Page 44 of Things Left Unsaid

“Yup.”

Even I can hear how self-satisfied I sound.

“I’m confused.”

“Doesn’t take much.”

“Screw. You.”

“Pops wanted me to do something for him.” And for the first time in thirty-two years, the balance of power shifted in my favor. “I agreed.”

“If he left the ranch?”

“No. He had to make me the head of Seven Cs Inc. before retiring from the company entirely. He’s only a shareholder now.AndI tacked on an eviction notice.”

“What the hell did he want?! How did you get him to agree to any of that?”

“He didn’t want to be the Korhonen who broke the legacy.”

“Explain.”

“I warned you about the water situation last summer. He screwed us over with his mismanagement. The man knows how to manage a portfolio,” I concede, “but he can’t run a ranch to save his life. Our ratios are a mess. Too many steers for our water capacity. His solution was to get more water.”

“Make it rain,” he mocks.

“I’m sure Pops wishes he could. Instead, he and Old Bitch McAllister organized a merger.” I brace myself for the shit that’s about to hit the fan. “Susanne McAllister and I are getting married, Cole.”

“You’rewhat?!”

“The hell, Cole?” Mia shrieks in the background. “You scared the crap out of me!”

“Colt’s getting married to the cow who set the fire that killed Betsy!”

With one hand on the wheel, I use the other to rub my temple. “Cole, she did not set fire to the stables.”

“You can’t seriously be marrying the woman who murdered Betsy!”

“Calm down, baby,” Mia soothes my brother, but it’s futile. There’s no soothing this old hurt.

“You weren’t the only one with a heart horse in the stables, Cole,” I rumble, echoes of grief still lingering in my voice. “You know Loki died too.”

“Then how can you hitch yourself to?—”

“Because I’m telling you she had nothing to do with it.”

Before, those words had been a lie.

Today, they’re the truth.

I get why Zee’s suspicious of my turnaround. Itisswift. Enough to give anyone whiplash. But her question opened the floodgates of memories I’d repressed because thinking of Loki hurt too badly.

I remember how she’d hold onto him as if he were the only thing keeping her sane…

No way she’d hurt him.

Seeing her in the lake, the vulnerability in her expression, it was like a veil had been lifted off me, one that had been fogging my brain for years. Or maybe it was simply the fact that the firewasyears ago. Time’s the only thing that heals all wounds, don’t they say?

“They have the water we need, Cole. Whatever dumb vendetta the Korhonens had with the McAllisters is in the past. We’re about to unite and conquer to keep both ranches alive.”

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