Page 133 of Just (Fake) Married
Letthe history books show that this Calloway/McGraw interaction did not end in murder.
EPILOGUE
HARMONY
Ethanand I walked into the office at the Swinging D and everyone groaned.
“Too much?” I asked, touching my beach hat and the summer dress I was wearing.
My husband followed me, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses and flip flops. We were leaving - no matter what happened in this meeting - to catch our flight to Hawaii for our long overdue honeymoon.
One week on the beach with that man. I had never looked forward to anything more.
“You look amazing,” Mom said, squishing over on the couch so I could sit between her and my sisters. “I’m sure that’s what all the beach people are wearing.”
Gordan Prescott, Leroy’s attorney, called for this meeting a few days ago. Right after Last Hope Gulch had gotten the news that we had officially been awarded the Blue Ribbon for our Feud Day Festival.
He’d indicated that, given we’d met the first stipulations of Leroy’s will, that there were more details to be ironed out.
Looking very nervous, he sat behind the office desk, where I’d become used to seeing Carter each morning, his hair on end with a grim expression on his face.
The Calloway women sat on the couch with Mom. Carter and Mac stood on either side of the room. Tag sat in the chair nearest the window, looking out at the sunshine and probably thinking of all the work he was missing as we were in the middle of calving season.
“All right,” Ethan said. “Let’s get this over with. Harmony and I have better places to be.”
I blew him a kiss and everyone groaned again. Ethan winked at me and I thought about how much of the next week I was going to spend naked. A lot. A whooooole lot. A serious thrill raced through my body.
Gordon cleared his throat and mopped his brow with a handkerchief.
“This is going to be simple, right?” Ethan asked. “We’ve fulfilled the terms of the will. The land isn’t going to be sold to anyone and we just need to sign some things and we can all move on with our lives?”
“Could I…ah…have a drink?” Gordan asked.
Tag poured him a whiskey and brought it over to him. He drank it down in one shot, did a full body shake and pulled an envelope out of the briefcase.
At the sight of the envelope all of us groaned.
But then Gordon cast my mom one worried look and started reading.
“If Gordon is reading this it means you’ve made strides in ending the feud and saving our great town. Congratulations. I know my boys are thinking that we should be at the end of this bullshit, but I’m sorry, we’re just getting started. The feud between the Calloways and McGraws has secrets you’ve never heard about and if it’s really going to end, the truth needs tocome out. Monica,” Gordon said, and all of us turned to look at my mom.
“Mom?” I turned to my mom. “Is there more?”
“I’m sorry,” Gordon continued. “But this secret has been held for too many years. I suspected, but I never challenged you. I didn’t want to hurt you anymore than I already had. But you recently confirmed for me what I had long believed and now it’s time everyone else learned the truth. I have a daughter.”
Mom gasped and went white. “He didn’t! That bastard.” Her hands pressed to her lips. “Not like this. Not after all this time.”
“What’s he talking about Mom?” I asked. I looked at Mom and then over at Ethan and back at Mom. My sisters looked clueless. No one in the room seemed to know what was happening.
“Stop,” Mom said to Gordon. “There’s no need to do this. Leroy is dead. You don’t have to do what he says.”
“I’m sorry,” he said with real sincerity, and went back to the letter. “I do have a legal obligation to adhere to the dictates of his will.”
“Carter,” he read. “I’m sure you’ve been struggling to make sense of my accounts.”
“Struggling is an understatement,” Carter said.
“It’s because you’re operating under the premise that this was an operation in the black. It isn’t. I over-extended on a land purchase, but I don’t regret it. If this ranch isn’t growing, it’s shrinking. And if we aren’t the ones buying, then it will be those rich asshole outsiders who do. We need someone creative. Someone who understands money like nobody in this room does. Someone who might have a chance to save the Swinging D. That someone is my biological daughter.”
