Missy's Moment (The West Series Book 4) (21 page)

Holly stood in her doorway and bit her bottom lip. Travis was back. What did that mean? Was he going to kick her out of the apartment? Without the store being opened, she doubted she could afford renting another place. At least until the doors opened.

The reading of Mr. Nolan’s will had been postponed until Travis made it back into town. Until then, it had been agreed that the construction would continue. Shutting the door, she leaned up against the cool wood and rested her head back, closing her eyes. She was in deep trouble. What if there wasn’t anything about their agreement in his will? Would Travis hold up his father’s wishes? Would she be kicked to the curb? What about her shop? Would construction stop?

Shaking her head clear of the million questions running through it, she walked back towards the bedroom, she grabbed the water bottle she’d been getting which had caused her to hear the front door open earlier. She stopped and looked back at the door. Yup, it was locked and bolted. Something she did every night, which meant, he had a key to the place. She walked towards the door and snapped on the chain for good measure.

Travis was trouble. Had been most of his life and probably would be until the day he died. Too bad, she thought crawling into bed. The man had a body like the Gods and a face to melt even the hardest hearts. She sighed and closed her eyes, burying her face into the pillow. What she wouldn’t give to feel a good man on top of her like he’d been a short while ago. Giggling to herself, she decided she had gone too long without a date.

Then she frowned when she remembered she lived in a small town and there were no good men to date. Closing her eyes tighter, she tried to get the feeling of being that close to a man out of her mind.

She woke early that next morning and headed into check on construction. Since Mr. Nolan’s death, she spent most of her time making sure everything was on track. Helping with ordering and organizing the materials, coordinating the construction crews. Solving any issues or questions they had during the entire process. Some of the men had even gotten her her own hardhat and tool belt.

Not to mention that if she got out of the apartment, it would be harder for Travis to track her down and kick her to the curb. Since she was working on only a few hours of sleep, she was having a hard time concentrating. She stood off to the side and watched the men work and just couldn’t muster up what the place would look like once it was finished.

The day didn’t get any better when an hour past lunch, a water pipe broke in the apartment and started leaking downstairs. It took every man on sight to finally clear the standing water on the cement floor so the workers could continue hanging the drywall. Thankfully the damage had been left to just a small spot that was already being patched.

She stood in what would be her new storeroom looking up at the work the drywaller had done when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned expecting to see a work, but was shocked when Travis stood there looking down at her with a frown and a very black and swollen left eye.

“What’s all this?” He demanded.

Her eyebrows shot up in question. He had his hands on his hips and a very impatient look on his face. He was wearing a dress shirt and dress pants. Even his shoes were shinny and new looking. His hair had been combed back and he’d shaved since she’d seen him last night. “You shouldn’t be in here without a hard hat.” She walked over to the back doorway and grabbed a yellow hat, and handed it over to him.

He set it on his head and demanded in a louder voice, which rose above all the pounding and sawing. “What is this?” He motioned around him.

“This is my store.” She frowned. “Remember?”

“You’re bookstore?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

He took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead. “What I mean is why is it under construction.

She frowned. “Because the wiring in the building was shot, there was still roofing damage from the tornado, and…”

“I mean…” He ground out, interrupting her. “Why is my father paying for this all?” He yelled, over the new loud noises coming from a few feet away and waved a stack of bills at her. She was used to the noises by now; after all, she’d been on site every day for the last month.

“Because it’s his building.” She yelled back and looked at him like he was crazy.

He grabbed her arm and marched her out the back door. Here there were other men using table saws and nail guns. He stopped and looked around, then continued to walk her towards the little garden area she had. She’d been raising tomatoes and squash and even had a little picnic table and swing along the tall fence.

“Why is my father paying a lot of money to have you rebuild your store?” He finally said, dropping her arm and waiving the bills again.

“Because it’s his building and he had a vision.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Great,” He said, rolling his eyes. “Now he was having visions.”

She frowned. “Your father wanted to rebuild the bookstore.”

“I’m sure he did.” He looked her over. She had put on her standard work clothes, old jeans, button up blouse, and an old pair of boots. She’d tied her hair up in two braids, which lay across her shoulders out of her way.

“What does that mean?” She asked, putting her hands on her hips.

He laughed, “Listen, you’re very attractive and I’m sure you had your usefulness when my father was alive, but there’s just no way I’m going to continue all this.” He motioned towards the building.

She stood there shocked. He was going to take it all away from her.

“I don’t know what kind of… arrangement you and my father had, but he’s gone now and you can expect that anything he was giving you won’t be coming from me.” He turned to go.

“I’m sorry?” She said to his back.

He turned and looked at her, then sighed and turned back to her. “If I was sticking around town, maybe I’d help you out, but I’m not. I’m heading over to the lawyers right now and putting all this”—he motioned to the building—“on the market. So if I were you, I’d pack up what you can and get going, because if you’re still on my property by tonight, I’ll call the cops.”

