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Birdie looks our way. “Yeah, you two have kept us waitin’ long enough. Can we get back to the story? Or do you need a bit longer to stare all googly-eyed at each other again?”

Isla giggles, shaking her head before I turn back to the group. “OK, enough teasin’. Now where were we? Right, the initials we found on the tree trunk a while back. Remember those?”

“Yep. HC and MW right?” Mom replies.

“That’s them. Before we called, I’d just told everyone that we confirmed that HC–Henley Cooper, Gramp’s great grandfather–was married to MW aka. Marion Wilson,” I explain. “In the family tree we found, it just had Marion Abigail.”

“Oh wow,” Mom gasps. She’s fully invested in this story, just like I knew she would be.

“The records we found said they got married in the early 1900s in a small church on the outskirts of town. It seems to be around the same location as where the elementary school now sits if that helps.” Isla looks my way and I nod for her to continue.

“Henley and Marion lived here at Cooper Ranch with Henley’s two brothers.

All three of them enlisted in the army which left Marion on the mountain with two young sons.

Unfortunately, Henley tragically died in an accident, makin’ Marion a widow. ”

Mom sniffles. “That poor woman. I can’t imagine bein’ so young and raisin’ children on my own like that. She must’ve been so strong.”

“It seems that she found it hard to manage everythin' because she moved back home–her home–to the Wilson homestead on the other side of the mountain to lean on her own family for support.”

“OK. What has this got to do with Cooper Ranch? Was it left empty?” Sutton asks.

I nod at my twin. “This is where it gets a bit confusin’.

From what we could find with the property records, when Marion moved back to the homestead, she might’ve given the rights over to her father, Ricky.

Seems he was payin’ the taxes and the like on this land for a good fifteen years after Henley’s death. ”

“Wait,” Will says. ‘Why would Marion give the ranch to the Wilsons? What happened to Henley’s brothers?”

“He did. Both seem to have not returned from their military training. Their name never came back up in the town records and we couldn’t find any marriage certificates, land deeds, or death records with their names attached,” I reply.

Isla shrugs. “We can only assume they didn’t come back and settle in town.”

“I’m confused. Why would she give the land to the Wilsons when she had two Cooper sons? The land should’ve stayed in the family. Coopers have always looked after each other,” Cap says, re-entering the conversation.

“That’s another curious piece of the puzzle,” I say. “The only proof we could find of the ranch movin' back into Cooper hands was when the taxes were suddenly being paid by one of Henley’s sons. That was–”

“My grandfather,” Cap answers for me.

I look around the table and nod. “Yeah, our great grandfather.”

Isla glances my way. “So there was never actually a Wilson on the deed for the ranch and the land at any time. No Wilson ever owned this land.”

A comfortable silence falls over the room.

“Couldn’t that just mean that Marion kept her married name after Henley’s death?” Mom asks.

“That’s what I think,” I tell her. “We don't know if the Wilsons actually took over the land or just watched it for a while.”

Wyatt sighs, shaking his head. “Findin’ out this history is all well and good but am I the only one thinkin’ that we’re still no closer to figurin’ out why the Wilsons and the Coopers have beef.”

“Not necessarily,” Will replies. “It could be that because Henley passed, and Marion inherited all of his assets, the Wilsons felt they had a right to our land–or at least some of it. It sounds like Marion handed the ranch down to her sons, as Henley would’ve wanted it.

After that, it has always been in Cooper hands.

Just as Gramps has done by passin’ it on to us. ”

Sutton rubs his chin. “That actually makes sense.”

“ Although ,” Jude says, “if we want to get technical about it. Henley and Marion’s sons were Wilsons too. Which means–”

“We’ve got Wilson blood in us,” Dad announces over the line, screwing up his nose.

Birdie and Isla stare at each other in disbelief.

“We’re related to Old Man Wilson?” I say slowly. “Oh god.”

“Are we sure they don’t have any right to the land?” Will asks after a moment of stunned silence. “Because that would explain the bitterness Sully has toward us.”

He’s simply saying what we’re all thinking. We’ve just moved here and are settling in, having wrapped our heads around the fact that this land, the mountain, and the ranch are ours, and now this ?

“What did he say at the diner?” Jude says. “His family's been waitin' years and would keep waitin' till the universe rights the wrongs of the past.”

Isla gasps and I can see she’s having a lightbulb moment. “I got it! The Wilsons hate the Coopers because they think you stole their land. Even if it wasn’t theirs to have. It was Marion’s because she was Henley’s wife, but it was always meant for their sons, not the Wilsons.”

Birdie leans forward in her chair. “I bet she wanted to give them a piece of their father that they could hold on to forever. That’s so romantic.”

The heads of all the men at the table snap her way. “Romantic?” Will says, brows furrowed. “They had to grow up without a father, honey.”

She sighs. “Oh, I know that . I just meant she must’ve loved him so much that she wanted to continue his legacy on the mountain. I bet they’d heard the mountain’s Call too.”

I don’t miss the way Isla shakes her head and sighs, seemingly resigned to Birdie’s love of our Cooper family lore. If I wasn’t so sure that she was my soulmate and I was hers, I might be worried.

“OK. We might now know why the Wilsons don’t like us Coopers, but where do we go from here?” Cap asks, thinking out loud.

“You sure don’t move off that mountain, that’s for sure,” Mom says, sounding more determined than I’ve ever heard before.

“Not happenin’,” I answer firmly. “This is our home, our legacy. We’re makin’ it ours while hopefully makin’ Gramps proud.”

“I guess all we can do is wait to find more clues from him too. He wouldn’t have called us back to the ranch–to the mountain–without tellin’ us all we needed to know to stay here,” Will says, obviously reflecting on what Isla and I have found out together.

“When I read his journal, it was the story about how he and Grandma met, dated, and married. Maybe there’s been another record somewhere about how his parents met.

That’ll at least get us another generation closer. ”

“Good thinkin’, son,” Mom replies. “Riddles wouldn’t have rested until he’d uncovered the truth so I bet there’ll be more clues hidden around somewhere.

He wouldn’t have rested until he’d left all the answers you needed, and he had time to do it since none of us knew he was sick.

This is such a Ridley Cooper thing to do. ”

“You’re right, my love,” Cap says, making me smile. “As always.”

Mom giggles. “You better believe it, Cap. OK. We won’t keep you any longer.

Enjoy your family meal and thanks for thinkin’ to include us.

” Mom looks to where Isla and I are sitting, shoulder to shoulder.

“And Isla, I can’t wait to meet you one day and share all of the wonderful things my son has told me about you. ”

“ Moooom… ” I groan while the rest of the family smirk and laugh under their breaths.

“Goodbye, Coopers–and soon-to-be Coopers–oh, and Wyatt too,” she finishes before the call disconnects and we’re all left sitting there in silence wondering what all of our discoveries mean.

“I guess we’ve just got to keep an eye out for more clues,” Sutton announces. “But until then, there’s still Corned Beef Hash left. Who’s up for seconds?”