Her Montana Cowboy

“They’re behind. They just moved offices and his father retired.” Thad’s mouth twisted. “I gave him a little guff, but, bottom line, Lillie Jean is who she says she is.”

Even though he’d expected something along those lines, Gus felt his stomach twist. His carefully planned future was now null and void.

“I stored some papers in Sal’s house. I want to take a look at them.” Thad gestured toward the manager’s house with his gray head. “You may as well come.”

He may as well. They crossed the short distance to the house without speaking. Thad pushed the stubborn door open and it scraped its way across the worn carpet. The interior of the house felt colder than the outside air, even though Gus knew the furnace was set to come on at fifty degrees and thus keep the pipes from freezing.

Sal had left some time ago, and a layer of dust had settled over the carpet and the few pieces of furniture the former manager had left behind. Furniture that had probably been in the house when he’d first moved in twenty-five years ago.

Thad went to the hall and pulled the cord that lowered the attic steps. The attic was cramped, so Gus waited near the kitchen door while Thad thumped around upstairs, then came back down carrying a metal box.

Gus asked the obvious question once Thad placed the strongbox on the wobbly kitchen table. “Why do you keep things here?” It wasn’t like there wasn’t a lot of room in the main house. It, too, was sparsely furnished.

“I burned most of it. Didn’t want the rest anywhere near me.”

Thad pulled a key out of his pocket, turned the lock and opened the lid. There wasn’t much inside—a couple of envelopes, a small box and a set of keys. Safe-deposit box keys. Thad pulled out an envelope, spread the yellowed paper it contained on the table. It was a handwritten agreement, signed by Thad and his partner.

“The official agreement is exactly the same.”

“You’re sure?”

“Called Ned.” His current lawyer, who happened to be his original lawyer’s son. Another lawyer kid. “He found a copy of the agreement and answered some questions for me. It’s something called Tenant in Common. I kind of remember Ned’s dad talking us into it, saying that this way, we were both protected. Neither of us could force the other to sell. We could just sell our interest to someone else.”

“Is it transferable?”

“This one is.” Thad gave a rueful cough. “You see, Nita and I were thinking about kids and we wanted to protect their interests, too.”