Page 23 of Finding Hayes
“I put her name on the calendar,” River said, as he quirked a brow and made no attempt to hide his irritation.
“I don’t really use your calendar. I prefer my own system,” she said. “Anyway, I didn’t want to bother you at the funeral, but I was hoping to run into you while you were home. Hey, why don’t you meet me at Whiskey Falls tonight for karaoke? I’m old enough to drink now!” she squealed, and Hayes and River both glared in her direction. “I’d love to catch up.”
“How about you catch up when you aren’t on the clock,” River snipped, and I laughed because I couldn’t help it. She was completely unfazed, and I turned my attention toward her.
“I’d love to catch up. I’m having car problems at the moment, but if I can get it fixed, I’ll text you.” I smiled before Hayes placed his hand on my lower back and guided me into his best friend’s office.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” River said to the man besideme as he closed the door and settled across the desk from where Hayes and I sat.
“Her car broke down, so I’m here. What did you find out?” he asked.
“Obviously, inheritance law is not my specialty, but after researching this over the weekend, it appears that you can make up the rules for your own will.”
“Meaning?” I said, leaning forward and tugging off my hat and mittens. I welcomed the warmth after freezing my ass off outside.
“Meaning, exactly what Abe’s probate lawyer, Bert Lovell, told you when you met him in the city. Abe gave you the keys to the house as he wanted you to stay there while you were in town. He made it clear that his hope is for you to renovate the home and make it what it once was. He’d like you to raise your family there, but he didn’t make that a requirement. He doesn’t want to be the one to decide where you live.” River reached for his coffee. Bert Lovell had told me this the day he’d beckoned me to his office. And then he’d handed me the keys, and I’d driven straight to Magnolia Falls. The place I’d grown up in. The place I’d avoided for many years.
“I see. He just wants to decide when I get married?” I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. “There must be a loophole.”
“That’s the thing about wills. There are no loopholes. You can leave your money to whoever you want, however you want. You make the rules.” He shrugged from the other side of the desk.
“That’s ridiculous. You can’t demand someone get married,” Hayes hissed.
And for the first time since I’d arrived in town, I agreed with him.
“Actually, you can. I researched it quite a bit this weekend, and there have been countless cases that were very similar tothis. People who have a lot of money do some crazy things. And Abe isn’t demanding she get married. He’s giving her a choice. She gets the keys to the farmhouse and twenty-five thousand dollars to hold her over financially while she begins renovations. If she chooses to get married within thirty days, she meets the first requirement. She’ll receive fifty thousand dollars as a second payment. After she’s been married for three months, everything will be signed over to her, in her name. Savannah, you will receive a million-dollar check at that time, as well as the deed to the house. I had some numbers run on the land, and you’d be inheriting somewhere in the vicinity of six million dollars in total.”
“Fuck, that’s a lot of money.” Hayes raised a brow at me.
“And if I stay married for three months and then the marriage comes to an end?” I asked, my voice shaky, because six million dollars would solve a whole lot of problems for me, as well as providing everything my father needs at the moment.
“He didn’t make any rules after the three months. If you separate, divorce, or never speak to the dude again, the money is yours. The house is yours. You can sell the house and the land after the three months, but he made a special note in here that he would prefer that you kept the house in your family, because it meant something to him. But the option is yours.”
It didn’t feel like the option was mine. Abe was stuck in his ways, and he wanted me to have everything he and Lily had. But forcing me to marry someone was not going to bring me my soul mate. It would be a business deal, and I couldn’t fathom why he’d put me in that position.
“So where does one get a husband for three months?” I asked with a laugh, because obviously, this deal was going to die right here.
Did I need the money? Yes.
Did I see a way to meet a man and fall in love, all in the next thirty days? Hell no. I’d spent years dating every type of man out there. Businessmen. Artists. Cowboys. Playboys. Scientists.
And not a single one had kept my attention for three months.
I always found something wrong with them. Every single time.
Clearly, I had trust issues because I was always trying to figure out what their game was. How the hell would I find someone I liked enough to marry?
“I have some ideas,” River said, clearing his throat.
“Hold up, brother.” Hayes leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and my gaze scanned his thick thighs before I forced myself not to stare and turned my attention back to River. “She has to get married within thirty days,or what?”
“That land is considered a gold mine. The state has been trying to purchase it from Abe for the last three years. If she chooses to pass on getting married, it’s her right. She keeps the twenty-five thousand dollars, and she can stay in the house for thirty days. Then the land is sold off, and Savannah will donate the money to the charity of her choosing.”
“This is fucked up,” Hayes grumped.
I couldn’t agree more. It was fucked up, but I didn’t know why he was so pissed off about it. No one was asking him to find a bride and get hitched.
“Listen, I never expected anything from Abe. Obviously, I’d love to renovate that farmhouse and make it what he always dreamed it should be. But the bigger struggle is the money because it would help tremendously.” I cleared my throat. “I found this cancer trial that I really want my father to try, but it’s a fortune to get in on a trial, and his insurance only goes so far,” I said, because it was difficult to hold it in anymore. “But I don’t see a way that I can marry someone in thirty days. I just don’t have any options right now.”
