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I cried because I was going to have to tell my boss the Hallow Ranch project would have to be put on hold.
I cried because I knew I would probably be fired over this. I knew this because a girl named Lacy, who had been with Moonie Pipelines for ten years and sold a lot of ranches, was fired after her first refusal. Mr. Moonie doesn’t take no for an answer. He fired her and sent someone else. Someone better.Me.
I cried because I really needed a fucking coffee. There was only one coffee shop in Hayden, and it was closed for renovations.
I cried because the hotel coffee sucked.
I cried because my mom might not see Christmas this year.
I cried because after mom died, I would be all alone.
“Hey,Mom,”Isaid,smiling at the screen.
She looked good today. Being out in the sun did wonders for her. It was currently eight in the evening her time. She was dressed for bed with a purple silk wrap around her head. Her green eyes had a sparkle in them, one that she used to have all the time.
“Hey, honey. How’d it go today?” she asked.
There was an underlying hint of hope in her voice that was like a dagger piercing straight through my heart.
I looked at her for a moment, soaking in how healthy she looked today, how her skin glowed, how she was sitting a little taller in the reading chair in her room. Once upon a time, that chair had been mine. I would always come home and find her sitting in it, listening to her music or reading a book. So, I moved it into her room. She said it was comfortable, and I wasn’t about to deny my mom the gift of comfort.
My spine stiffened at her question. I knew it was coming, and I thought I had a way to avoid it, but that would mean lying to my mom. I never lied to my mom. If it was bad news, we gave it to each other straight, with the promise that we would figure the rest out later.
“Not good, mom,” I admitted, my shoulders sagging. I had been hiding in my hotel room all day. I hadn’t eaten—unless you count the bag of peanuts from the airplane I found in my purse. I ate those on the way back here.
After I cried in the car for twenty minutes outside of Hallow Ranch, I came back here and laid on the bed for two hours, staring at the ceiling. I called Mom around lunch, but it was brief. She didn’t ask me about it then because she was out in the garden, instead telling me about the pumpkins.
I could listen to my mom talk about that damn garden for the rest of my life if it meant that she would never be taken from me.
“What happened?”
I shook my head, biting my lip. Her features softened and her eyes assessed me. “Valerie Cross, have you been crying?”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Yeah, Mom. I’ve been crying,” I sighed.
“Honey, was it that bad?”
“Let’s just say I couldn’t even introduce myself.”
Her face twisted in confusion. “What do you mean? Was the cowboy there?”
Oh, he was there alright. He was a force of nature, knocking the wind out of me and filling my lungs with his smoke.
“He called me a bitch and told me to get off of his property.”
My mother flinched and her hand drifted up to her chest. “That’s very rude. Why on Earth—”
“It doesn’t matter. He told me no and that’s that. I have a phone call in thirty minutes with my boss.”
After I stared at the hotel ceiling for two hours, I’d gotten off my ass, and sent an email to my boss, letting him know that Hallow Ranch turned us down.
That I had failed.
“What for?” she asked, confusion lacing her voice. I looked away from her and stared at my luggage on the far side of the room.
“To schedule a flight home and—”
“Valerie Cross.” I looked back at her. She was shaking her head in disbelief. “I know I wasn’t the perfect mother—”
