chaptertwo
Cassie
I spent most of my childhood in Saddle Creek, Texas, a small and ostensibly charming town a few hours west of Austin and north of San Antonio.
Saddle Creek has rolling hills, sprawling live oaks, plenty of ranches, and the occasional free-roaming baby goat.
With its three-story, limestone county courthouse and classic town square, it looks like the set of a rom com written by Nancy Myers with set design by Martha Stewart.
It is, undoubtedly, the perfect location for tourists wanting to escape the big city life of San Antonio and Austin.
It’s great if you want to spend the occasional weekend listening to live music and sipping wine from one of the local vineyards.
It was not, however, the perfect place to grow up. And, yeah, I get it. Nowhere is the perfect place to be a nerdy, awkward thirteen-year-old who’s six inches taller than all of her classmates and has two very scary older brothers to boot. Still, you can’t blame me for getting out as soon as I could.
Incidentally, it is also not the best place to come home to nurse a broken heart after your boyfriend (who happens to be a junior partner at the law firm where you both work) breaks up with you because he got a paralegal pregnant.
I’m sure that all small towns have gossip. And some big towns too, for that matter. But Saddle Creek has it down to an art. There’s even a town message board devoted to gossip, the aptly named Saddle Peek.
Get it? Peek? Because every person you meet is snooping around in your business. Yeah, that kind of peek.
If it wouldn’t cost me my law license, I’d like to shiv who ever started that damn message board.
The gossip dished out in the Saddle Peek is just as tangy as the locally made artisanal goat cheese and—when you’re not the subject of it—as enticing as the Cabernet from the local vineyard. But it’s definitely not aged as long.
Given that the entire town knows my boyfriend broke up with me three months ago, is it any wonder that when I come back to town for a single day to see my brother Remy while he’s on leave, I don’t want to go to Gators, the restaurant my family owns?
First off, I don’t think I could stand the pitying looks from all the people who’ve known me since I was in pigtails. Second, I don’t want to risk running into Roe Crawford, the local bad boy I had a crush on when I was in high school. Rumor has it—thank you, Saddle Peek—he’s happily married now. Good for him. I just don’t want it to look like I’m fishing around, especially since all the Crawfords are looking for brides.
But, most importantly, I’m avoiding Gators because the absolute last thing I want right now is to be mothered.
When Tripp broke up with me, my mom came into town and stayed for five straight days, feeding me an endless supple of fried shrimp and okra, gumbo, and bread pudding. And, yeah, she was deflecting.
Only a couple of weeks earlier, things went south for Wade while he was deployed. When Tripp broke up with me, Wade was still in a rehab facility a thousand miles away. Mama couldn’t smother him with love, so she did it for me. I get it.
Still her cooking is so damn good, by the time she left, I looked like I was trying to compete with Delany’s baby bump.
So, yeah. I’m avoiding my parents’ restaurant.
I only came to Saddle Creek for two reasons. One, to see Remy, since he’s on leave and I haven’t seen him in forever. Two, to pick up my best friend, Trevor, who was supposed to spend three days with me in Austin before coming with me on a business “vacation” to Belize on Monday.
The visit should have been quick. Get in and out before anyone even knows I’m here.
But, when do things ever go as planned?
I stopped at the local gas station, Fuel for Thought, on the way into town, because I’d been guzzling coffee the whole drive and needed to pee and brush my teeth before knocking Remy dead with my coffee breath. Of course, the second I got out of the car, I ran into Madison Crawford. I went to high school with Madison, so of course she wanted to catch up. And then I had to chat with Uncle Red, the aging hippie who owns Fuel for Thought. He’s not my uncle. That’s just what everyone in town calls him.
Uncle Red had never seen a Tesla. So, of course, I had to show him. And take him for a drive. By the time I actually got back into the car and heading for Ace’s, someone had updated the Saddle Peek on my return to town and my mother called to… well, mother me.
Because that was what I needed.
And then Trevor called, and things got even worse from there.
Suffice it to say, by the time I actually make to Ace’s, plug in my car at the charger in the parking lot, and head into the bar, I am so over this damn town.
I’m hot and sweaty, because even though it’s May, and seven o’clock at night, to boot, it’s over ninety. I’m annoyed at everyone and everything in Saddle Creek. I desperately want a glass of wine, but can’t have one, because I have to drive back tonight. And all of that is before I lay eyes on the smokin’ hot guy sitting with my brother.
My brother Remy looks up just as I enter, and a moment later he’s striding across the bar to wrap me in a hug.
