Nate took a step closer. “If you have something to say to me about our relationship, you bring it to me, understand? You don’t go dragging it out and making it something it wasn’t to get back at your sister for something she didn’t do.”
“Leopard don’t change its spots, Nate. Just ’cause you think you’re better than you are don’t mean it’s true. You enjoyed it, be honest. Once a player, always a player. All put on for show, if you ask me.” She sighed. “Why, I bet if the moment were right, you would’ve dragged me out the back and had your way with me.”
“You have it so wrong, Cassie. I don’t want you. Haven’t for ages.”
Joy had taken a gamble on Nate for all the wrong reasons. As much as her sister wouldn’t agree, Nate’s words gave her the validation she needed.
*
He hoped his ears weren’t burning. Nate looked at Joy, who nodded for him to leave. He snuck down the hallway and grabbed Toby and hotfooted it to the barn, tucking his guilty secret away. “You and me, pal, we have men’s work to do.”
Toby pressed his hat on his head. “Men’s work.” He frowned and then grinned. “Damn chick’ns.”
“Your mom hears you saying that all the time, she’ll tell me I’m a bad influence on you. Can’t have that.” He patted the small cowboy on the shoulder. “Want to help me check the horses’ shoes?”
“Yep.” Toby put his hands on his hips and watched as Nate called one of the horses in to the stall. He grabbed Toby and lifted him up onto the rail. “You sit up there and hold on, okay? Don’t want you falling off and getting trampled.”
“No. Want to help.” He spun around and slithered back to the ground before Nate could stop him. His bottom lip jutted out, and Toby folded his arms across his tiny chest.
Oh boy. Didn’t see this attitude coming, but it was kind of familiar. “Toby, you need to do what I say so you don’t get hurt.”
Toby pressed his lips together and shook his head.
Breathe in, count to ten, and come up with something good. Charm or discipline—which worked better for Grandpa with us?
“Let me make you a deal, pal. You do what I say now and I’ll help you get the eggs when we’re done here. Okay?”
Toby eyed him up for a moment then relented. “P’mise?”
“Yeah, buddy. I promise.” He scooped Toby up and placed him on the railing again. How on earth had Grandpa managed three of them? Just one little cowboy was enough to send Nate into a slight panic.
“’Kay. Hold’n on.”
“That’s my boy.” Nate opened the gate and slid a halter on the horse. He pulled it over to the other side of the door away from Toby and hitched it to the top rail.
“Now, we need to clean out the hoofs and see if they need filing down.” Nate took a hoof pick from the shelf near the stall and ran his hand down the front of the horse’s leg, keeping an eye on Toby in case he changed his mind and made a run for it. “Nice and smooth like. Don’t go spooking them and, easy as you can, lift up that front leg, hook it back, and there you have the hoof to clean.”
“Clean it.” Toby clapped his hands and watched.
“And then we go around and do the rest of them.” He worked his way around the stalls, then picked up a file. “Now this is how you manicure a horse’s hooves, young man. When you’re bigger, I’ll teach you, but for now, you gotta sit and watch me do it. Okay?”
“Yes, Dada.”
Nate bolted up. “What did you say?”
“Yes, Dada.” Toby grinned and a gob of dribble flowed down his chin onto his shirt.
The words Nate’d hardly ever said himself hit him like a sledgehammer in the chest. Nate dropped the file on the ground, scooped him off the railing and walked outside, gulping down fresh air into his constricted lungs to gain control of his feelings. “You called me Dada. Well, that just takes it all.” Emotion clogged his throat as he held Toby against his chest. He’d never expected to feel this way, to be the man he hoped to become, but this little fatherless boy had broken him down, bit by bit, and made him someone else. Someone he could be proud of if only he’d let himself.
“Momma.” Toby pointed at the house when a car door slammed. Cassie was leaving. Moments later, Joy headed toward them. “Momma.”
“Hey, baby. What’s going on? Is everything all right, Nate?”
Nate blinked and realized he had tears in his eyes. “Toby just called me Dada.”
Joy grinned.
