Chapter Four
Later that afternoon, Aidan sat slumped in the passenger seat of his best friend's car, staring out the side window on the way to town.
"Hey, what's got you all down in the mouth? You look like you lost your best friend, but I'm still here." Tommy Hillman laughed at his own joke and steered his 1926 Chrysler Model G-70 roadster around the deep ruts left by the recent rains and busy traffic. The car had seen better days, especially with Tommy at the wheel. The eight-year-old car was a college graduation gift to Tommy from his parents. But that was when his dad had a thriving law practice and his mother owned her own dress shop. Money had been plentiful then.
"Shut up, Tommy. Just drive, will ya?" Aidan was in no mood for conversation.
Tommy shrugged his shoulders and shoved the Chrysler into a lower gear, sending the small but powerful six-cylinder roadster down the road toward New Dawn Springs.
A couple of bumps and a few rattles later, Tommy spoke up. "Okay, you've had time to stew, and it is only five more miles to town, so what gives? You are in a piss poor mood today so if I have to take a back road to find out what’s going on with you, I will."
Aidan felt Tommy's side glance, and he wanted to ignore him, but he could use his friend's advice. And he knew Tommy wasn't kidding.
Tommy played the jokester, but it was a front to put everyone at ease and make him likable. Aidan knew that underneath his friend's jovial exterior, Tommy was a savvy businessman, determined to work his way back up the financial food chain after the stock market crash stole his parents’ fortune.
"I mean it, Aidan. Give me the scoop. You’ve got less than ten minutes before we reach town. Out with it. I’m pulling over to the side of the road until you do."
Tommy took his foot off the gas. "Okay. Okay. I—I'll tell you. Go ahead and pull over. This is going to take a minute."
For the next fifteen minutes, Aidan told his best friend about his parents’ request to marry Maura Jackson and everything that went with it. When he was done, his friend was silent.
"Shocking, right?" Aidan cut an I-told-you-so look.
His friend finally turned to him and grinned. "Aidan Langley, you are one lucky bastard."
"What the hell are you talking about? Didn't you hear me? I am supposed to marry that Maura Jackson girl. It's a life sentence with a person I don’t love. How in the hell does this make me lucky?"
Aidan was certain Tommy had been hitting the moonshine a little bit too early this morning.
"Come on, my friend. Where's your entrepreneurship? Professor Livingstone would be disappointed you didn't learn more under his tutelage at good ol' U of Oregon Business.”
"Tommy, what are you rambling about? What has my business degree and marrying the Jackson girl to save my family's land got to do with each other?"
"Aidan, you are the one marrying the girl. You should be the one to dictate the terms of the marriage contract between your dad and Harvey Jackson."
"The contract has already been created. Your dad did it at my dad’s request. So how am I going to dictate what the contract says?" Aidan stared out the open car window.
"You wanna marry her without putting in your two cents? That doesn’t sound like the Aidan Langley I know," Tommy teased.
"No. Well, truth be told, I don't want to marry her at all. But I have to in order to prove to the bank we are one big happy family so they will give us the loan we need to get that wheat contract."
Tommy questioned him. “Is that the government wheat contract I heard my dad talking about? He said there’s a lot of money in that contract.”
Aidan shrugged his shoulders. “Dad says there’s—enough to keep both families from losing everything.”
“How long is the contract?”
“Five years with the possibility of two more if the government thinks the wheat is helping feed the families displaced by the depression.”
Tommy nodded his understanding. “Excellent. Then we’ll change the contract. My dad is working from home these days. I know where he keeps his current client files. I’ll just add a little tweak here and there to the pages before your dad and Harvey Jackson sign the agreement between your two families. Then, when you are ready to shuck the ol’ ball and chain, you walk away with all the cookies."
Aidan was all ears. "That doesn’t sound very ethical, Tommy. What’s the catch?”
"You said you have to marry her because the bank wants guarantees. Well, give them a guarantee."
"Like what?"
"All the bank is interested in is securing their money. They don't give a crap if you marry the girl or not. But someone has convinced the bank that if you and this girl marry, you can combine both families’ resources and make enough money to repay the bank. All they are interested in is protecting their money, right?"
Aidan thought about Tommy's observations. "No, the bank wants more than a guarantee we’ll pay the money back. They want a guarantee that we are not all going to wake up one morning and kill each other over this stupid feud Harvey Jackson’s uncle started a million years ago. He tried to shoot my dad, ended up shooting my mom in the shoulder, and tried to justify it all by accusing my dad of poisoning some fancy horse Old Man Jackson owned.”
"Aidan, you are missing the big picture. If you don't marry the girl, you can't get access to her land. And if you don't get access to her land, you won't gain the attention of the right investors. Investors with the kind of money to make you the kind of profit I'm talking about."
