Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
I spoke without looking up. “Feel free to take a walk.”
“You’re kicking me out of your apartment?” His tone was light, but his words carried a definite edge of hurt.
I blew out a breath. Tully didn’t deserve my anger. He’d been looking out for Katie’s interests two years ago and was looking out for Lellie’s now. I had no right to be annoyed that I instinctively wanted him to be on my team.
Hell, I wasn’t sure I was on my team.
I finally glanced up and met his eyes. “No. I’m not. I’m just having a hard time figuring out whether you’re here to gather evidence for them or whether you’re here to successfully transfer custody to me according to Katie’s wishes.”
Tully’s shoulders slumped slightly. “That’s fair.” He paused. “I’m here to transfer custody. But it’s my job both as Katie’s attorney and her friend to make sure that Lellie is in good hands. Transferring custody to you just to have you give her away to strangers wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.” He hesitated. “I know not to believe what the Scotts say. I know they’re biased against you. I know there’s… bad blood there—”
I snorted. “No shit.” I felt like we were saying things that had already been said. “I know you think they’re an option for Lellie because they’d love her. Well, forgive me if I don’t think their idea of love is all that great.”
Tully set his jaw. I could practically see steam rising off him as the things he wasn’t letting himself say boiled behind his closed lips.
I refocused on the pages in my lap. Katie’s will was straightforward, and her wealth didn’t surprise me since I’d known she had a trust fund. What did surprise me was discovering she had several rental properties, including one with a very familiar address.
“Is she fucking kidding?” I murmured, flipping through the pages in search of any additional information.
“What?”
“Did you know she managed rental properties?”
He looked surprised. “Yes. She invested some of her trust fund in them as a way of transferring the money away from her parents’ reach at first. That was before she met her wealth manager and let him move it into various financial instruments. Why?”
I handed him one of the pages. “That’s my parents’ house. She owns my parents’ house.”
More accurately, Lellie owned my parents’ house, which meant I, in effect, was now their landlord. And the reminder of my parents served to completely ruin my day even more than learning that the Scotts might have a strong case for custody.
I tossed the rest of the papers on the sofa and stood up. “I’m going for a ride.”
Anger sparked under my skin, and I couldn’t get downstairs and out of the barn fast enough. Because it suddenly occurred to me that Pastor and Mrs. Scott weren’t the only biological grandparents who might decide Lellie was better off with them than me.
There was no doubt in my mind my own parents would fight me for her tooth and nail.
NINE
TULLY
As Dev stormed out of the apartment over the barn, I let out a long groan, partly of frustration and partly of relief.
His moodiness was getting to me.
All morning, I’d felt like I was standing in a pasture under a wide-open sky back in Texas, watching the clouds roll in and feeling that same silent tension gather around us that charged the air before a lightning strike. I’d known a storm was brewing but not when it would hit.
One minute, I’d felt a connection growing between us, the kind where we could at least be friends for Lellie’s sake, and the next, he closed off, retreated like I was the enemy, and glowered at me over a peanut butter sandwich. One minute, he was introducing his daughter to the horses or reading her a book before nap, and the next, he’d lit out of the apartment, leaving me to watch Lellie without even asking if I minded.
I didn’t mind, of course. But if he was going to be her guardian, for however short a time, he needed to know that he couldn’t simply storm off when he was angry.
I bit out a curse as I looked at the papers strewn across the couch. What was so upsetting about knowing that Katie had owned his parents’ place, for heaven’s sake? The man was incomprehensible sometimes.
Which probably made me a fool for constantly wishing I understood him.
Before I could berate myself too much, my phone rang with a call from my boss. Thankfully, my assistant had already warned me about the custody suit when I’d called to check in earlier, but I still wasn’t prepared for the aggression in Orris Dunlevy’s voice.
“I’m going to need that address for Devon McKay,” he began.
I didn’t pretend not to understand him, but we both knew his pressing me for Dev’s address was shady as fuck. My firm might be handling Pastor and Mrs. Scotts’ case, but I was not their attorney. I was representing my client Kathryn Scott and, by extension, her daughter.