“You don’t mind?”
“No. I’ll always make sure he knows who his birth father is, but as far as we’re concerned, you’re it. If you don’t mind, that is.” She bit her bottom lip and stared at him.
Did he mind? How to put it into words. A little man to trail around after him, to learn from and look up to him. To be all the things he’d never had in his own life? The scale of it hit him. There was no going back, no changing his mind about this marriage, the family he now had. The time had come when he had to say good-bye to his tarnished reputation for good. This was his future. It was so clear now.
Nate opened his mouth, but he couldn’t form the words.
“Nate.” Joy reached for him, worry etched in her face.
“I… I’m sorry.”
“Why?” Her worry turned to panic. He couldn’t let her think the worst. Nate forced a grin and she relaxed.
He unjumbled the words racing around in his mind, taking his time to put them into a sensible sentence. “I can’t believe how happy this makes me. I never imagined it, you know. Now I know what Rory meant when he said he got more than he could ever have hoped for when he married his wife.”
Joy put her hands behind her back and looked out over the pasture. “Does this mean that you’re done with trying to walk away from us?” She glanced at him. “I know what you said to Rory, but that may have been in the spur of the moment. I need to know if you’re really going to stay, Nate. I don’t want to do this on my own, but I will if I have to.”
“I’m staying, Joy. I can’t imagine being anywhere else now.” He held his arm open and she snuggled in beside him. “What was all that rubbish your sister was on about?”
“She wanted to get back at you and didn’t care about causing me any trouble while she was at it. Seems charming Ryan promised her a nice sum of money if she succeeded. But Cassie didn’t count on Sheriff Rory Watson digging deep.”
Nate laughed. “He said he could smell a rat. Guess those charges will be dropped then.”
“From what I can gather, yes, or at least Sadie will be able to get them thrown out of court if he doesn’t give up. Now all we have to do is wait for the day we face him and fight for this place.”
“Don’t worry about it. Things will work out, you’ll see.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Joy jumped when the judge banged his gavel and everyone sat down. He picked up a file from in front of him and peered over his glasses. “Are we ready to settle this once and for all, Mrs. Hansen?”
Sadie stood. “Yes, Your Honor. My client is keen to move on with her life.”
The judge waited for the other lawyer to speak.
He cleared his throat, looked at Ryan Mitchell, who gave Joy and Nate a filthy look and nodded his head. “Yes, Your Honor.”
Luckily, they’d been warned about courtroom tactics. Joy pressed her lips together to hold back the retort creeping up her throat.
“Let’s have your witnesses, Mrs. Hansen.”
“Thank you, Your Honor. I’d like to put these papers into evidence first. The first is an affidavit from Mrs. Mitchell’s retired doctor. He’s suffering ill health and will appear in court if need be, but I don’t want to put him through that if we don’t have to.”
“Approach the bench.”
Sadie walked over and passed the paper to the judge, who quickly scanned it.
Please let it be enough. Joy wiped a bead of sweat from her top lip, praying that today’s court appearance would settle this matter and let them get on with their lives.
“I’ll accept this in lieu of him being here.”
Mr. Coles, the opposition’s lawyer stood up. “Your Honor—”
Judge Petersham held up his hand. “Don’t even bother objecting. We all know Doc Reed is on his deathbed and I will not drag the poor man into court for your client’s benefit. Doc is the most honest man I know so I’m accepting it.”
The lawyer sat down, shrugged.
“And the other paper, Mrs. Hansen.”
Please let this be enough to save us, please.
“It’s a letter written in a birthday card to Bradley Mitchell. Every year his grandmother wrote to him, even when he was living in the same house with her, taking care of her when she became housebound and reliant on family help.” Sadie handed it over to the judge and Joy squeezed Nate’s hand.
