Page 30 of The Texas Cowboy's Proposal
“To handle the legalities for the Aces High?”
“Not exactly. It would bemybusiness and any future ventures I might undertake. I just want to get you to agree to take me—just me—on as a client.”
She watched as he filtered the information. Matthew Matteo had always had the analytical mind to be the excellent lawyer he had become. She knew he had more questions but would take a slower approach. Sammi Jo didn’t want him to know too much, as things still had to be settled with Beaudry and the agreement on the table between them had to be canceled, but they would get into that soon enough.
“I see—at least what you want me to see right now. But my gut is telling me there is more to come. So, one thing you need to realize—I don’t beat around the bush with my clients and I expect the same from them.”
“Good. I agree. And this, I hope, will show you how much I don’t beat around the bush either.” She pushed a slender check across the table toward him. He picked it up with one hand, his expression maintaining its composure even as he read the six-figure amount.
“If you’ll draw up the agreement or whatever, place that on my account to be activated once we have settled our next round of business. Then I will sign whatever you need once you feel free to add me to your client list.”
He folded the check and passed it back to her. “You keep that until our present legal issues are concluded. Then we’ll sit down again, Sammi Jo. Suppose you simply tell me what is going on, why I am being wooed with one of the best steak dinners I’ve tasted this side of the big city, and is this news going to give me indigestion later?” He pushed his now-empty plate away and settled in to frame her in his sights, in his practiced legal stoicism.
“Besides my sister, you are the only other person to know that I have reached a decision on the items in my grandmother’s codicil. Tomorrow I am going to Fort Worth and sit down with the attorneys there. I will be instructing them that I will not proceed with my grandmother’s ridiculous plan. I will not be holding Beaudry Hawkes to any such agreement or marriage. I will instruct them that the sale of Aces High is to be conducted as originally specified. And that is that. Until you sign on as my lawyer, there will be a few little details I will want you and I to work on, but that will have nothing to do with my grandmother or anyone else. And before you ask—yes, I have spent the last twenty-four-plus hours thinking of nothing else but this decision. I am sure, and I won’t change my mind.”
There was silence. She actually might have stunned Matt for once in his career. He slowly shook his head after a few more moments.
“You are giving up the Aces High. Something that is in your very DNA. Something you were willing to literally sell your very soul, if needed, to protect, enter into an arranged marriage to keep, and now you are going to walk away from it all. I am beyond mystified.”
“You join my sister in that mystification. But it is quite simple when it comes down to it. I love the land, the history, the people, the animals. But it became clear to me that all those things aren’t as important in life as some others. Thoseothersare for me to know and keep to myself. That is the guiding light to me getting through the days ahead. I trust that once the ranch’s attorneys get over their shock and dismay, they will be contacting you and you will all do whatever it is you do to dissolve the last two hundred thirty years of my family.” She had to stop. A very huge knot had become lodged in her throat. She sat quietly, working to maintain composure while it dissolved. To his credit and her gratefulness, Matt did not offer kind platitudes that would make matters worse. He simply gave her the time she needed.
Clearing her throat, she managed what she hoped was a confident smile. “Life goes on. That is always the most important thing, right? I am luckier than a lot of people. I know that. I need to be grateful for the life I have had and will continue to have as I decide what that will look like. How often do people get to reinvent their lives? And have the finances to be able to do so? I want to do some good along the way, and that will be a large part where you will be needed.”
“Beaudry doesn’t know any of this?”
The question she dreaded had come.
“No. Not yet. I thought I’d get all the legal documents in place and then you would let him know that he is off the hook. He and Lacy can get on with their lives and hopefully forget the upheaval the Burkitts almost caused. And I will drop a document off at your office on my way to the airport tomorrow. I would rather it just stay in the file until I get back.”
“I think for the first time in a very long time, I may have been rendered speechless. But if you want this and are committed to it, then I’ll try to make it as easy as I can for everyone, especiallyyou, my friend. I have an idea how much this is truly costing you. Whatever your reason, it has to be incredibly important to you.”
“Thank you. It is everything. And we will move on to the fabulous strawberry shortcake that is waiting to be served for dessert. It earned Lacy’s seal of approval when they came to dinner one day. Sweets are always good to cheer anyone, don’t you agree?”
*
“I don’t knowwhat to tell you,” Jaxson said, unloading the last of the feed from his truck bed, stacking it in a corner of the feed storage room. “But thanks for the help with the last of the feed.”
“Your sarcasm is not helpful.”
“Apparently, neither are you today,” came the equally swift response. Jaxson wore his usual calm demeanor, taking off his work gloves and sliding them beneath his belt to secure them. On the other hand, Beaudry was the embodiment of agitation. He put his hands on his hips, his brow furrowed.
“You are supposed to know where your boss lady is, don’t you think? She’s not answering her cell phone. Her truck is gone from the house. Mickey, the gardener, said he saw her leave bright and early this morning, carrying a clothing bag. Surely, she’d tell you if she were heading someplace.”
“All she said yesterday afternoon was that she had to go into the city. It wasn’t any of my business to question why. She said she’d be back in a day or so.”
“Lacy asked her last week if we could go to the drive-in movie this week. She’ll be disappointed.”
“Sorry about that,” Jaxson said. “So, is that where you like taking most of your female friends? For drive-in movies and a pizza? I heard from my fellow coffee drinkers this morning that the two of you were seen in deep discussion over a pizza a couple days ago. You are indeed a romantic fellow and big spender.”
Beaudry paused for a moment. “What does that mean? Female friends? Pizza?”
“Well, as you know, your current love life is the talk of the town. Our local busybody, Melba Tweet, was in the coffee shop this morning, along with Mitzi Aldridge. You know, when those two have their heads together, it means it will be in the gossip section of Mitzi’s paper. I overheard your name as I was coming out of the meeting room after our Stockman’s monthly meeting with the county agent. Naturally, being the big brother I am, I asked Tallie if she knew what or whom they were so busy maligning this week. And it seems you made the number one spot again for the third week running. You and a certain Miss Crawford were dining in The Pizza Pie Pantry. They’d like to know what Sammi Jo has to say about it, but I think Tallie took care of that one fast enough.”
“What the heck are you—?” He stopped, the light dawning on him. “Two days ago, Lacy and I were stopping by to drop her off for a class pizza party that her teacher and her assistant had arranged to celebrate the students’ test scores. I wasn’t dining with the teacher. Then Sammi Jo came in and we ended up ordering a pizza together. Only she left because I put my foot in my mouth, and don’t even try one of your lame jokes here. I need to find her and get some things straight between us. And that has now become me wining and dining another woman?”
“Seems so. Who knew I would be related to such a celebrity? I do miss the days, though, when I could go into the Coffee and a Chat, sit down, read my local paper in peace and anonymity, have a coffee and cinnamon roll with the guys, and talk about such trivial things as cattle prices, drought and pestilence, the best wormer on the market. The really boring stuff of life.”
“It’s a good thing you aren’t a comic. You would fail miserably. Wining and dining with my daughter along. Guess they overlooked that part of the truth too.”