The message came through to Linc’s cell later that day on the Wilder group text that only Wyatt, Ethan, Linc and their father received. Not the big and much too active group message that included the three women as well.
Wyatt had called a meeting and since Olivia and Poppy were both in the house, he suggested they meet at Linc’s cabin as soon as he was done with afternoon chores.
Linc could guess the reason for the sudden gathering. They needed to talk about this will and Emmett. And they needed to do it without Emmett’s three biggest haters present to sway them.
Luckily, Eva had left around lunch time, refusing his offer of canned soup and saying she needed to get back to her apartment. Not that he’d minded her being there. As far as houseguests went, she was surprisingly easy. As long as she had electricity to charge her laptop and an internet connection, it was like she wasn’t there at all.
Showered and changed into clean clothes after chores, Linc had just checked his stock of beer in the fridge, since this discussion was for sure going to require alcohol, when he heard the front door open and then close again.
Only his family would let themselves into his home without even knocking first. And he guessed he couldn’t blame them. This cabin had been fair game for anyone in the family who wanted to use it at any time for all of their lives.
He was pretty sure they’d all snuck girls in here at one time or another. Although maybe he should start using the dead bolt on the front door since everyone on the property seemed to have a key to what was now his home.
“We’re here!” Ethan called. “And I really hope you’ve got something alcoholic to drink.”
Snorting out a laugh at his oh so predictable brother, Linc grabbed the entire six-pack from the shelf in the fridge and carried it out to the great room. “Way ahead of you, bro.”
He planted the beer on the low table in front of the sofa, grabbed himself one, twisted off the cap and raised the bottle to his lips.
“Nice decorations,” Ethan observed, grabbing his own bottle.
“I know you’re all not here about the Christmas challenge.” Linc shifted his focus to Wyatt, who’d called them together and was currently standing next to the mantle looking at Eva’s Santa-fied taxidermy montage.
Meanwhile their father sat heavily in one of the chairs. Linc could see the weight of this situation pressing on the old man. He’d retired from the daily work around the ranch. He’d no doubt thought his golden years were going to be all smooth sailing. Now, everything seemed up in the air for all of them.
Finally, Wyatt turned to face them, standing while the rest of them sat, leaving no doubt who the self-elected leader of this gathering was.
“We need to talk about Emmett,” he began.
No shit. His brother had done nothing but state the obvious.
“Well, I say don’t worry until there’s something to worry about. He’s been gone for how long now? A year since he got Wyatt’s nanny—the nanny before Olivia, that is—pregnant and then ran off? I doubt he’ll show his face around here anytime soon,” Ethan guessed. “But if he does, we’ll worry about this will thing then.”
Linc had to agree. Emmett had burned his bridges here. They’d given him a chance, and a job, and it took him only a few months to fuck up and then disappear.
He’d left Ethan and Linc shorthanded during calving season and Wyatt without a babysitter to look after Darcy. Emmett had to realize he’d have a less than warm welcome waiting for him when he came back.
“Wait. Please tell me we’re not going to try to find him to hand over half of everything we’ve worked so damn hard for, right?” Ethan asked, showing which side of the debate he stood on.
“We wouldn’t know where to find him even if we wanted to,” Linc said.
It wasn’t like Emmett was gonna send them a Christmas card. And as far as Linc knew, their cousin only had lie-filled fake online profiles, so trying to track him on social media seemed pointless.
So if Emmett was MIA, possibly never to return, what was the point of this meeting?
“I know where to find him,” Wyatt said, answering Linc’s unspoken question.
Well, fuck.
“How?” Linc asked.
“I’ve had a private investigator looking for him since the day Olivia told me about what he’d done to her and the girls. It took a while, a long while, but the PI contacted me recently. He knows where Emmett is and he isn't far,” Wyatt revealed.
“How far is not far?” Ethan asked, eyes narrowed.
“Kentucky.”
Right next door to Tennessee. Just a bus ride away, which was the most likely mode of transportation since Emmett had managed to lose his driving privileges sometime in the past.
“So what if he does show up?” Linc asked since the possibility seemed more likely now than it had before.
He had no doubt that Emmett wasn’t above coming back to beg or borrow money or a place to stay, even from the family he’d screwed over.
For the first time since arriving, their father looked about to join the conversation. He stood, symbolically taking back control of the family and the discussion.
“Whether Emmett shows up on our doorstep tomorrow, or ten years from now, our course of action is the same. The will and the fact that it exists both stay locked away,” he began.
Wyatt opened his mouth to speak when their father held up one hand to silence him.
“Until I can find out the truth. If the will we found isn’t the one that was in force at the time of his death, why open a can of worms that could tie us all up for years in court?”
“How are you going to find that out?” Wyatt asked.
“I’ve got a request in with the county to visit the archives to see if any of John T’s papers are there. I also have a call in to the law firm who handled John S’s will. It’s a long shot but they might be the same ones who handled John T. And there are boxes of papers to go through at the hotel dating back a hundred years. I’m gonna search those. See what I can find.”
“I’ll help,” Wyatt offered.
“No,” their father said, his tone leaving no room for doubt. “I’m handling this.”
Wyatt didn’t look like he enjoyed being put in his place. Linc however, enjoyed watching it—at least with as much joy as he could muster given the shitstorm they’d fallen into.
“And what if after all this sleuthing you find that the will we found is valid? What then?” Ethan demanded.
“Then we take a vote. The four of us.”
Linc considered how that vote would go. It was the same question Eva had asked him earlier. How would his brothers and his father swing? For or against Emmett? How would he?
They’d lived a very comfortable existence until now. Unlike so many ranchers, they didn’t worry about money. Stock prices falling while feed costs rose wouldn’t make or break them because of the income from the hotel and the investments they’d made with the capital they’d inherited.
But that could all change. Or not, if they just forgot that will existed.
“Where’s the will now?” Wyatt asked their father.
“It’s safe.” That wasn’t exactly what Wyatt had asked, but it was obviously the only answer their father was going to give as he turned and glanced at the mantlepiece decor and asked, “Whose idea was this?”
“Eva’s,” Linc answered, the change of subject not going unnoticed.
For the first time all day, his father smiled. “I knew I liked that girl.”
And with that, the subject of Emmett and the will was closed… for now.