Forward Passes (Seattle Lumberjacks) Read Free Page A

name. “ To my great-nephew, Tyler, as the last of the Harris males, I will to you my estate at Twin Cedars and all of my personal effects therein, including my beloved cat. I’m truly sorry my estrangement from your family kept us from knowing each other sooner. After your father died, I should have been there for you, but I wasn’t. At least we had time together at the end .”
    What the fuck? Tyler leaned back in his chair, letting the words sink in. He hadn’t seen this coming. Not at all. Especially the cat part.
    Hot Chick aka Lavender shrieked one of those high-pitched female sounds that usually sent him diving for cover. She clamped her hand over her mouth, but not before he heard a muffled sob. Oh, crap. Not tears. He’d never been able to deal with a woman’s tears, not even his sisters’.
    He played dumb, not hard to do with a 1.09 GPA.
    Lavender stared at the attorney seated across the table from her as if his words had sucked the life out of her future. “Jim, there must be some mistake. Are you sure?”
    “I wish there was a mistake. Artie requested the change six months ago.”
    “Six months ago?” She made that little heartbreaking sound from deep in her throat, the one women usually followed up with hysterical crying and a big dent in his credit card to make things better.
    “Right after Art took a fall and went to the veterans’ nursing home in Seattle to recover.”
    Right after he’d called Tyler out of the blue and asked to see him. Tyler bit back a dose of guilt, even though he’d no reason to feel guilty. He hadn’t asked for this. Hell, no one in their right mind would ask for this. The place was beyond repair and a money pit if he ever saw one.
    “But-but…” Lavender wrung her hands in her lap. Tyler figured she’d rather be wringing his neck. “Art shared the will with me. We had dreams for the estate—shared dreams once we got the money together. He knew I’d carry on if something happened to him. How could he leave it to this—this person who has no appreciation of the mansion’s history or interest in the legacy of one of the island’s pioneer families?”
    “Which happens to be my family,” Tyler reminded her.
    She shot him a look that had first-degree murder fantasies written all over it.
    “It’s quite clear, Mr. Harris inherits it all if he conforms to the requirements set forth in Artie’s will.”
    Tyler snapped to attention. “What requirements?” Jim had better not be messing with him. Tyler wasn’t in the mood for bullshit.
    “The terms are clear, Mr. Harris. Before you can inherit the property, you’ll need to be in residence for ninety consecutive days starting today.”
    “What?” All those years in loud football stadiums must have screwed up his hearing.
    “Ninety consecutive days.” Lavender repeated, as if she considered him a fucking idiot or something.
    “Not gonna happen.” No way in hell did Tyler want to be stuck on this frigging island, not even for five more minutes. At this very moment, a float plane idled at the dock, waiting just for him.
    “Then the property passes to the Island Yankee Brotherhood and Lavender Mead.”
    “Island Yankee Brotherhood? Not the old guys in military uniforms at the funeral?” Hell, they couldn’t even get taps right, let alone deal with a big-assed estate badly in need of millions of dollars in TLC or, even better, bulldozing.
    “One and the same.” The defiant look in Lavender’s eyes almost had him smiling. He liked women with balls.
    “I’m supposed to get married in a month.” Like that was going to happen. Cass wouldn’t answer his calls after he’d postponed the wedding once again, and truthfully, Tyler was relieved.
    “You’ll just have to get married on the island.” Jim’s helpful suggestion didn’t help one damn bit.
    “Cass would never come here. She’d hate it.”
    “Then I guess she’ll wait if she really loves you.” Lavender was starting to annoy the hell out of