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By the time I downed some coffee, made some calls and rearranged my entire schedule for the day, it was a little after 11 o’clock. The temperature inside my parents house was pushing 90 degrees with the windows open and ever fan on. According to the weather, it was even hotter outside.
There wasn’t enough iced coffee or bottled water to offset the heat.
The place I loved so much when I was growing up, was really welcoming me back - twenty years later - with a vengeance.
Maybe moving back in the middle of the summer wasn't my best idea. I easily could have waited until the Fall if not for Memaw. I wasn’t sureshecould have waited that long when I impulsively quit my job at Addington Ranch and flew home.
I let out a sigh and pulled a pack of frozen peas from the freezer, laying them across the back of my neck for some relief while my mind drifted back to Memaw.
My best friend in the whole world, much to my mother’s dismay. It wasn’t that my mom and I didn’t get along. But, there was a certain bond between me and my grandmother that no one else could compare to. Memaw was here with me everyday while my parents worked.
She took me to dance lessons when I was five and decided I was going to be a ballerina. She introduced me to horses when I was barely old enough to walk. Memaw taught me how to ride my first pony, she paid for advanced lessons and for lessons when I decided I was going to be a barrel racer.
Memaw was my biggest cheerleader. My inspiration in everything I did.
It was because of her that I even dared to move to Colorado for college whenever everyone else begged me to stay here.
None of that mattered at all when Memaw fell ill and the doctors said she didn’t have long. I packed up my entire life in California and came home. Leaving it all behind without much of a plan or a second thought.
Tears pricked the back of my eyes, threatening to break the dam I’d been building since her funeral.
I came home for her. But itwastoo late. Memaw died two days after I camehomeand now I felt like I was stuck here for the foreseeable future.
Because I was too damn afraid to go back to Addington.
So I was stuck. Here. Without a barn. Without the two horses I’d bought back in California, that I loved with my whole heart. Completely and utterly unsure of what my future might hold.
At some point, I’d have to make a choice, about my horses and about if I planned to stay here. Maybe even find a farm of my own and start over. Build my dream from the ground up. Or go back to what I knew.
Batting away the stray tears, I willed myself to pull it together. Memaw wouldn't want me sitting around feeling sorry for myself or contemplating my life choices as if it were the end of the world. Nope. Not at all. Memaw was probably cursing at me right now and demanding I make the absolute most of the situation and the unexpected curveball that this morning’s debacle tossed my way. .
Oh I could see her now.
Memaw would probably be sitting under the fake palm trees by the pool after a dip in water. She’d have her sunglasses on, a Mai Tai and a good book in her hand.
I could add two more things to the list of things that I hadn’t done since…well since I didn’t know when. Another favorite pastime that I hadn’t made an effort to invest in.
What’s the phrase,no time like the present?
With nothing else to do except wait, I went searching for my favorite two piece that I know I packed. I was going to seize the opportunity, for the first time in forever, and spend some time relaxing poolside.
On my way out of my bedroom, I grabbed the latest Mignon Mykel release - Lone Wolf - that was sitting on the nightstandbeggingto be read, plucked a towel from the linen closet and headed for the pool.
At least thatwasmy new plan. And I almost made it out the backdoor before the doorbell rang, stopping me in my tracks. Turning on my heels, I headed for the front door instead and nearly collided with the man I’d been waiting since 5 am for.
I may have been waiting for him. But I wasn’t expectinghim.
TWO
JAKE
Well. Shit.
When the next job on my list didn’t answer, I figured I would swing by and knock on the door anyway. I was close enough to the service address and didn’t want to take a chance that maybe the woman who called at sunrise just simply missed my call.
I figured someone might answer the door. After all, she’d promised she would be waiting.
What I wasn’t counting on was the curvy knockout of a woman opening the door to greet me.
