Page 19 of Inheriting Miss Fortune

“Katie’s closest friends are either single with no kids or already have as many children as they can handle,” I explained. “And I… well, she knows I’m focused on my career. I plan to make partner in the next year or two, and the firm I work for has incredibly high standards. Katie had the same ambition, but she wanted a family, too. It became clear after she had Lellie that the firm wouldn’t trust a single parent to be able to handle the demands of a partner track.”

Dev’s jaw ticked, and when he spoke, it sounded more like he was talking to himself than me. “I just don’t understand why she would have thoughtIwas a good choice.”

“You’re her biological parent,” I said carefully. “Her closest living relative. As her only surviving biological parent, you have prima facie right to custody, which means you’re basically the default choice even without her will. If someone wanted to challenge the will, it would be much more difficult going up against that.”

He finally took his eyes off Lellie long enough to meet my gaze with his dark eyes. “Doessomeone want to challenge the will?”

I could tell he already knew the answer to that question. I nodded. “Katie’s parents are definitely not happy.”

His jaw ticked again as he returned his attention to the playground. “They can fuck off.”

While I agreed with him on a personal level, I knew better than to say so. They were Lellie’s grandparents, not to mention one of the largest clients at my law firm… and unlike some people, they knew for sure that they not onlywantedto raise Lellie, but they had the capability to do so.

“I’d make a terrible father,” Dev said. Again, this was muttered almost under his breath, and I wondered if he even realized he was saying it out loud.

Part of me—probably the same part that couldn’t stop noticing Dev’s large, callused hands and the sandalwood scent of him—wanted to disagree. To comfort and reassure him that he could handle it. It wouldn’t even be a total lie because after watching him with her last night, I felt like his heart was in the right place.

But at the same time, Devon McKay was still too much of an unknown. Being intimately familiar with the oddly square-shaped mole low on his left hip and feeling my heart go pitty-pat at the sight of him snuggling a baby wasn’t the same as knowing whether or not he paid his bills on time and was likely to be around when his daughter needed him.

“Say what you want about Katie’s parents, but they do want to raise Lellie,” I ventured. “She could do worse?—”

“No,” he barked. A young mother from a few benches down glanced over at us in surprise. I winced and shot her an apologetic look. Her eyes remained suspicious as she glanced between the children on the playground and the two of us.

After a moment, Dev spoke in a much lower voice. “I’m not leaving her with those righteous homophobes.”

“So, then…” I hesitated before continuing. “It sounds like you don’t want to keep her yourself…”

He snapped his head around to glare at me. “Of course I want to keep her myself. Jesus Christ. Lellie’s my daughter. She’sKatie’sdaughter, and I’d want to be there for her for that reason alone. But I’m not stupid, Tully. This isn’t just about what I want. It’s about what’s best for Lellie. And I’m definitely not what’s best for her.”

His words surprised me, but more than that, they concerned me. If Dev didn’t take her, and he didn’t want the Scotts to have her, what did that mean for her future?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lellie begin to tumble off the turtle, but before I could move a muscle in that direction, Dev was already up and sprinting across the playground, scooping her up before any part of her could land on the rubberized mulch below.

“It’s okay, baby,” he cooed, holding her close to his chest and rocking from side to side. “D-Dev’s here.”

The woman who’d been eyeing him suspiciously before now gazed at him with a soft expression in her eye before glancing over at me and smiling. She clearly thought we were a couple, and more than that, she seemed to think we were adorably overcautious new parents since Lellie’s fall from the turtle would have been a simple two-inch drop onto a soft surface.

I probably should have corrected her. I didn’t.

Because the soft and gooey look in her eyes was exactly how I felt at the sight of muscular cowboy Devon McKay gently cradling his baby girl on a playground. It was enough to makemewant to have his baby.

He rocked his way over and glared down at me. “We’re leaving. This place is a danger pit.”

I bit my lip against a smile. “Why don’t we try out the swings? They have the ones for babies over there.” I pointed behind him where there were several kinds of swings in a long row near a statue of a cowboy riding a bucking bronc. “They’re practically impossible to fall out of.”

He eyed the swings for a moment before reluctantly agreeing. I grabbed the backpack and followed him over.

It took both of us to wrangle her wriggling legs into the leg holes, but then she squawked out a happy noise and pumped her legs in excitement. I was relieved to see her retaining her usualcheerful mood despite her bad night. But then again, Katie had always said that babies were resilient creatures.

Dev pushed the swing gently to get it started. “Who’s managing the money right now?”

It took me a moment to change gears and realize what he was asking. “Oh, ah… Katie had a wealth manager. I notified him of her passing and let him know I was notifying next of kin.”

He nodded. “I imagine it’s mostly in the stock market?”

“Not all of it. The trust also includes her house in Dallas, her SUV, and some jewelry.” I deliberately didn’t share the value of her estate with him. Not here and not right now. The very fact he was asking me about the money made me uncomfortable.

Nothing he’d said should have felt like a red flag—it was smart to determine whether you could afford a child before deciding to have one—but I could hear the Scotts’ voice in my head and Orris’s, too. Could they have been right about him? Would he change his mind about keeping Lellie when he learned just how much money she brought with her?

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