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The idea scared her to death.
But she didn’t know what else it could be.
“Whatever I thought I wanted,” Alaina said. “I just want this now. I’m so excited about everything going on at McCloud’s Landing. And very probably my sisters think I’m a Benedict Arnold, considering how the funding is clashing with the farm store. But...this is the kind of work I want to do. And I love having the ranch to go to every day. And the horses to work with every day. And then I leave and I go back to the house, and I make dinner for him. And he comes home...”
“You are much more domestic than I am,” Elsie said. “Hunter has to fend for himself. Or we scrounge around together, or eat at Sawyer’s.”
“Well, I like having someone to cook for. Take care of. I guess I’m a little bit more traditional than I thought. It makes me feel settled. I’ve never felt settled. I’ve always felt like I was about to go off half-cocked and cause an explosion. I guess I almost did. But Gus was there to...to protect me. From myself, if nothing else. But I don’t know if I can protect them from him. Does that make sense?”
“Knowing Gus, yes. Because he’s a great guy. He really is. But... I do see what you mean. About all of it. About how he’s hard to know.”
“Impossible.”
“Well, he’s letting you do whatever you want to with the house?”
“And I will take that freedom.”
They pulled into the tiny town of Copper Ridge just then, a picturesque town with white-and-cranberry-colored buildings, some redbrick, and Victorian charm, backed by the gray Pacific Ocean. It was windy already, and there was a salty bite in the air. She was grateful that she had brought a pretty heavy sweater, because while it was a decently warm October during the day just a couple hours inland, it was twenty degrees colder here by the water.
“On to the first antique store,” Quinn said, getting out of the little car that the Sullivan sisters had all driven over and spreading her arms wide.
They made their way to the first store—the Wagon Wheel—and picked through a series of antiques.
“What is this?” Rory picked up a figure of a rotund man with powder blue pants and a matching jacket who was tipping a cowboy hat and winking.
“That is so strange,” Quinn said frowning.
“He looks like his name should be Big Hoss,” Fia said.
“That’s it. Big Hoss!”
“But whatis it?” Alaina asked.
Just then, the cowboy hat tipped right off his head, and Quinn laughed. “Oh. He is a...decanter of some sort. If you want to put your wine in a cowboy.”
“Oh, I am so angry that I have to buy that,” Alaina said. “Because it goes with Gus’s dumb sugar shaker.”
“This is amazing,” Rory said. “Please tell me that Big Hoss will be the official decanter of all alcohol at further town hall meetings.”
“I swear it,” Alaina said.
But at the mention of the town hall Fia started to look a little bit aggro.
“Are you still mad about that?” Elsie asked.
“Of course I am,” Fia said. “Preference being given to the McClouds’ overpriced project—no offense, Alaina—is really obnoxious. But also, it isn’t that they can’t just reorganize the budget. Trim things next year. And it isn’t Landry King’s business.”
“I think actually the budget is technically Landry’s business,” Quinn said pragmatically.
“I don’t need sense from you,” she said to her sister. “I need blind fury.”
“Sorry. Now that your needs are made clear I will aim for that.”
“Gus is willing to rework some things,” Alaina said. “But...if you came and saw what they were doing, if you knew...”
“I get the feeling you don’t care about the farm store,” Fia said.
“It’s not that I don’t care about the farm store, Fia. It’s just that it was never something I wanted to do. I wanted to work with horses, and I never had a vote on that. You decided—and I understand why—but you decided that we would lean into the fruit and vegetable production. To the baking. I get it, but it was never my passion. You systematically farmed out bits and pieces of Sullivan’s Point, and... I never said anything. I never said anything because I didn’t want to make waves. Because I didn’t want to get unpleasant. And frankly, we’ve lost enough. But even before I married Gus, I was planning on leaving. Because I wanted something for myself. And that was never it.”
