my fiancée, Lizzie King.”
Annnnd that pretty much hit pause for everybody in the room: Gin rolled her eyes, Samuel T. smiled, and Mr. Jefferson bowed at the waist.
Lizzie, meanwhile, shot a surprised stare in Lane’s direction and then recovered by shaking the executor’s hand and offering the guy a smile. “It’s a very recent thing.”
For a moment, Mr. Jefferson seemed positively smitten with her, his eyes twinkling in a friendly way.
“Well, congratulations!” Mr. Jefferson nodded in Lane’s direction and then refocused on her. “I would say that you’re an upgrade, but that would be disrespectful to his former Mrs. You are, however, a vast improvement.”
Lizzie laughed. “You’re a charmer, aren’t you?”
“Down to my hunting boots, ma’am.” Mr. Jefferson grew serious once more as he looked back at Lane. “Where are your brothers?”
Lane took his seat again beside Lizzie. “I don’t know what state Max is in, much less how to reach him, and Edward is—”
“Right here.”
Edward materialized in the archway, and even though Lane had seen him a day or so ago, his physical appearance was still the kind of thing you had to adjust to. He was freshly shaved and showered, his dark hair damp and curling in a way it had never been permitted to in previous years. His khakis were nearly falling off his hips, held up from the floor only by an alligator belt. His shirt was plain and blue, a leftover from his business wardrobe. It was so loose, though, it was as if he were a child trying on his father’s clothes.
And yet he commanded respect as he limped across and sat in one of the armchairs. “Mr. Jefferson. Good to see you again. Excuse my rudeness, but I must sit down.”
“I’ll come to you, son.”
The executor put his briefcase down on one of the side tables and walked over. “It’s good to see you again.”
Edward shook the man’s hand. “Likewise.”
There was no small talk after that. Edward had never been one for it, and Mr. Jefferson appeared to remember that.
“Is there anyone else you have invited?”
Lane’s reflex was to wait for Edward to answer, but then he remembered that he himself had been the one to get everybody together.
“No.” Lane got up and strode across to the pocket doors that opened into the study. “We’re ready.”
He shut the two halves and went to do the same at the archway into the foyer. When he turned back around, he hung on to Lizzie’s stare. She was sitting on the silk sofa in her shorts and her polo, her blond hair pulled back, her face open.
God, he loved her.
“Let’s do this,” Lane heard himself say.
Edward steepled his hands, putting his elbows on the padded arms of the chair. Across the parlor, on the silk sofa, his little brother was cozy-cozy with the horticulturist, Lizzie, and one had to admit, the ease with which the two of them sat side by side was indicative of a connection not typically found in Bradford marriages: It was in the way he casually draped an arm over her shoulders. How she rested her hand on his knee. The fact that they made eye contact with each other as if both were checking that the other was all right.
He wished Lane well. He truly did.
Gin, on the other hand, was in a more traditional relationship with her future spouse. Richard Pford was nowhere to be found, and that was just as well. He might be marrying into the family, but this was private.
“We are here for the reading of William Wyatt Baldwine’s last will and testament,” Babcock stated as he took a seat in the other armchair and opened his briefcase upon his lap.
“Should Mother be included?” Edward interjected.
The executor glanced over the top half of his case and said smoothly, “I do not believe it is necessary to disturb her. Your father was primarily interested in providing for his offspring.”
“But of course.”
Babcock resumed extraction of a rather voluminous document. “The decedent engaged me for the previous ten years as his personal attorney, and during that time period, he executed three wills. This is his final will, executed one year ago. In it, he provides that any debts of a personal nature shall be paid, along with any appropriate taxes and professional fees, firstly. Thereafter, he has created a trust for the bulk of his assets. This trust is to be split equally in favor of Miss Virginia Elizabeth Baldwine, Mr. Jonathan Tulane Baldwine, and Mr. Maxwell Prentiss Baldwine.”
Cue the