Diamonds and Dirt Roads Read online

  Evan nodded and Cori felt her heart drop.

  “It’s perfectly legal for him to put any stipulations on the distribution of his assets that he wanted to.” Evan paused and looked at each of them. “You don’t have to do any of it, of course. But,” he continued just as Cori tried to take a deep breath, “you then all give up all stake in the company and have nothing more to do with Carmichael Enterprises.”

  Which was exactly what Cori wanted. But that didn’t matter. If she had to jump through a couple of hoops for Ava to inherit, she’d jump. And she’d freaking smile while she did it too. So there, Dad.

  Cori practiced one of those I’m-totally-good-with-whatever smiles right then. “Okay, fine. I’m always up for anything. What are these stipulations?”

  “Here.” Brynn slid a piece of paper toward Cori.

  For a second, Cori flashed back to calculus class in high school. Brynn was a master note taker. And Cori…wasn’t. But it took only a quick glance to show that the handwriting on the paper was not Brynn’s. It was their father’s.

  Instantly, Cori’s throat got tight. That was stupid. It wasn’t like he’d written her lots of—or really any—cards and letters over the years. But maybe that’s why seeing his handwriting hurt now—because she hadn’t seen a lot of it over the years. And now she wouldn’t be seeing it again. She cleared her throat and shook that off. “What’s this?”

  “Dad’s note,” Brynn said. “The way this all got started. It’s actually a pretty good summary.”

  It was a fairly small piece of paper, and Cori felt a little better. He couldn’t have fit too many demands on something that size.

  “There are a lot more details and, of course, it’s written more…officially…in the trust,” Evan said. “But yeah, that’s the first note your dad made about all of this. And it does cover the basics.”

  Cori looked up, hearing a gruffness in Evan’s voice. He seemed a little choked up. Okay, that was unexpected. She hadn’t realized that the attorney had been close to Rudy personally, but it seemed clear that Evan was feeling sentimental about the note.

  She swallowed hard and made herself focus on the paper.

  It was definitely Rudy’s handwriting. But there wasn’t anything like “My dearest Ava” or “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was sick” or “I wish we’d had more time.” It was, more or less, a list. There were five main numbered points. Then there were some small notes written around each. Some words had been underlined or crossed out in red and other words were highlighted in yellow.

  It took only a few seconds to read. And then a few seconds more for her to realize that she’d been wrong. He’d fit a lot onto that four-by-six-inch piece of paper.

  Move to Bliss. 1 year. Live in house together.

  Run pie shop. Profit by year end.

  AVA- kitchen, baking, all products. NO business! Date a guy from Bliss. Give it 6 mos. Have fun. No checklists!

  BRYNN- customers/waitress. Time with people, get to know them. No kitchen, no business. Date 6 guys from Bliss.

  CORI- books/accounting. No baking. Leave customers to B. Make a commitment. But NO DATING for 6 mos.!

  Cori read it three times. Finally, she looked up. She had no idea which thing to focus on first. It was all equally bizarre.

  Except…it wasn’t.

  Not completely. Not the part about Ava having fun. And the part about Brynn spending time with people. And, yeah, even the part about Cori making a commitment. None of that was bizarre. It was all stuff that she and her sisters were not so great at.

  The only thing that made it weird was that Rudy had realized it.

  “You’re telling me that this is what Dad said we had to do before we can inherit?” she asked the room.

  “Yes. Basically,” Evan confirmed. “Like I mentioned, there are a few more details in the trust itself, but…yeah.”

  Cori looked at her sisters. Ava looked pissed and Brynn looked worried. Dammit, she’d brought whipped cream and sprinkles to avoid those looks today. She glanced at Evan. He looked concerned and maybe just a little…curious. About her reaction? She wondered what he’d expected.

  “You actually put all of this—” She pointed to the note. “—into a legal document?”

  Evan glanced at Ava, then back at Cori. “Um. Yeah.”

  “And we have to do all of this or we lose the company.”

  “Yes.”

