Ladd Fortune (36 page)

Originally Ernie Ladd had willed the
land to Delaney’s daughter, Felicity Wilkins. She was his kin, his
granddaughter, but that’s as far as he went. But seeing how Casey
was Ernie’s granddaughter too, it made sense she should have her
half. In Annie’s mind, the logic had been simple. Trouble was, now
that Casey retained title to half the property, Annie had to figure
a way to keep it. That part wasn’t as simple.

“
Do you think this woman can
help?” Candi pressed, hanging on the edge of her seat. She’d been
Annie’s closest ally throughout and truth be known, the reason
Annie and Casey had title to the property.

“
Maybe.”

“
She seemed real eager to
talk to you when she gave me that card.”

Whereby Candi had
immediately rushed to Trendz, the salon where Annie worked as a
nail tech, and delivered both business card and message.
Please have Ms. Owens call me at her earliest
convenience
.
I will
make it financially worth her time
.

Seems Jillian Devane had a proposition
for her.

Annie wasn’t stupid. She’d heard the
woman was in town to get revenge on Nick Harris, boyfriend to
Delaney Wilkins, and the owner of Harris Hotels. His company was
currently transforming Ladd Springs—the other half of Ladd Springs
that belonged to Delaney’s daughter, Felicity—into an upscale hotel
and spa resort for the very wealthy. Nick had signed a 99-year
lease to use the land, land that old man Ernie Ladd had refused to
sell, instead willing it to Felicity as a life estate. Ernie died a
few months later, right after his son Jeremiah arrived home from
Atlanta, and now the land was free and clear to be
developed.

“
Do you think Jillian Devane
wants to build a hotel like Nick?”

Visions of an exclusive wooded retreat
for elite guests swam through Annie’s mind, guests who would pay
top dollar to lose themselves in the mountains of Tennessee.
Felicity was barely eighteen and stood to earn a fortune from her
deal with Nick Harris while Annie and Casey had nothing but bills.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” she lied.

Annie knew full well Ms. Devane was
interested in building a hotel. In fact, Ms. Devane had purchased
land an hour north of here for that very reason. She wanted to ruin
Nick’s new hotel by building one of her own and making it bigger,
better, grander. Annie’s sister Lacy had told her everything.
Married to Nick’s partner Malcolm Ward, Lacy had the inside scoop
and dished it out readily to Annie—because Annie had forgiven the
past between them.

Leaning forward, Candi grabbed a
cheddar-coated chip from a shiny blue plastic bag. “Have you asked
Cal about it?”

Annie looked at her friend, ignoring
the loud crunching from her mouth. If it weren’t for Candi calling
Jeremiah back home, none of this would have ever happened. Casey
would not have title to the property and Annie would not be in a
position to earn money from it. “I don’t want to bother him with
it.”

“
Why not? He helped you get
the loan to pay the back taxes, didn’t he?”

“
He did,” she acknowledged.
Which was easy. His father owned a bank and pulled the strings. But
Annie knew Cal meant well. Calvin Foster helped, because he’d been
calling on Annie since his return from Arizona, making it real
clear he was sweet on her. Annie had grown up with Cal, but never
thought of him romantically. He was nice-looking enough, but back
then she’d only had eyes for Jeremiah. A year after she became
pregnant with Casey, Cal moved to Arizona and she hadn’t seen or
heard from him until the Memorial Day party this past
summer.

Candi pulled a sip from her coke, her
cheeks hollowing before she said, “I bet he could come up with an
idea to help you earn some money with this woman. Cal is smart that
way.”

That’s where Annie begged to differ.
Cal had become friendly with Malcolm, a man equally invested in the
Nick’s hotel construction. If Cal let on to Malcolm or Nick that
Annie was even considering a discussion with Ms. Devane, Annie had
no doubt the men would be angry. Lacy had given Annie the blow by
blow on the history between Nick and Jillian, too. Harris Hotels
and Eco-Domani were in constant competition and six months ago,
Jillian Devane made a visit to Fran’s Diner, putting Nick on notice
that she intended to build in Tennessee as well. If Annie worked
with Ms. Devane in any way, it would be seen as crossing enemy
lines, something you didn’t do around here unless you packed two
barrels and were ready to fire them.

“
I think Lacy and Malcolm
would disagree,” Annie said. “Any involvement with this Devane
woman will be seen as a betrayal.”

“
Well, Lacy and Malcolm
don’t have a say in what you do. They’re not helping you make ends
meet, are they?” Candi vehemently shook her silky straight hair.
“It’s your decision. Yours and Casey’s, I mean.”

Yes, Casey. Casey was the named owner,
but Annie was the designated trustee. When Delaney had Felicity
sign over half of the land, she had stipulated Casey was not to
receive control over the property until she turned thirty years of
age. Because Casey had a history of instability. Because Casey was
too young and not ready for that kind of responsibility.

