AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So, technically, we don’tneedeach other’s body heat.”
A ribbon of doubt worked its way through Heath. He felt like he’d been caught red-handed. They no longer had the pretense of needing each other for survival. “No. We don’t. You’re right.” He let go of her and distanced himself.
She raised her head and looked him in the eye. One glance and it was like she could see right through him. “I’m just giving you crap, Heath. I liked being in your arms. It was nice.”
A wide smile bloomed on his face as relief washed over him, followed quickly by a wave of raw attraction. He didn’t act on it, though. He was fully committed to following her lead. “I thought so, too.”
From outside came the sound of a truck beeping as it backed up. “I wonder if that’s Sam out there, hauling off the tree.”
“Sam?” Heath wondered for a moment if he had competition for Ruby’s attention.
“He works for public works. He checks on me every now and then. I think he might have a crush on me.”
A crush. Heath didn’t have to wonder if he had a crush on Ruby. It was full-on infatuation and he’d spent less than a day with her. This realization didn’t scare him. It brought him the first blips of happiness he’d experienced in months. Possibly years. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to go around sharing that information. “Do you want me to go check?”
“I should go. It’s my house. And if it is Sam, he’s going to want to talk to me anyway.”
“I’ll come with you.”
Ruby sat up and pulled on some socks over the ones she was already wearing. Her hair was a sexy mess and Heath took some pride in knowing he’d contributed to that, if only for a few minutes. He rolled off the mattress and ducked down the hall to use the bathroom while Ruby put on her boots and jacket. By the time he was done, Ruby was already out on the porch, so Heath grabbed his coat and joined her. It was a brisk morning, but the sun was bright and the snow on the tree branches was already starting to melt. Sure enough, two men were tossing chunks of that big tree into the bed of a pickup that said Royal Public Works on the side.
“There’s Sam,” Ruby said, pointing to the taller of the two men. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be here. I’m going to check if there’s cell service. Might call my brother if there is.” He watched Ruby approach the two men as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. Sure enough, the bars had returned. He dialed Nolan’s number.
His brother answered after only a few rings. “How about this weather, huh?”
“Is this not the weirdest thing ever? So much snow in Royal? I can’t think of another time that it was this bad.”
“We would have loved this when we were kids. I felt like we always wished for snow at Christmas and we never got it.”
Heath wasn’t able to look back fondly at all of his childhood, but he did have a few amazing memories of Nolan from when they were younger. Being a twin was a singular experience—everyone assumed he and Nolan were impossibly close, but they’d always wanted different things. The times they found something they agreed on, those were the times Heath cherished. Nolan had gotten sick of Royal and the responsibility of the ranch, left right after high school and stayed away for most of fifteen years. So much for the solidarity of being a twin. “Hey,” Heath said, “I need to talk to you about something.”
“Uh-oh. Your voice just got significantly more serious. Is this about the oil rights? I told you that I’m staying out of it. I helped you when you first found the paperwork, but that’s all behind me now. My relationship with Chelsea is my first priority. You know I can’t get involved. You need to move on, Heath. I’ve told you that one hundred times.”
Move on.A day ago, Heath would have thought that was impossible. Hell, even as recently as the conclusion of that first conversation with Ruby, he was ready to redouble his efforts and wage full-on war against the Grandins and Lattimores. But standing out here on this crystal clear morning, looking at Ruby, with her messy blond hair and a laugh that rivaled anything the birds in the trees were singing, he had this glimmer in his head and his heart—a very vague feeling that his life could be better. “It’s just that I had a meeting with Ruby Bennett, the surveyor, yesterday.”
“A meeting on a Saturday? Two days after Christmas?”
Funny, but that was the same thing Ruby had said to him. He supposed he had been pretty irrational with his timing. “I know. I got a little carried away. But she pointed out something very damning. Something that says that the Grandins knew—”
“Stop right there. Please don’t say another word.”
“I’m trying to tell you something. Something that is not insignificant. Something major.”
“And I told you, Heath, that I want to be closer to you. I want to keep rebuilding our relationship. But I can’t do that if you’re going to hold on to this grudge. The only way for me to have a happy marriage with Chelseaandbe close to you is for this entire thing to go away. You hold the key to that.”
Heath grumbled under his breath, but then Ruby turned, waved at him and smiled. He felt like his insides were turning to pudding. “It’s more than a grudge, Nolan. It’s about right and wrong. We’re talking about our mother. And our sister. Where would you and I be right now if Ashley hadn’t stepped in after Dad’s death? If she hadn’t cared for us? Mom sure as hell wasn’t capable of much. And I think we both know who’s responsible for that.”
“I realize all of that, Heath. And there’s no question that it’s sad and unfortunate. But as for the rest of it, there are no real answers because it’s all in the past. Ashley and Mom knew that we loved them. And we know that they loved us. We all did our best during that time. That’s got to be the end of it.”
“The end?” The thought of that made something in Heath’s heart twist into a tight knot. “So you want me to walk away right now? Call our lawyer and tell him we’re done? It’s over?”
“He’s your lawyer, not mine. But if it were up to me, yes, that’s what I would do.”
“I’ve got a few more days to make that decision.” Heath’s lawyer, Albert Cortez, an old family friend, had asked for an update on their working relationship. If Heath no longer required his services, Albert preferred to know that before the end of the year. It made things easier from an accounting standpoint. But Albert apparently hadn’t made the connection between the dates on the original oil survey and the deed to the oil rights given to Heath and Nolan’s mom. That was going to require a conversation.
“Look, if you want to talk about finding ways to fund Ashley’s foundation, I’m all ears,” Nolan said. “But if it’s going to be anything else pertaining to oil, I don’t want to hear it. I love you, but I will not hesitate to hang up on you.”
