Christmas at Colts Creek

by Delores Fossen

  He stared at her a long time. “Not sick if that’s what you want to know. He was just Abe.”

  Which, of course, could mean a lot of things. “When Asher called to tell me, he said they thought it was a heart attack that’d killed him.” She left it at that, hoping he’d either confirm or dispute that.

  Brody didn’t do either.

  Mumbling something she didn’t catch, he looked away from her, fixing his attention on the tombstone. “Abe had high blood pressure,” Brody finally said several rainy moments later. “High cholesterol, too. He refused to take meds or change his diet so, yeah, the doctors figure it was a heart attack.”

  She jumped right on that. “Figure? They don’t know for sure?”

  “The autopsy results aren’t back yet.” Brody paused, his jaw muscles stirring again. “I wasn’t with him when he died. No one was.”

  The way he said that made Janessa think there was more that he wasn’t telling her. Of course, there was more she wasn’t telling him, as well. But she also detected something else in his tone. Regret maybe.

  “I know you were close to Abe,” she threw out there.

  He scrubbed his hand over his face. Then he groaned. “Yeah. Abe was an asshole to most people but not to me.”

  “The son he never had,” Janessa said in a mumble. “I remember the way he treated you when I was here that summer.”

  Abe had invited Brody to eat meals with him where they’d talked about business deals he wanted Brody to be part of. Pretty heady treatment for a seventeen-year-old. Janessa had eaten some meals with Abe, too, but not at his invitation. Abe had done a superior job of freezing her out despite the triple-digit temps that summer.

  “He treated you like a son,” Janessa added.

  “Maybe, but you’re Abe’s only child,” he grumbled, “and he had the DNA test to prove it.”

  Janessa turned to him so fast that her nose nearly knocked into the umbrella stem. “He did a DNA test on me?”

  Brody nodded. “He told me it was something he demanded before he filed his first suit to get custody of you.”

  Well, heck. Janessa hadn’t heard a word about this. “He didn’t believe I was actually his daughter?”

  “He wanted it confirmed. Abe wanted a lot of confirmations,” he added in a snarl. “That included proving to the gossips that he hadn’t bedded my mother. He hadn’t.”

  “Why would he want to prove something like that?” she asked.

  “Because you and I are both thirty-three, and I’m only six months older than you. My mother was involved with Abe right before she married my dad and got pregnant. Abe had the DNA test done on me when I was born. I guess because he didn’t want your mother to have any ammunition to use against him in the divorce.”

  Put that way, Janessa could understand Abe’s reasoning. At the time Brody was born, Sophia would have been about three months pregnant with her and had already left Abe. Judging from the few tidbits Janessa had managed to glean, Sophia had wanted a quick divorce and gotten one, but the complications started after her birth when Abe pressed for custody.

  “Abe told me I was a nuisance.” Janessa cringed the moment she heard the words leave her mouth. Words still coated with hurt after all this time. Even if the hurt was justified, the timing was wrong to bash a man at his funeral.

  Thankfully, Brody didn’t have time to respond to her confession because Asher finally got out of his car. After popping open his huge black umbrella, he started back toward them. Not a brisk pace but rather a slowpoke stroll. The lawyer’s expression was like a textbook example of someone bearing bad news.

  Swallowing hard, Asher put on his glasses and opened the small white envelope he was carrying. “I’ll go ahead and read Abe’s opening statement as he instructed, and then we can go over a summary of the will.”

  Asher stopped, gave each of them a glance, then huffed. “Look, you should know right off that you’re not going to like what I’m about tell you. I tried to talk Abe out of doing this, but as you know, he didn’t always listen to reason.”

  Janessa felt her stomach clench into a little churning ball. Margo groaned and kicked the tombstone again. Brody, however, didn’t stir from his spot while Asher began.

