They kept it up all the way to Chelsea’s house, where Brandee had agreed to spend the night. She couldn’t bear to be alone in her beautiful custom-tailored ranch home that she would soon have to pack up and move out of.
Tucked into a corner of Chelsea’s couch, wrapped in a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate cradled in her hands, Brandee stared at the melting mini marshmallows and turned the corner on her situation. It wasn’t as if it was the first time she’d lost everything. And in the scheme of things, she was a lot better off than she’d been at eighteen, broke and living out of her car.
“I guess I get to re-create myself again,” she said, noticing the first hint of determination she’d felt in days.
“I think you should fight for your ranch. Take Shane to court and make him prove the land belongs to him.”
Brandee didn’t think she had the strength to take Shane on in a legal battle. She was still too raw from the way he’d slammed the door in her face.
“I’ll think about it.”
Chelsea regarded her in concern. “It isn’t like you to give up like this.”
“I know, but I’m not sure.”
“Brandee, you can’t just walk away from a ten-million-dollar property.”
“It sounds crazy when you say it, but that’s what I intend to do. Legally I might be able to get a court to determine the land is mine, but I think morally it belongs to Shane’s family.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Sell everything and start over?” The thought pained her more than she wanted to admit, but in the last five days she’d come to terms with her loss. “I wasn’t kidding about finding a beach somewhere and getting lost.”
“You can’t seriously be thinking of leaving Royal?”
The pang in Chelsea’s voice made Brandee wince. “I don’t know that I want to stay here after everything that’s happened.” Just the thought of running into Shane and seeing his coldness toward her made her blood freeze. “Look, it’s not like I have to do anything today. It’s going to take me a while to sell my herd and settle things on the ranch. With The Bellamy still under construction and taking up all his energy, Shane isn’t going to have time to start developing the ranch right away.”
“And maybe you and Shane can work out an arrangement that will benefit you both.”
“Did you see the way he acted as if I didn’t exist?” Brandee shook her head, fighting back the misery that was her constant companion these days. “No, he hates me for what I tried to do to him and there’s no going back from that.”
* * *
“Now, aren’t you glad we warned you off of Brandee Lawless?”
“Did you see how she spoke to us?”
“I think she had too much to drink. And happy hour’s barely started.”
“I’ve said from the beginning that she has no class.”
“She must’ve had a reason for going after you,” Shane said.
He recalled what had happened to Wesley Jackson, and thought there’d been some buzz around the clubhouse that Cecelia had been behind it. An anonymous hacker had exposed Wes as a deadbeat dad on social media and it had blown a major business deal for him. What had happened to Brandee was in the same vein.
“She’s been out to get us from the moment we joined the Texas Cattleman’s Club.”
“That’s not true,” Shane said, a hint of warning in his tone. “She just hasn’t bought into what you want to do with the place. A lot of people haven’t.”
“But she’s been actively working to drum up resistance,” Naomi said.
“That doesn’t make her your enemy.” Shane shook his head. “Not everyone wants the clubhouse to undergo any more changes, especially not the kind you’re interested in making.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter anymore. She resigned her membership.”
“And with her gone, the others will come around,” Cecelia said. “You’ll see.”
“Sounds like everything is going your way.” Shane set his hands on their table the way Brandee had and leaned forward to eye each woman in turn. “If I find out any of you three were behind what happened to Brandee, you’ll have to answer to me.”