Hell, before he had any plan at all.
Now he was paying for it. Everyone was acting like saving the dialysis unit was Tory’s idea. Like Tory was in charge. He needed to do all he could to wrest back control of the cookout.
“Tell me one thing,” he demanded of his brother. “Did you tell Olivia about the meeting last night?”
Noah looked sheepish. “She’s my wife. We don’t have secrets from each other.”
“Well, now we’ve got a real fight on our hands. Olivia and Tory are trying to steal the fundraiser from me. If they win the Ridley property, Mom’s going to force us to sell this ranch.”
“I honestly don’t think she can do that.”
“She can try.” There were other ways Mary could make their lives miserable. If his mother didn’t get what she wanted, what was to stop her from sabotaging his plans to go organic—or simply harassing them until they gave in and gave her what she wanted?
Mary had let him know in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t going to wait forever. “You convince me you’re going to win that thing, and I’ll hold off until October when the prize is announced, but if you can’t save the dialysis unit and keep our family in the running, then I want to move forward and put the ranch up for sale right now.”
Liam knew Mary would have to return to Ohio soon. Justin and Liz’s grandparents couldn’t keep them forever. With Frank in jail, the kids were Mary’s responsibility.
“Are you sure it’s wise not to get the hospital administrator on board first?” Noah asked.
“Jill is helping me organize the nurses and doctors. As long as they stick together, we feel like the hospital won’t fight them. I’m going to get the newspaper involved—try to convince them to write an article about it.”
“Maybe we should take a page from the Coopers’ book and get everyone to write letters to the editor, too,” Noah said.
“One step ahead of you.” Liam picked up another list of names.
“Look at you. Organizing write-in campaigns and fundraising events. And getting us certified to boot,” he added.
“That hasn’t happened yet,” Liam cautioned. “We’ve got years of work ahead of us.”
“I’m still proud of you. Dad would be, too.”
“Should we be proud of him, though?” It was a question that had been bothering him a lot lately. “He wasn’t a very good husband. And he broke the law.”
“I’m not sure we know enough about that to judge yet.”
Liam considered telling him about his run-in with Steel but decided against it. He’d wait to see what Steel did next.
“Ready to go, Liam?” his mother asked, entering the kitchen. She wore a black sundress with white polka dots, some sandals and a wide-brimmed white hat.
“Ready to go where?”
“To the volunteer session, of course. Leslie roped me into it. She needs someone to drive her around and pick up donations. Sounds like they’re already rolling in. I can only imagine what a mishmash of styles of paper plates, napkins, cups and so on we’ll get, but Leslie says that’s all part of the fun of it. I have to say, I underestimated you and your ability to get this done. I had no idea you’d get things started so quickly.”
Liam’s fingers tightened around the paper in his hand, but he kept quiet. Why burst his mother’s bubble? The volunteer session had to be all Tory and Olivia, not him. He hadn’t organized one.
Which meant the Coopers were definitely trying to cut him out of it. He supposed he couldn’t blame them. He’d been trying to keep them in the dark himself, after all. “I’m staying here. I have to go after the bigger donations—from businesses and so on. Kind of surprised you want anything to do with the volunteer session.”
“The sooner we win the Founder’s Prize, the sooner I get my money. And anyway, Leslie is relentless.”
Noah opened his mouth, but Liam shook his head at him meaningfully. “Mom’s right; it’s time to go,” he said. Following Mary out of the kitchen, he added to Noah, “We’ll talk more later.”
“Are you coming?” Enid asked Tory when they met up on the back deck. Tory took in her mother’s white capris, spring green blouse and ankle-tie sandals.
“Where are you going dressed so nicely?”
“I’m helping Leslie pick up the donations for the cookout. I’m meeting with her in town. This was such a good idea, Tory.”
“It was Olivia’s idea to jump on it so quickly,” Tory said. “I didn’t realize you planned to get involved.” She still felt a little guilty at the way she and Olivia had wrested control of the fundraiser from Liam. There was plenty for him to do, she supposed, but they hadn’t asked him if they should start collecting individual donations. They’d just put the word out to the list of volunteers, and offers for donations had rolled in.
When they’d gotten home from Linda’s Diner, all Tory had wanted to do was go to sleep and forget all about the Founder’s Prize. She was having trouble getting over the sting of knowing Liam had been working on winning while flirting with her and taking her out. Olivia had demanded that they sit down and make a plan of action. A phone call to Jill elicited the information that she planned to organize all the nurses and doctors, and work with Liam to choose a site at which to hold the cookout. Camila Whitfield and Fila Matheson had volunteered to take charge of organizing the food booths.
“We have to take care of everything else we can,” Olivia had told Tory. “Starting with publicity. We’ll get you booked on local radio and television,” she’d said determinedly. “If you’re the spokeswoman for the fundraiser, any good