  “‘I figure if you’re listening to this, then you’re wanting to know what and how much I left you,’” Asher read aloud. “‘I have some stipulations. Now, that’s a big-assed word for you, isn’t it? A fifty-cent way of saying you’ll have to do as I say or you get diddly-squat. My lawyer will tell you all about the terms, but I’ll bottom line this for you. My daughter, Janessa Parkman, inherits everything.’”

  Janessa froze, then blinked. “Excuse me?” she managed to say.

  “Everything,” Asher verified.

  “Everything?” Margo shrieked.

  Janessa shook her head, looking first at Asher, who gave her no clarification whatsoever. He certainly didn’t add a laugh and say wasn’t that a fine fifty-cent joke?

  Janessa whirled toward Brody to assure him that she not only hadn’t expected this, she darn sure didn’t want it. But Brody was already on the move, stepping out from the umbrella and walking away.

  “Wait!” Janessa and Asher called out at the same time.

  With the rain pelting down on him, Brody didn’t stop. Janessa ran after him. No easy feat what with her shoes slipping in the mud. He was already in his truck before she managed to reach him.

  “I’m so sorry,” she blurted out. “Why would Abe do something like this?”

  “Apparently, you weren’t a nuisance after all,” Brody drawled, right before he slammed the truck door, started the engine and drove off.

  There were so many emotions racing through her that Janessa wasn’t sure which one she felt the most. She thought about it a second and decided that really-bad-pissed-off fury won that particular award. The ranch should have been Brody’s, and nothing should have gone to her.

  When Janessa turned back around, she saw a fresh glare from Margo. “I didn’t know,” Janessa insisted. “And I’ll make it right. I can give the ranch and assets to Brody and you.”

  “Well, actually you can’t do that,” Asher said, drawing her attention back to him. He got that messenger-of-really-bad-news look on his face again. “I understand Abe sent you a letter.”

  That cooled some of her anger. “He told you about that?”

  Asher shook his head. “No, but Abe arranged for a courier in San Antonio to deliver a copy of that letter to my office in the event of his death. The courier company just found out that his funeral was today so they brought it over. It arrived a couple of minutes ago, and my assistant called to tell me about it. I haven’t read it yet,” he quickly added, “but on the outside of the envelope there was a sticky note saying you’d already received the exact same letter, that he sent it to you a week ago.”

  “That’s true,” Janessa admitted. “It’s in the car. I brought it with me.” But before she could say more, Asher held her off by lifting his hand.

  “Let’s get through the will first, then we’ll deal with whatever’s in the letter,” the lawyer insisted. “As Abe said in his instructions, he had stipulations.”

  “Stipulations?” Margo growled.

  Asher nodded, but he left his gaze glued to Janessa. “And when you’ve heard them, I’m betting that you’ll be in just the right mood to kick your father’s tombstone.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  BRODY DROVE THROUGH the rain toward the ranch and tried not to think. Especially tried not to think about what had just gone on at Abe’s funeral. Now wasn’t the time, not when he was on the rain-slick road. Best to get inside his house, change into some dry clothes and then...

  Well, then he could start to wrap his mind around the fact that soon, very soon, he might not have a home.

  A house, yes, since Brody had bought five acres of land from Ab
e so he could build his own place. But it was just that, a house, if it was no longer a part of what had been his life. And despite his wanting to hold off on the thinking, the thoughts came anyway.

  Really shitty thoughts.

  He hadn’t expected Abe to leave him Colts Creek, but he’d believed down to the soles of his boots that Abe would have given him some kind of assurance he could continue to run the place that he’d helped build.

  Hell, he’d worked for Abe ever since he’d been old enough to work. Janessa had spent a single summer at the ranch, and while her absence wasn’t all her fault, Brody couldn’t believe Abe had chosen blood over everything else.

  Chosen blood over him.

  His phone dinged with a text. Which he ignored. Brody ignored the next three as well, figuring it was just someone who wanted to know what had gone on at the funeral. Even though folks had scattered because of the storm, they would have noticed that Asher had lingered. It wasn’t much of a leap to guess the lawyer had done that to relay some kind of info to Abe’s heirs.

