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Of course, she had no idea what she was going to do. What she hated most of all was how ashamed she felt. Because it wasn’t like she could stand by the events that had led up to this. She’d been an idiot. Oh well, if there was one thing she was good at, it was standing stubborn in who she was. Digging in. Justifying the choices she’d made in those rushed, heady moments when she was trying to fix her world.
It was about all she was good at.
And with those thoughts still swirling in her head, she put her truck in Park in front of the barn. Tonight was a town hall. Unfortunately, not at Sullivan’s Point. Rather, over at McCloud’s Landing, the exactplaceshe would like to avoid, full of all thepeopleshe would like to avoid. Garretts, McClouds...
Truth be told, she wouldn’t mind avoiding the Sullivans right now.
She was on the edge of a precipice and she felt wretched about it.
But you couldn’t avoid people at Four Corners. It wasn’t really possible.
The four families that made up the massive joint ranching spread were constantly in each other’s pockets. And while each family had quite a bit of autonomy running their individual operations, they were also relatively dependent on each other. There were also certain agreements that needed to be made as one. Certain things that had to be decided as a group.
And that was why they had town hall meetings once a month, joining the families and all the workers from the different ranches together, and normally she enjoyed it. But then...
How much life had changed in the last few months. Before this, she had loved it. She had gotten a thrill out of seeing Hunter McCloud. She couldn’t say exactly when she had started to havefeelingsfor him. It was just something that had...happened. But the problem with living on Four Corners was you kind of knew everybody. And she had known everybody all of her life.
The boys her age hadn’t really interested her.
But there was Hunter. He was older. He was beautiful. Unquestionably. She had developed a serious fascination with him. She’d kept a lot of it to herself, because she’d found it embarrassing. The only person she’d confided in had been her best friend, Elsie.
The whole betrayal had hooked into so many of her issues, past and present, that it had thrown her into a tailspin.
She was reckless. She had always known that about herself. All the fire inside of her had been so close to the surface since her father had left. Then her mother had moved away. And Alaina was the youngest. Of all the Sullivan sisters, she had barely been grown when her mother had gone.
She’d never slowed down to let herself feel bad about it. If she couldn’t fix it she ignored it.
Sort of like you’ve been trying to do with the pregnancy?
She gripped the steering wheel tight for a moment and took a deep breath then blew it out, loudly. Her sisters were already there, fluttering around in floral dresses with pies and fruits and cakes.
The Sullivan sisters.
And Alaina.
Alaina had always been the horse girl. Alaina had always been her dad’s girl.
For all the good it had done. And now what? Whose girl was she now?
Maybe still her dad’s. He’d screwed everything up too. Ruined his good life here at Four Corners and destroyed their family and abandoned her.
So great, she had all his bad traits and none of his presence or support anymore. Fantastic.
Daddy’s girl for all the fucking good it did.
How was she going to tell her sisters?
Fia would try to aggressively make everything fine. Another burden she would take on and try to apply her relentless, unyielding, terrifying optimism to. Fia wasn’t a cheerful optimist. She was a warrior for the glass half full, and she’d damn well make it all the way full with her elbow grease if she had to. Rory—who was soft and hopeful, a romantic who read too many books and believed in good even when the universe had proven it was only doling out bullshit. And Quinn—who Alaina understood much better—would respond with violence. She’d go on a rampage trying to hunt Travis down.
Travis was in Salem. She should probably text him and tell him she had taken care of it. So that he wouldn’t come back ever. She would do that at some point.
Just to keep it clean. Just to make sure he never wondered about the girl he’d left pregnant and abandoned in Pyrite Falls, Oregon.
He won’t wonder about you. He doesn’t care.
Just like your parents.
“There you are,” Fia said, handing her a basket full of goodies.
