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CHAPTER ONE
Clover
The tinkling strains of Regency era music, played by piano, flute, and violin, flows from the ballroom, and I'm in a ridiculous costume I agreed to wear only because I love my sisters.
The problem with ending my estrangement from my sisters is when they ask me to do something I desperately don't want to do, no is no longer an easy answer.
I'm about to step into the ballroom when my phone pings with an incoming text. I say a quick prayer that it's an emergency. Maybe a client who can't get out of the downward dog pose or a family member with a broken leg and no one to bring them a bottle of water.
Before I can check the text, my phone is ripped from my hand. "No cell phones," Honey says sweetly. "You must be fully present and available for our very first Sanctuary Farm Fundraiser."
"A text just came through. It might be important." I reach for my phone, but she holds it over her head.
My sister looks like a different person. She took out her nose piercing and twisted her dark hair into a complicated updo sprinkled with flowers. Her regency style dress is pale pink cotton, with an empire waist and puffed sleeves, and it makes her look even younger than her twenty-two years. She could be an innocent girl from a historical romance, but I know her better.
Unlike her name, Honey is as hard as granite and as stubborn as the Virginia red clay under this house. She was forged by a dysfunctional family and a world that looked at her and saw a gullible, sweet fool to be taken advantage of and looked down upon.
I respect her for growing stronger rather than crumbling, but it doesn't make me any less annoyed that she's taken my favorite toy from me.
"No business tonight." Her voice grows even sweeter, like she can use that shit on me and it will work.
Digging deep, I draw on my own granite. "I promise I'll be good, but I need my phone. I run my business from it."
I should view the fundraiser as a networking opportunity, a chance to grow my list of fitness clients here in Catalpa Creek, but that would be selfish and I try very hard not to be selfish.
Honey doesn't waver. She leans in close and whispers in my ear. "You have no reason to be scared."
"I'm not scared." At least not anymore. I was scared when I first moved back to Catalpa Creek five months ago to live in this house with its massive ballroom and six bedrooms for a year to earn my inheritance from my father. I was terrified of coming back here and facing the people he'd hurt. The peoplewe'dhurt. But so far no-one's said even a harsh word to me or to my sisters.
Honey studies my face. "Maybe not, but there's a reason you desperately don't want to be here tonight. Fear seems the most obvious."
I've always thought I'm good at reading people, but Honey's practically telepathic.
"Dance parties aren't exactly my thing, but I'll be fine." My hatred of dancing makes me an oddity in the world of fitness instructors. I can teach aerobics all day long, just don't ask me to shake my hips to a beat.
Honey's smile is doubtful, but she steps back, holds up my phone, and wiggles it. "You can have this back after the dance."
I give her my most pitiful, wide-eyed look. "What if there's an emergency?"
"Everyone you love is in this ballroom, Clover. There's no one…" She trails off, her eyes going wide as she stares at something over my shoulder.
I spin in place and my jaw tightens so much my teeth hurt. Daisy is walking toward us. She's in jeans and a blousy top, her shoulder-length blond hair loose, and not a speck of make-up on her face.
She's beautiful and sophisticated.
I want to punch her in the mouth.
Daisy seems as oblivious to my anger as she is to everything not on the pages of a book. "Oh, my wow. You two look amazing."
"You aren't supposed to be here until tomorrow," I say.
Honey's whoop of joy drowns out my words.
Honey hugs Daisy hard, and I swear there are tears in Daisy's eyes as she hugs Honey back.
She's not fooling me. Daisy could have visited any time if she missed us so damn much. Instead, she gets to walk in, almost half-way through the year, and pretend she's been here all along. At least, my sister Goldenrod thinks she can and she, Dani, and Honey all agree Daisy should get her share of the inheritance.
As always, Daisy gets what she wants and doesn't even bother to think about the consequences.
