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went on. “But they quit when they butted heads with her so Dixie Mae arranged for someone else to watch them temporarily. She didn’t give me a lot of details when she came in and asked me to draw up papers and her will. And right after we finished with it, she got admitted to the hospital.”
    Cassie latched on to that. “Maybe there’s something in her will about Lucky and me being able to relinquish custody to a suitable third party.”
    Lucky tipped his head in her direction. “What she said. Find it.”
    But Bernie didn’t pull out a will or anything else. “The will didn’t address trusteeship of the children, only the disbursement of Dixie Mae’s assets. I’m not at liberty to go over that with you now because she insisted her will not be read for several weeks.”
    Cassie doubted there was a good reason for that. But she could think of a bad reason. “This was probably Grandmother’s attempt at carrot dangling. If Lucky and I assume responsibility without putting up a fuss, then we’ll inherit some money. Well, I don’t want her money, and I’m putting up a fuss!”
    â€œSo am I,” Lucky agreed. “Fix this.”
    Bernie looked around, clearly hesitating. “I guess if you refuse, I can have Child Protective Services step in.”
    All right, they were getting somewhere.
    Or maybe not.
    â€œOf course, that’s not ideal,” Bernie went on. “The children could end up being placed in separate homes, and foster care can be dicey.” He scratched his head. “Dixie Mae was so sure you two would agree to this since it was her last wish.”
    Her grandmother had no doubt told Bernie to make sure he reminded them of that a time or two. Especially after what Dixie Mae had said to Lucky: A man wouldn’t be much of a man to deny an old dying woman her last wish .
    â€œI smell a rat,” Lucky mumbled.
    So did Cassie. Dixie Mae had practically duped Lucky into saying yes, and the old gal had figured Cassie wouldn’t just walk away, leaving him to hold the bag.
    Damn it.
    Cassie couldn’t just walk away. But that didn’t mean she was giving up without a fight. She wasn’t in any position to raise children. Especially not with Lucky.
    Heck, who was she kidding?
    He’d probably be a lot better at it than she would be. At least he wasn’t an emotional mess right now and hadn’t just checked out of a glorified loony bin. As a therapist she probably should have considered a better term for it, but loony bin fit. Too bad she hadn’t had her grandmother there with her so she could have had the chance of talking Dixie Mae into making other arrangements for the children.
    â€œHow do we get around this?” Cassie asked Bernie at the same moment Lucky said to him, “Fix this shit. And I don’t mean fix it by putting some innocent kids in foster care. Fix it the right way. Find their next of kin. I want them in a home with loving people who know the right way to take care of them.”
    Good idea. Except Bernie shook his head again. “I started the search right after Dixie Mae came in. No luck so far, but I’ll keep looking. In the meantime, Cassie and you can take temporary custody, and if I can’t find any relatives, I’ll ask around and see if someone else will take them.”
    That wasn’t ideal, far from it, because “asking around” didn’t seem to have a deadline attached to it. “How long would we have them?” she asked.
    â€œA couple of days at most,” Bernie said.
    Perhaps that was BS, but Cassie latched on to it and looked at Lucky. “Maybe we can figure out something to do with them just for a day or two?”
    Oh, he so wanted to say no. She could see it in his eyes. Probably because he didn’t want to stay anywhere near Spring Hill. It was no secret that Lucky had a serious case of wanderlust. Along with the