  Or rather his heir. Not plural. But rather a solo deal.

  It wouldn’t take long for news of that to get around, especially since Margo would be pissed. And Brody couldn’t blame her one bit. It was possible she no longer had a home, either. If Janessa sold the ranch, which she would most likely do, then the new owner could insist that Abe’s ex-wife move her house elsewhere.

  Brody drove through the wrought iron gates of Colts Creek Ranch, named for the creek that coiled through it. It had Abe’s mark on it everywhere, including the metal fence gate painted Abe’s favorite color, black. The main house had plenty of that same color, too, in the trim that created a stark contrast to the white Texas limestone exterior.

  Abe’s great-great-grandfather had built the original house back at the turn of the twentieth century, but after Abe had inherited it, he’d torn most of it down and rebuilt it to what it was today. Abe had been the one who’d actually started the ranch itself. He’d added to the acreage by buying adjacent land and nearby smaller ranches until Colts Creek had reached its current size.

  Sometimes, those other ranchers hadn’t wanted to sell, but Brody knew firsthand that Abe always seemed to find a way to get his hands on what he wanted.

  Brody drove past the precisely placed displays of haybales, pumpkins and dried cornstalks all arranged around and on glossy black wagons with gleaming silver trim. A combination of both Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations, and it was one of Abe’s holiday traditions that he liked to show off to anyone who might drive this way. It took a whole lot of man-hours to line the driveways and the front part of the pastures, but Abe had insisted on it. Ditto for the Christmas decorations that were scheduled to go up the day after Thanksgiving.

  Of course, this Christmas Abe wouldn’t be around to do the insisting.

  A reminder that tightened Brody’s chest and stomach.

  There were no vehicles in the circular drive of the house, but Brody spotted the familiar blue car of the head housekeeper and cook, Velma Sue Bilbo, parked in her usual spot at the back. Since Velma Sue was nearly eighty, she hadn’t braved the bad weather to go to the funeral, and soon he’d need to tell her that she might be out of a job. Her and the rest of the household staff. Heck, maybe the entire ranch if the new owner didn’t keep them on.

  But first, he had to steady himself before he could talk to anyone about that.

  Had to deal with the fact that the man he’d thought of as his father had just been buried. That alone would have been a hard sucker punch, especially since Abe had only been sixty-one, but the punch was even harder because of that blasted will.

  Brody turned on the narrow gravel road past the first set of barns and drove the quarter of a mile toward his place. It wasn’t anywhere close to being grand like the main house. He’d never wanted grand. Nor did it look anything like the fussy Victorian where Margo lived on another section of the ranch. He’d gone with a simple white Craftsman with a wide porch that faced one of the many ponds on Colts Creek. Instead of multiple barns, he’d chosen just one. One big enough to handle the horses he raised and trained.

  He pulled into his driveway. And he immediately cursed. Even through the curtain of rain, he could see his mother’s car—and his mother, Darcia. Wearing her green nurse scrubs covered by a thick wool sweater, she was sitting on the porch swing. No doubt waiting for him. Brody got out of his truck, and ducking against the rain, he made his way to the porch. She immediately got up from the swing, and he could see the nerves all over her face.

  “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t go to the cemetery,” she said, worry in her eyes. “I just couldn’t.”

  “I understand.” And he did.

  Unlike Velma Sue, the housekeeper, it wasn’t the weather or age that’d kept his mother away. Darcia was only fifty-six and plenty healthy. Her reasons for not going probably had to do with her complicated feelings for Abe. Darcia wouldn’t have cursed him or kicked his tombstone, probably not anyway, but it would have cut her to the bone to see her son grieving for a man who had caused more than his share of misery.

  Darcia hadn’t been exempt from that misery, either.

  Brody didn’t know all the details, but his mom had let things slip every now and then, so he was aware that Abe had given her the cold shoulder after she’d ended things with him. Brody had never witnessed Abe say or do anything bad to his mother, and he wouldn’t have tolerated it if he had. Abe knew that. Brody had made it crystal clear that if it came down to a pissing contest, he’d choose his mother over Abe.

