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“I don’t know, and I don’t care. I threw the letter away.”
“Good for you. That’s what we should do. Just trash them as they come.”
“It won’t stop them from coming.” My gaze travels back across the yard toward Katherine’s granddaughter. “Rose is probably right. We should look into legal options.” Clearing my throat begrudgingly, I ask, “Does she have any other advice?”
Connor’s smile annoys me, but he recovers his gloves from the ground and shrugs. “She thinks we should talk to the police, too.”
I roll my eyes. “That won’t do any good. They aren’t doing anything illegal.”
“Maybe not yet,” Connor concedes. “But that doesn’t mean they won’t if they’re desperate enough. Their insistence shows that they’re not going to yield until someone caves.”
I consider his reasoning. So far, MVP has been little more than a nuisance, but they aren’t showing any signs of letting up. How much longer can this go on?
“I’ll see what I can find for attorneys in Helena tomorrow,” I tell him, hauling a particularly heavy piece of barnboard into the trailer with a grunt.
Connor flashes me one of his winning grins. “Glad we have you on board.”
I grunt again and continue to work, my mind twirling. Perhaps I haven’t given Rose Winterbourne a fair shake.
CHAPTER14
Rose
Katherine saw Hudson outside working for the first time, and she got to work making a huge pot roast dinner for everyone. No one knows what she is up to, until the brilliant sun begins to sink on the horizon, and we pack it up like we do every evening. The only difference is that now there are four of us, when there were three at the start of the day.
As the last of the tools are tucked away in the shed, Connor turns to me invitingly. “Did you want to walk me home?” he asks teasingly. “I’m afraid I might get eaten by a coyote.”
Heat swirls inside me, and I bite on my lower lip, glancing at Hudson and Eli. “Why don’t we—” I start to suggest grabbing dinner together somewhere when Katherine hollers out from the porch.
“Supper’s ready! Come and get it while it’s hot!”
Looking at one another, we glance at my grandmother together.
“You made dinner?” I ask chidingly. “Why did you do that?”
“Because you all have been working hard all day. It’s the least I can do,” she replies haughtily. “And I happen to know the boys like my pot roast just fine, don’t you, boys? It’s not often I get to make it for all of them together.”
“Yes, ma’am!” they chorus, filing into the house, one after the other.
My grandmother stops me before I can follow them through. Her gnarled, arthritic hand rests on my bare arm. I peer into her eyes, the resemblance always taking me aback when I look at her. I imagine it will take months before I’m used to it.
“Are you all right?” I ask, pausing in front of her. “You really shouldn’t have gone through all the trouble, Katherine. We could have gone out to eat, or I could have grabbed a pizza or cooked myself.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Rosie. Cooking is one of the few things I can still do well in my old age, and I won’t have anyone take it from me.”
“Oh, Katherine…”
Her hand tightens on my arm. “I haven’t had a chance to tell you how much I appreciate everything you’re doing here, Rosie.”
I start to dismiss her gratitude, but her lovely irises fill with tears, and my heart stops as I recognize that she’s overcome with emotion. My hand reaches up to touch her face gently.
“I’m happy to do it,” I promise her. “And I couldn’t do it without the guys. They were right… it’s alotof work.”
She sniffles and nods, a smile forming on her face. “They’re good boys, but they wouldn’t have done it without you, either.”
Her eyes twinkle when she says this, but before I can press her on it, she shuffles toward the kitchen, leaving me to shake my head.
Everyone loves a common goal,I tell myself, refusing to take too much credit for it, but I can’t help but wonder where Hudson’s change of heart stems from. I’d seen him stalk over the property line, his demeanor agitated even in the distance between us, but suddenly, he was working alongside Connor, while I found myself next to Eli for the first time in days.
