’d been hoping Hannah had gotten it wrong and the house was mine to get rid of, that wasn’t the truth. Graham had left half the house and property to her—minus Henry’s cabin and small plot. He’d also left her all his farrier tools and business.

“Now, don’t get offended Hannah got the business,” Dell blurted out, his cheeks flushing rosy. “She’s been running Town Hoofcare for years on her own. Graham couldn’t move without pain, but he taught Hannah everything he knew. The business has been hers in all but name for at least five years. She took it over and built it up, so you see, it wouldn’t be fair for her to have to split any of that with you.”

I nodded sharply, turning the name of the business over in my head. “Wouldn’t want it.”

It’d been called Town and Son Hoofcare since the day I was born. Graham had expected me to join him and take it over one day. Except horses had never been my thing—not as a career, anyway. Probably because they’d been his thing and liking something he liked hadn’t been an option for me.

“Good, good.” Dell shuffled some papers around on his desk. “Now, on to—”

“How’d Hannah Kelly get mixed up with Graham?” The question was out before I’d known I was going to ask it. But it’d been on my mind since yesterday, and I really doubted going to the source would yield me results.

Dell paused and scratched the side of his head. “You know, I’m not sure. Seems like Hannah started working with Graham as soon as she graduated high school. I remember her following Graham around back—she couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen— watching him work.”

Two or three years after I left.

When I drove away from Sugar Brush for what I’d thought was the last time, Graham had barely been functioning. He’d worked—sometimes—but spent most of his days at Joy’s and his evenings laid out on our couch, rotting away. Thinking of Hannah spending time with him in that condition sent a sharp spike through my skull.

Dell went right on talking, not seeming to notice me clutching my head. “Now Hannah’s been trimming all my horses’ hooves for a few years. They all like her, but Trixie’s my temperamental girl. Anyone else tries to get ahold of her hooves, she goes wild. Not with Hannah, though. She has the magic touch.”

He leaned forward like he was about to confide something he needed to stay between us. “It’s like children. You’re not supposed to pick a favorite, but Trixie…well, I call her my soul horse. We understand each other, and I want her to have the very best. She’s barefoot, you know, so it’s important to get her trims just right. Cleve Jones came out once to trim her after I made Hannah mad.” He waved his hand in front of him. “Never mind that. The point is, Hannah’s the best and deserves Town Hoofcare, free and clear. Graham did right by her. As for the house…”

My forehead crinkled. “You think he did right by me, splitting the house between us—making it so I can’t sell unless Hannah can buy me out?”

He flattened his hands on his messy desk. The office was cluttered with piles of paper and filing cabinets, and his ancient computer wasn’t even turned on. I idly wondered if all his business was still done on paper.

Not that it mattered. It was just easier to think about what Dell’s life must’ve been like than focusing on my own.

“Listen, son,” Dell began. “It isn’t my place to say what’s right or wrong. I can assure you Graham was in his right mind when he had me draw up this will. He knew Hannah would take care of the property and could use the land for horses of her own if she wanted, but he didn’t feel right leaving you nothing in case you wanted to come back. Splitting it was the best he could do. I have it under good authority if you want to sell your half to Hannah Kelly, she has the resources to buy you out. Graham was well aware of this too, son. If you want to be done with all this, you have that choice. Let me know, and I’ll be glad to get the ball rolling.”

I didn’t know what to say. Then again, based on the immediate search through his desk drawers, he wasn’t waiting for a response.

“Ah, yes.” He waved a thick envelope like a prize. “This is for you too.”

He shoved the white envelope toward me, my name scrawled across it in my father’s handwriting. I took it on instinct, holding it with both hands.

“What’s this?”

“Not sure. Graham delivered this to me a few months ago, instructing I give it to you should you turn up here. If I knew him, he had some words he wanted to leave you with, knowing he’d never be able to in person. That might be what’s in the envelope, but I can’t say for sure.”

My hands flexed around the envelope, crumpling it slightly. It wasn’t even close to what my gut urged me to do. As soon as Dell had said this might contain my father’s final words, knots had tightened my stomach and chest, and a voice inside me screamed to rip it up until there was nothing left but confetti.

I didn’t, though, and not because I had any intention of ever reading what was inside. I was more circumspect with my emotions than that, and there was not a chance I’d be breaking down in Dell Rivers’ office, even if holding this envelope felt like a live wire singeing my palms.

“Is that it?” I asked tightly. “No other surprises?”

“Nothing I can think of.”

I signed a few papers and walked out of Dell’s office, no idea what my next step was. I would’ve turned my truck toward home and driven until I reached it, but I didn’t have one anymore. Before my last trip overseas, I’d been living with my ex-girlfriend, but she’d given me an ultimatum: her or my job. I’d headed out the next day. For all I knew, she’d burned everything I’d left behind. She sure as hell wasn’t holding on to anything for me.

Graham’s house wasn’t a place I could stay long term, but I could stand being there as long as I knew I’d eventually be leaving. As evidenced by my splitting headache, I was still healing. It’d be some time before I could go back to work.

I climbed into my truck and pointed it toward Graham’s house.

It wasn’t home. Never would be again. But it’d do.

For now.