by Ava Miles
Her mother-in-law had wrapped her in a hug. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else but at your side,” she said, choking Annie up too. “We’re friends now.”
Yes, and she couldn’t be more grateful for that bond.
Before they left for the barn, Caitlyn headed inside to sit with Amelia, sending Arthur out to join them. His white hair was sticking out as if he’d been running his hands through it. Clara smoothing it back in place was a dear sight in the midst of all the turmoil. It also boosted her spirits to see Flynn and his father standing side by side, united by their pledge to help.
“You’ve got this,” he told her before blowing her a kiss, and she felt his love wrap around her, anchoring her.
Finally, it was time. Annie took a deep breath and crossed to the barn with her friends, almost tearing up again when June took her hand. The sound of hay being restocked for the animals led them to Tom’s location. He was thrusting his pitchfork into the hay, Annie thought, as if he were stabbing someone repeatedly. She felt even queasier at the thought.
“I’m here to talk now,” she called out, forcing her strength into her voice.
“Well, I’m not,” Tom spat back. “I have chores, girl.”
“Tom Loudermilk, you will stop that right now,” June said in a tone Annie had never heard her use.
His hands stilled. “You on her side, June? I expected she’d have some people, Arthur included, but not Gertie—and certainly not my own wife.”
June gestured to Annie. “This is our daughter-in-law, Tom, the mother of our grandkids, and my friend. Ben might be gone, but she’s still our family. You don’t treat family like this. How could you and Ben do this to her?”
Tom threw aside his pitchfork. “Don’t you dare talk about Ben in that tone. He’s my son—your son.” He pointed to her, his round face darkening.
“I know who he was,” June said. “But from what I hear, he was involved in this.”
Annie knew she needed to assert herself. This couldn’t be about June and Tom or their relationship with Ben. It would only sidetrack them. She stepped forward and extended the check to him. He took it, his brows slamming together.
Before he could speak, she stepped back and said, “We’re square on your investment now.”
“I don’t want this—”
“Tom, I’ve heard Eric’s accounting of what led to you being listed as a majority shareholder in my company,” she continued. “The reasons may not matter, I realize, and they may, in fact, bog us down. What I want to know right now is this: will you turn over your rights to my company since I was the one who created it and grew it?”
He spat on the ground, waving the check in the air. “Annie, I gave you this money because Ben begged me to. He thought you were going to leave him, and he thought maybe he had a chance to keep you if you had something to occupy yourself with. I’m not looking to be paid back. I don’t care about that.”
She inhaled deeply as Tom confirmed what she’d suspected. “Still, I’m paying you. Did Ben also agree to give you a majority of my company so you could leverage me should I want a divorce?”
June pressed a hand to her mouth, and Gertie put an arm around her. Just when Annie was thinking she’d like some comfort too, she felt Arthur’s hand at her back.
“That was my idea,” Tom said with a defiant nod, thrusting the check in his back pocket, “and a damn good one, if you ask me. My boy wanted you from the moment he met you, but you always had big ideas, threatening to go back on your promises to him and leave him with nothing. That isn’t right in my book. No, not one bit.”
Her stomach started to quiver. She knew what was coming, but she forced herself to stand strong, bolstered by the quiet support around her.
“Hell, in the end it didn’t matter that you stayed with him because of the girls and your little business. You didn’t love him and that drove him to drink in shame in other towns. It’s what killed my boy.”
She trembled as June gave an anguished cry. There it was finally. “Tom, I’ve always thought you blamed me for Ben’s death, but there are two people in a marriage. He made his choices too. I’m sorry it happened. I would never have wanted Ben to die. He’s the father of my girls, for heaven’s sake. But we’re getting off topic here, and I don’t want us to stand here hurling horrible accusations at each other. I just want to know. Will you sign over your rights to my company?”
He set his weight. “No. And I don’t plan on cashing that check either.”
She stared at him in a silence that somehow grew loud to her ears. The ground underneath her feet felt like it was giving way, like it was quicksand instead of good Ohio soil.
