during chaotic days. And working cattle with eleven other people was busy, sometimes boisterous, and just a lot.
Scrolling through my phone, I enjoyed the sunshine streaming through the window. Taya skirted around the counter and sat at the table with me. She slid my mango smoothie over. “Giselle’s getting the rest of the order ready.”
“No problem.” I pocketed my phone, enjoying one-on-one conversation with someone I didn’t see often but had become friendly with. “How’s it going?”
“Things are well. Not exactly exciting, but that’s okay when it comes to business.” She crossed one long leg over the other. If only I had half Taya’s grace. But I’d need her graceful body to go with it. Not my padded, sturdy one. “Is everyone in town?”
“Yes. There’s a big cattle sale and they’re sorting. Getting the rest into winter pastures.” I pressed my lips shut. Dawson’s business wasn’t trade information. I’d start rambling if I kept going. Most people’s eyes glazed over when I spoke too long about a subject. I’d learned the hard way to shut up well before I was ready.
“I’m so glad things worked out between Dawson and Bristol. After that trust drama, I wasn’t sure.”
“What trust drama?”
Taya’s brows shot up. “You don’t know?”
Apparently not. I switched to business mode. Sometimes I worked with individuals who were too proud to admit what they didn’t know, or were too ashamed to admit what they’d done. The opposite of TMI made my job harder. I couldn’t help them apply for jobs or fill out resumes if they weren’t forthcoming with all the information.
I used the roundabout method. “You mean with Emilia?”
Aiden had raced to King’s Creek with Beck last June. He hadn’t said more than Grams had collapsed. Then during the Fourth of July fair, Aiden hadn’t been sure plans were still on since Dawson and Bristol had briefly split up. But when I’d asked him why, he’d said he didn’t know the details.
Taya knew something. What were the chances my husband had lied?
I swallowed hard, willing Taya to talk.
She did. “Yeah, it was shitty how she cornered Bristol and gloated about the trust Dawson’s mom had set up.”
I knew about a trust that Aiden had received when he turned thirty. We’d been married a little over a year. He’d stuffed it away, said we were doing fine and didn’t need it, and I’d read between the lines. It wasn’t my business, and Aiden rarely discussed anything to do with his mom.
“Right.” My mind sifted through ways to get more information. I took a long pull of my sweet smoothie while thinking, but Taya wasn’t done.
“It also seems really weird that his mom would set up a trust like that. Maybe she was afraid her wild boys would never settle down and bribing them with money would do it. I don’t know if I’d make my kids be married for a year before I gave them the payout. But then I don’t have kids. Maybe it’d be different if I did. And I certainly don’t have a hundred million to pass out.”
I choked on my drink. Sputtering, I grabbed for a napkin. “Sorry. Swallowed wrong. How much did you say?”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t be talking about stuff that’s not my business.”
“No, it’s fine. The trust. Right. All the boys got one.” I didn’t know for certain. But Aiden had gotten one. Dawson, apparently. One hundred million? Was she serious? Split between the four brothers—that was a staggering amount of money. Why hadn’t Aiden told me? And what had Taya said about being married a year?
“I can’t imagine that amount of money, just having four hundred million to split up.”
I sucked on my straw. Long and hard.
One hundred million. Apiece.
Aiden and I were well off. Aiden had been well off when I’d married him. But I’d assumed he worked hard for every penny.
We were legit millionaires?
“But Bristol will do good things with that money. Her plans for Cartwright Cattle are admirable.”
“Yeah. Totally.” The dude ranch. A sobriety ranch. Yep. Good things. My mind circled back to how much my husband hadn’t told me.
“I’m so glad the rest of you married for love and not for the money though. I know it seemed suspicious at first, that they all married before they turned twenty-nine, but here everyone is, married over a year, and Dawson wanted his trust to go to Bristol.”
The pieces clicked in my brain. Married for a year. Married before twenty-nine. The money going to Bristol. The drama with Emilia.
Emilia Boyd wouldn’t