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Chapter 1
“Lord, I don’t knowwhat I’m going to do.”
Dakota Estenben stayed on her knees beside the bed of her grandmother. It was one o’clock in the morning, or somewhere thereabouts. No sound permeated the house, except for her grandmother’s breathing, and for all intents and purposes, she was alone.
Her children, at six and eight years of age, were too young to understand that this would be the last night their great-grandmother was with them on earth. Maybe they weren’t too young to understand, but they were too young to keep an all-night vigil.
Dakota had tucked them into bed hours ago, knowing they probably wouldn’t have a grandmother in the morning.
Or a place to stay.
They wouldn’t be out that fast, but it was coming.
Dakota’s sister, Kylie, was set to inherit the house.
Dakota had nothing. Not since her divorce, where her husband basically took everything she had.
Yellowstone Gold, her golden Palomino whom she called Goldie, was all Dakota had left in the world, other than a run-down store her grandmother would leave for her once she passed. In order for her to make ends meet, she was going to have to sell Goldie. She loved her horse, but she couldn’t allow her children to starve.
She didn’t regret her children, but she did regret her marriage.
But she had learned, over the years, that she couldn’t live with regrets.
“Kota?”
Her gram’s husky voice slid through Dakota’s thoughts, and she squeezed the hand she held, lifting her head and peering through the darkness toward the head of the bed.
“Gram?”
Gram had been asleep the entire day before. She hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in two days. Dakota had been putting chapstick on her lips to keep them from drying out, but her grandma had refused all ice chips or even a sip of water.
The hospice nurse had said it wouldn’t be long.
“Don’t forget about the gift shop.”
How could she forget?
They knew the contents of the will. Her sister had been given the house. She had been given a worthless, run-down, out-of-business gift shop, with no inventory, in a nowhere town called Strawberry Sands.
It wasn’t that she was so upset about it, or that she felt like it was unfair. She didn’t expect her gram to give her anything, and she appreciated the fact that her gram felt like she had divided her assets equally between Kylie and Dakota.
The issue was, Dakota couldn’t do anything with the gift shop. She wasn’t a shopkeeper. She had no desire to live in Michigan. Even if it was a picturesque town beside the lake.
She loved her home in Iowa, such as it was. Since she’d lived with her gram since her divorce.
“Kota,” her grandma prompted, unable to get her full name out.
“I won’t. I promise, Gram,” she said automatically. She wasn’t going to forget about it, she just wasn’t going to do anything with it. Except... Except she needed to do something.
She had to have a place to live. Kylie and she got along well, but Kylie was expecting Dakota to move out when she inherited the house. Kylie had just gotten married to a man who had three children, and they were planning on living right here.
They hadn’t moved in because Dakota was here, and she had been the one taking care of Gram. Kylie had been decent enough to not kick Dakota out while their gram was dying.
Of course, she didn’t exactly have that right, not until Gram breathed her last. Since Gram owned the house and would never make Dakota leave.
“Move there,” her gram said weakly.
“Move where?” Dakota asked, blinking and coming back to the present. She wanted to savor every last interaction with her grandmother. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe her gram would last longer than what they thought. But the fact that she hadn’t eaten, hadn’t drunk, hadn’t spoken in two days, and now... Now she was going to talk? Dakota should listen.
