I grabbed the next container from her, setting it out of her reach. “Mom, you need to slow down. You need to rest.” Wasn’t sure how she was standing, let alone cooking enough to feed all of Amber. She looked worse off than Sawyer.
“I have to get out of here,” she said, words strained. “I can’t be—this house.” She waved her hands around as tears steadily fell. “I don’t wanna be here!”
“Okay, I’ll get you out of here.”
“He isn’t here,” she continued on as if I hadn’t spoken. “You aren’t here. And Cay—” Her jaw trembled violently before her head joined in. After a while, she looked at me, eyes endlessly sad. “Where did I go wrong?”
“What?”
“With Cayson. Where did I go wrong?”
“He’s being a selfish asshole, Mom. That isn’t on you.”
A look passed across her face before it was gone. But I saw enough to know she thought I was wrong . . . that there was something she wasn’t telling me.
“Mom—”
“I can’t be here anymore,” she said, each word emphasized with her hands trying to encompass the house.
The property.
“Okay,” I mumbled. “Want me to tell the lawyer we need to meet somewhere else?”
A trembling breath burst from her as if she’d forgotten all about the will reading. After a few moments, she loosed a pained sigh and left her spot at the counter. Shoulders sagging and body seeming to curve in on itself a little more with each step.
“Let’s get this over with and then I’ll get you out of here, yeah?”
She nodded weakly as she grabbed my arm, clinging to me like she needed me to keep her standing.
Once we were in the dining room, I sat her in a chair at the head of the table and took a seat beside her. Sparing a quick look at Sawyer’s wraithlike expression and Hunter’s hardened stare before nodding at the lawyer.
“Let’s make this quick,” I murmured as I folded my arms over my chest.
A near-silent snort left Hunter. “Have somewhere more important to be?”
“Do you?” I shot back. “Oh, that’s right. Sorry, man, I forgot. Anything less than death isn’t important enough for you.”
“The fuck are you talking about?” he ground out, directing all that anger on me before Sawyer snapped, “Shut up!”
Sawyer’s chest rose and fell, the movements so big that it seemed to move his entire body. “The sooner we get this done, the sooner I get back to Leighton.”
“This is our dad—”
“I know,” Sawyer yelled, cutting Hunter off. “But right now, I’m grieving two people, and one of them is still alive. So, can y’all please shut the fuck up so we can finish this?”
I lifted my hand enough to let the lawyer know he could begin before folding my hand over my chest again.
He cleared his throat as he tapped a large envelope on the table, making sure he met each of us in the eye. “Again, I’m sorry for the loss you’ve endured, and I’m sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances. Not my favorite part of the job.” With another tap of the envelope, he opened it up and said, “Thankfully, this won’t take long.”
Good.
I wasn’t sure Sawyer would be able to make it through without losing his mind.
I wasn’t sure how long Hunter and I could stay near each other without snapping again.
And Mom . . . she didn’t need to be going through that shit.
I listened as the lawyer read off a short note to Mom, apologizing if she was there, for leaving her first. Mom absolutely lost it, but the man continued, reading off that all money and physical possessions were to be left to Mom before turning to us. “To my three sons: Beau, Hunter—”
“Four,” Hunter said just as I realized the slip.
The lawyer glanced uncomfortably between the three of us and repeated, “To my three sons: Beau, Hunter, and Sawyer, I leave—”
“The fuck,” I muttered as I glanced at Mom in question. Her cries had immediately silenced at the unexpected words, and she was staring straight ahead, looking floored. As if she couldn’t understand them either.
A rasping laugh left me as I realized what Dad had done in those days of silence before his death. “Damn, Dad didn’t waste any time cutting Cayson out after he skipped town.”
“Uh, no,” the lawyer said before clearing his throat again and shifting in his seat, still uncomfortable with where this was going. “Your father actually hadn’t changed his will since Sawyer here became a teenager.”
“What does that mean?” Sawyer asked.
“That Dad hadn’t changed anything in over five years,” Hunter said just as numbly.
“What does it mean about Cayson, idiot,” I bit out.
He sent me a cold glare before looking to Mom. The same question in his eyes that had just been swirling through me. “Mom?”
When I looked her way, she was staring at the table. Looking like she was one more piece of news away from going into shock.
Leaning toward her, I said, “We can finish this. You should go rest.”
She didn’t leave or respond in any way, just continued staring at the table.
I leaned back in my chair and released a sigh when Sawyer asked, “Why would Dad do that?”
“Because he knew something,” I answered, remembering the look on Mom’s face in the kitchen.
“Like what?”
I glanced Hunter’s way at his question before shrugging. “I dunno.”
“Then maybe it’s a mistake,” Sawyer said, tone a mixture of hope and uncertainty.
Hunter and I tried to suppress identical, bitter laughs as the lawyer waved a finger through the air. “No mistakes here. Would you like me to continue?”
“Please,” I responded even though continuing felt like walking into an even bigger disaster than we were already in.
Hunter leaned back in his chair as the lawyer went on about leaving it up to us to take care of our family and the town the way Dad had done, and jokingly whispered, “I bet Cays was in a gang.”
I rolled my eyes. “Any gang out of Amber would be a joke.”
“Stealing goats and shit,” he murmured.
The corner of my mouth ticked up. “Idiot.”
“As for the matter of the land—including everything on it: The house and barn, any remaining farm animals, the orchard, and the business ‘Dixon Farms,’” the lawyer continued, “I leave it all to the son who has always cared about them.”
Sawyer and I looked at each other, confusion clouding both our expressions, but Hunter stared straight ahead, eyes wide.
“I can’t,” I said when no one else spoke, a harsh laugh tumbling free. I lifted my hands in the air. “I fucking can’t. Savannah and I just moved into the plantation house, and I’m already drowning under everything we have to do to it. Not to mention, I start coaching at the high school next week.”
“I’ll take it,” Sawyer said with a heavy-burdened shrug.
“The fuck you will,” I snapped.
“Absolutely not,” Mom said, finally speaking again.
“And give up your life?” Hunter bit out. “Your full ride and your career in the NFL that’s just waiting for you? No, I’m taking it.”