Mrs.Hart sat back and took another sip of her tea.“That girl has been letting her toxic relationship with her no-good daddy guide her in every romance she’s ever had.Now she needs to be sure she’s not making the same mistake with you.Just give her time.”
“So have you always known everything or did you grow into your wisdom?”
“That is for me to know and you to wonder.You just make sure you get plenty of family seats to all your games, away too.”
“I thought this was a baseball family.”
“Not anymore.”Mrs.Hart smiled.“In case you haven’t heard, my favorite grandson is the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Aces.”
He just laughed and pulled out his phone to call his agent.
“I’m ready to sign that contract,” he said.“Okay, I’ll be back in the city tomorrow.”
“See, it’s not so hard to accept what you’ve earned.”
*
The next morningRenn knew he needed to make one more stop before leaving Sandy Point.He’d found way more than he’d expected on this trip and knew he’d be back as frequently as he could be, and he also believed his relationship with his brothers was just beginning.Pulling his truck up in front of a church, he cut the engine and grabbed the fresh flowers off the passenger seat.There weren’t any other people there, but he wasn’t exactly surprised.For a weekday morning at eight, he didn’t really expect the cemetery to be busy.He wasn’t sure where his father would be buried, but it didn’t take long to locate his grave under a large willow tree, with a marble bench that readIN LOVING MEMORY.
He took a seat on the bench and looked over the joint marble headstone.He realized his brothers and grandmother had probably shed a lot of tears sitting here.There were so many unanswered questions, but as he laid the flowers on their grave he couldn’t help but believe that if his father had more time, they would have eventually established some kind of a relationship.Maybe his stepmom would have even accepted him at some point, and he would have gotten to have some of his childhood with his brothers.It wasn’t his father’s fault that he’d died too young.His grandmother was right—it was better for him to forgive his dad for not trying while he was alive than holding on to anger and regret.
“I met my brothers, and Gran—they’re all great.I never realized how much fun it would be to have so many siblings.Family dinners are rowdier than I’ve ever experienced but in a good way.Turns out I’ve been playing for your favorite football team and I’m about to be their starting quarterback this year.Guess Levi and I got your love of sports.”He sat and talked to his dad for the first time without any anger and told him all about how his life was going.And then he did the one thing he never expected to do.“Thank you for including me in your will.Not because of the family land, or the money, but because it gave me the excuse I needed to come here and tell my brothers I need them in my life.Gran was like an added bonus.So maybe I’ll come back and visit you again.I’m really sorry we never got a chance to know each other.”
And then he got back in his truck and drove home to Atlanta.Every ounce of him wanted to stay closer to Miranda, but if he was going to be the type of man who deserved a woman like her, then he needed to make sure he followed his heart in every aspect of his life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Miranda
Mover and Shaker
Usually, folks atthe local grocery store didn’t pay her too much mind.They’d gotten used to seeing a Sutton doing her own grocery shopping soon after her daddy died.Right about the same time she realized they were too broke for most of the things they took for granted, like grocery delivery.Which was how she knew something was wrong as she pushed her cart down the cereal aisle and every person she passed looked at her then quickly looked away.Some with a distasteful tsk or a shake of their heads.Until a woman in the floral department just stared at her, and said, “Bless your heart.”
“Well, thank you,” she replied, but as she passed by the magazine rack, she saw several tabloids had pictures of her face in a circle next to a bigger picture of her kissing Renn.It was from that first night they met in the bar.Someone must have snapped their picture.Another one had a picture of Renn in his Aces uniform looking like a rugged football god.But then several more pictures were spread like a deck of cards of her kissing other men, or with different engagement rings on.
“Oh no.”She grabbed the first copy and started to leaf through it.Renn Ripley Walker was somehow caught up in a home-town mess, with gold digger Miranda Sutton.Every other line was about how she was a manipulative man-eater.
Her phone started to ping with incoming texts, and she tried to refold the tabloid but couldn’t find the front.
“You have to buy that to read it,” the florist said with her judgy tone.
“I’m not buying this trash,” Miranda said, digging her phone out of her bag and seeing she had several missed calls from Shelby and one from Renn.Before she could decide who to call back, a text popped up.
“Call me,” Shelby texted but it started to ring with an incoming call from her friend.
“Where are you?”
“I’m at the grocery store, but I’m about done.”
“Did you happen to check out any social media today, or the news?”
“Well yes I did, and I can’t believe people think so much of my sad love life to plaster it all over.”
Miranda held her head high as she steered her cart through the milk aisle.She wasn’t going to cut this trip short just because people in this small town would rather spend their time gossiping about her than minding their own business.
“I agree, it’s all lies.”
“Well technically I have been engaged twice, to two wealthy men in the same family.It doesn’t make it any better saying one cheated and one offered to save my ranch.Not my proudest moment, but I am that girl they are claiming I am.”
