Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 51744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Living with Jonathan Bridger could drive anyone to the brink. What was different about her? Why did my father keep her around longer than his first two wives? He dumped Austin’s mom when she was pregnant. Same, as far as I remember, with Miles’s mom. Why did he keep me here, but abandon his first two sons? I fear I may never know the answers to those questions.
And why, after all these years, did he bring them back here when he died?
He never met them once. Why force them to a ranch that they’d never seen? To become Bridgers in more than name?
I scoff. The answer to that last question is simple. To fuck me over. To pit us against each other.
My father knew I hated him. He didn’t give a shit. He probably knew Austin and Miles didn’t like him much either. It wasn’t as if they came knocking and wanting to play catch when they were young. No. They stayed away until a will forced them back.
And dear old Dad didn’t set up the paperwork out of the goodness of his heart. He didn’t have one. He did it so Austin and Miles would come here. Hate the place. Hate me. Leave so that the will went to shit. So they had the money in their hands but let it slip through their fingers. A billion dollars would be lost.
At least we’re having the last laugh on that. I love my brothers, and ’I know they feel the same way. Sure, we give each other shit, but isn’t that what brothers are supposed to do?
I run my hands over the death certificate.
At least now I know why she didn’t come back. She couldn’t.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” I say out loud. “I’m sorry for your pain.”
I shove the death certificate back in the box and toss it aside. I have to process her death somehow, but now isn’t the time. She’s gone. Has been for almost twenty years. But Avery’s back and I need to know the truth. All of it. Back to Linda’s box.
The rest of the file folders contain ledgers showing how much my father shelled out to Linda over the years to keep Avery away from me. He paid for her college. For Avery’s. He bought them a house in a suburb of Phoenix. All this to keep me from the love of my life.
Because he thought she wasn’t good enough for me.
“That’s a load of shit,” I say, again out loud. “It had nothing to do with Avery. He just didn’t want me to be happy.”
He just wanted to be an asshole and see me suffer. I grew too big for him to physically control me. This way he could destroy me without raising a finger. Fucking bastard.
“I’ll see you in hell,” I mutter.
I rise, brush off my jeans.
Avery’s been gone less than a day, but even that’s too much.
Now that I know so much kept us apart, it’s time to put the past behind us. All of it.
Time to fly to Phoenix and get my woman.
But then my gaze falls on a different box with a name scrawled in thick black marker on the top—the only one marked in that way.
Grady Landon Marsh.
Never heard of him. He must be some relative of Linda’s. Someone else my father paid off, probably.
I shove it to the side.
I don’t have time for more of my father’s nonsense. I need to bring my woman home.
23
AVERY
* * *
Watching my son put away a thirty-ounce porterhouse makes me smile. Truly smile. This kid is everything to me. I live for this child. Only him, until now. I’ thought he would be the only guy in my life with Chance out of it, but now… I want Chance, too.
If only things could be different. Chance will never forgive me for keeping his son from him. From watching him grow, learn, turn big enough to eat an entire side of cow in one sitting.
“You two have any room for dessert?” I ask, holding my stomach. I don’t think I need to eat for another week.
“Not me.” Mom pats her mouth with a napkin.
“Of course. I’ll have the chocolate cake.” Grady chews on the end of the T-bone.
“I don’t know where you put it.” Mom shakes her head with a smile. “To be young again.”
Our server comes by, and Grady orders his cake.
“Anything for you ladies?” He aims his grin squarely on me.
“A cup of coffee,” I say. “Black.”
“Same.” Mom smiles. Once he’s gone, she says to me, “He was checking you out, Avery.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s got to be ten years younger than I am.”
“I’m not telling you to go out with him. I’m just remarking that he finds you attractive.”
“Gross,” Grady says with an eye roll.
“Your mother is a beautiful woman, Grady.” Mom straightens the silverware on her empty plate.