"Investors? Money? Now, what are we talking about?"
"After the stock market crashed, only the smartest of the smart still have money to invest. And they want a sure bet. That's where I come in."
“You come in? Where? I have no idea what you are talking about now. What investors? We already have a deal with the bank. We don’t need investors. As soon as they have a copy of the signed government contract, they will loan us the money we need to fulfill the wheat contract. And they won’t do that until Maura Jackson and I are married. End of story."
Tommy thumped him in the back of the head, he assumed to loosen his brain. Not sure it helped since he still wasn't following what Tommy was getting at.
"Look. Agree to marry the girl, but don't sire any Jackson-Langley babies."
"But if I don't have kids, who will The Legacy go to? That is part of the marriage arrangement."
"Aidan, for such a smart guy, sometimes you are as dense as a box of rocks. I said marry the Jackson girl and stay married to her in word and deed as long as you need to. But once you get that government contract locked down, I can take it from there. I'll set everything up, and you won't have to worry about a thing. You can take your money and set the Jackson girl free."
"Set her free as in divorce her? How can I do that? You know my parents won’t like—”
"I'm not sayin' make a public spectacle of it. I’m guessing this girl isn’t any happier to be marrying you than you are her, am I right?”
Aidan nodded. “I haven’t talked to her, but I would assume so. We haven’t seen each other since—in a while.” Aidan hadn’t told anyone about his accidental meeting with a very naked Maura Jackson yesterday. The image of her naked body was still burned in his brain.
“Then make a deal with her. Offer her and her parents fair compensation for their land. Her mom and dad can start over somewhere else, and Maura can go live her life free of commitment from you. Hell, it isn’t as if Harvey homesteaded the land himself. He’s got no emotional attachment to the place. It was given to him by his uncle. The same uncle that accused your dad of killing his horse on purpose, remember?”
“But what about the requirement in the marriage contract to have a baby between the Jacksons and the Langleys? Who will get The Legacy if there is no child to pass it down to?”
“Look, after an appropriate amount of time, and Maura quietly rides off into the sunset, you can do your duty to provide heirs for your family's legacy with someone more suitable as a wife. Someone worthier of the Langley name—like Beth Chaplin."
The very mention of Beth’s name punched him in the chest. “Have you seen her lately? I heard she was coming to New Dawn Springs to visit her mother this summer.” Aidan hated how he sounded. He wished he could get Beth out of his head but if eight years wasn’t enough—
“Some of the guys talk to her from time to time. Mike said he ran across her in Portland about six months ago. He said she is as gorgeous as ever. Sophisticated. Just the kind of girl you want for a wife, Aidan.”
Aidan sat still, waiting for the pain in his chest to fade. It never completely went away, not since she’d moved to Portland and left him behind. Beth had made it clear she wanted to get out of New Dawn Springs and see the world. She had asked him to go with her, but that was impossible. He was as much a part of The Legacy as it was of him. And he could never leave his parents behind. He just kept hoping he could somehow convince Beth to come home and be his partner in carrying on the legacy of the Langley family. So far, no luck.
"I don't know—I'm afraid my parents will be a bit squeamish about this plan of yours."
"As long as you provide the Jackson girl with a fair settlement and she’s happy with it, why would they care? You get the land and resources you need, and someday you will marry a girl your mother will be proud to call daughter. You will populate the Langley house with dozens of grandkids your dad can rock on his knee.”
"I don’t know, Tommy. Do you think if I talked to her she would be agreeable? She's a Jackson, and I’ve been told all my life they aren’t reasonable people to deal with.”
“Look, the girl isn’t in love with you. If she’s as much a pawn in this marriage arrangement as you are, don’t you think she would take any offer you presented if it gave her an escape out of this mess? When the time is right, you can bring in my investor and cut the bank out completely. Then pay off the Jacksons, and you’ll be the one who is credited with doubling the hold of The Legacy. It's a win-win situation for you, my friend."
“Your investor?” Aidan grinned at his friend. "Are we partners now?”
Tommy shrugged. “Why not?”
Tommy grinned back, ground the gear into neutral, pushed the clutch, and turned the key. He guided the rattle trap roadster back on to the spring rain rutted roads and head toward town.
Aidan sat and thought about everything his friend had said. Tommy had come up with a brilliant plan to keep him from spending the rest of his life married to someone he barely even knew. And that’s all he cared about. Well, not all he cared about. Maybe if he could make enough money on this deal, he could convince Beth that being a country wife wasn’t the hardship she imagined. Maybe he could convince her to join him on The Legacy.
He hummed a tune under his breath and sighed in relief. The sun was suddenly shining over his world again. This morning he was in the pit of despair at the thought of marrying Maura Jackson. Now, thanks to Tommy, he couldn't wait to get this wedding ceremony behind him.