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CHAPTER 1
Weddings were either beautiful, tragic, or just plain boring. This one she knew would not be boring. It was a Blessing wedding, and those were unique.
Lillian Bradley drove to the lawyer’s office in Blessing, Texas. There was only one lawyer in town, Nathan Alley, and they would have business to discuss after she attended the wedding of Camila Garcia and Jordan Nash.
She had been a friend of the Nash family since she was a little girl. Until she and her family had been forced to move. A move she intended to investigate while she was here.
Why had her family moved from the spacious ranch they owned when she was little? All she remembered about that time was her mother crying and her grandmother looked so dejected. And her grandfather had packed his bags and disappeared.
At the age of seven, that time was imprinted on her memory forever. They rented a house, but eventually, they moved to San Antonio where she and Camila had become friends.
It was strange that Camila’s brother had met a girl here and married, though he was the second man, and theirs was not a legal marriage.
The town of Blessing had a strange tradition of two men for one woman. According to her mother, it started back when there was a shortage of women to help the men settle the new settlement, and they had never changed.
Now, one man was the legal husband, and the second pledged his undying love and devotion to their threesome. It was an odd setup, and she was shocked that Camila had agreed to two men. It was one of the reasons she wanted to attend this wedding. Had her very intelligent, savvy friend completely lost it? Or had she truly embraced this lifestyle?
Lily remembered her second grandfather. He’d been the one who had stayed with their grandmother and suggested they move to San Antonio where they still lived.
Now as a lawyer, Lily had questions about the sale of the property or the lack of a sale. All she knew was they went from being prosperous to being broke. And she wanted to understand why.
As she drove along the street, she gazed at the downtown area that only had a few shops, a doctor’s office, the lawyer’s office, and a bank. There was also the courthouse where she hoped to learn what happened to her grandparents and their land.
It was a mystery that was never discussed in her family, and she wanted to know the truth.
It had been years since she’d been here, and she found the office of Nathan Alley, attorney at law, and parked her car.
Getting out, she grinned as her heels clomped on the wooden sidewalk. How long had it been since she’d seen a wooden walkway? It felt like she’d stepped back in time.
She walked in. “Hello, can I speak to Mr. Alley?”
“Sorry, ma’am, he’s attending a wedding this afternoon and has left the office. Come back tomorrow,” she said. “He doesn’t have anything booked in the afternoon.”
With a sigh, she nodded. He would be at the same wedding she was going to attend.
“Thank you,” she said and hurried out the door. There was an hour before the wedding.
She would drive out to the old place and see if it was like she remembered.
Fifteen minutes later, she drove past the Sweet B Ranch, her heart swelled with all the memories and the happiness she’d experienced there as a child. Oh, how she missed this place and wondered if her family would have been happier if they had stayed here.
The large brick house now had a covered wraparound front patio. There was the large oak tree with a swing that she’d spent many hours on. The window at the front of the house on the second story was the one in her room, and she remembered staring out that window and listening to the cattle mooing and the chickens squawking in the morning.
It had been such a peaceful life until it was disrupted. After moving, her grandparents were never the same, and her mother never seemed happy. After Lily’s father was killed, her mother never remarried, and they lived with her grandparents. It was an extended family that had worked fine when they lived at the ranch.
In San Antonio, they’d had a much smaller house.
With a sigh, she turned the car around and started toward the Nash’s ranch. That was where her friend Camila was getting married in an outside ceremony as the sun set.
When she pulled into the lane, she was directed where to park.
As she stepped out of the car in her long summer dress, her heels sank into the grass.
“Good evening,” a young man said. “Friend of the bride or the groom?”
“The bride,” she said.
The boy grinned and then took her by the arm. He led her into the backyard of the house and between the chairs. Music played softly in the background.
