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She’d thanked him by text and spent the next hour stewing over what to do about Regina before taking Silas out for a long walk to clear her head.
As much as she enjoyed the ranch, she couldn’t stay out here indefinitely. She was basically squatting on Colton property—not a great look for an aspiring real-estate agent. More than that, she was already too fond of Jarvis.
Fond. What a flimsy word for all the things he made her feel.
He’d taken care of her without undermining or minimizing her concerns. He’d given her a peaceful sense of safety and security she hadn’t experienced in years. She’d always seen herself as the bold one, going out and striving for her goals. She’d never realized how much she enjoyed solitude or how much she missed it after Regina had stormed into her life.
Self-assessment could be a pain.
She rubbed Silas’s back as she walked along, her stride parallel with the mountain range in the distance. Emotionally, in her heart, she’d been a mother the moment the pregnancy test showed positive. Roderick had asked her to end the pregnancy. Ending the marriage had been the only solution.
Divorce had meant facing more disappointment in her father’s eyes, but once she started to show, his excitement over being a grandfather had eclipsed everything else. Silas’s arrival had rebuilt a bridge that Regina had nearly destroyed with her manipulative nature. Mia had never expected to be in this position a second time, isolated from family and a trustworthy support network. Of course, with Regina around, anything was possible.
Once more, Mia debated putting the video out there. Sending it directly to her father would cut him to the core. If he even saw it. Mia had no doubt Regina was screening Norton’s email. Through the years, several emails and text messages to her father had gone missing before he’d read them, causing all sorts of communication issues that made Mia look like a problem child.
The family court email only proved Regina must have had skills or expert help to twist Mia’s next attempt at making contact into whatever form suited her stepmother. Silas was safe in her arms, but her father was not. Until she was sure her father could be protected, she couldn’t expose Regina’s infidelity to the world. They were still at an impasse.
Returning to the bunkhouse, Mia tucked her sleeping son into his car seat and then opened her laptop. She started a file, writing down everything she recalled from her conversation with Jarvis, eager to explore how she might help him. She found it sweet and a bit curious that he believed so strongly in the validity of his grandfather’s stories. If she could help him sort out his search, it would make her feel like the scales were closer to even.
She started with the easy stuff, details he probably already had, locating online birth records for Jarvis and his siblings. From there, she easily traced his family tree to Isaiah. The further back she went, the closer to Isaiah’s grandfather, Herman Colton, the murkier the official documentation got. Fortunately, the publications in and around Mustang Valley had been scanned and enhanced online. In those websites, she searched for family notes and random articles about the people of the era. Some mentioned Herman’s brother Eugene; others called the two men cousins.
Which was it? Jarvis would need to know. A tighter family relationship might give him a better chance to make a claim to the ranch, no matter what evidence Herman had buried out here. Her real-estate classes covered a bit about inheriting and selling properties, but he would definitely need an attorney if he planned to go up against Payne and his family.
After the next predictable interruption from Silas, she started to backtrack through the land sale records. She worked her way from the most current tax records until she reached older documents that had been scanned into the system. It would be nice to see these in person, but she did her best to decipher the increasingly faded handwriting and drawings of the land parcels involved on each deed.
She came across a registered deed of sale between Herman Colton and a T. Ainsley. Payne’s first wife had been Tessa Ainsley. It was entirely possible the Ainsley on the deed was one of her ancestors. Wouldn’t that be something, for Payne to have married a descendant of the family who’d had ownership of the property generations ago?
The sale covered more than half of Herman’s acreage and all of his livestock at the time. Maybe dementia ran in the family and Herman had forgotten or been confused. That didn’t explain the poker game or the deal between Herman and Eugene. Maybe Eugene had forged Herman’s signature. She pressed her fingers to her temples. Anything was possible while this part of the country was being settled and developed.
Mia took a screenshot to share with Jarvis later and leaned back in her chair. Without knowing which year the poker game occurred, she couldn’t be sure if this information validated Isaiah’s story or affirmed Payne’s ownership of the land. Assuming the registered sale was legitimate, she might have just eliminated any reason for Jarvis to keep looking for confirmation of his grandfather’s story. Would he give up?
She didn’t think so. His dark eyes had been bright with curiosity and intent as he told her the story. She’d been honored that he shared it with her. Jarvis didn’t seem the type to open up with just anyone.
“And who would I tell anyway?” she said to Silas, brushing her nose to his.
She kept digging. Eugene and Herman had started with parcels that had shared a border, each man expanding as successful seasons allowed. It would be interesting if she could track down the livestock records, as well.
With the original property borders in mind, and the information Jarvis had shared, she shifted her focus one more time to try to narrow down his search parameters. Naturally, he’d been working off Isaiah’s story, supposedly passed down from Herman himself. She thought that was odd, in and of itself.
By the time Jarvis sent a text that he was on his way over with dinner, she had what she thought were two excellent target areas.
Surely, a possible treasure hunt was why she was so excited when she heard a truck approaching. Yeah, right. Why did she even try to lie to herself? Jarvis was the reason butterflies were performing complicated aerial maneuvers in her stomach.
“How’s it going?” he asked, striding up to the bunkhouse, a big smile on his face.
She’d known her car had been the only casualty at the courthouse, and still a rush of relief poured through her that Regina hadn’t hurt him. His presence filled her with a beautiful happiness. His scent wound around her, mingling with something savory in the bag he carried. Even Silas kicked his legs happily, his face turning toward Jarvis’s voice.
“We’ve been productive,” she said.
“No nasty texts or emails?”
“All clear on that front.”
“That’s good.” He paused and she wished he’d kiss her. “If a little surprising,” he said as he unpacked the food.
She agreed. After Jarvis foiled Regina’s plans at the courthouse, she’d expected a barrage of threats, either directly from Regina or from her fake family court template.
“Where’d you get the truck?” she asked.