“In this letter, Mrs. Mitchell tells Bradley about the pressure her son-in-law put her under to sign her property over to him. That it would still benefit Bradley if she did as she was told. Mr. Mitchell would make sure she was looked after but she had doubts about that.” Sadie paused and looked back at the opposition, her eyebrow raised. She turned back to the judge with a smile on her face. “You can see by the letter that she didn’t believe it for a minute and she insisted that Bradley get the ranch on her death. She had no intention of leaving anything to her son-in-law other than the property he was already managing. She also mentions how she couldn’t bear to put these thoughts into words, Your Honor, in case of retribution from Mr. Mitchell Sr.”
The judge looked over his spectacles at the other lawyer. “Are you sure you and your client want to fight this case, Mr. Coles?”
Joy held her breath while the lawyer and his client put their heads together. Harsh whispers filled the courtroom. Eventually the lawyer stood up. “Your Honor, if I could have a recess with my client, we may be able to come to some sort of compromise.”
“I’m not looking for compromise, Mr. Coles. I’m looking for a settlement. Today. This has dragged on long enough.” The judge picked up his gavel and slammed it down. “We’ll break for thirty minutes.”
“Yes, Your Honor.” He gathered up his papers and hurried his client out of the courtroom.
Sadie picked up her folder. “Let’s go outside and get some air.” She strode out with Nate and Joy hurry to keep up with her.
“But what about what he did with setting me up?” Joy hung on as Nate tried to keep up with Sadie’s long-legged stride. That girl could put on a pace when she wanted to. “Are you going to bring that up?”
Sadie didn’t speak until they were outside and heading toward the coffee shop. “I’d rather leave that until we hear what he has to say. If he wants to bargain, that’s a really good tool for us to use against him. The judge will hate that he’s been blackmailing you or setting up scenarios that led you to be jailed all in an attempt to make Joy look bad.”
Boy, they’d done that well. Just as well she had thick skin. They chose an outside table. “Do you think we’re going to win this one, Sadie? I mean, he doesn’t look like he wants to give up, and even with the doctor’s affidavit, he wants to fight from the way he argued with his lawyer.”
The waitress came and took their order before Sadie replied. “I personally think he’s going to crumble before we get to that. I wouldn’t be surprised if I get a text message before the half hour is up.” She put her cell phone on the table in front of her. “In my opinion, he doesn’t stand a chance of winning but we have to see this through if you want it to go away forever.”
“It’s not right, the way he’s been pounding on Joy.” Nate put his hat on the ground beside him. “How does he think Toby is going to react to him when he grows up? Bet the fool hasn’t even thought that far ahead.”
“I don’t either.” Sadie accepted her coffee and stirred in a sachet of sugar. “But as we know, he only seems to care about himself. And if Leroy is starting to lean away from him, his world may come crashing down in more ways than one. But let’s not worry too much just yet. Why spoil a good cup of coffee?”
Sadie’s cell chimed with a text before she finished her coffee. “Told you.” Sadie picked it up and opened the message, reading it before smiling at Joy. “His lawyer has an offer for you. Wants to come across and talk. Is that okay, Joy?”
“I guess.” She slid her hand into Nate’s and he squeezed her fingers. Even though he tried to reassure her with his touch that it would all be okay, she couldn’t help but tremble. It was all coming down to the wire and she was scared it would go wrong.
Mr. Coles came over.
“Have a seat, Charles.” Sadie’s voice sounded genuinely caring. “Tell us what you’ve got.”
Charles crossed his hands in front of him on the table. “Well. My client is being stubborn and insists that the property belongs to him. He is proposing that he give Joy and her son a lifetime lease on the house, but he have the ranch to run as he sees fit.”
“No!” Joy ripped her hand from Nate’s and slapped it on the table with such force, her coffee spilled. “How dare he!”
Sadie shrugged, turned to Charles. “I guess you’ve got your answer. My client rejects that offer.”
“I thought she would, and if she were my client, I’d insist she did too.”
Sadie put down her cup and smiled. “So, here is my counteroffer. You tell Mr. Mitchell that if he walks away now, we’ll drop the case against him.”
“What case are you talking about?”
