Page 31 of An Endless Memory

“Aunt Linda doesn’t have kids, and it’s just her and my dad, so Grandma divided the land up, and none of my siblings are married.”

Sutton braced her hands on the armrests and leaned forward. “All of your siblings have to get married?”

“All five of them.” And they didn’t know it yet. “My dad’s going to flip.” Everyone would. Aunt Linda would have seven people facing her down between my five siblings and two parents. I wasn’t close with her, but I could commiserate. I was also salty toward her.

Sutton gasped. Aggie and Tova approached. Vienne ditched a tame game of volleyball to come over. Austen had been barking out orders for everyone to take it easy and keep it safe for her.

“Mind if I join?” Tova asked, pulling a folding chair closer.

Aggie did the same and grabbed one for Vienne.

Sutton glanced at me, an apology in her eyes.

“Not at all.” I didn’t mind talking with them. Their demeanor was different than Carter’s family. I sensed nothing but genuine concern and caring from the Knights. I should have been gun-shy after my marriage, but I was also exhausted from the last month of stress. I was trusting them with my biggest secret, one that involved more than me. I wouldn’t keep Eliot from getting help where he could. He would be giving up a lot.

He should’ve run as soon as he heard me say his name.

I was surrounded by women who reminded me of my sisters. They would be in-laws for a year and already I was more comfortable around them than my former in-laws. “I was just telling Sutton about how my family’s going to react when they learn what they have to do. They’ll each have their own property to inherit.”

Everyone was looking at me, waiting. That part was new. I got run over a lot in our big family gatherings.

“I have three sisters and two brothers,” I explained, “and if they want the property my grandma’s leaving them, they all have to get married and live there too. I have the house and forty acres.” I ticked one finger up. “I’m not sure how the rest is broken up, but there’s a cabin that Grandma kept up on the far edges of the land. My grandpa built it so he and his hunting buddies would have a place to stay. She rents it out now.” I put another finger up. “Then there’s a house with some acreage she and Grandpa bought on the edge of town. It bordered some of their land, and they wanted a rental property.” A third finger. “Then they bought another section that had an old house on it. Grandpa liked to rescue homes. Um…I’m not sure if there’s just land left or if they bought more that they didn’t talk about.”

Vienne danced her fingers up one of the long necklaces she wore. “They’ll all be moving here?”

“I really don’t know.” I would love to have them live close. I barely remember the days when we lived in Crocus Valley, but I recalled being happy. Our house had been smaller but everyone had been around. After we moved to Billings, everyone grew up and went to college one by one until only I was left. I missed the chaos of a full house. I missed having family close.

Carter had tried to seclude me. I could see that now while I was surrounded by near strangers. I hadn’t been able to form a support network like this when I’d been with him.

“When does this all have to happen?” Tova sounded as scandalized as Vienne had.

“Seven years.” After a year of wondering where I’d live, where I’d work, and trying to answer people who asked the same, tonight was refreshing. I got the perk of being the first to hear everything. “Seven years from when Grandma passed, everything that isn’t claimed will get sold, but it can’t be sold to family.”

“What happens if someone doesn’t marry, or the marriage doesn’t last?” Vienne asked.

“I dunno. I think Aunt Linda would sell it and donate the money.”

Aggie tipped her head. The wind rustled her fluffy curls. Mine would puff out like that if I didn’t use product after my shower. I’d look like an electrocuted dandelion, but on Aggie, it was pretty. “What’s your aunt’s incentive to see everyone succeed in marrying?”

I chewed my lower lip. “I don’t know.” Like me, my aunt probably didn’t want to see what my grandparents had worked so hard for getting dissolved. Grandma had wanted us happy, and this was her wild way of forcing our hands, of molding us into her vision of happiness. But what did my aunt want? Certainly not the headache of telling everyone about the rules and then enforcing them.

Tova frowned. “There must be something she gets for the ideal resolution your grandma wanted.”

I could ask my aunt, but ultimately, I wanted the house. I could commiserate with my siblings, but they’d have to figure it out for themselves.

“Does she want them all to return to Coal Haven?” Sutton asked. “They were all born there too, right?”

I nodded. “Yes, and my mom wished we could move back. She never liked Billings as much, and she missed helping my grandparents farm and ranch. Grandma loved my mom, so maybe this was a way to get us all to relocate?”

“Do you want them to?” Sutton asked.

Longing tugged at my heart. I wanted this with my own family—barbecues, parties, and laughter. “Sort of, but we’re not close like you guys. We all scattered after high school.”

“We weren’t as close as we are now,” Aggie said. She lifted her can of sparkling water toward a house across the road. “The guys would gather for working cattle and stuff in Buffalo Gully, but they weren’t especially close. I moved first and then life kind of piled all of us here, and it changed. Except for Eliot. I wonder if sometimes he isn’t worried we’ll forget about him.”

I’d never forget Eliot.

“Now we have an excuse to see him more.” Sutton grinned at me. “Thanks to our future sister-in-law.”

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