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Her aunts had told her that her past may never come knocking, so she needed to get on with living her life. She’d never quite managed to be able to do that.
In her pocket, her cell phone buzzed. She pulled it out and answered it.
“Hey, Mandy.”
“Hello, Bailey. If you’re looking for Buzz, he’s with me.”
“He usually appears when he’s hungry, so all good. Actually, I was just checking you were coming to the house, Mandy. It’s makeover night, remember?”
“Ah, no….” She’d been about to mutter her habitual response of no thanks, but her words fell away as she remembered what Ted had said.Be strong in here. “Bailey, I would like to come, but I don’t have anything with me.”
“No problem, we have everything you’d need. Just bring yourself.”
“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”
She opened the back door, and Buzz leapt in. Climbing into the front seat of the car, she reflected that it was the only thing she owned that was out of character, a red compact that went fast. She always drove under the speed limit, though. Mandy had brought it one day when she was trying to be braver. It really hadn’t worked, but she felt good when she drove it.
Ted’s lodge always looked wonderful. Subdued, well-placed lights showed off a high pitched roofline. Made of stone and wood, it had been built and decorated to blend in with the beauty surrounding it. It brought in tourists and famous people year-round. Set close to the two mountains that stood sentry over Ryker Falls, the lodge had changed the town from sleepy to bustling almost overnight
Some had hated that change, and still did, but most were happy with the added income tourists brought. There were still some months that were quieter than the others, but it was a vastly different place from the one she’d moved to as a scared child.
Driving out the lodge gates, she started singing, and Buzz yowled, making her laugh. Mandy loved to sing just like her father had.
She headed down the road, passing a few driveways and then turned into the one with the name Trainer on the letterbox. The Trainer family had been her friends since she’d arrived. They formed an unusual alliance. They were the town’s bad boys, she the exact opposite. They’d looked out for her, and for that she’d always be grateful.
Taking the drive that went past the barn, Mandy drove up to Joe and Bailey’s house. Like the lodge, it sat nestled into the nature that surrounded it, and every time she saw it, she felt a pang of longing to own a place of her own.
“Out you get, Buzz.” Mandy let the dog out the rear door. He bounded up to the house.
The door opened before he reached it.
“Hey, buddy, and Mandy. Come in, we were just pouring the wine.”
Bailey Trainer was a sweet-natured blonde with smoky gray eyes and one of the nicest people Mandy had ever met. A concert pianist, she’d come home to Ryker and fallen in love with Joe, her childhood friend.
Inside, they made their way to the living area. Huge windows showed a backdrop of the mountains, and she saw artwork that had come from another friend, Maggs’s, gallery.
“I bet you never tire of that view, Bailey.”
“No, it’s really something, isn’t it. I sit there and rock Benjamin sometimes if he’s feeling fussy.”
Benjamin was six months old and the apple of his parents’ eye.
“Hey, Bailey.”
“Piper, how are you?”
Beautiful and into the later stages of pregnancy, Piper Howard was cousin to the Trainer brothers, flamboyant and outspoken. She’d adopted her friend’s baby when she passed away and was everything Mandy would never be but dearly wanted to become. If she was honest with herself, she was a bit intimidated by Piper.
“Mandy, what’s up!”
Next came Rory Haldane. She had wild, curly, ash-blonde hair, blue eyes, and came to Mandy’s nose. She and Jack Trainer were getting married in a few months, and she and Mandy had become friends. In fact, Rory was possibly the closest she’d come to a real friendship.
Which is really pathetic.Considering Mandy was closing in on twenty-eight years.
“Hello, Rory.”
“Ready for your makeover?”
