Page 32 of Headstrong Cowboy
Tilly shrugged.“It’s not wisdom.It’s just acceptance.”
“She’s right, Chrissy.”Sunny came up to her.“We’re in this together and we’ll face whatever happens together.”
A second later, Chrissy was engulfed by her two sisters, and she returned their hugs tightly.They were right.Even though she felt she needed to, she didn’t have to shoulder it all by herself.It still didn’t ease the guilt that if she’d returned her father’s calls, things might have been different, but she had to let that go and focus on clearing up this mess and then look to the weekend.
Together, they made their way to the office, where Chrissy spread the books out and explained everything that she’d found to her sisters.Fortunately, even with his limited accounting skills, their father had filed the taxes correctly, so they didn’t have an issue with that.As for where he’d been getting the extra funds to cover things, Chrissy had discovered that only a few months before his death, he’d quietly sold a parcel of land he’d inherited from an uncle they’d never met and hadn’t even known existed.
“Do you think Mom knows about Uncle Albert?”Sunny asked when she’d finished.
“I don’t know.We’ve always thought Mom and Dad shared everything with each other, but Mom said Dad didn’t want to burden her with the financial side of the farm, and he handled all the bills, etc., so it’s likely he didn’t tell her.He hadn’t had the land for long before he was forced to sell it, so maybe that’s why he didn’t tell Mom.”
Chrissy had only found the information about the sale by chance when she’d pulled open the desk drawer so hard it had come out, and all the contents had fallen to the floor.She’d been meaning to go through it and because of what she’d done, she’d looked at it as a sign that the time to sort through it all had come.Maybe her dad had been guiding her from afar so that she would find it and have at least one mystery solved.
“I need to tell you something,” Sunny said, biting her bottom lip.
Dread pooled low in Chrissy’s stomach and she braced herself for another hit to the gut.“What?”
“You know what Tilly said about accepting that, no matter what we do, Mom might sell, anyway?”
Chrissy nodded and Tilly did the same.
“I know why Mom’s been avoiding us, our questions, and being so secretive about the farm.I found some papers authorizing the listing of the property, and they were signed.”
Chrissy had known it was coming.“I know.”
“What?You knew about the papers?”Tilly questioned.
“Not the papers, but that she was thinking of selling.She talked about it a few weeks ago.When she hadn’t mentioned it again, I thought she’d changed her mind and believed in us to turn things around.”
“If Sunny saw the papers lying around, maybe Mom has changed her mind,” Tilly suggested, a hopeful tone in her voice.
“Or she just hasn’t had a chance to go to town, but after today, all it’s going to take is one phone call to the agent to come and collect them.Then it’s going to be too late.The place is going to be sold.”A look of horror flashed across Sunny’s face and, once again, Chrissy braced herself for bad news.“Didn’t you say Ryder is looking for a property?What if he’s only being nice to you because he heard about the possible sale and is really here, checking it out?”
The bottom fell out of her stomach.“No, he wouldn’t do that.Would he?”
Sunny shrugged.“I don’t know, but you know he turned up here unexpectedly and you showed him around.”
Chrissy thought back to that day and how Ryder had surprised her, but it was after she’d met him at Riley’s place and there was no way anyone other than the real estate agent would know that Mom was thinking about selling.
Would Lucinda have said anything to Ryder before she had it in writing?
It was possible that she may have said a property was coming up soon and gave Ryder their address for him to look at.Was that even ethical?She didn’t know.But the big question was, when did that phone call happen?Before or after Ryder had visited that first time?
So much had happened over the last few weeks that everything was a blur.Her mind was full of the farm stuff as well as getting ready for the rodeo.Her recollection of the timing of the events could be skewed.
The crunch of gravel had her turning around, fully expecting to see the sleek silver SUV owned by Marietta’s real estate agent, Lucinda, but instead it was Ryder’s big black truck.
Would she ask him if he was interested in their property?Or was it something she didn’t have the time or energy to think about right now?It could wait a few days, couldn’t it?Until after the rodeo?
Like she had done when the signs she’d married Beau for the wrong reasons, Chrissy pushed her doubts down and greeted Ryder with a smile, hoping against hope that he wasn’t using her and he wanted to be here because she was here.
Chapter Sixteen
Something was upwith Chrissy.Ryder didn’t know what it was, but ever since he’d arrived back at the farm after getting them dinner, Chrissy had been different around him.Standoffish, almost.
He could also be reading too much into it and her distant attitude could be because of all that was going on with the farm and the repairs.
He didn’t want to let himself think she’d found out about his interest in the land, but he couldn’t help but wonder if it was.
