* * * * *

“Thank God you’re here!” Bitsy exclaimed on a whispered cry when Max and I walked into what a brass plaque outside the door announced was George Nielson, Attorney-at-Law’s offices.

She’d positioned herself at the door looking like she was waiting for us and wheeled herself around before the door fully closed behind us.

She only had eyes for me and at one glance through the reception area I knew why.

Shauna Fontaine was sitting across the reception area smiling like the cat who got her cream.

“Oh no,” I whispered.

“What the f**k?” Max asked, not on a whisper, his eyes were on Shauna and his face was hard.

“George says she’s mentioned in the will,” Bitsy told us, still whispering urgently and she looked like she was struggling with tears or anger or both. “He didn’t tell me until I got here, he didn’t want me to be worried.”

“Fuckin’ Curt,” Max muttered under his breath and I tore my gaze off Shauna and looked down at Bitsy.

“Just breathe deep,” I suggested because I didn’t know what else to say.

“I’d like to breathe fire,” Bitsy said back. “What was Curtis thinking?”

“Curt didn’t think much and when he did it was about himself,” Max told her bluntly and I nudged him with my elbow which I think had more of an effect on my elbow than on Max for he didn’t budge and his eyes remained in the unhappy scowl he was directing to Bitsy.

Bitsy pressed her lips together, I didn’t know if this was to bite back a retort or to hold back tears. Then she looked to me.

“I’m just glad you’re here. You can sit in, listen to the will. I’ll make George let you look at it after. If he gives Shauna anything, or… everything…” she swallowed then went on, “you can help me fight it.”

“Bitsy –”

“Just listen in, okay? I already told George you’ll be here. He says there’s no reason to be worried but I want you in there, okay?”

I looked up at Max who was looking down at me. He nodded so I pulled in a deep breath and looked back to Bitsy.

“Okay,” I told her.

“Thanks, Nina,” Bitsy whispered then she took in a deep breath too, turned her chair around and wheeled into the room.

Max and I followed.

“Max,” Shauna greeted him, her voice a contented purr then she looked at me and her eyes grew cold. “Nina.”

“She bitch from hell,” I replied, Bitsy’s head shot around and she looked at me with wide eyes, her fear had disappeared, delighted astonishment in its place while Max grunted his amusement. I heard a few twitters from the others occupying the room but Shauna glared ice daggers at me.

A tall mountain man-esque person, “esque” because he was wearing a suit but this barely concealed the mountain man within, with black hair cut super short even though there wasn’t much of it to cover his scalp walked out of his office.

“Bitsy,” he said looking at her then he looked at Max. “Max.” His eyes scanned the room as he nodded to the others assembled of which there weren’t many, another mountain man, an older lady and gentleman and me. However they slid right past Shauna without acknowledging her and then he announced, “Let’s get this done so you can all get on with your days.” Then he turned and walked back into the office.

We all followed.

“My next holiday is going to be to a nunnery in the depths of the highlands of Scotland. Maybe on an island,” I muttered to Max and he grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze but I looked up at him to see he entered the room smiling.

Someone had pulled in a number of chairs and we all sat, Max and me on a couch in the back of the room. Bitsy was up close and she turned to look at us, I gave her a nod, she nodded back and looked back at George.

George seated himself behind his big, lawyer’s desk, a desk nearly every lawyer except those who didn’t happen to be partners in massive law firms seemed to have. Mountain man under his suit or not, George took his business seriously and he wanted those sitting across from him to take him seriously doing it.

I was wondering how much a desk like that cost when he began.

“Strangely enough, Curtis changed his will about a week before he passed,” George announced and I watched Bitsy stiffen and Shauna smile.

She’d told him she was pregnant around that time, I decided, and I got tense right along with Bitsy and Max who shifted at my side to drape his arm along the back of the couch.

I dropped my hand to his knee and squeezed.

“We’ll just get started,” George said and then he started and when he did I listened closely.

Listening, I heard there didn’t seem to be anything Bitsy had to worry about. Curtis had bequeathed her his business, his money, the land he owned except for some generous bequests he left to his mother and father (the older lady and gentleman in the reception area) and a stretch of land he gave Trevor, a business colleague whose name I knew because Kami brought it up so often. There were a few personal items he also gave his Mom and Dad. The will wasn’t very long but it was straightforward.

“To Holden Maxwell,” George read and I sat up straighter as Max’s arm moved from the back of the couch to my shoulders. “I leave the acreage…” George went on but Max went completely still by my side and everyone gasped and turned to stare at Max as George read out the situation of the acreage he left Max, fifteen acres in all apparently.

When he was done giving the estate description, George’s eyes left the papers in his hand and they locked on Max as he said straight to Max instead of reading the words from the page, “Max, you win, buddy.”

Bitsy emitted a little, choked sob and Curtis’s mother bit her lip but I moved my gaze through them to stare at Max’s profile seeing his face still hard, his jaw tight, his gaze riveted to George.

George’s eyes moved back to the paper and quickly, but his lips twitched as he did it, he finished, “And finally, to Shauna Fontaine, I leave the knowledge that, when I started it with her I got a vasectomy.”

I felt my eyes grow so wide I feared they’d pop out of my head. I also tried and failed to stop a startled giggle from escaping my lips and my gaze flew to Shauna who had gone pale but that didn’t stop her from looking murderous.

I looked toward Bitsy when I noticed her turning in her chair and the minute she caught my eye I saw she was struggling with hilarity.