A tall mountain man-esque person, “esque” because he was wearing a suit but this barely concealed the mountain man within, with black hair cut super short even though there wasn’t much of it to cover his scalp walked out of his office.

“Bitsy,” he said looking at her then he looked at Max. “Max.” His eyes scanned the room as he nodded to the others assembled of which there weren’t many, another mountain man, an older lady and gentleman and me. However they slid right past Shauna without acknowledging her and then he announced, “Let’s get this done so you can all get on with your days.” Then he turned and walked back into the office.

We all followed.

“My next holiday is going to be to a nunnery in the depths of the highlands of Scotland. Maybe on an island,” I muttered to Max and he grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze but I looked up at him to see he entered the room smiling.

Someone had pulled in a number of chairs and we all sat, Max and me on a couch in the back of the room. Bitsy was up close and she turned to look at us, I gave her a nod, she nodded back and looked back at George.

George seated himself behind his big, lawyer’s desk, a desk nearly every lawyer except those who didn’t happen to be partners in massive law firms seemed to have. Mountain man under his suit or not, George took his business seriously and he wanted those sitting across from him to take him seriously doing it.

I was wondering how much a desk like that cost when he began.

“Strangely enough, Curtis changed his will about a week before he passed,” George announced and I watched Bitsy stiffen and Shauna smile.

She’d told him she was pregnant around that time, I decided, and I got tense right along with Bitsy and Max who shifted at my side to drape his arm along the back of the couch.

I dropped my hand to his knee and squeezed.

“We’ll just get started,” George said and then he started and when he did I listened closely.

Listening, I heard there didn’t seem to be anything Bitsy had to worry about. Curtis had bequeathed her his business, his money, the land he owned except for some generous bequests he left to his mother and father (the older lady and gentleman in the reception area) and a stretch of land he gave Trevor, a business colleague whose name I knew because Kami brought it up so often. There were a few personal items he also gave his Mom and Dad. The will wasn’t very long but it was straightforward.

“To Holden Maxwell,” George read and I sat up straighter as Max’s arm moved from the back of the couch to my shoulders. “I leave the acreage…” George went on but Max went completely still by my side and everyone gasped and turned to stare at Max as George read out the situation of the acreage he left Max, fifteen acres in all apparently.

When he was done giving the estate description, George’s eyes left the papers in his hand and they locked on Max as he said straight to Max instead of reading the words from the page, “Max, you win, buddy.”

Bitsy emitted a little, choked sob and Curtis’s mother bit her lip but I moved my gaze through them to stare at Max’s profile seeing his face still hard, his jaw tight, his gaze riveted to George.

George’s eyes moved back to the paper and quickly, but his lips twitched as he did it, he finished, “And finally, to Shauna Fontaine, I leave the knowledge that, when I started it with her I got a vasectomy.”

I felt my eyes grow so wide I feared they’d pop out of my head. I also tried and failed to stop a startled giggle from escaping my lips and my gaze flew to Shauna who had gone pale but that didn’t stop her from looking murderous.

I looked toward Bitsy when I noticed her turning in her chair and the minute she caught my eye I saw she was struggling with hilarity.

“Welp, that’s it,” George stated, “except he’s left two personal letters, one to you, Bitsy.” His eyes moved to us at the back of the room and he called, “And one to you, Max.”

“Shit,” Max muttered and I looked up at him.

I’d failed to look to see if he thought Curtis’s mention to Shauna was as funny as Bitsy and I did. But looking at him then I noticed he didn’t seem to think one thing was funny.

Max stood and I did it with him as the others also moved to their feet. Without looking at anyone or saying a word, Shauna left the room as the rest shuffled around murmuring to each other.

Trevor approached Max after he squeezed Bitsy’s hand.

“Don’t start,” Max warned when Trevor opened his mouth to speak.

“Max, come on, you know, now especially, we could use you.”

Max didn’t respond and Trevor looked to me.

“You Nina?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“I’m Trevor,” he told me.

“Yes,” I smiled at him, “I did hear your name read in the will.”

He smiled back but my smile died when he spoke. “Rumor has it you caught the uncatchable.” He jerked his head to Max, I was startled by his words and didn’t have the chance to recover when he went on. “Talk to his stubborn ass. Get him to see sense.”

“Um…” I began, my muscles growing tight.

“Trevor, shut it,” Max growled.

