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Drew looked to Maisie, lifting her eyebrows. “Well?”
Maisie gave the young man an apologetic look. “I appreciate the offer, but I’d have to get you to sign a damage waiver.”
“It’s true,” Drew confirmed. “She’s already broken my little toe.”
Maisie made a face that said she couldn’t deny the accusation. “I think I need to sit the next one out.”
“That’s okay, ma’am,” Todd said. With abetter luck next timeshrug, Drew made to follow Maisie back to their table, but Todd spoke again. “I guess that leaves you and me, Drew. What do you think?”
Drew stopped in her tracks, too stunned for a moment to respond. But then she broke into laughter. That hopeful expression on his face was too darned cute. “What the hell? Why not?”
Todd grinned and held out his arm to lead her to the dance floor, but Drew held up a hand in reply. “Hold on, now. I’ll dance with you, but only on the condition that I lead.”
Drew waited for the kid to rethink the offer, but instead, he shrugged in time-honored ranch fashion. “Works for me.”
Todd turned out to be an awesome dancer. Drew was so surprised by this that she lost track of Maisie for the better part of five minutes. It was only as the song was wrapping up and she was leading Todd into a dip for the grand finale that she spotted Maisie on the other side of the room alone at the table, but Dan King was heading Maisie’s way like he was on a mission.
Why in the hell was the Campbell family lawyer approaching Maisie? Before Drew could investigate, Todd whisked her away for another song, leading this time.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
“Well, hello there.”The older gentleman in a blue button-up shirt and bolo tie held out his hand as Maisie walked past. “Maisie Sullivan, isn’t it?”
Maisie came to a stop, looking at him quizzically. “Have we met?”
“Only on paper. I’m Dan King. I’m the attorney for the Campbells and pretty much everyone else in these parts, I suppose.”
“Oh, of course.” As Maisie shook the man’s hand, the implication of having met himon papersank in. “You’re the one who alerted Drew to our… situation.”
“I am, indeed.” Dan took a sip from the green beer bottle he was holding. “I have to admit I was surprised to hear you’d shown up at the ranch. Not a lot of city folk have much of an interest in this part of the country, and I imagine even fewer would last as long as you have.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.” Maisie shot a glance toward Drew, who was busy dancing with the young ranch hand. “Trust me, that woman right there has been the hardest part of it all.” There was no disguising the fondness in her tone.
“I’ve known her since the day she was born, and all I can say is, I don’t doubt it.” Dan chuckled as he, too, watched Drew. “I imagine she might not be in the best of moods these days. Rough business, losing Bob so suddenly like we did.”
Maisie was quick to fill in the dots and spotted an opening to ask the questions that had been weighing on her since she’d run into Jolene that morning. “Mr. King—”
“Call me Dan,” he urged.
“Okay, Dan.” Maisie smiled. “You say you’re the Campbell family lawyer. Would that mean that in a way, you’re my lawyer, too?”
“If you’re talking about anything to do withLas Vegas,” he lowered his voice a little, saying it like it was a secret code word, “then no. You’ll need to engage your own counsel for that. But if it’s Lazy C business, unless I’m informed otherwise by the signing of a certain set of documents you might already be familiar with, then yes. You have an equal stake in the proceedings.”
Maisie nodded, appreciating the lengths he was going to help while trying to stick to the right side of the legal line they were walking. “My question is definitely ranch-related. It has to do with Bob Davis’s death and what kind of restrictions there are on the property.”
“I thought it might be something like that.” Dan took another swig from his bottle. “One thing I can say is it’s a darn shame Bob never got around to changing his will, but that’s the lawyer in me.”
“Drew said something like that, too,” Maisie recalled. “She assumed Bob’s brother would inherit the land, and she made it sound like he wouldn’t be able to do what Bob’s ex-wife is trying to do with it.”
The lawyer raised his brows. “I’ll stop you there for a minute, because there are certain things I can’t discuss, seeing as how Jolene Davis is also a client.”
“Of course.” Maisie took a slow breath, composing her thoughts. “More than once, I have heard comments about a founders’ pact or something like that, but I have yet to figure out what it is.”
“Easy.” Dan instantly appeared to relax, obviously comfortable with Maisie’s new line of questioning. “Rock Creek Valley was settled by a dozen families who moved out this way in the early 1900s. They didn’t trust outsiders, but they believed in working together to protect everyone’s interests. In 1911, they drafted what we call the Founders’ Compact to do exactly that.”
“Jolene called it a scam to keep property values artificially low.” Maisie’s stomach twisted as she recalled the conversation. “She seemed to think it was to blame for her not getting a decent payout during the divorce. Meanwhile, Drew believes if Jolene breaks this compact, it’ll be the end of Rock Creek Valley as we know it.”
“Both positions are extreme in their own way,” Dan said with a slight laugh, as if he thought the whole thing was being blown out of proportion. Maisie prayed that was the case. “I can assure you the compact is not a scam, and I have every reason to believe the valley will manage to survive even if Jolene’s deal goes through.”