He planned to keep her here. She couldn’t allow it.
“All right,” she said, nodding. “I have your answer.”
“I won’t let you walk away with Ben’s children,” Tom said, gesturing to the barn. “He wanted the girls raised here on Loudermilk land. With that fancy city boy calling, I can see the writing on the wall. You plan to up and leave us, maybe with the money his family will give you for your precious company. Well, I won’t let you. Those girls are all I have of my boy, and you’re not going to take them away or spit on his wishes for them.”
“But, Tom,” June said, holding out her hand. “Ben isn’t here anymore. He would want Annie and the girls to be happy. I know it’s hard to think of them leaving, but they need to find their own way. Annie didn’t deserve to be widowed so young. She shouldn’t have to go through life alone. And the girls would benefit from having a man in their lives who could love them. Flynn’s a good man.”
“I don’t want to hear this from you, June,” Tom said, his face turning a mottled red. “You’re dishonoring our boy. Our only child. He was everything to me. I thought he was everything to you. How can you talk like this?”
She crossed to him, and Annie thought it was one of the bravest acts she’d ever seen. “Tom, I miss Ben too, but he’s gone. We have to keep living. There’s no walking with the dead, honey.”
He knocked aside June’s reaching hands, and Arthur rushed forward and pulled her back. She started crying, and Gertie made a slicing motion through the air.
“Tom, I’ve known you since we went to kindergarten together,” Gertie said, “and I want to be understanding about your loss. But you’re not in the right here. That company is Annie’s, no matter what those doctored papers say. She even went the extra mile and paid you back, even though you insist you don’t want the money, so it’s all square. As for Ben… June’s right. He’s not here anymore, Tom. Annie should be free to make her own choices.”
“Not while I own the majority of her company and she lives on my land,” Tom said. “The girls stay here. Annie can’t sell the company without my say-so. In fact, maybe I need to start calling the shots as the majority shareholder.”
She sucked in her breath. It had never dawned on her that he would attempt to pull that kind of rank.
“Maybe I don’t want you making all those silly holiday baskets,” he added.
“You’ve turned into a mean, nasty old bully, Tom,” Gertie said, “and it makes my heart quake in my chest to witness the kind of condemnation you’re courting.”
“Don’t you dare get on your high horse with me,” Tom said, his brown eyes blazing. “I don’t care what God thinks. He took my boy. As far as I’m concerned, He and I are done.”
“Then there’s no reaching you,” June said, wiping her eyes. “There’s no decent part of you anymore. The Tom I married, the one I loved, is truly gone. I’m leaving you, Tom. Today. And I won’t be coming back either.”
Annie’s mouth dropped open, and she gaped at June.
“But June…” Tom’s face went from red to white in seconds. “You can’t leave me. We’ve been married forty-some years. A wife doesn’t walk out on her husband—not over something like this, not after everything we’ve weathered together.”
Her round chin lifted, and Annie noticed it wasn’t trembling like the rest of her. Somehow she coul
d see the strength within June fanning outward. “On that we disagree. I’ve put up with a lot over the years—weathered it, as you say. I thought I had to, being a woman and all. That’s on me. But someone pointed out to me recently I could live another twenty-some years, and I won’t spend them with someone who is so cold and cruel. I’ll go pack my things. You can see to your own dinner.”
She walked out of the barn, and Annie gestured for Gertie to go after her. Arthur’s hand returned to Annie’s back, silently communicating he was still with her all the way.
She faced Tom. It was time for her to finally stand up for herself too. “Since you won’t do what’s right, the girls and I will find somewhere else to live as well.” Flynn wouldn’t mind if they stayed at his rental house in the interim—she knew that with all her heart.
“What?”
“I’ll need to figure out things with my lab and the rest of my belongings in the house. But seeing as how they are on your land, I’ll make sure it’s all moved out in a month. Tom, I will be finding a new lawyer who can advise me on this.”
The sagging cheeks on his tanned face were marked with deep grooves now. When he said nothing in response, she made herself stand a little straighter.
