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A glimmer of understanding finally dawned. “I heard Alexis was working with the physical therapists.” He hadn’t been with the team long enough to see her, but no doubt he’d run into her once he began more intensive rehab back in Houston. “It’s a prestigious place to be for someone fresh out of a graduate program.”
He remembered exactly how protective Keely was of her younger sibling. He admired her for it. Wished his own family had been half so careful with the baby of the Ramsey clan.
Instead, Lara had decamped from Last Stand the moment she’d turned eighteen, and hadn’t looked back. Hadn’t even come home for a Christmas. How had his family fractured so damned badly?
“I’m happy for her.” Keely crossed her arms and squared up to face him. “And I want her to stay in Houston where she’s doing well and she won’t feel obligated to deal with any of the family drama here.”
It marked the first time he’d ever heard her draw that line so clearly. Back when they’d dated, she’d done everything she could to try and hide her father’s drinking, to pretend that the dysfunction in her family wasn’t as bad as Nate had feared. And he’d let her, thinking that it was easier for her not to acknowledge the problem.
He regretted that now, based on the stories he’d heard about the tough years with her dad that followed. Keely had deserved better support from him.
“I seriously doubt it will come to that,” Nate assured her, knowing the chances of all those pieces coming together for the baseball camp to put Alexis Harper back in Last Stand were slim. Besides that, he was still debating whether he wanted to bring the Stars branding into Last Stand or not. He really liked the idea of making it his own instead. “And for what it’s worth, I’m positive the team gives people a choice if they want to have a role in camps or not. Usually they tap local talent instead of sending in someone from their hub.”
She nodded, and he felt a measurable relief to have alleviated at least one small concern for her. For a woman who preferred to shoulder all of life’s burdens herself, that was no small feat.
But before he had long to enjoy the victory, she gestured to the flowers in front of them.
“And on another note, you can clearly see that your grandfather has nothing to worry about. The property line between the Ramseys and the Harpers is right where it’s always been.” She reached out to rest a hand on a huge live oak growing in the middle of the farmlands, a tree that their ancestors had probably left in the fields to shade an afternoon lunch or to provide a respite for draft horses on a hot day.
His gaze lingered on her for a long, appreciative moment before her words sank into his brain.
Then detonated.
“Where it’s always been?” He reached for the folded map under his arm, hoping he’d misunderstood her. His gut dropped, knowing he hadn’t. “Keely, that’s the problem. The property line moved last year when your father sold off this whole field to Everett.”
Chapter Three
Keely could havesworn the ground tilted beneath her feet. She’d only been able to savor Nate’s reassuring words about her sister for a scant moment before he’d given her a whole new fear. Now, she blinked fast as she stared out at all those acres of beautiful sunflowers ready to bloom, trying to comprehend what he’d just told her, knowing his words didn’t make any sense.
Her father couldn’t have possibly pulled off a legal deal without her hearing about it. Before his sobriety, Jimmy Harper wasted away most of his days with a bottle of bourbon in hand. He sat on the front porch of the old farmhouse when the weather was mild enough, and in the hottest part of the summer he drank in one of the local bars. The Last Stand Saloon sometimes. More often, he drove down to the county line and imbibed at one of the less reputable honkytonks until she retrieved him.
At no time had he pulled himself together long enough to put a piece of the family land up for sale without her knowing. That took time, both in the planning and follow-through. Not to mention a kind of secretiveness that her dad wouldn’t have been able to maintain for months afterward. And he’d only sobered up for this long because his failing health demanded it. He was shaky on his feet and easily exhausted, in pain almost all the time.
“No,” she said finally, realizing that Nate was staring at her, waiting for her to say something in response to his cruel suggestion. “Dad wouldn’t have done that.Couldn’thave,” she corrected herself.
If her father had managed to accomplish something like that, wouldn’t she have heard it through the town grapevine? Or wouldn’t her grandfather have told her since the land was technically his to start with?
“I went to the county appraiser’s office to get a map—” Nate began, withdrawing a folded piece of paper from under one arm.
“I already have a land survey,” she retorted before realizing that if there really had been a land sale without her knowing about it, her map would be outdated.
“Mine’s dated last week.” Nate’s dark eyes met hers, a look of compassion—or maybe pity?—visible for a moment. “Why don’t you check it against yours?”
Defensiveness roared to life inside her. She’d worked too hard for anyone to pity her. Least of all, this man.
She snatched the paper from him and held it up to view it, but the setting sun had turned the day into evening, and she realized she could no longer see the page clearly enough. Tugging her phone from the back pocket of her jeans, she flipped on the screen to illuminate it.
“Why don’t we sit in the truck?” he offered, retrieving his keys and pressing a button on the fob so that the doors unlocked with an audible sound. “The light will be better, and I’ve got a couple of waters in the cooler.”
She wanted to refuse, but she’d already stomped off in a huff from him once today. By now, she really did need to figure out what was going on with the land.
“Fine.” She followed him toward the vehicle and waited while he opened the passenger door for her, trying not to notice the easy swagger that had always set him apart from his peers.
For a confident athlete in prime condition, he sure never moved like he was in a hurry if he wasn’t playing a sport. Then again, maybe it was his long legs that made his pace seem slower than everyone else.
Cursing herself for sparing a thought for Nate’s perennial appeal, Keely climbed into the cab and smoothed out the map on the dashboard of a truck so new the interior retained a strong scent of leather. When Nate took the driver’s seat, he switched on the engine and pressed a button for the dome light before reaching into a cooler in the back to retrieve two bottled waters. The gesture tugged at old shared memories. As an athlete, he’d never ventured anywhere without plenty of water. She’d be willing to bet there were oranges in that cooler too. And maybe a protein bar.
Stop.
