The Night I Gave My Best Friend's Brother a Child novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Heir

Bailey's POV

Edith climbed the porch steps one at a time, and the yard went quiet to meet her.

She stood at the top with her hand on the rail.

Rhett came up and stood at her right, again.

Bridget came last, slowly, and stopped at the bottom of the steps with her lipstick smeared.

The cake sat in the middle of the table, still unlit.

"I am eighty years old," Edith said. "My husband built this company with two trucks and a loan from his brother. I have kept it for thirty-one years. I told my grandchildren I would give it to whoever carried the family forward."

She looked down at the yard.

"I have thought about that sentence for a long time. I thought it meant a person who would run the dispatch floor, or one who would manage the books. I was wrong."

She turned her head and found Effie at the end of the porch, sitting on the top step with Gerald in her lap.

"Effie Linden," Edith said. "Come here, please."

Effie got up, tugged her skirt straight, and walked across the boards with Gerald under her arm.

Edith put a hand on the child's head, on the cowlick.

"This is Effie," she said to the town. "She is four and a half. She is the daughter of my grandson, Rhett Ketterman, and of Bailey Linden. As of tonight, Ketterman Freight belongs to her."

The yard made a sound I had never heard a crowd make.

It was half a gasp and half a cheer, and it ended in someone clapping, alone, until the rest joined in.

Effie looked up at Edith.

"Is it a truck?" she asked.

"It is forty trucks."

"Can I have a dog?"

"We will discuss the dog," Edith said, and the laughter rolled across the grass.

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