“How come this wasn’t found out by the lawyer Sally hooked you up with when you bought the property?”
Sally Trainer was the real estate agent in town. Even though the property wasn’t for sale, Sally had given Katie the name of a lawyer to work with to settle the deal with Henry Callahan quickly. Kas would have had one of his lawyers write up the paperwork, but he’d wanted someone local.
“The property was only in his name. The ex-wife says it’s community property and he had no right to sell it. Kas thinks she just wants to sell it for a higher price.”
“I don’t get it. Why should that affect you at this point? That’s logistics on their end for an accountant and divorce lawyer to deal with.”
“I talked to Kas about it. He seems to feel that this is a snowball.”
“Snowball? Can you elaborate on that?”
“It’s just noise so that I end up spending all of the money I have to fight them and then realize it’s a losing cause. Kas seems to think in another week or so, maybe more, I’ll get an offer to buy back the property. They’ll offer a good deal so that I won’t feel like I’m losing everything. But it’s only because they know that if they develop this property they could make a killing off of it.”
Dawning showed in his expression. “So they sat on the property for ten years and did nothing, and now that they can see you have the potential to make money, they want to get in on the action.”
“Exactly. Kas said he sees this all the time. You run up the money in legal fees trying to fight it and the person with a smaller bank account caves first.”
“That would be you.”
“Yeah. Unfortunately. But Kas said he has an idea to push back.”
Caleb chuckled, confusing her.
“What’s so funny?”
“You must’ve taken that real well from Kas.”
She chuckled then. “Actually, I was terrified to tell him about it. But I was also glad that he knew enough about it to calm my panic.”
“Why didn’t you come to me before this? You must have known about this for days. I may not know much about real estate like Kas does, but you could have told me about it.”
She shrugged as if it was nothing, but she could tell he was a little hurt.
“Haven’t I done enough to you, Caleb?”
“Katie, knock it off. I told you already you are not the one that landed me in the hospital. A stupid pile of snow and a broken beam did it. If not for my hard head and strong back, it could’ve been much worse. It could’ve killed you.”
“Still.”
“Still nothing,” he said, his voice filled with aggravation that he seemed to be working hard to contain. “I thought you wanted me to help you with this. I feel bad enough that I need to spend the next couple weeks healing instead of being out there with you so we can finish what we started.”
“You never had to do any of that. Don’t get me wrong. I’m so thankful you were there with me. But this was supposed to be my project, my responsibility. I didn’t think I should burden you with all this hassle.”
He turned his head away and looked out the front window. After a few seconds, he looked back at her. “Next time burden me, okay? If I didn’t want to be burdened. I would’ve never walked into the situation with you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. She wasn’t exactly sure why she was sorry. She was more confused by his reaction.
“I envy you,” he said.
“Why?”
“You have something to share with someone else. Your brother. I don’t have that. Not anymore.”
* * *
Katie had gone back to Caleb’s the next two nights after work to cook dinner for him and run some errands. She built a fire in the fireplace and they’d talk or watch a movie. She used the excuse that Kas was at the house with Tabby and she felt funny being the third wheel in her own house. But Caleb didn’t care what her reason was for coming over. He looked forward to hearing her jabber on about whatever was happening down at the bank or lack of progress with her lawyer. He enjoyed being with Katie and looked forward to the time they spent together. In many ways, she was a breath of fresh air to a stale life that he hadn’t realized was being choked to death by living in the past.
The restlessness of sitting alone all day with only the occasional visitor was getting to him.
“I wish I hadn’t scheduled to take all these vacation days off from work next week so that I could work on the chapel,” Katie said. “It seems like such a waste. Looks like I’ll be twiddling my thumbs by myself rather than getting anything done while this cease and desist order stays in force. Maybe I can get into the chapel and clean up a bit. I won’t be doing any demo or construction. Just sweeping and getting things ready for when all this nonsense is over. I can still do that even with a cease and desist, right?”
“I don’t know,” Caleb said. “But if your lawyer okays it, I can help. I obviously have some time on my hands until I get cleared to go back to work.”
Katie stood in the kitchen by the oven and peered into the living room where Caleb was sitting on the sofa. She looked at him with narrow eyes. “You’re supposed to be recovering. That’s the whole point of you not going to work.”
“I have a bump on the head. I’m not an invalid. I’m more than capable of getting out and doing something.”
“You sound like you’re getting a little stir crazy.”
“I am. I’ve been staring at these walls for days and watching reruns of
