Melody Anne's Billionaire Universe: Against the Billionaire's Will (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Love Against Odds Book 3) by Mandy Harbin

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter One
     
    Dawson Winthrop sat across from his family attorney and tried not to scowl.
    He wasn’t doing a very good job of it.
    His grandfather passing had thrown the Winthrops into a mountain of new work. Oh, the man had prepared fully for his death in the last years of his life for the smoothest transition of assets and responsibilities, but nothing was ever completely easy when dealing with tens of billions of dollars. Dawson knew. His net worth exceeded one and a half billion without his family money. He was a busy man. Very busy. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t send one of his assistants over to deal with whatever remaining issues needed attention on his grandfather’s manuscript of a last will and testament.
    He punched his left wrist out from his pinstriped suit cuff and gazed at his watch. “I’ve been sitting here seven minutes, Mr. Henry,” he said without looking at the man behind the desk.
    “I apologize. We are awaiting one more person,” he said as he shuffled papers on his desk.
    “Who?”
    “A Ms. Attree.” Mrs. Henry clasped his hands onto of the inlayed leather. “She—”
    His office phone buzzed. “Mr. Henry, Brindle Attree is here to see you.”
    After pushing the button on his desk phone, he said, “Send her in.”
    “I’m so sorry I’m late,” she said as she opened the door.
    Dawson looked up and was momentarily transfixed where he stood. The woman was beautiful. Not the stick-thin women he usually found himself attracted to, but she was pretty. Although she looked as if she’d just stepped out of a Nashville country music bar with her plaid shirt, blue jeans, and brown boots. Pushing that thought aside and putting his attention back to Mr. Henry, Dawson said, “I have a flight to catch back to San Francisco. I’m meeting with the board of my grandfather’s information technology company in the morning.”
    Mr. Henry indicated the chair next to Dawson for the lady to sit. Once she took her seat, both he and Mr. Henry followed suit.
    “I know you’re a busy man, Dawson, so I’ll get right to it.”
    “Thank you.” He unbuttoned his jacked and eased back into his seat. He caught sight of the woman next to him. Her gaze darted around the room as if she’d never seen the inside of an upscale office before. It was entirely possible she hadn’t.
    “As you know, your grandfather and I have been friends for many years.”
    Dawson raised an eyebrow. He didn’t need a history lesson.
    “Well,” Mr. Henry shifted his attention to the blonde next to Dawson. “Dawson Winthrop here is the grandson of Mr. Winthrop, the man who owned the Buckley Breeding Ranch in Buckley, Washington.”
    She nodded slowly, her plastered partial smile fell a little. “He was a good man,” she said softly.
    Dawson’s chest squeezed a little at the sincerity of her words. Most people he encountered were too focused on his grandfather’s money to muster a genuine comment about the man. He inclined his head in appreciation.
    “Ms. Attree—”
    “Please, call me Brindle,” she said and focused on the attorney again.
    “Brindle,” he said with a firm smile. “I’m the executor of the Winthrop estate. I called you in because Mr. Winthrop left you something in his will.”
    Dawson’s grandfather had left a lot of people things. This still didn’t explain why he had to be here for this.
    “Really?” she said, frowning. Dawson almost found it endearing. Usually when people learned they’d inherited something from a billionaire, their expressions barely banked the excitement in their eyes. Ms. Attree— Brindle, the name fits —seemed genuinely shocked.
    “Yes. With conditions. That’s where you come in,” he said, looking at Dawson, who sat up a little straighter.
    Brindle looked at the man with confusion. He felt the same, but after years of fine-tuning his corporate poker face, he knew he didn’t show it, or any other