especially with their grandmother’s cancer. They needed to support her, and had to make sure the McNair empire ran smoothly through this time of transition. Giving their grandmother peace during her final days was their most important task.
Still, he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman—Nina. He didn’t even know her last name, for God’s sake, but he sure intended to find out. He could see asking her to accompany him to his cousin’s wedding. How far did she live from here? People came from all over for the camp, but the bulk were local.
Regardless, distance didn’t really matter. Not to a McNair. He had the family plane at his disposal. And yet all that money couldn’t give them the one thing each of them really wanted.
Their grandmother’s health.
He strode toward the main house, veering off to the family’s wing where he was to meet his grandmother on the porch. His boots crunched along pine straw, children’s chatter and a banjo playing echoed in the distance. Branches rustled overhead. Some of those oak trees were older than him and he’d climbed those thick branches as a kid.
He neared the family porch where his grandmother—Mariah McNair—already sat in a rocking chair. A tray of sandwiches and a pitcher of tea waited on the table between the two rockers.
His gut knotted with dread over the day that rocker would be empty.
Her favored jean jumper and boots fit her more loosely these days. And her hair was shorter now. For as long as he could remember, she’d worn it long, either in a braid down her back or wrapped in a bun on her head. But she’d undergone a procedure to drain blood buildup in her head a few months ago. Her hair had been cut short and shaved away at the surgery site.
That made it real for him. She was going to die sooner rather than later, and not of old age. That damn tumor was going to steal her from them.
“You made it,” she said, clapping her hands. “Come sit beside me, load up a plate and let’s talk.”
“I’ll clean up and be right back down.” He worried about her getting sick on top of everything else.
“Now is better. A little dust and dirt isn’t going to make me keel over. Besides, I’ve seen you messier.”
“That you have.” He swept off his hat and hunkered down into the rocker beside her, resting his hat on his knee, thinking of how cute that kid Cody had looked passing it back to him. “How are you feeling, Gran? Do you want more tea?”
He reached for the pitcher, noticing she’d only nibbled at the corner of a sandwich.
“I’m fine, Alex, thank you. I have the sunshine, a glass of sweet tea and one of my grandchildren here. All is right in my world.”
But he knew that wasn’t really true. She didn’t have long to live. Months. Maybe only weeks. She’d been getting her affairs in order, deciding who would inherit what. Not that he cared a damn thing about the McNair wealth and holdings. He just wanted his grandmother.
He reached for a plate and piled on sandwiches, more to make her happy. His stomach felt as if it had rocks in it right now. “Thanks for lunch. It’s a chaotic day with all the campers coming in.”
“Stone surprised us all by starting that camp instead of taking over the jewelry enterprises, but in a good way.”
Alex touched his hat on his knee. “That he did.”
“His new life fits him. Johanna helped him see that path while she helped him with his inheritance test.” Mariah set her plate of uneaten sandwiches aside. “Alex, I want to talk to you about your test.”
“My test?” The rocks in his stomach turned icy. “I thought that was just a game to get Stone and Johanna back together.”
At least he’d hoped so as time passed and his grandmother didn’t bring up the subject of putting her three grandchildren through an arbitrary test to win their portion of the estate.
It wasn’t about the money. It was about the land. A mega-resort developer simply could not get a hold of Alex’s portion of the land. That, he definitely cared about.
“Well, Alex, you thought wrong. I need to feel secure about the future of what we’ve built. All three of you children have a stubborn streak.”
“One we inherited from you.”
“True enough.” She laughed softly before her blue eyes turned sad. “Much more so than my two children.”
Her daughter had been a junkie who dropped her child—Stone—off onto Mariah’s doorstep. Alex and his twin Amie’s father had been unmotivated to do more than spend his inheritance and avoid his wife.
Mariah had been more of a parent to Alex than his own.
He, Amie and Stone were like siblings, having grown up here at Hidden Gem together. Once they’d finished college, they all turned their attention to home, working to keep the McNair holdings profitable even after their grandfather died. Each one of them had a role to play. Alex managed the family lands—Hidden Gem Ranch, which operated as a bed-and-breakfast hobby ranch for the rich and famous. Until recently, Stone had managed the family jewelry design house and store. Diamonds in the Rough featured high-end rustic designs, from rodeo belt buckles and stylized bolos to Aztec jewelry, all highly sought after around the country. And Amie—a gemologist—created most of their renowned designs, even though the McNair jewelry company was now under new management, an outsider his grandmother had hired.
Gran rocked slowly, sipping her iced tea, her hand thin and pale with spidery veins as she set the glass back on the table between them. “Now back to what I’ve planned for your test.”
That damn test again. Stone had already passed his test to retain control of the jewelry business. Gran had made Stone work with Johanna to find loving homes for his grandmother’s dogs. Yet once Stone had finished, he surprised them all by proposing to Johanna and announcing he didn’t want to run Diamonds in the Rough after all. He didn’t want the all-consuming ambition. The camp had been Stone’s brainchild, shifting his focus to the family’s charity foundation, investing his portion of the estate into a self-generating fund to run the HorsePower program while a new CEO assumed command as head of Diamonds in the Rough.
“Seriously, Gran? You’re still insisting on the test? I assumed since Stone backed out and opted to live on his own portfolio you would pass the company along to Amie.”
“And leave the running of the ranch to you?”
He stayed silent. The land. This place. He’d put his heart and soul into it. But that was his grandmother’s decision to make. Money wasn’t a concern. He had his own. He could start fresh if need be.
Except he didn’t want to. He wanted his home to stay untouched by takeover from some mega-ranch theme park.
Mariah set aside her tea. “Alex, it’s a simple test really. There’s a competitor—Lowery Resorts—that has been quietly buying up shares of the McNair empire through shell corporations.”
Alarms went off in his head. This was the worst possible time for someone to stage a takeover. Stockholders were already on edge about his grandmother’s illness, concerned about the uncertain future of the McNair holdings. “A controlling percentage?”