She lost the last thread of her temper at that moment. “How dare you.” She took a step closer to him. “Your father was a great man. A man with a vision for this town and in one day you plan to wipe everything he worked hard for out.”

He took a step closer to her. “You’ll want to be careful what you say to me.” His eyes bore into hers.

She took another step closer to him until they were almost nose-to-nose. Well, they would have been if he wasn’t a foot taller than her. She blinked back her anger before finally speaking.

“You’re heading over to Grant’s now?” She asked, throwing him off balance.

Grant normally worked out of his house, but since there were now two kids, a three year old and a two month old around, he tended to be in the office more and more. He claimed it was hard to take a business call when kids were screaming in the background. But everyone in town knew the real reason, Alex, his wife, kicked him out so he would actually get some work done instead of playing with the kids all the time.

When he finally nodded, she said. “Good, I’ll just walk over there with you.” She turned and started walking down the street.

He laughed and followed her. “Why? Do you really think that my father would have left you anything?”

“No, I know he didn’t.” She glanced over her shoulder at him.

“Then why tag along?” He kept in step with her easily, noticing that she marched a little faster.

“Because I know what he wanted and I can only hope that he had the brains to put it all down on paper before he left us.” She said, a little breathless.

By the time they walked into Grant Holton’s office, she was completely out of breath. Her face was red from the heat and some of her hair had come loose from the braids.

When she marched back towards his office, Travis followed. Knocking on the door quickly, she stepped in without waiting for an answer. Grant was on the phone and when he saw her, he nodded, but when he saw Travis, he apologized and quickly hung up the phone.

“Travis?” He stood and held out his hand. “It’s good to have you back in town.”

Travis was completely floored. Here was the man who had in every sense taken his future bride away from him. Then Travis’ mother had shot and tried to kill him! Now, he stood in his office and the man was actually being nice like none of that had ever happened.

“Grant.” He shook his hand and stood there, like he didn’t know what to say next.

There were pictures of Alex and Grant’s kids and animals all over the office, Travis glanced at a few, but then turned his eyes towards the floor. It was too hard to see Alex in those pictures, happily holding the chubby babies.

“Travis and I would like to know what’s in his father’s will.” Holly said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Now Holly, we’ve been through this a dozen times. I can’t tell you what’s in Mr. Nolan’s will unless Travis here,” he nodded towards him. “Says it’s okay.”

She glared at him until finally he nodded. “I’ll allow it, I suppose.” What harm could it be? After all, there was no way his father would have left anything for this woman.

“Fine, if you’ll take a seat I’ll just pull it up.” Grant sat back behind his desk. “Did you just get into town?” He asked.

Travis shook his head. “Last night.” He said, looking down at his fingernails, not wanting to make eye contact with the man his mother had almost killed.

“Good, I hope your trip was good. We’re real sorry about your dad, he was a good man.”

Travis glanced up at Grant quickly. “Thanks.” He said, looking back down at his fingers.

“Here it is.” Grant said, getting both of their attention. “I’ll cut to the chase,” he looked up at them. “What it says in here is that the house and all the assets go to you Travis.”

Travis nodded then smiled and glanced over at Holly.

“With explicit orders that the any projects currently underway continue with you overseeing them or you’d forfeit everything else.”

“What?” He said, sitting forward. “What does that mean?”

“Well, your father started a few projects over the last few months. As I can see, you already know about the bookstore, he also started renovation work on the old theater and on the building a new park just outside of town.”

“I don’t understand.” He stood up.

“Earlier this year, your father talked to me about wanting to put some of his money back into the town. He started a few smaller projects at first, putting a fresh coat of paint on the town hall, putting in a few park benches, some new streetlights. Then Holly approached him about updating the bookstore and her apartment. I guess that started him thinking about some of the other projects he’d been putting off.”

“Can they just continue without me?”

Grant shook his head. “Your father put it in his will that if you didn’t over see them all, they would stop completely.”

“Good, then stop them, I don’t care.” He turned to go.

“If they stop, you’ll be left with nothing. Everything your father owned will go to the town, to finish the projects without you.” Grant said.

Travis stopped, his hand on the doorknob, he needed his inheritance if he was going to get out of the world he’d been in the last three years. He was getting tired and wanted to do something more with his life. He spun around and glared at the woman he thought was the cause of his father’s crazy scheme. “This was all your doing.”

Holly stood up and glared right back at him. “Don’t be silly.”

“Travis, Holly had nothing to do with this. There’s a note here,” he held out a sealed envelope. “from your father.”

“You mean, I’m stuck in this town until all of his little projects are done?”

Grant handed him the note. “If you want your inheritance, you are. There is one more thing in here.” Grant looked down at Holly. “Holly stays in the apartment, rent free until the building is done. Once the building is completed, there are more instructions that I’m not at liberty to discuss until such time.”

Travis was trapped. No matter what he did, he had a sinking feeling that there was no way he would ever leave this town again.