Page 127 of Boston
She couldn’t do that.
Kat replaced Denim in his seat, and she gazed down at both boys. They slept side by side, and Cora loved them with every fiber of her being.
“I’m not upset I chose to be here with you and the babies,” she said.
Kat turned toward her, her expression open and her eyebrows up.
“But maybe I could make a different choice, and Boston and I could start again.”
Kat nodded. “I won’t tell you what to do, because I know you hate that. You know him way better than I do. But Cora, I saw that man with you, and as much as you were falling for him, he was falling for you too. And I don’t believe that that just goes away.” She nodded like that was that and extended her hand toward Cora. “Now, come on, get up. Go do something just for you. I don’t need you here.”
Cora put her hand in Kat’s before she realized what was happening. Her sister pulled her to her feet and started to tug her toward the front door.
“Wait. Are you kicking me out?”
“Yep,” Kat said. “Go take a shower, or get a massage, or catch up on some sleep.” She opened the door and released Cora’s hand. “Or call Boston.” She grinned at her. “No matter what, it’s time for you to go.”
Cora scoffed and then stumbled out onto the front porch as Kat closed the door decisively behind her.
“I can’t even—” she said. She took the few steps to the top of the stairs and looked left and right, wondering what to do now.
Cora had always been able to work through problems by making lists of action items, and she hurried back to her cabin to do that with one objective in mind: talk to Boston and see if they could try again.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN
Boston did not have time to talk to Cash, but he couldn’t believe his cousin was awake before seven a.m., so he slid on the call, despite his misgivings. “Howdy,” he said. “Why are you up so early?”
“I got an email from Cal last night,” Cash said. “And I’m just now seeing it. We only have until three o’clock this afternoon to counter or dismiss the counter-offer, and I know you’re going hiking.”
So this was serious, because the email had gotten Cash out of bed early. They’d been going back and forth with the sellers of the two-house property for weeks now, and Boston just wanted it done. He moved around his cabin, packing the food he’d set out last night and getting out the extra water bladder he’d frozen.
“What’s the counter-offer?” he asked.
“Cal says they absolutely will not go below four-seventy-five.”
Boston scoffed. “They get that we’re going to be pouring at least one hundred grand into that property and six months of time before we’ll even be able to live there, right?”
Cash chuckled. “I don’t think they care about what happens after we buy it. We could probably set the place on fire, and they wouldn’t know.”
“Yeah, probably,” Boston muttered. “So what do you want to do? If they won’t go below four-seventy-five, and that’s what we want—” He sighed and stopped packing to sit in one of his dining room chairs.
He’d stayed on with Cash at the vacation rental, but his best friend would be moving out next week, and that meant Boston had to come back to the lodge. Since he’d wanted to leave early this morning for the six-mile hike up to the cabin, he’d come back last night. He had a whole heap of clean clothes in his hamper sitting just down the hall, and his apartment felt unused and sterile.
“I’m not going to be able to invest as much in it as you,” he said.
“I know that, brother,” he said. “We’ve got Uncle Gabe working on a contract for us.”
“I’m just worried about it,” Boston said, adopting his new persona of saying the things he thought and felt.
“What are you worried about?” Cash asked.
“I don’t know,” Boston said. “That if you own seventy percent of the property, we won’t be able to make joint decisions. That you’ll just go, ‘Well, I own more of it, so I’m going to do what I want.’”
Cash sat there for a moment while Boston heard what he’d said. “I obviously know you’re not going to do that,” he said.
“I don’t think I will,” Cash said in a sober voice. “Bryce and Kassie have made it work, and they’re not fifty-fifty. I really just want to establish a cutting horse training facility.”
