Page 11 of Blue Jean Summer

Hallie stuffed her hand in her hair because I had her there. “Why would Walt earmark land for your nonexistent wife in the first place? He had the will amended right before he died. Even if your grandma wanted your future wife to be protected by having her own assets, why wouldn’t Walt take it out since he knew the land was about to go to you?” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “He was a romantic, but strong-arming you into a marriage doesn’t seem like Walt.”

I worked my tongue over my teeth, trying to buy time.

The thing about Hallie was that she had the patience of a saint and would wait someone out if she really wanted more information. She would have made a great CIA interrogator.

I let out a slow breath as I looked up from the will. “I was supposed to be.”

Hallie reared back in shock. “Supposed to be?”

I gritted my teeth, trying to distract the rest of my body from the ache deep inside. “I was in a relationship. It wasn’t casual, but we weren’t rushing to get married either.” I sighed. “Granddad was my hero. When he had his first stroke, it felt like I was losing the one person I could always count on. Fear makes people do crazy things. I panicked and proposed. In a way, I was grasping at straws—trying to find that…that magic that my parents and grandparents had. Trying to hold on to a piece of them before I lost them all for good.”

“Hayes…” Hallie said gently.

I just shook my head. “I had never seen him look happier than he did when I told him I was engaged. It was like he had been waiting on me to find someone before he passed away. He must have amended the will to include what my grandma wanted to give her right after I told him.”

“I remember when he had me call the attorney’s office.” Hallie glanced away as her voice cracked. “He was so upbeat…I thought he was getting better.”

“He had his last stroke before I could even bring her down here to meet him.”

Hallie blinked away her tears. “He never recovered after that one. He didn’t have many good days after that.”

Frankly, neither do I.

“She and I broke up a few weeks ago, but I never told him that it ended because I didn’t want to burden him.”

Warring emotions crisscrossed Hallie’s face as she wavered between sympathy and the reality of the situation. “I know how much this land means to you. But are you really willing to turn into Lewis? Doing something asinine to get what you want? Marriage is…” She sighed. “It’s a lot. Trust me on that. You’re talking about love here.”

I leaned back in the chair, tapping Granddad’s gilded pen on the copy of the will. “If Lewis isn’t going to play by the rules, then why should I? Besides, the will says I need a spouse. A marriage license is just a contract. I don’t need to be in love to sign a contract.”

“What’s your plan?” Hallie asked sternly as she sat back in the seat, crossed her arms, and propped her ankle up on her knee. “Get married to a woman in Honey Hollow and make her uproot her life and move back to Bethesda with you? Marry a woman you know from Bethesda and make her move here? Marry anyone from anywhere to save an estate that you don’t live at just so it can collect dust?”

I steepled my hands, pressing my thumbs into the divots between the bridge of my nose and my eyes. Her logic was going to give me a migraine. “I haven’t gotten that far yet.”

Hallie sighed. “Hayes, I’m not saying this as your employee. I’m saying this as your friend. You need to take a hard look at all the implications this will have on your life. On someone else’s life. Signing a marriage license isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s not something to do just to save face. Trust me on that.”

I tried to force an easy smile, but it came out lopsided. “Do you want to marry me, Hal? Make it easy on me? We’ll have a nice, platonic time of it.”

“What the hell?” Mason said as he poked his head into the study. Latent streaks of soil and dust crisscrossed his face and arms. He must have been working to get the rose garden back in pristine condition after the funeral tent was removed.

Mason Bishop had been caring for the land long before Hallie had come to run the estate. When the rodeo lost its appeal, he left the adrenaline and bright lights for a quiet life in Honey Hollow, working as the groundskeeper for the estate. He took great pride in keeping the land and equine facilities in tip-top shape.

He tended to the sprawling fields, stables, and outbuildings, and had kept my grandma’s gardens blooming long after my granddad’s waning dexterity forced him to hand over the honor.

Hallie tossed her head, red hair spilling down her back as she laughed.

Mason glanced at the papers on the desk and quickly put two and two together. “Still trying to figure out the will?”

“There’s not much to figure out,” I said. “It is what it is.”

Mason leaned against the doorframe and stroked his silvering beard. He wasn’t much older than me, but he had gone gray early in life. It worked for him.

“You’re not actually considering marrying him, are you?” he asked Hallie.

She dabbed tears from the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard. “Been there. Done that. Wore the white dress. Passed go and collected my two hundred dollars. Never again.”

Mason raised an eyebrow. “The lady doth protest.”

I chuckled under my breath.