  Cori looked at the note again. Rudy wanted her to do accounting and not date? She wasn’t really the sit-at-a-desk-with-spreadsheets type. And she definitely wasn’t the sit-at-home-with-Netflix-on-a-Saturday-night type. She had a tendency to, well, not stick. Not to jobs, not to places, not to relationships. She kind of understood why a typical, concerned father might feel the need to do something drastic to change all that. Like tie her sisters’ happiness…and twelve and a half billion dollars…to her settling down for a year.

  Then again, Rudy had never been a typical father.

  Her gaze settled on the yellow highlighted part under her name. Make a commitment. Since that was followed immediately by BUT NO DATING! she had to assume that he didn’t mean to a guy. Which left her sisters. Or a job. Or both.

  Had Rudy known that when she saw her sisters, it was for forty-eight hours or less and involved doing something fun and ridiculous that neither Ava nor Brynn would ever do with anyone else? Cori blew into town, usually without much notice, dragged her sisters out for a fun, extravagant weekend, and then left before they got sick of her. And stayed away for at least a couple of months so they had a little time to miss her. But that wouldn’t be possible in Bliss, Kansas. Living in the same house. Working in the same pie shop. That would require her to get serious. And stick around.

  But make a commitment were not the only highlighted words on the page. Have fun was highlighted for Ava and time with people was in yellow after Brynn’s name. Rudy wasn’t wrong about those either. Ava did need to relax and have more fun, and Brynn needed to spend more time with people than with microbes and bacteria—or whatever she had in her lab. Her sisters were brilliant and successful and could do or have anything that they wanted. The fact that they chose to spend all of their time working was a concern of Cori’s as well.

  Dammit, Rudy, now we have something in common? Now that you’re dead?

  Cori felt tears pricking at her eyes again and she quickly blinked. Nope, there was not going to be any crying here today. She also couldn’t be pissed off or worried. Ava and Brynn had those covered. Cori was the girl with the whipped cream gun. As always. Of course, usually that whipped cream gun was figurative.

  “Okay, well, I guess it goes without saying that I can be ready to go first thing in the morning,” Cori said.

  “You…can?” Ava asked, clearly stunned that was Cori’s answer.

  She gave Ava a look. “I can always be ready to go first thing in the morning.”

  She didn’t typically just pick up and go. She gave notice at work and let her landlords know when she was leaving town. Usually. But she could just decide to take off. She made sure she took jobs that were fun and different…and where it didn’t matter if she screwed something up or decided to suddenly quit. At least, that it didn’t matter in a cosmic, people-truly-depending-on-her way like her sisters’ jobs did. She supposed there were some irritated restaurant and clothing boutique managers here and there, but overall, Cori’s absence didn’t change the course of history or leave any gaping holes. Exactly the way she wanted it. And yes, she realized that not being dependent on any of those jobs to pay her bills was definitely one advantage of having a trust fund that had kicked in when she’d turned eighteen.

  Ava pulled a breath in through her nose and let it out slowly. “Well, don’t worry about that. I’m going to do everything I can to find a way out of this. I will speak to my lawyers as soon as we’re finished here.”

  Because of course you don’t want to spend a year in Kansas with me and Brynn.

  The thought flitted through Cori’s m
ind unbidden. Whoa. Dammit. She didn’t really want to live in Kansas for a year either. It was good that Ava could snap her fingers and have some of the best lawyers in the country looking for ways out of this.

  But for just an instant Cori wished she could see Ava Carmichael in small-town Kansas. Sure, she was stereotyping a bit, but there had to be some truth to the idea that there were towns where everyone knew your name within five minutes and all of your business within six. Where the idea of twenty-four-hour sushi was something they only saw in the movies. Where it would only take you a few minutes to get to a place where there were no other people, no noise, no lights. Yeah, she’d give some of her hefty-maybe-almost inheritance to see her sister in a place like that.

  Cori glanced at Brynn. Hell, a place like that could be great for Brynn too. Where Ava managed hundreds of people, was on conference calls and in meetings all day, and even tied her social life to her work, Brynn could go days without speaking to another human being and be completely fine with it. She preferred her test tubes and microscopes to anything involving people and human interaction. It might be good for her to be in a place where she couldn’t just blend into the crowd on the sidewalks or disappear into her lab for days.