“I loved you because you were Ben’s dad and good to the girls,” she said, her throat aching. “But don’t think for a moment I won’t hold you accountable for what you’ve done and what you’re doing now. You talk about being family. This is not how you treat family.”
She turned and walked out of the barn, the silence behind her deafening.
Chapter 28
It was more than time to circle the wagons, Arthur decided, because that’s what the Merriams and Hales did: take care of their own, and those Loudermilk girls were theirs now.
Clara, still clucking over the altercation in the barn between Tom and Annie, was helping Caitlyn and Annie pack things for the girls. Flynn and Hargreaves were putting together a game plan for basket production to give Annie a breather, and Shawn had rolled up his sleeves, working his connections to find Annie a capable lawyer.
Well, Arthur had an idea about that too.
He headed into Annie’s office to make a few calls, starting with Trevor. Sure, the man was in Ireland, and hours ahead, but he was the Merriam they all turned to when negotiations reached a standstill or looked downright intractable.
“Uncle!” Trevor said when he answered. “Since when do you FaceTime? Everything okay?”
“The world hasn’t fallen apart or anything,” he assured him, but he supposed Annie’s world had—June’s too. Thank God Gertie was helping her pack and had offered her a place to stay. That’s what he called a good friend. “However, your brother Flynn and his new gal have need of your talent for fixing troubling business issues. He’s busy right now, and truthfully, he might not have thought to call you, but I’ve seen you work your magic. We need it right now. Let me fill you in.”
Trevor’s face darkened as he gave him the facts. Arthur fell back on his journalistic training to keep his own strong emotions out of the account.
“What a goddamn bastard,” Trevor said, kissing his wife, Becca, when she appeared on-screen.
Oh, she was a striking Irish colleen, as he’d grown-up saying, with her curly dark hair and Irish Sea blue eyes. “Hello, Becca.”
“Uncle Arthur, you look a tad stressed.”
“For reasons I’ll share when we hang up,” Trevor said. “Uncle, I’ll leave right away. Send this bastard’s address and full name, Uncle, and I’ll get on the case.”
“Trevor, I want to go with you,” Becca said in her lovely Irish lilt, putting her hands on his face.
“What?” both he and Trevor said.
Her smile was so brave it warmed the cockles of his heart. “Trev, I’ve been talking about the possibility with my therapist, and I think it’s time for me to try. My agoraphobia is so much better lately. I’ve been into the village more than a dozen times in the past few weeks and the countryside a few.”
Arthur rubbed a hand over his chest. He’d seen firsthand her courage in fighting the agoraphobia she’d been plagued with since her parents were murdered in front of her. Goodness, on one of the most rotten days he’d had in some time, here was a miracle. Dammit if they didn’t always come when they were needed.
“Sounds like a capital idea to me,” Arthur said, clasping his hands and waving them in the air as a bravo.
“I love your bravery, babe,” Trevor said, looking like a total mush ball in love, “but it’s all the way to Ohio. Becca, I thought we’d start with Dublin and then London or Paris.”
“It’s all an airplane ride, isn’t it? It’s an enclosed space, so why should it matter how long the flight takes? It’ll be a trial run for going to Michaela and Boyd’s wedding in February. I can have Liam come to the airport with us in case I find I can’t go once we reach the plane. I know this trip is important.”
Trevor sighed and then turned to Arthur. “We have some things to discuss. Send me the information. I’ll be in touch.”
The call ended, and Arthur thought about calling Clara immediately to tell her the news, but she had her hands full right now. How wonderful it would be for their Becca to break through the last of her chains at the very moment when Annie was doing the same. Oh, these Merriams and their soulmates.
He put in a call to Connor as well. Sure, it might be out of his purview as a matchmaker, but helping the Merriam children come closer felt like a happy holiday thing to do.
“You up for a quick trip to Ohio?” Arthur asked without preamble.
“Is there trouble with Annie’s company?” Connor’s perspicacity sometimes shocked the hell out of him. “The ex-father-in-law flexing his muscles?”