  “Why are you all wet?” his mother asked.

  “I didn’t have an umbrella.” He thought of Janessa sharing hers with him. Thought of her being practically shoulder to shoulder with him.

  And he thought of her scent.

  Not perfume. Something more subtle than that. Soap, maybe. Hell, maybe it was just all her. Either way, Janessa’s scent shouldn’t have been staying with him like this. Neither should the memories of their one night together way too many years ago.

  They’d been teenagers. Horny ones. Added to that the night, the heat and Janessa’s anger over Abe, and it had formed a perfect storm. At the time, Brody hadn’t realized just how much her anger had played into it. He’d just been focused on the sex with the most beautiful and interesting girl he’d ever met, but considering she’d left both him and the ranch within hours, he was betting her anger had led to regret.

  He pushed aside all the old hurt and any lingering thoughts of Janessa so he could deal with his mother. “It’s chilly. You should have waited in the house,” Brody told her. “Did you lose your key again?”

  “No, I just wanted to sit out here for a while.” She glanced around, the emotion etched on her face. “I had to make sure you were okay.”

  He nearly gave her the rote I’m fine. That was his go-to response when it came to his mother, but she’d hear soon enough about Abe’s will. She needed to hear it from him.

  “Come on in,” Brody said, unlocking the door. “Let me change, and then we can talk.”

  Since his mother wasn’t a fool, she knew something was wrong, but she didn’t press him. She followed him inside, muttering something about fixing a pot of coffee while Brody headed to his bedroom.

  His phone dinged again with another text. Margo. In fact, she’d sent several of the other texts. But she’d have to wait. Brody put on dry jeans and a shirt and went toward the kitchen where he could already smell the fresh coffee. However, he hadn’t even made it there yet when he heard the sound of an approaching vehicle.

  Hell.

  He hoped it wasn’t Margo coming to gripe about Abe. Just in case it was, he went ahead into the kitchen and took his mother by the shoulders. Best to drop the bombshell before his visitor did.

  “Abe left everything to Janessa,” he stated. “Everything.”

  Brody saw the shock
register on her face. Shock that took a couple of long moments to wane and morph into anger. No time to try to soothe that anger, though, because there was a loud knock at the door.

  “Let me get rid of whoever that is,” Brody told her just as someone called out.

  “We need to talk,” Margo insisted.

  He groaned, and with the intention of still getting rid of his unwanted guest, Brody threw open the door. Unwanted guests, he amended, because his porch was filled with the same people he’d just left at the cemetery.

  Asher, Margo and Janessa.

  Margo obviously took his open door as an invitation to come right in because that’s what she did. Then Asher. Janessa, however, stood there on the porch with the rain sheeting off the tiled roof behind her.

  Apparently, she hadn’t bothered with an umbrella for the trek from her car to his house because her hair was wet, clinging to her face and shoulders.

  And she had a wet T-shirt deal going on.

  Not that she was actually wearing a T-shirt. She wasn’t. But her long-sleeved dark blue dress was wet enough for him to see the outline of, well, pretty much everything about her that he shouldn’t be noticing. Hard not to notice that, though, despite the lousy timing.

  “I had no idea what was in Abe’s will,” Janessa insisted. “I hadn’t spoken to him in sixteen years, not since I was at the ranch.”

  Brody believed her, and that didn’t have anything to do with her scent or all those curvy outlines he could see. No, it had to do with that thunderstruck look in her Parkman blue eyes.

  “Come in,” he said, because unlike the others, Janessa was clearly waiting for an invitation.

  She didn’t budge for several moments. Instead, she stood there shivering and studying him as if trying to figure out what he was feeling.

  Good luck with that.

  At the moment, Brody was feeling a lot of things, including confusion because he had no idea in hell why all these people had followed him to his house. He was sure he was about to find out, though. Because judging from the sour expressions from Asher and Margo, this was going to be another kick in the balls, courtesy of Abe.