“The case my client wants to bring against him for bullying, harassment, willful damage, emotional turmoil. She will be suing him for mental harassment in damages that will make the cost of the ranch he wants look miniscule in comparison. We have enough evidence to whittle down his fortune and make him the laughingstock in this town. Even you know what a bully he’s always been, Charles, despite the way he tries to come across as caring and kind. I bet you even felt his fist a time or two in the playground. Must I go on?”
Joy swallowed. Sadie worked up was a sight to see. Thank goodness she was on the right side.
Charles gave a weak smile. “No. I get the picture, clear and concise. I’ll go back and see what he says. Be in touch.”
“Oh, my goodness. You’re mean and nasty. I like that.”
Sadie preened. “Thanks, Joy. I can almost smell success. Now, to be clear, if he leaves you alone, you won’t go seeking damages now or in the future? They’ll ask for assurances on that.”
“I just want him to leave us alone, Sadie. Me, Nate and Toby, well, we have a future to build together and don’t need the worry, to be honest. I’d gladly never set eyes on the awful man again if I could help it.” Hopefully, Nate was on the same page. She touched his arm, let her hand rest there. “That’s okay with you, isn’t it?”
“If that’s what you want, sure. I’m ready to bury this case now and get on with life.”
Sadie drained her coffee as her cell chimed again. “Showtime, folks.”
“He’s agreed?” The blood drained from her face and Joy had to take a breath to steady herself.
“He wants to discuss it face-to-face.” Sadie picked up her purse. “Ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s do this.”
She grabbed Nate’s hand and followed Sadie back to the courthouse. Her father-in-law watched her walk up the stairs to where he stood with Charles. He whispered in his lawyer’s ear as she reached the top step. If looks could kill, she’d be lying in a pool of blood by now. Luckily she didn’t scare easily.
Sadie walked straight up to the two men. “Let’s do this, Charles, before the judge calls us back in. What is your decision, Mr. Mitchell?”
“My client wishes you to know that he’s only agreeing out of respect for his dead son’s memory,” Charles said.
A muffled snort escaped Joy before she could help herself. What a load of bull. “Where has that respect been these last eighteen months?”
“Now you look here. I know you and your sister. Tarred with the same brush. Out for
whatever you can get. Latched onto my boy and strung him along until you got what you wanted.” Ryan brushed away his lawyer’s hand. “And look what you got yourself mixed up with now. Biggest male whore in town. And everyone knows for a fact he slept with your sister. Guess that makes you no better than him, don’t it?” He pointed a finger at her. “You think I’m gonna let my grandson be brought up by a couple of no-good scumbags, you can think again.”
Nate didn’t pause when the finger poked Joy in her chest. He punched Ryan in the face and stood over his crumpled body.
“Don’t you ever threaten my wife again, you hear me?” Joy didn’t protest when his arms came around her and held her shaking body close. She hadn’t expected Nate to lose it like that. After all that had happened, he should have kept it low-key, at least until this was over.
You really do care. She hugged the thought to her chest.
“Let’s take this back to court, Charles. I think the time for your client to get away with anything has gone.” Sadie pushed Joy and Nate ahead of her and ignored the blustering man on the ground.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I was only protecting my wife, Your Honor. Mr. Mitchell was forcing himself on her. Throw me in jail or whatever you want to do, but nobody hits on a woman when I’m around.” Nate stood in front of the judge, his hands behind his back. It was the only response possible after the judge had bawled him out for fighting.
“While I don’t condone that kind of behavior in my court, Mr. Hansen, I do have sympathy for what you did. Your client, Mr. Coles, seems to have a fondness for violence whether it’s by his hand or from others he’s coerced to perform on his behalf.” He turned over a sheet of paper and stared at it. “After giving this matter due consideration, taking all the evidence put before me into account, I’m afraid I’m left with little choice.”
Nate’s throat closed and he glanced at Joy, who sat huddled next to Sadie, mouth open and eyes wide. She had the look of a terrified hare, waiting for a mountain lion to pounce. He should’ve kept his hands to himself, not punched the man until this was over. It was worth it to see him on the ground, if only for a few seconds. But how the heck would he make it up to her if he’d killed any chance she had of winning?
The Convenient Cowboy Page 13