  Cori looked down at the note again. Yep. She was seeing a point to what Rudy had scribbled on this paper.

  Okay, now she had to do her job here and make this not only no big deal, but maybe even fun. She had to figure out a way to add a few figurative sprinkles. But honestly, there were a few things in Rudy’s note that could qualify as a good time.

  For instance, the idea of Ava baking. Her sister was absolutely not domestic in any way. Seeing Ava outside of the boardroom and out of her pencil skirts, with some flour in her hair, and pie filling on her Gucci pumps would definitely be fun.

  Also, the idea of Ava dating a small-town boy from the middle of America who, if there was a God, drove a pickup and would call her ma’am or darlin’. There had to be some hot guys in Kansas besides Evan Stone. Guys that worked outside, with their hands, in blue jeans and boots. Guys that wouldn’t be impressed by things like Ava’s investment portfolio or that she could get last-minute reservations at any five-star restaurant in New York City. Yeah, a hot, country boy could be good for her buttoned-up, workaholic sister.

  And for her brilliant, nerdy, microscopes-and-books-are-my-crack sister too. Cori reached over and snagged Brynn’s notebook. She wrote SIX GUYS! and drew a heart and then some googly eyes. Brynn looked at the doodle and giggled slightly. Cori felt a surge of accomplishment at the sound. The idea of Brynn launching a social life was definitely fun now that Cori was thinking about it. Cori could help her with her hair and makeup. And hell, Brynn could borrow Cori’s entire night-on-the-town wardrobe. She wasn’t going to be needing it.

  And there was a fourth fun thing on their father’s list. Pies. It was really hard to not have good feelings about pie.

  “I don’t know, Ava,” Cori said, summoning her come-on-you-can-trust-me smile and her I-dare-you tone of voice. That smile and tone of voice had gotten Ava Carmichael out of her one-piece swimsuit and into the Gulf of Mexico bare-assed naked two years ago. “This could be an adventure.”

  Ava gave her an I’m-allergic-to-adventure-remember? look. And Cori did remember. Adventures with Ava required a lot of spontaneity—i.e., not letting her think about it very long or hard—and a good amount of vodka. And proposing the plan while in a shoe store was even better. Preferably Gucci, but Louis Vuitton worked too. Shoe stores were about the only place on the planet where Ava Carmichael was at all frivolous and out of control. This alcohol-less meeting in a conference room that reminded Ava she was responsible and in charge was really working against this whole idea.

  “What’s this thing about a pie shop?” Cori asked Evan. “We have to open one?”

  Evan had been watching her and Ava and Brynn quietly. Seemingly just studying their reactions and interactions. Now he leaned in again. “It’s your dad’s shop. He wants you to take over running it. As a team. You each have something particular to be in charge of.”

  “Our dad’s shop?” Cori repeated. “You mean like a huge pie company that distributes to restaurants and grocery stores nationally or something, right?” The word “shop” brought to mind a quaint little place with a glass display case and chalkboard menu and air that smelled like cinnamon and sugar.

  Evan shook his head. “No, it’s just a little shop on Main Street. He made a few pies a week and mostly served them to his friends.”

  Cori stared at him as Main Street echoed in her head. There was a Main Street in Bliss. A slide show of Norman Rockwell paintings suddenly flashed through her mind. “Our dad, Rudolph A. Carmichael, CEO of Carmichael Enterprises, billionaire, owned a pie shop in Bliss, Kansas?” Cori asked. “Where he made the pies. And had friends.” Cori wasn’t sure that she knew of anyone she would have called her father’s friend. He had a lot of acquaintances. Tons of business colleagues. Hundreds of employees. But friends? She couldn’t think of one.

  Evan nodded. “Yes.”

  And for the life of her, Cori could not picture Rudy in a kitchen even making a sandwich, not to mention making a pie. “Why?” That was maybe not the most important question at that moment but…it was really the one she was most fascinated with.

  “Well, there was nowhere else to get pie in town,” Evan said. “And it was his favorite dessert. So he decided to solve the problem by opening his own shop.”

  That made sense. She supposed. And pie was her father’s favorite food. She hadn’t known that. She had no idea what her father’s favorite…anything…was. A stab of sorrow hit her in the chest again.

