The Outback Bridal Rescue Read Free Page B

at him, decided he was ready for it, and let him have it. ‘Patrick’s wil . Mitch held it. He’s opened it.’
    ‘Wel , that can’t be bad.’ Instant relief. ‘Patrick was always fair.’
    ‘Prepare yourself for another shock, Johnny. There’s a huge mortgage on Gundamurra and you’re about to inherit half of it.’
    ‘What?’ Incredulity blanked out several mil ion brain cel s.
    ‘Not quite half. You get forty-nine percent of Gundamurra and Megan gets fifty-one, leaving her in the driver’s seat where she’s always expected to be. But she won’t have expected to share her inheritance with you, Johnny. The normal thing would be a three-way split with her sisters.’
    Co-owner of Gundamurra with Megan?
    ‘Mitch thought you should be prepared…get your head around it before we arrive at Gundamurra,’ Ric went on.
    Johnny’s head was spinning.
    What did it mean?
    Why would Patrick cut out his two older daughters?
    Why make him co-owner rather than Ric or Mitch?
    A sense of horror bil owed through him. He reached out and gripped his friend’s arm. ‘I didn’t ask for this, Ric. I swear I knew nothing about it.’
    ‘I didn’t think you did, Johnny,’ Ric assured him. ‘I have no doubt Patrick planned it himself.’

    ‘But why me? It’s not right, not…’ His mind fumbled for words. ‘Did he…did he explain to Mitch when he drafted the wil ?’
    Ric shook his head. ‘Mitch wasn’t in on drafting it.
    Patrick did it himself and sent it to him sealed for safe-keeping two months ago.’
    ‘Two months…’ Johnny shook his head in bewilderment.
    ‘He must have made up his mind after Christmas.’
    ‘Maybe he knew he didn’t have long to live.’
    ‘Dammit! Why wouldn’t he tel us? We were al at Gundamurra for Christmas.’
    ‘If Patrick thought it was the last one for him, he wouldn’t have wanted to spoil it.’
    ‘But…’ Johnny lifted his hands in helpless frustration.
    ‘Want to know what Mitch thinks?’
    He waved a go-ahead, completely beyond imagining what had motivated such an extraordinary step.
    ‘Patrick elected you to save Gundamurra. It’s highly unlikely that Megan can do it by herself. The way things are going with the drought, she won’t be able to service the mortgage. And it was you who always thought of it as home. Not me. Not Mitch. You.’
    Johnny frowned. ‘Mitch had a home with his mother and sister, but I thought you…’ He searched Ric’s eyes.
    A very direct gaze accompanied his reply. ‘You needed it more than I did, Johnny. And you can’t deny it touches something in your soul. It comes out in your songs.’
    Need…yes. There was so much hype and superficial crap in the career he had chosen, so much touring to make his success stick, it was the thought of Gundamurra that kept him sane, grounded, and going back there always put his world in perspective again—what was real, what wasn’t.
    ‘It won’t be the same without Patrick.’ Grief squeezed his heart. ‘ He was the soul of Gundamurra.’
    ‘You’re forgetting Megan.’
    Megan.
    His mind shied away from thinking of her right now.
    Already he could see those stormy grey eyes hating him for being given half of her place, wishing he’d never set foot on Gundamurra, let alone have any claim on it.
    ‘Patrick forgot his other daughters, Jessie and Emily,’ he said, tearing his mind off the one daughter who’d become such a nagging thorn in his side.
    ‘They’ve both made their lives away from Gundamurra and Patrick financed their ambitions,’ Ric reminded him. ‘I think they’l feel they’ve had their share. Jessie has her medical degree and the women’s clinic she wanted at Alice Springs. Emily has her helicopter business at Cairns. The money to set them up was taken out of Gundamurra, probably contributing to the current debt. They can’t be unaware of that.’
    True enough, Johnny silently acknowledged, yet the family home was the family home. Leaving them out and putting him in