Page 27 of Inheriting Miss Fortune

Thankfully, Orris continued without waiting for my confirmation. “Good thing they proceeded with the lawsuit, then. Brock Lois is handling the case. He’s the best. I’m sure he’s already working on getting as much dirt on the man as possible, but I don’t have to tell you that anything you can offer him in support of the Scotts’ suit would be greatly appreciated.”

I clenched my back teeth. “Sir, respectfully, I’m not going to do that. My client was very firm in her decision against leaving custody of Lellie to her parents, so I will not assist a suit to go against her wishes.”

“Tully, I understand your conflicting emotions here, but there are things you don’t understand—can’tunderstand. Sometimes there are misunderstandings between an adult child and her parents that become meaningless when something as terrible as the child’s death occurs. You wouldn’t understand that, since you’re not a parent yourself. What’s clear is that the Scotts love their granddaughter very much and would make a stable and loving home for her. Any judge in town will side with Pastor Scott, whose church is a fixture in the community and who’s been in a forty-year committed marriage, over a single father who’s never even met the child. The Scotts are going to win their suit, and if an associate of Dunlevy, Pace, and Trumble hinders their efforts to gain custody of their granddaughter, we stand to lose millions of dollars of their legal business from our books. I won’t stand for that.”

“I am not suggesting we hinder them, Orris,” I said. “I’m only stating that I will notaidthem by betraying my own client. I have an ethical obligation to represent the interests of my client and her child?—”

“Surely you believe the interests of the child lie with the Scotts.” Orris’s tone conveyed that this was not a question but a clear statement of what I was expected to believe, whether I actually believed it or not. If I disagreed with it outwardly, I would receive a harsh and immediate black mark on my record as a potential partner at the firm.

“My opinion is irrelevant, sir,” I hedged. “It’s not my place to have an opinion here. It’s my job to represent my client.”

I felt a trickle of sweat slide down my lower back.

“As it’s my job to represent mine,” Orris said firmly. “Franklin Scott is my client. The Scotts’ business is worth way more to this firm than Kathryn’s ever was, make no mistake. If it comes down to having to choose sides here, Tully, I expect you to choose the right one. Do I make myself clear?”

My jaw began to ache. There was no point in accusing him of pressuring me into unethical and unprofessional behavior unless I was ready to get fired. And I definitely was not. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. I’ll have Brock’s people get in touch with you to get these papers served. Meanwhile, I need you to stay there and keep an eye on McKay in case he gets the idea in his head to take the girl and run.”

I thought about the work I was already missing. “Stay here for how long, exactly?”

“As long as it takes, Tully.”

After ending the call, my hands and jaw ached from clenching them so hard.

How the fuck am I supposed to handle this?

I knew what I owed Katie, and I felt that responsibility keenly. But Katie knew my career was my life—the dream I’d worked toward since I’d been a poor-as-fuck kid in Texas squirreling away every penny I’d earned as a ranch hand to put toward my tuition as a down payment on a better, more stable future. Being a partner-track attorney at a firm like Dunlevy, Pace, and Trumble wasn’t the sort of job where you could easily transfer your acquired skills and contacts to a new firm, either. If I had to find a new position, it would mean starting over from scratch, with a massive loss of money, seniority, and career security.

I didn’t even want to contemplate it. Hard fuckingno.

Which meant I had to make sure it didn’t come to that… somehow.

I paused in the bedroom doorway to check on Lellie. She was still sleeping peacefully in the travel crib with her little arms flung out beside her head and her rounded cheeks pink from heat. I moved close and pulled the cotton blanket down until it was only covering her lower legs and feet.

The room smelled like sandalwood. Like Devon. I closed my eyes and indulged in a few deep inhales. Memories that were never truly far off cascaded behind my eyelids. The scent of his faded cologne as I brushed my nose along his neck and behind his ear. The salty taste of the skin there. The sound of his deep voice as he encouraged me tofeel good, just like that.

I shook my head and quickly grabbed the video baby monitor so I could go downstairs to the barn and get some distance from Dev’s scent and his surroundings.

I was here to give this man custody of his daughter and to make sure that Lellie would be safe in his care. That was all—and after that conversation with Orris, that was going to be more than complicated enough—so it didn’t matter how often I’d fantasized about doing much, much more to him these past two years.

Indigo was busy filling troughs in the nearest paddock with fresh water while listening to something on giant headphones. At some point, he’d managed to swap his flip-flops for mucking boots, but he’d stuffed his linen pants in the top of them, making them balloon out comically.

When he saw me, he jumped. “Whoa, dude. Warn a guy.”

“Sorry. I was just stretching my legs and having a look around,” I explained. “My name is Tully.”

“Dope. Indigo. I’m here to help out with the horses for a bit. You, too?”

I reached out to offer my knuckles to a nearby gelding for a sniff. “No. Just here for a visit. Up from Texas. What about you?”

“I’m from Utah, originally, but I went to school in Colorado. Just graduated last week, so I’m probably heading back to Utah in a couple months to get, like, a real adult job,” he said sadly. “When I thought about going backnow, though, I was totally bummed. So I told myself, ‘Nah, Indigo, you need a summer adventure.’ But, like, also gotta make money, right?” He shrugged. “Mostly, I wanted an excuse to climb Three Daughters, so…here I am.”

I hoped that wasn’t as creepy as it sounded. “Three Daughters?”

He tilted his shaggy hair in the direction of a triple-peaked mountain vista in the distance. “Three Daughters. Killer climbing, bro. Big water, too, if you’re into it. Mountain biking. All that. You know AdventureSmash? They’re holding their GrandSmash race here this summer.”

I wasn’t sure I spoke the same language as this guy, but he seemed friendly enough. “Sounds like fun.”

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