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“We lost two bookings because of it. And now with the holiday…” She tipped her forehead against the glass. “I just need to get back.”
“What will your mom do until you get home?”
“Bells will take care of her.” She opened the door and hopped down.
He did the same and stopped her at the front of the truck. “You’re not alone in this anymore. I don’t know how else to make you understand that.”
“I’m not used to having someone to rely on.”
“Not even your mother?”
“She…” Kendall flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Let’s just say she’s not good in a crisis.” She laid a hand on his chest. “Are you coming up to the house?”
“No, I’m going back down with the men. I want to get an early start.”
She nodded. “Thanks for listening, Shane.”
He shrugged. “Not a big deal. We were going to have to talk about it sooner or later.”
“Evidently sooner won that bet.”
He tucked her hair behind both ears. “You okay to walk up alone?”
“Just fine.” For the first time, she looked the woman he’d met at the will reading. Her shoulders were stooped a little, and her sassy, sexy walk was missing.
Reality was here to stay, evidently.
FOURTEEN
Saturday had comeand gone with Oscar in full effect. The crew was exhausted, and Shane was on the knife-edge of surly. Evelyn was at a horse show a few towns over, and Kendall had already done all her chores. There was no way she could ignore her mother’s phone call this time. Especially when it came directly after a text that demanded she answer the phone.
Well, not without a serious case of the guilts.
“Mom, I wanted to tell you earlier.”
“You could have told me before shipments started arriving at the house, Kendall Marie Proctor.”
She winced and dropped onto her butt in the field. Salina was enjoying another mild day. It was hard to remember it was almost Thanksgiving when the temperatures felt more like September. Taking advantage of the dry grass and some alone time, she stretched out and looked up at the painfully blue sky.
How was she supposed to tell her mother that Lawrence Justice had let her down again? She didn’t believe in miracles anymore, but her mother certainly did. She’d wanted to break the news face-to-face, but as usual, she’d had to adapt. Her situation was about to crash headlong into reality in a few days anyway. Had it really only been ten days?
“How’s the hot water heater?”
“Broken. Now stop stalling.”
So she started at the beginning, and her mother stayed quiet as she explained about the co-ownership, that the Justice money was as reliable as the man she knew—minus the sarcasm to spare her mother—and that they’d have another Justice under their roof.
“You mean to tell me that I sent you out to California for an inheritance, and you’re bringing a man home with you instead?”
“Sort of—”
“So you’re not bringing home a strange man that Larry raised as his son? And that same man isn’t coming here to take half of our house?”
“That part is positively true.”
“And you didn’t think this was information I needed to know?”
Kendall shut her eyes and counted to five. She could do this and not incur the wrath of Lily Proctor. Her mother wasn’t exactly calm when it came to change. “I wanted to talk to you, to be able to—”
