Courtney nodded. “And I apologized when I found out the truth, but…” Her throat knotted up. Dammit, what was wrong with her? She took a deep breath. “He’s made it clear that he can’t accept my apology. And I really don’t blame him.”
“Oh, honey, give him time.”
She shook her head. “No. I messed up this time. And besides, he’s like you and Sid, and probably Arwen. He’s going to be leaving. Soon.”
“What makes you say that?”
Courtney dabbed at her eyes and pulled herself together enough to tell Leslie and Sid the entire story, sparing nothing. When she had finished, Leslie looked at Sid. “That’s ridiculous. How could Matt’s own father fire him that way? And poor Arwen. She’s been our advocate for months and months.”
“And where the hell were Andrew and David?” Sid asked. “If you ask me, the only one who really cared about us was Matt.”
“I told you that boy had a heart of gold. Are you willing to admit that I was right and you were wrong?” Leslie asked.
Sid nodded. “Yeah, I am. I had that guy read all wrong. Look, we need to go over to LL&K right now and give Charles Lyndon a piece of our minds. I mean, we’re the client, aren’t we?” Sid stood up.
“You’re right, dear, we are,” Leslie said in a mild tone. “But before we go charging into LL&K with our guns flashing, we need to plan a strategy.” She stood up. “I think we need to consult with Linda.”
“Look, guys,” Courtney said, “no amount of protesting is going to change things. I mean, you guys are going to Arizona, and who knows where Rory’s going to go. He’ll probably take Arwen to Nashville or something. And Matt will move back to the city because he’s not cut out to be a small-town lawyer. And…”
Her voice wavered again, and she had to swallow back a lump. “I don’t want you guys to pick a fight with Charles Lyndon,” she finally managed to say. “I want to find a way for you guys to stay here.”
“But aren’t you furious with him?”
Courtney parsed through her emotions and shook her head. “I’m sad, Sid. I’m so very sad. I feel like everyone I care about is leaving and I’m going to be left here all alone.”
“Oh, honey, don’t.” Sid crossed the living room and sat down beside Courtney on the couch. “I had no idea you felt that way.”
“You’re my last link to Dad,” she said, tears falling down her cheeks. “You’re like family. Please don’t go.”
“I don’t want to go, sweetie. But Leslie and I have been all over the county looking at apartments. There aren’t any here that we can afford.”
“Well,” Leslie said with a firm nod, “that’s not entirely true.”
“What?”
“These apartments still exist. If we could find some way to stop GB Ventures from tearing them down.”
“How are you going to do that?” Sid asked.
“Oh my God, I just had an incredible idea,” Courtney said.
“What?” Leslie and Matt asked simultaneously.
“There’s one man in Jefferson County who has the money to do it. And he happens not to give a rat’s behind about what the Lyndon family wants or needs.”
“Who is that?”
“Jefferson Talbert.”
Chapter Nineteen
Matt would have boycotted the Lyndon family’s Fourth of July barbecue if left to his own devices. Showing up and having to face his father sounded like a recipe for the kind of family drama he’d always hated. He wasn’t like his older brother, Daniel, who thrived on rebellion. No, Matthew was the middle child, sandwiched between Daniel the rebel and Jason the brainiac. Matthew had always tried to toe the line. Always. Not that it had ever gotten him much approval.
Dad wasn’t his only problem. Mom would be all over him, and he’d have to rain on her parade by telling her she needed to stop her clandestine planning for his apartment. If he didn’t have a job here in Shenandoah Falls, then he wouldn’t be living here for much longer.
So all in all, avoiding his parents sounded like a good plan of action.
But at 8:30 a.m. on Independence Day morning, someone knocked at his front door and roused him from the couch where he’d fallen asleep the night before. He sat up, his mouth dry and his head pounding, payback for the bourbon he’d consumed last night.
He didn’t want to answer the door for fear it might be Courtney. What would he say to her? He’d been pretty crappy to her on Monday night—asking for her kindness and repaying it with his anger.
He should have accepted her apology.
Dr. Doom jumped up on the coffee table and meowed just as Matt’s unwanted guest knocked again. “Guess I’m done hiding out, huh?” he said to the cat.
Dr. Doom meowed again. The sun was up, and he was hungry.
Matt pushed up from the couch and answered the door, finding his cousin Jeff, dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and a white T-shirt bearing the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” leaning against the doorframe. Jeff took one look at Matt and said, “Tied one on last night, huh?”
Matt nodded and opened the door a little wider. Jeff was the last person on earth he expected to see at his front door.
The Lyndons were a clannish lot, and Matt had grown up with cousins to the right and left. In fact, the children of Mark, Jamie, and Charles Lyndon were almost like siblings. All of them had grown up in Shenandoah Falls. All of them had gone to the Episcopal High School. All the boys, except Daniel, had gone to law school at the University of Virginia.
Jeff had missed all that. His father, Thomas, had moved away from Shenandoah Falls and married Nina Talbert, heiress to the Talbert billions. Jeff had been raised in New York City and had visited Shenandoah Falls only once as a child. A few years back, Jeff had come for
