“See you.”
He realized he still hadn’t told her about what’d happened at dinner the other night. Had Cass mentioned the argument to her? Somehow Emerson doubted it, and the knowledge of a looming showdown made him feel the need for some fresh air. He decided to walk out to the Park again this morning and make some notes on what needed to be done. He could always leave them behind for someone else to take on if he ended up moving somewhere else.
He made sure the General was up, dressed, fed his breakfast and settled at his desk before he left. Once more Emerson did his PT exercises ostentatiously in the General’s presence. Once more the General balked at doing his own. “Be back in an hour,” Emerson said to him when it was obvious nothing would change the man’s mind.
The General only grunted.
“Taking a walk,” he told Cass when he passed her in the kitchen.
“Hold up,” she called as he went to put on his coat and boots. “Last night the General asked me to find these and give them to you.” She held out a ring of keys. “They’re for all the trailers. He figured you’d want to see inside them at some point.” When Emerson took them from her, she added, “We’re happy to have you and Wye here if that’s the way it works out, you know.”
“You all discussed this with the General?” He was surprised; when had they had the time?
“No, not exactly,” she said.
“He ordered you to give me these.”
“Don’t take it like that. It’ll work out in the end, you’ll see. Our argument is with the General, not you, and it’s about his lack of communication with us, not the decisions he’s making.”
“Still.” He tried to hand back the keys, but she wouldn’t take them.
“It’s fine, Emerson. None of the rest of us want to live at the Park. And you don’t have to, either, you know. You’re not a hired hand. Is that really where you want to settle?”
“No sense letting perfectly good houses go to waste.”
“He’s right,” Lena said, coming into the room from the hall. “I think Emerson is smart to see the opportunity there.”
Emerson checked her expression to see if she was being sarcastic. He had no doubt Lena resented the amount of time he spent with her father, and she’d been angrier than anyone else at the General’s high-handed tactics. She didn’t understand that the General was comfortable with him precisely because he wasn’t a member of their family. The General had gotten so used to fighting with his daughters and being called out by them for all his flaws, he still struggled to relax around them. At least he was no longer doing daily muster sessions, the way he had during his first weeks here, even though his daughters had told him it would be okay to continue the routine. Once he got settled in, the General had realized that everyone chatted about their day over dinner, anyway. They didn’t need to go over the same ground twice.
Emerson doubted Lena would want to do any of the jobs he carried out for the General, but every time she came upon the two of them together, she still acted like he was horning his way into her family. He would’ve liked to help out more with ranch chores, but she had a way of making them uncomfortable, too. While his ankle was healing, it still slowed him down, and Lena went out of her way to move extra fast when he was around, getting things done with a quick efficiency that left him feeling like a child rather than a man. A couple of the other men had noticed, including her husband, Logan. Emerson had a feeling Logan had taken Lena aside and chastised her about her behavior, but just as he might’ve expected, that did nothing to warm her toward him.
“I’m only planning to make a list of what needs to be done to fix up the trailers. I’m not trying to take over the job.”
“I just told you; no one else wants to live in them,” Cass said. “Right, Lena?”
“Right.”
“The General and I have discussed renting out some of the others. All the income would go straight into the family coffers,” he added.
“Which works out nicely for you since you’re wedging your way into the family,” Lena quipped.
Hell.
Emerson watched her go, all his interest in the trailers disappearing with her.
“Don’t let Lena get to you; you’re not the one she’s mad at. She and the General were starting to get along and then he got all high-handed again.”
“Of course.” Emerson walked out the back door more frustrated than he could say. Cass was right. Lena had made it clear how much she resented that her father never trusted her to run Two Willows, even though she was obviously more than qualified to do so. He’d watched her and the General come to something approaching a truce in the last few weeks, but it was a tentative one and needed nurturing. Instead, the General was pitching hand grenades across enemy lines. Emerson hesitated on the back porch and considered taking a drive to town to clear his head but decided against it. He wasn’t going to let Lena knock him off his course when he wanted to contribute.
The cold air braced him, and by the time he reached the Park, he’d simmered down some. He knew Lena had long resented her father’s interference in her running the ranch, and Logan had told him how hard it had been to persuade her to share the job with the men her father had sent. They’d shown themselves to be worthy of her respect.
Emerson wasn’t sure she’d ever respect him.
He paused by the first of the trailers. He could solve this right now—by leaving. Would that be the smarter play?
He thought it probably would be, but he didn’t want to
