Chapter 1
ANGELINA Ford pushed her sunglasses up her nose and balled her fists, tightly clenching them as she stared out the window at the sunny Texas day outside. She was used to being anxious about coming home; it was a running family joke that she got the hell out of Dodge as soon as she could. But this time … She swallowed and blinked away tears.
No crying. No feeling sorry for myself.
She slowly released her fingers and took a long, deep breath as the beautiful post and rail fences marking the start of River Ranch came into view. She had less than two minutes to compose herself before she arrived, and she wasn’t going to let anyone in her family know that anything was wrong. Not yet.
Her father had been so excited when she’d called and said she was coming home for Father’s Day. He’d had their family jet sent to Los Angeles for her, and a car waiting on the tarmac to drive her to the ranch. He might be unwell, but over the phone, his voice had still sounded remarkably strong. And thanks to his excitement over her arrival, he hadn’t seemed to notice the tremor in her voice.
But it wasn’t her dad she was worried about fooling. She had three siblings to hide the truth from, and her sister was going to be the one to notice something was wrong.
“We’re here.”
Angelina nodded to the driver. “Thank you.”
She got out, stretched her legs, and looked up at the big, imposing house in front of her. It was beautiful; even as a child she’d never taken it for granted. She simply hadn’t ever expected she was going to have to move home again.
The driver took her bags from the trunk and placed them on the veranda, and she stood as he went back to the car, watching it disappear down the long, manicured driveway. The trees rustled as she stared at them, leaves trembling in response to the gentle breeze, and Angelina shivered along with them. It was like she was eighteen again, standing on the doorstep, bags at her side. Only this time, her journey wasn’t starting; she wasn’t that confident, naive girl believing she could achieve anything. This time, she was arriving back home with her tail between her legs, her dreams crashing around her faster than she’d been able to save them.
“Angie!”
Within seconds, Mia had flung the door open, Angelina’s niece flying down the steps with her arms outstretched and catching Angelina around the legs. The little girl’s warm body collided with hers so fiercely, with so much love, that it took every inch of willpower not to let her tears fall.
“Hey beautiful,” she murmured as she lifted Sophia and cocooned her in her arms, loving the feel of her pudgy fingers around her neck. “When did you get so big?”
Angelina looked up before Mia spoke, knowing what she was going to say before the words even came out of her mouth.
“If you came home more—”
“I wouldn’t notice how much she’d grown every time,” Angelina quickly finished for her. “Yeah, I know. But Christmas wasn’t that long ago, was it?”
She put Sophia on her feet and touched her head, smoothing her curls gently and realizing how much she missed her niece when she was gone. If only she were brave enough to tell Mia that it wouldn’t be so long between visits now.
“How’s Dad?” she asked.
Mia smiled and opened her arms up, drawing Angelina in for a long, warm hug. Angelina inhaled the scent of her sister’s familiar shampoo mixed with perfume, the same fragrances she’d had since they were teenagers. Mia had always made her father laugh, saying how she either smelled of horses or flowers; she was either out riding in filthy clothes, or dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and smelling every inch the rich heiress. The house had always been full of the scent of Mia’s shampoo after she’d spent an hour in the shower, and as much as they’d fought sometimes, Angelina had always loved going past her little sister’s room and looking in on her.
“I’m great, thanks for asking,” Mia teased. “And Dad’s, well, who knows? He wouldn’t say even if he thought he was about to die.”
Angelina pulled back, quickly blinking. But not fast enough to avoid Mia’s detection.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” She brushed at her face at the same time as Sophia caught her around the leg again.
“Nothing, I’m fine.” Angelina smiled and kissed her sister’s head. “Something about your perfume reminded me of Mom, that’s all.”
Mia squeezed her around the waist, staring into her eyes as if she was making sure everything was actually okay. “There’s something about Dad being so unwell that makes me think a lot about Mom too. Come on, let’s get your things inside.”
She felt bad lying to her sister, but then, it wasn’t really lying. Ever since her life had started to crumble, she’d thought about their mom almost constantly, wondering what she’d say, wondering if it would be different coming home to a mother’s warm arms instead of feeling like she’d let her father down. It wasn’t that he wasn’t warm, but he was notorious for his business success, and she’d always been so proud when he inevitably declared at every family event that the apple never fell far from the tree. He was as proud of her business successes as she was, and she’d gone toe-to-toe with her brother Cody, proving that she had all of the same business acumen as he did. If not more. It had been a competition between them all their lives that went beyond sibling rivalry sometimes.
She had this nagging feeling that if her mom were still alive, maybe she wouldn’t have spent her entire adult life trying to impress her dad.
“How much luggage did you need to bring? Are you staying a month this time?”
Angelina laughed and collected the heavier of the two cases. If only Mia knew.
* * *
The first thing she’d done after she had gotten settled was look in on her father, but he was resting and she didn’t want to disturb him. Now, she was sitting in the kitchen, nursing a glass of wine as she sat with her sister and Lexi, her brother Cody’s fiancée.
“I can’t believe you’re still looking after Dad,” she said to Lexi, holding up her glass as the other two clinked glasses. “You do know we can employ someone else, right? You don’t have to keep doing it.”
Lexi snorted and then burst out laughing. “Someone else? He refuses to let me find a new nurse for him, and honestly, I don’t mind. He’s good company, and I’d never leave him.”
Angelina smiled as she watched her. No wonder Cody had fallen so hard for her—she was gorgeous, fun, quick to smile, and the type of woman who’d managed to deal with her dad perfectly by completely charming him. She’d been his nurse since before she’d reunited with Cody, and it didn’t sound like she had any intention of giving up that work, even though she was studying to be an architect as well.
“Where are you guys living now?” Angelina asked, searching her brain, certain she should know the answer. There were so many things she’d either forgotten or not paid attention to over the past six months, and this was obviously one of them.
Lexi didn’t miss a beat, though, clearly not worried about Angelina’s lack of memory. “We’re still living in the apartment at the moment, just while the new house is being built. Cody isn’t overly impressed because he wanted to rent somewhere, but I like it there, and I’m close to Walter when he needs me.”
Angelina laughed. “Cody living in the apartment? I love it. I don’t think he even liked living there when Dad converted it for him and Tanner to use as teenagers.”
Copyright © 2020 by Soraya Lane
