The Cowgirl's Chosen Love - Vivian Arend Page 0,35

air. He jerked it back. “For Finn?”

“For me.” Alan shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head. “Look. I don’t like this either. I apologize for sounding like a shit back there with those questions for Julia. But I have to do my job.”

“Which right now would be figuring out how to get Julia and I a quick and dirty divorce.” Even as he said it, Zach hated the words.

“I can’t. And you can’t. This is serious, Zach. If you go ahead and make that decision, it will trigger a dissolution of your entire holdings. Yours and Finn’s.”

Ridiculous had just gone into impossible territory. “You’re telling me that Bruce Travers, himself a divorced man, had such a negative reaction to myself or Finn needing to call off our potential future marriages that the entire corporation is on the line?”

“Oh, Finn can get a divorce if he wants. You can’t. Not for one year.”

And impossible went into fairytale land. “Now that’s just silly.”

“Agreed. Yet it’s one hundred percent legal—I double-checked all the loopholes myself.” Alan made a face. “And I’m a damn good loophole closer. Sorry about that.”

The urge to go get a bottle of tequila made zero sense, but it was there. Zach pinched the bridge of his nose. “Alan, we’ve enjoyed a long relationship, so I hope you take this the right way. Right now, I hate your fucking guts.”

“I’m sorry,” Alan repeated. “Hate me all you want, just don’t go getting a divorce from someone else.”

Zach met his gaze. “The kicker is, I wasn’t planning on it,” he confessed. “But this whole bullshit situation is going to make it a lot harder to convince Julia that my interest isn’t just financially motivated.”

The first entertaining part of the last hour arrived. He’d managed to shock his lawyer. Alan stood there, his mouth opening and closing a few times before blinking back to alertness. “You—want to stay married?”

“You are not to repeat that, especially not to Julia. Not at this point. But yes, getting married was an accident, but it wasn’t a mistake.” Zach dragged a hand through his hair. “Okay. Somehow I have to figure out a way to make this work.”

Alan had lost a lot of his attitude in the last five seconds. “Well, then. That’s interesting.”

It was too much to hope for. “Does that mean you’re changing your legal stance?”

“Oh, hell no. Just…interesting.” Alan grinned. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. “Not the letter you were hoping for, but the ground rules regarding your marriage. Again, if you want to complain, take it up with Bruce.”

Zach snatched the envelope from him. “Have a good trip home. I suggest you leave before Julia decides to practice her autopsy skills or something.”

“Let me know if you need me for anything. As always, it’s been a pleasure working with you,” Alan said with zero hesitation.

“Everybody’s a comedian,” Zach grumbled, following Alan out the door.

He waited until the other man left the yard before joining Julia beside the horse arena. This wasn’t going to be easy. A juggling act between convincing Julia to do what was right because it was necessary and because it was what he wanted—

It wasn’t often that he tossed curses his mentor’s way, but this time? Bruce Travers had fucked up royally.

Julia folded her arms over her chest. “The fact that Alan left without paperwork for us to sign does not seem like a positive thing.”

Zach shook his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know how to explain how they managed it, but it’s a completely legal convoluted mess. Us getting a divorce means both Finn and I lose financial control of our corporate holdings. Like, they’re gone. That’s it.”

“A corporation that’s big enough to own a private plane.” She seemed rightly dumbfounded. “It was one drunken night. We can't stay married after getting hitched while under the influence.”

“Not staying married could cost a lot of people everything. Me. Finn, which would also mean changing Karen’s life radically.”

Her face twisted. “I’m supposed to complete my trainee status in October. Then I’m gone from Heart Falls.”

“You can find a new job.”

“That easy? Plus, I only have a place to stay until the end of the month.”

Zach wasn’t about to let that one go. “You’re not staying at that deathtrap any longer, remember? Also, look around you. Dude ranch. Multiple buildings with your name on them. Although I feel as if there might be a line in here that says we have