"Leaving a young widow."
It was as if Jennifer hadn't heard. "Paul made this telephone message-for when we weren't home. It said, 'this is Paul and his wonderful wife Jennifer whom I'll love forever,' blah, blah, blah. The night he died, I called because I thought my mother might have stopped by the house. When I heard his voice saying that message, I nearly lost it. When I got home, I played it over and over, a hundred times, I'll bet, and just cried and cried." She looked at Dean. "Silly, huh? Like a teenager."
"A very mature eighteen-year-old, maybe. It sounds as if your marriage was very happy. Too bad his little boys weren't quite so ecstatic about it."
"You've got that right. They hate my guts."
"Why?"
"Stealing papa's dough, I guess. I'm the wicked witch-bitch who laid bread crumbs to my lair and seduced poor naive daddy. Or maybe it's just because daddy didn't ask their permission first."
"Or maybe it goes back to your junior prom." Dean offered.
She smiled. "Could be. The funny thing is, they're creeping up to the wrong food bowl. Paul never did have much money. I guess he had some bucks at one time-back when he bought all this land-but his bank account never held a candle to mine. Not that I'm rich, at least not by most standards, but I was the only heir to grandmother Radisson and a great-aunt. Both left me everything, not that it was a fortune, but a good investment counselor did a nice job. And I have my dress shops." She looked over at him. "I kicked in more coins to our marriage than Paul ever did. Not that I minded. We were husband and wife. Whatever either of us had, so did the other. That was understood from the beginning."
"So why the stink over the Ouray land? From what I hear, it's not worth enough to go through all this hassle. Wasn't there a will?"
She shook her head no. "We talked about writing a will, but it was one of those things you never get around to doing-we're all going to live forever."
"So what are the boys contending?"
"That Paul purchased the property before he became involved with me. They spouted some cock-and-bull story that their mother always wanted them to have the property. I'm not sure she even knew Paul owned it. The way he described her, I don't think she paid much attention to the mundane things in life. Unfortunately, my attorney thinks they have a pretty good case."
"Why don't you just buy the land from them and save yourself all this grief?"