“Curt’s gone, Max, someone’s gotta step into his shoes,” Trevor told him.

“That’d be you,” Max returned.

“Ain’t me and we both know it,” Trevor replied, leaned closer and said low, “Now, you’d be doin’ it for Bitsy.” Max made no response, his face was stony and Trevor regarded him for several seconds before he finished. “’Spect, you think on that awhile, I’ll see you at the office.” He nodded to me, mumbled a, “Pleasure to meet you,” and walked away.

I turned to Max and asked, “Darling, are you okay?”

Max looked down at me and said, “Gave me the acreage around my land.”

“Sorry?”

“That fifteen acres? It’s acres he bought up for what he was plannin’ for my land. That’s what he gave me.”

I leaned into him and put my hand on his bicep as I whispered, “Oh my.”

A muscle leaped in Max’s jaw, he bent closer to me and whispered back, “Ain’t what you think, babe, the inheritance tax on that land’s gonna be crippling.”

My hand flexed on his bicep as my heart squeezed and I breathed, “Max.”

“I pay it, it’ll cut deep and it’ll be hard for me to keep all of it. Means I’ll have to sell it. I’ll make a whack on it but whoever I sell it to isn’t gonna keep it clean. They’ll build. Means I’ll have condos or houses or somethin’ restin’ at the edge of my land. Land that’s been unspoiled for… fuckin’… ever.”

“Darling,” I whispered.

“And it’s the land that butts the edge of the bluff.”

My fingers spasmed on his bicep, my stomach dropped in an unpleasant way and I stared at him.

Then I got closer and said, “Max, you can’t sell it.”

“He fucked me, babe. He said I won but that was his sick joke. He fucked me. Instead of givin’ that land to Trev or Bitsy, who’d have to do somethin’ with it themselves which wouldn’t be on me, he gave it to me knowin’ I’d have to sell, knowin’ he’d be makin’ me ruin my mountain, destroy my bluff. When if I stayed with him years ago, I’d have my land, that land and I’d be in a position to afford to keep both just like it is.”

I felt my heart begin to race as that red started seeping over my eyes. I didn’t even know him, but I hated Curtis Dodd.

“You can’t sell,” I declared.

“Got no choice, Duchess.”

“I’ll help you.”

Max’s already stony face turned to granite.

Then he growled, “Not gonna happen.”

“Max –”

His eyes moved over my shoulder and he clipped, “Later.”

“Max,” Bitsy said, wheeling up to us with George at her side, she was beaming. “Curt finally did it. Healed the breach.” She was apparently unaware of the catastrophe that had been perpetrated in this room. “It sucks, he did it after dyin’, but at least he did it.”

“Yeah,” Max grunted and Bitsy turned her smile to me.

“It’s a long story but at least it ends well,” she told me.

“Mm hmm,” I mumbled, my hand travelling down Max’s arm to grasp his and his fingers curled around mine in a death grip.

“You must be Nina,” George said and I nodded while trying not to wince. “Bitsy tells me you’re her new attorney,” he went on and my eyes swung to Bitsy who was still grinning ear to ear and then back to George as he kept talking. “And, seein’ as I don’t exactly want to lose her as a client, thought we could talk while these two read their letters from Curtis.”

“Nina’s movin’ to town, George,” Max announced and George’s eyes, still on me, grew shrewd. “Yeah, I’ve seen her in action, you definitely wanna clear an office for her.”

“You’re moving here?” Bitsy asked, even more delighted at this news.

“Well –” I started.

“Yeah,” Max stated.

“That’s great!” Bitsy declared.

“Um…” I mumbled.

“Letters are on the desk, they’re addressed on the envelopes, don’t know what’s in ‘em. It’s weird, the timin’, but Curt just gave ‘em to me to give to you a coupla weeks ago,” George told them and moved to me, taking my elbow and Max dropped my hand as George finished. “We’ll give you a minute.”

He led me out as I looked over my shoulder at Max who jerked his head at George then he followed Bitsy who was wheeling toward the desk. I lost sight of them when George closed the door. Then he led me a couple of feet away and stopped.

“You really movin’ here?” he asked.

“Um…” I answered.

“Need help, seriously, divorces, adoptions, wills, a bunch of snot-nosed, rich kids doin’ shit, petty crime, their parents always wantin’ their kids to have their day in court rather than takin’ their community service or payin’ their fine like they should, teachin’ the kids a lesson. I’m fuckin’ buried.”