Family Matters Read Free Page A

smile, feeling her face stretch like a newly framed canvas. “So. What exactly is your plan?”
    â€œRejuvenation!” he cried in the tones of a snake-oil salesman. “Revitalization! Resurrection! Put another way, we’re going to bring Rainbow’s End back to life.”
    â€œNot if that hotheaded lawyer kills it.” The image of Matt’s dark eyes was enough to make her shiver. This time, she wasn’t sure why.
    â€œAh, now, Kerry, me girl, you’ll not be doubting your uncle Brendan?”
    The accentuated lilt in his voice gave him away. Gran always said Uncle Bren became more Irish than the Irish when he had something cooking. How could his own mother, knowing him so well, have fallen for his crazy scheme?
    But of course, Gran was another unsteady branch on the MacBride family tree.
    â€œIt’s all right,” he continued. “That lad shook people up a bit just now, but I’d already won them over. Don’t worry about a thing, Kerry—you know I kissed the Stone years ago.” She’d heard that bit of blarney before, with the previous idea. And all the ones before it. She swallowed the thoughts along with another gulp of air and asked, “What’s the story with this lawyer?”
    â€œWell, y’see…one of the ladies living here invested in the property with us—all her own doing, of course.”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œAnd her son’s giving her a hard time over it.”
    She thought of the tall woman who had hovered near the lawyer. The woman he’d called “Mom.” “Not Matt Lawrence?” she asked without much hope.
    â€œThe very same.” His sigh could have registered as a mini earthquake on the Richter scale. “He’s got a bug up his britches about the whole deal. He positively insists he wants his ma’s money returned. Obnoxious in manner he is about it, too—you saw him. But—” he rushed on before she could speak “—she advised we ignore the boy. Though that’s hard to do when he’s shown up on her doorstep.”
    â€œAnd when he’s threatening you with legal action, if that’s what your phone message meant.” She crossed her arms and stared at him. “You’ve got to refund that one woman’s money, at least, to get that attorney out of your hair.”
    â€œI can’t.”
    â€œBut—” Her tight throat made her choke on the words. “What happened to the money?”
    â€œIt’s gone.”
    â€œYou spent it all on that piece of…property over there?”
    â€œWell, no. I wanted to get a jump on things, so I bought a few supplies, as well.”
    Luckily the tight throat held back her groan, too. “All right, it’s not a major problem. You can return the supplies. And then you can see about selling the property, so you can return everyone’s investment.”
    That earned her his guileless gaze once more. “What now, Uncle Bren?”
    â€œY’see…” He shrugged. “The owner drove a real hard bargain…”
    â€œYou’re not telling me you paid more than market value?”
    â€œWell, I didn’t know at the time.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “Besides, Rainbow’s End is worth any amount of money to all of us here.”
    She closed her eyes, wishing that she had never woken up that morning. That she’d forgotten to charge her cell phone. That her parents had given her away at birth.
    She couldn’t wait to get an ocean away from here.
    â€œThe property could be a gold mine, Kerry.”
    Fool’s gold, more than likely. But she didn’t have the heart to say it aloud.
    Just a few more days…. After closing up her classroom tomorrow, she would come back to Lakeside again for the weekend, whip Uncle Bren’s proposal into shape and get him ready to take over this questionable enterprise.
    Then she would go ahead with