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And the truth was they’d all be fine. Just like her dad always promised.
“It’ll be all right,” she whispered to herself. “It will go away.” It would. Eventually. She just had to keep her chin up and pretend it didn’t matter and keep her thoughts to herself.
She nodded and wiped one last stray tear away. The long drive back to town was a good thing today. She needed time for her swollen eyes and stuffed nose to recover. If she pulled up and found Rose Bishop waiting on her doorstep, Sophie didn’t want to look like she was falling apart. If that woman sensed weakness, she’d go for Sophie’s soft spots.
Unfortunately all of Sophie’s spots were soft today, but she couldn’t let people see that. She never could.
CHAPTER NINE
“WHAT THE HELL do I care?” Alex snapped, irritated that he even had to think about this.
“Because a lawsuit might affect the inheritance,” Shane countered calmly.
“You got the inheritance, brother.”
Shane winced and ran a hand through his hair. Sawdust filtered out and drifted past the sunlight that shone behind him.
Alex had driven out to see Shane’s new place. It wasn’t much, just a trailer set up on the land h
e’d inherited from their grandfather, but Shane was steadily making it into his. He was almost done with a small stable and had graded a spot for a house he planned to build next summer. He’d always been good with his hands. Alex wasn’t surprised that he’d become a carpenter.
“I want to do something about that,” Shane finally said. “This land belongs to you as much as it does to me. Which is to say not much at all.” He winked. “But old man Bishop left it to me because Dad was his only kid. He should have split it between you and me.”
“You’re the oldest and I wasn’t around.”
“It doesn’t matter. You should have half.”
Alex shook his head at his brother’s sentimentality. “And what would I do with land in a place I come visit once every twenty years? It’s yours, Shane.” He turned in a small circle, taking in the dried grass and sagebrush and the high slopes of the Tetons in the distance. “You belong here. You always have.”
“Then I’ll sell some off and send you the money.”
“You might need that money to fight this lawsuit.”
Shane shook his head and set down the two-by-four he’d been sizing. “If there’s any settlement, it’ll likely come out of the trust or be paid by insurance.”
“You can’t be sure of that. How much is he asking for?”
“A million dollars.”
Alex sucked in a breath. “Wow.”
Shane shrugged. “It’s a lawsuit related to a car accident. My lawyer says if it goes any further, the insurance company will probably settle for a smaller amount. There’s not a lot of evidence to prove anything either way.”
“Yeah.” Alex folded his arms and stared out at the mountains. The sight was beautiful, but it reminded him of too much. “Why’s he doing it?”
“I don’t know. Money hungry, I guess. He hasn’t made much of himself.”
“Do you know him?”
“Not really.”
Alex glanced at Shane. “His sister seems nice.”
“Yeah, they’re not a lot alike as far as I can tell. She’s always been a hard worker. Quiet type. Polite.”
“Right,” Alex muttered, then cleared his throat against a memory of her very politely saying please, please. “Anyway, you seem calm about it.” Shane had been hot-tempered in his youth, quiet until you pissed him off.
“I let it all go last year.”