“Did your father already call you?” he asked, rubbing his cheek absently. “I thought I was Johnny on the spot.”
Connor’s lips twitched. “You are, Uncle, don’t worry. No, I looked up her company after Flynn called me about her. Old habits die hard.”
“Indeed,” Arthur said, drumming his fingers on his thigh. “Yes, he’s flexing his muscles and then some. Your brother could use a show of support. Plus, I figured given your recent path to being a Good Samaritan, you might appreciate the opportunity to help.”
“You’re right,” Connor said swiftly. “I’ll talk to Louisa and be there as soon as I can. Thank you, Uncle.”
He almost patted himself on the back, but instead he dialed his Hale nephew in Dare Valley. If this went as he hoped, he would pat himself on the back once it was through.
“Uncle Arthur,” Matt Hale said when he picked up on FaceTime. “Is everything all right?”
“Why is everyone asking that? Just because I don’t normally call or FaceTime you kids doesn’t mean I can’t. Now, I’m calling you for a favor. You still do pro bono work, right? And you’re continuing to live up to your reputation as Matty Ice?”
Matt’s frown was immediate. “You need me to help someone?”
“Can you practice in Ohio?” he asked.
“Yeah, I have a couple of clients in the Columbus area. Isn’t that where you’re at right now? You’ve been traveling so much, it’s hard to keep track.”
“Tell me about it,” he said, “but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Let me tell you about Annie and her problem. Of course, if you want to help her, it would still be up to her. Shawn Merriam is making inquiries as well, but you’re my nephew, a great lawyer, and I trust you.”
When he finished laying out Annie’s predicament, his nephew said, “I can already tell her case could need a lot of work, which would be expensive.”
He nodded. “Yes, and her business might be tied up, and it’s her only source of income. She’s a widow with three daughters.”
“I see. That makes me want to help her all the more. No easy thing, raising a family alone.”
Ah, but she wasn’t alone, Arthur wanted to say. Annie had them.
Matt pulled his laptop closer. “I need her name, compa
ny name—”
“Address, etc.,” Arthur said. He sounded just like Trevor. “I’ll text the information to you.”
“You text too?” He hooted. “Wait until I tell Jane. Man, getting married to Clara is doing wonders for bringing you into the modern world, Uncle. Are you sure I can’t take your convertible out for a spin while you’re gone?”
He laughed. “It’s winter, you idiot, and even if it weren’t, that’s my ride. Get your own convertible.”
“Had to try,” Matt said with a devilish grin that put Arthur in mind of the boy’s teenage years. “You can have Annie call me if she’d like to talk. I’ve got you covered.”
“Thank you.”
“I do have to ask if you have another motivation for involving me,” Matt said, peering at him through the screen. “I seem to remember you setting up my sister with J.T. Merriam. Now J.T.’s sister, Michaela, is here with her soon-to-be husband, Boyd. Are you hoping my help will show Annie and Flynn how wonderful people are in Dare Valley?”
“And you wonder why I called to ask that devious lawyer mind of yours for help,” was all he said.
“I get that devious mind from the Hales, which includes you. Goodbye, Uncle.”
“Bye, Matt.” He was smiling as he set his phone down. When he looked up, he spotted Shawn standing at the doorway to Annie’s office.
“Planning on getting more of my children to move to Dare Valley, are you?” Shawn asked, loosening his tie and striding closer.
He held up his hands. “You caught me. Your grandfather Emmits loved it there, and I like the idea of more Merriams being back in Dare Valley. It didn’t feel right not to have any of you in town.”
Shawn extended his hand, and Arthur shook it. “Dare Valley is closer to California, so you won’t hear any objections from me. Assumpta has already informed me that she intends to spend of much of our retirement on the road to visit our future grandchildren. I told her I’ll be with her every step of the way. It would be easier to visit three of the kids in one town than if they were strewn around the world. I might have missed a lot of my own kids’ childhood—something I’m trying to make up for—but I’m not going to miss the next generation.”
