LITMIR.BIZ

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rose and came around the desk to greet her. “I haven’t seen you in a while, Katherine. I had to give up those cinnamon rolls in the mornings. My doctor told me to cut back on sugar.” She gestured to one of the chairs in front of her desk as she sat back down.

      Katherine sat as she said, “Oh, I’m sorry. Is everything all right?”

      “Yes, but I’m expecting again.” Alex beamed.

      “How wonderful! Your little girl is almost a year old, isn’t she?”

      “Yes. She’ll be eighteen months when this one is born. But enough about me. Why don’t you tell me why you’re here.”

      “Do you have to inherit something if it’s left to you?”

      Alex frowned slightly. “Do you mean someone has left you something you don’t want?”

      “Yes, that’s it, exactly.” Katherine leaned back with a sigh, glad Alex grasped the situation.

      “Do you want to give me details?”

      “I guess so. Did you meet Mrs. Dawson?” Katherine thought everyone in town knew Mrs. Dawson, but Alex had only been there a couple of years.

      “Yes, several times. Mac drew up her will just a few months ago and—she’s the one who left you something?”

      “I’ve been told that she did if…if certain conditions weren’t met by the beneficiary.” It was easier to think of Gabe as an impersonal term.

      “What conditions?”

      “Is it okay if I tell you? I mean, aren’t wills supposed to be secret?”

      “Who told you?”

      Katherine licked her lips as she remembered Gabe’s arrival in her shop, his anger, his—sexiness. “The beneficiary.”

      “Did he swear you to secrecy?” Alex asked.

      “No. No, in fact, he shouted—that is, he intended to talk in front of everyone, but I got him to sit at a table outside and explain what was wrong.”

      “And was this person Gabe Dawson? Because I just met him a little while ago.”

      Katherine nodded.

      “A handsome man,” Alex observed, watching Katherine.

      Katherine hated her fair complexion. It gave her away every time she was embarrassed. She looked at her clasped hands and muttered, “An angry man.”

      “But I understood he was the beneficiary. Why would he be angry?”

      “Gran—Mrs. Dawson left him her estate on several conditions. The worst one is that he has to marry me.”

      Alex had been leaning back in her chair. She sat up abruptly, staring at Katherine. “You’re kidding.”

      “No, I’m not. He said I must have persuaded her to write her will that way. But I didn’t, I swear, Alex. We never discussed anything like that. I took her some cookies occasionally, and I would rent movies for her. We visited because sometimes she got lonely. But that’s all, I promise.”

      “I believe you, Katherine,” Alex said soothingly. She scratched her forehead. “So you want to know if you can reject the estate if you and Gabe don’t marry?”

      “There’s no if. Gabe hasn’t spoken to me in ten years, Alex. The only reason he approached me now was to chew me out.”

      “I’d like to see the will, but if Mac wrote it—” Her gaze flew to the closed door. “Wait a minute. I think I hear him.” She slid around her desk and went to the door. Opening it, she called, “Mac?”

      “Yeah, Alex, I’m back.”

      “Can you spare a minute?”

      “Sure.”

      Alex moved back to her desk, and Mac came through the door, a smile on his face.

      Until he saw Katherine.

      “Uh-oh.”

      Even Alex seemed surprised by his reaction. “You know why Katherine is here?”

      Mac sat on the edge of Alex’s desk, facing Katherine. “I assume it has something to do with Mrs. Dawson’s will. Right?”

      Katherine nodded. “I don’t want to take—how can I get my name out of it?”

      “You can’t.”

      His simple answer, without any legal mumbo jumbo, was what made Mac Gibbons such a popular lawyer. People wanted to hear the bottom line, without all the reasons.

      “But there must be some way. He won’t—a marriage between us is preposterous. He shouldn’t have to give up his grandmother’s estate because—surely, she didn’t intend to harm Gabe.” Katherine couldn’t imagine the sweet woman she’d known doing anything to negatively affect her beloved Gabe.

      “No, I don’t think she did.” Mac shot a look at Alex and rubbed the back of his neck before he said anything else. “Look, Katie, when our mothers did their matchmaking, a lot of ladies in town got the idea to follow in their footsteps. I tried to warn Mrs. Dawson that her idea would backfire on her…and Gabe. But she wouldn’t listen.”

      “That’s what the will says, that she has to marry Gabe? Or what happens?” Alex asked.

      “If they don’t marry, half the estate goes to Katie and the other half goes to charity. Unless Katie marries someone else before the year is up. You seeing anyone?” he suddenly asked, slewing around to face Katherine again.

      “No! I’m not.”

      “I heard Jack Ledbetter was hanging around your house a lot,” Mac said, a speculative look on his face.

      Alex frowned. “But Jack’s over fifty, maybe older. He’s too old for you, Katherine.”

      “He’s fifty-six,” she said calmly. “And he is hanging around our house. But it’s not me he’s interested in.”

      Mac frowned. “Then who—your mother?” He grinned. “If you need any advice about this situation, let me know. Aunt Florence and Doc got married a year ago, you know.”

      Katherine grinned. “Thanks, but they’re managing just fine without any assistance on my part.” In fact, her mother’s romance was one of the best things going in her life right now.

      Alex brought them back to the topic at hand. “So, if you’re not seeing anyone, and you won’t marry Gabe—”

      “As if he’d ask,” Katherine muttered, interrupting.

      Alex looked at Mac for confirmation. “Then there’s nothing to be done?”

      “I’m afraid that’s true, Katie,” Mac concurred. “Gabe said something about trying to prove his grandmother was incompetent when she made these arrangements, but I don’t think he can.”

      “But if half of the estate comes to me, can I give it back to Gabe? Just return it?”

      “Not without paying some taxes.”

      “But I can’t afford that!” She was doing well with her shop, but there were a lot of demands on her income.

      “What size estate are we talking about?” Alex asked quietly.

      “She and her husband owned about a hundred and fifty acres and several wells were drilled on her property. The total, with land value and everything else, is around ten million,” Mac said calmly.

      Katherine almost fell out of her chair. “Good heavens! Taxes on half of that would bankrupt me for life.”

      Mac nodded, though he added, “If you inherited it, of course, you could pay the taxes out of what you inherited.”

      “I can’t,”

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