  “And he must have really loved the town.” She hadn’t been expecting to say that but it seemed clear. If he’d found a place that made him happy, where he’d been content to run a pie shop versus a worldwide conglomerate, and where he’d had friends, that really was nice. Strange. But nice. And now he wanted his daughters to know this place. Hell, that was almost fatherly.

  Evan didn’t respond immediately, but after a second, he shifted and sat forward in his chair. “Bliss was very important to your father,” he said. “He felt that living in the town changed him, for the better.” Evan removed his glasses and took a deep breath. “Rudy had a lot of regrets at the end. The cancer progressed very quickly, and he realized that he had run out of time to say all of this to you himself. He believed that living in Bliss would help you see and learn the things he did and that this was the only way to get you there and for you to really give it a chance.”

  Cori couldn’t respond right away. The words “cancer” and “a lot of regrets” and “at the end”, and hearing them from Evan with that note of gruffness in his voice, made Cori’s throat feel tight.

  “That means his dying wish was for us to move to Bliss, for a year, and make pies,” Brynn finally said. She looked at Cori and Ava. “Together.”

  “It was,” Evan said.

  Cori groaned internally. Brynn had to use the term “dying wish” didn’t she? And yet the “together” made Cori’s heart thump just as hard. She glanced down at the note again. Number one was Move to Bliss. 1 year. Live in house together.

  Together was underlined in red.

  And that part suddenly didn’t seem crazy either. A little scary, for sure. Twelve months straight with her sisters was a big commitment for Cori. There were a lot of things she could screw up in that amount of time. But…Ava and Brynn would have to stay there with her anyway. Maybe that had been part of Rudy’s thinking too.

  “This is just all so over-the-top,” Brynn said softly. “It’s like you’re talking about a stranger rather than our dad. He never did anything…dramatic.”

  Maybe once you knew you were dying, you started not caring as much that your actions might be perceived as a little over-the-top. Cori felt her heart thump again with the thought.

  Over-the top was her specialty. It was how she did most things. So there was something else she a
nd her father had in common. Now. Ironic, that. His demands of perfection and her tendency to overdo and not respect limits and rules had always been a wedge between them. And now he was the one doing something crazy. Well, she supposed it made sense that she was the one thinking they should go ahead with the whole thing.

  Evan rubbed a hand over his face and for a flash, Cori thought really hot before he pushed his chair back and got to his feet. Evan stepped around the corner of the conference table, and Cori was again distracted for a moment. He was tall, probably six-two, his jeans fit very nicely, and she couldn’t help but notice the way his arms and shoulder muscles flexed against the dress shirt as he tucked his hands into the front pockets of those jeans. And he was wearing tennis shoes. Had a pair of tennis shoes ever touched the carpet in this office before? But she quickly decided no way. And this guy clearly didn’t give a crap. She might not normally be attracted to a guy in glasses who studied and practiced law, no doubt surrounded by leather-bound books and fountain pens, but she was definitely a sucker for guys who didn’t give a crap.

  “I didn’t know Rudy prior to his car breaking down in Bliss five years ago,” Evan said, his voice low and even. “All I knew was the eccentric, funny, incredibly generous man who came into my friend’s diner looking for a mechanic and a cup of coffee. He got both. The cup of coffee from my best friend, Parker, and the best mechanic in four counties, my buddy Noah. All he got from me was some conversation, but it was enough to forge a friendship. Over the three days it took Noah to fix Rudy’s Cadillac, Rudy fell in love with my town. I had no idea that he was rich until he came to me asking for help with his trust. For four and a half years, he was just this goofy guy who made everyone smile and treated Bliss like it was his hometown.” Evan’s voice got a little gruff. “He was a friend of mine. Someone I watched die with regrets. Someone I miss every single day. Someone who, in the last couple of months, wished he could have done a lot of things differently, especially with his daughters. I tried to talk him out of some of this stuff. But in the end, when he asked me if I would be sure that you all knew the things he wished he’d said to you and shown you himself, I couldn’t say anything but yes. Which means, I’m here to be sure that you all know exactly what he wanted and why.”