“Oh…”
“I answered your question,” he said. “So when are you going to answer mine? What have you decided about the will?”
“You asked me if I can respect my father’s wishes,” she reminded him. “And I want to know if you and Frankie can respect mine. I came out here to talk to the two of you.”
Frankie had escaped as fast as she could. Even though she’d claimed to need a bottle for the calf, she wasn’t back yet. Trish couldn’t imagine it would have taken her that long to fix it.
Brett pushed his hat back farther yet, and his forehead had deep furrows in it as he stared at her with narrowed eyes. “What do you mean by respecting your wishes? It seemed like, with this lawsuit, that you wished to get rid of me and my brothers and even your cousin. That you wanted the whole place to yourself. I can’t respect that when I know it’s not what your father wanted.”
Heat rushed to her face. “I don’t mean that. And I never really intended to sue—”
“Then your lawyer wasn’t respecting your wishes,” Brett said.
She did need to speak with Nolan again to make sure that he knew her decision was hers alone and nobody influenced it. But she wasn’t sure she could make that decision just yet.
“I didn’t really mean my wishes,” she said, and her head was beginning to pound with the weariness that suddenly overwhelmed her. “I meant me. Can you and Frankie respect and work with me?”
“Why are you just worried about me and Frankie?” he asked, his dark eyes narrowing even more.
More heat rushed to her face that she’d slipped up and revealed more than she’d intended to. “I…uh…” She didn’t know what to say without risking him getting upset with Blake and Maci.
“Because the ranch is all I have?” he asked. “Because it’s my life?”
“So I’m not the only one who’s overheard things today,” she surmised.
He nodded. “Yeah, your mother might have been right to warn you about eavesdropping.”
“That was the only thing she was right about,” Trish said.
“Difficult relationship?”
“Difficult woman,” she said. “I’m sure my father must have told you about her.” If they were as close as everyone seemed to think they’d been.
His face flushed a bit now. “Yeah, he told me to never get married. That women can’t be trusted not to break your heart and take everything away that matters most to you.”
Tears stung her eyes as sadness rushed over her. “He never got over the divorce.”
“He never got over losing you,” Brett said.
She pressed a hand against her heart that ached with loss and regret. Tears slid down her face.
“I’m sorry,” Brett said, and then he was there, on his knees next to the calf. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She peered at him through her tears. “Really?”
He groaned. “I don’t know. I just…” He shook his head. “It’s hard…”
She nodded in agreement. “Much harder than I thought it would be.” To deal with all the guilt that overwhelmed her. She could have done more, should have tried harder. Like Frankie had said, she should have asked her or her dad when she’d overheard her mom saying that her father had given her up for the ranch.
Brett reached out then and lightly touched her cheek. Her skin tingled, and her breath caught at the sensation of his fingertips against her face. He jerked his hand back. “I…you look exhausted. Why don’t you go back to the house and rest for a while?”
Despite the little zip in her pulse from his touch, she was wiped. Beyond exhausted. And it wasn’t just from the long drive and the little sleep she’d had; it was the emotional toll of being here at the ranch again.
And dealing with the fallout from her recent actions. She wanted to talk to Frankie, too, but she wasn’t sure she was up for more recrimination. She already felt so horribly guilty.
She nodded. “I think you might be right.”
His lips curved into a faint smile. “You’ll find that I often am.”