But Annie was. Seemed responsibility
was all she knew. Sometimes, it felt like responsibility was her
whole life. Expelling a sigh, she smacked the business card onto
the table. “I don’t know what to do, Candi. I only know I wish it
wasn’t so damned hard.”

Annie had finally won the
battle—legitimacy for her daughter and the procurement of her
rightful inheritance—yet she had no way to keep it. Sure, Cal had
helped her secure a loan to pay the back taxes but there would be a
new tax bill this fall. In another month, she’d be facing the same
dilemma all over again. Her eyes went quickly to the hills out her
windows, a panicky need to escape weaving through her soul. As it
was, she was stretching her last dollar bill to pay the current
loan for the taxes.
How was she ever going
to afford another payment
?

Candi scooted close and wrapped an arm
around Annie’s shoulders. “I know it’s hard, honey, but you’ll
think of something. You always do,” she added brightly, brown eyes
shining with encouragement. “You got that paternity test out of
Jeremiah, didn’t you?”

“
I did.”

“
And the property out of
Delaney.”

“
Yes.”

“
Well, you can get some
money going, too.” Candi hugged Annie to her side. “I know you
can.”

Annie peered into hopeful brown eyes.
Leave it to Candi to see the positive in her situation. It was her
nature, always had been. Candi was the one who’d encouraged Annie
in high school, convinced her to try out for the lead role in a
school play, acted as cheerleader when Annie earned straight A’s
two semesters in a row, even encouraged her to chase after the boy
she dreamed impossible to get. Her stomach tightened. Well, she
couldn’t hold that against her. Annie couldn’t see past Jeremiah at
the time and he was all she wanted. Now she wanted money. Income.
As trustee, it was her job to not only pay the taxes, but ensure
her daughter’s future. As trustee, she was entitled to a percentage
of earnings for her time and trouble, but they were earnings Annie
had to earn first. If she couldn’t, all she’d be handing over to
her thirty-year-old daughter would be a big fat tax
bill.

“
I’ll talk to Cal,” Annie
said. “He’s looking into some logging possibilities for me. We’ll
see what he’s come up with.”

“
Logging? You mean to tell
me you’re going to cut down all the trees?”

Mildly amused by the look of horror
pasted on Candi’s face, Annie shook her head. “No, only a hundred
acres or so. According to Cal, it might be all we need, until I can
figure something else out, that is.”

“
Like how to rent the land
to a hotel developer, same as Delaney?”

Candi knew Annie better than anyone.
Whether Lacy and Malcolm and Delaney and Nick cared or not, Annie
was a survivor first, a group player second. She had to look out
for Casey’s future, same way Delaney had looked after Felicity’s.
Now in college, Felicity’s future was set. In gold, Annie mused, a
tinge of bitterness curling her heart. Delaney included the section
with the gold in Felicity’s half enabling her daughter to earn
income from Nick’s hotel deal as well as from selling the gold
discovered in a rock, deep in the forest.

Gold. On Ladd Springs. So far, the vein
had yielded more than anyone expected and Nick and Delaney were
taking full advantage. They were having a local jeweler design a
pendant in the shape of a wishing well, a pendant they intended to
sell in the hotel boutique store. It was supposed to represent the
natural springs on the property, eternal hope and spiritual
fulfillment. To Annie it represented yet again how she and her
daughter were left to fend for themselves.

Annie snatched the business card and
glared at the telephone number. “I’m going to call her.”

“
You are?”

“
Yes. There’s no reason I
shouldn’t explore my options.”

“
That’s right,” Candi
agreed, faithfully manning her pom-poms. “No reason at
all.”

“
Why can’t I lease our
property to Jillian? How would that hurt anything?”

“
Exactly.”

“
I mean, if Nick and Malcolm
are afraid of a little competition, how good can they
be?”

“
Now you’re talking!” Candi
bounced on the cushion beside her. “Why should they have all the
profits from a hotel business and not you?”

While Annie couldn’t quite share
Candi’s level of exuberance, she did share her viewpoint. Why
shouldn’t she be able to use her property the way she saw fit?
Would they rather have her destroy trees? After all, Nick’s claim
to fame was his sensitivity to the environment. Wouldn’t that make
him a hypocrite if he advised someone to log the land instead of
build something in tune with Mother Nature?

Gaining steam, Annie decided it was the
right thing to do. Casey was stuck in a dead-end job waiting tables
at Fran’s Diner and if Annie could give her something better to
look forward to, wasn’t that what she should do? Course her Aunt
Fran was sweet to give Casey a job, but that didn’t mean she had to
keep it for the rest of her life.

“
When are you going to call
her?” Candi asked.

“
Tomorrow.” Annie twisted
the card in hand. “I’m going to call her tomorrow.”