The Sheriff's Mail-Order Bride (The Watson Brothers #2)(50)

“Not exactly a good idea, Rory.”

“Please, Layla? I have something in mind that may help. It’s worth a shot at least.”

“Fine, then. Giving you 48 hours to get back to me and then I have to call her.”

He picked up the phone and called Chance.

“Brother, I need to call in another favor. Meet me for a coffee?”

A couple of hours later he sat at the Java Café with Chance and relayed his conversation with Layla, getting the same reaction he’d given lawyer when the offer had been put forward.

“Look, you have plenty of contacts still with the media, right?”

Chance tilted his hat back and nodded his head, raised his coffee to his lips. “What were you thinking?”

“I want someone to start digging deeper into Aden and his reason for leaving dear old mom and dad, changing his name. There has to be something in there Layla hasn’t found or she would have said so.”

Chance grinned. “I’ll see what I can do. Leave it with me for a day or two.”

It only took Chance’s contacts less than twelve hours to get back to them. The brothers met down at the barn the next morning before Rory headed off to work.

“Seems dear old dad has some skeletons in his closet. From what I can gather, his wife was prepared to overlook his ‘outside activities’ to keep her marriage together. Aden didn’t approve.” Chance patted Sultan on the nose.

“Hmm. I wonder what Layla can do with that?”

Chance smiled at Rory. “It sounds to me as though they like their private life to stay that way because this was buried quite deep, according to my source. I doubt they would like us to air it so I suggest you get onto Layla this morning and give her the gossip. She’s pretty savvy, she’ll use it to our advantage.”

“I certainly hope so. Gina’s a bundle of nerves wondering what their next move will be.” He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck.

“Tell me to mind my own business but it won’t make any difference. Are you sure about this? You really do want to marry her? I don’t want you to regret it once the deed is done.” Together they walked out of the barn and stood watching the cattle grazing in the paddock.

“If you’d asked me last week, I might have said I could go either way.” Rory picked a piece of grass and shredded it with his thumb nail. “I carried around so much guilt when Cindy died. I know it wasn’t my fault but to my way of thinking, I was still here enjoying life and she wasn’t.”

“Enjoying life? That’s a crock of shit and you know it.” Chance tipped his hat down over his eyes and looked out at his cattle.

“Yes I do now but that was how I felt at the time. It took a lot to get me over that and if it wasn’t for Gina and Fisher, I’d probably still be moping around feeling sorry for myself. They give me a reason to live and I know Cindy would agree.”

Chance slapped him on the back. “Good. Now go and ring Layla and get her onto it.”

Rory received a phone call later that afternoon. He’d been on tender hooks all day waiting. “What did they say? They’ll drop the case?”

“I don’t have an answer to that yet, although they have stipulations to begin with which I think are fair enough under the circumstances. Fisher is their only living relative, and as much as they might be hurting over all of this they are still his grandparents.”

“What do they want?” Rory sat up, listening intently.

“Their lawyer is suggesting a meeting of sorts to start with so I’m not sure how far this has been discussed with their clients yet. Obviously they want to see him and meet Gina. I set down some guidelines for them to work with and left it in their hands. Hope that’s okay with you?”

“They’ve got a nerve after what they just tried. Have they agreed to drop the case yet?”

“Look, Rory, I understand how you feel about what they tried to do and you need to try and look at it from their side too. If it was your child, wouldn’t you pull out all the stops?”

Rory took a deep breath and chewed it over in his mind. “Possibly. This isn’t about me. So, have they agreed to drop the case or not? You haven’t answered me yet.”

“Not yet. I think they wanted to see what you say first. And that’s the reason I left it with them. I’m kinda banking on them realizing that it’s pointless to drag this through court with the media circus that will surround them anyway. I made a big deal out of the fact that Aden had rejected his family and their wealth. I hinted to the lawyer that we understood the reason he rejected his family is because of his father’s affairs. Being in the position they are, I doubt they’ll want their good name dragged through the press if there is another way we can all come to an agreement.” She paused for breath. “I also pointed out that you’d both probably be more open to Fisher getting to know his grandparents if they didn’t treat you like the enemy because, at the end of the day, Gina and Fisher are the ones who have been harmed in all of this. They didn’t agree but nor did they disagree which is a good thing. What do you think?”

“True, we would. Look, I have no objections at this point. I want to run it past Gina tonight and let her know where we’re at so don’t worry about calling her. On the same token, I don’t want to get her hopes up about the case not going to court either. How sure are you that it won’t happen?”