Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
We cleared the gate of JD’s parents’ ranch without me falling off and I breathed a sigh of relief. As the ranch dropped behind us, the landscape rolled out around us, vast and wild and very, very quiet. To each side of us were wide, rolling plains, a warm wind washing over the pale grass until it looked like an endless, foaming ocean. Ahead of us, the land rose into gentle hills lush with trees, and overhead the sun blazed down from a deep blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds. JD had given Cody and me cream Stetsons to keep the sun off us. Neither of us had ever really worn hats before and we loved them: we kept tipping our brims to imaginary people.
JD dropped back so we could all ride side by side. “Did I pass?” I asked him. I was very aware that Jillian, his first wife, had been a Texas-born country girl, and I was anything but.
He looked at me seriously. “That was never in any doubt. My folks love you.”
A warm bomb went off in my chest. This trip had been a good idea. A couple of days meeting JD’s folks and seeing the ranch, then two days of the three of us camping out in the wilds. Cody, who’d lived in New York his entire life, had already learned how to saddle a horse and tonight JD was going to teach him how to build a campfire and cook on it. Cody kept staring up at the huge Texas sky in wonder and it was the most relaxed I’d seen him since this whole thing began. He was seeing a therapist in New York and she was great but I had the feeling this was the best therapy, right here.
I’d taken some time off work, made much easier by the fact that I wasn’t CEO anymore. Miles was out of rehab, clean and doing great, and a week ago we’d completed the transition to him as CEO. The team at the dam in Poland had finished the work and the government had paid us, so the company’s finances were looking much healthier. Miles was already closing deals and solving disputes, proving himself to be exactly the leader I’d always known he could be.
We followed a winding trail that led up into the hills and over the next few hours the scenery just kept getting better and better. The dirt track we were on began to hug a river, so as the sun began to sink lower in the sky and light up the clouds in shades of delicate peach, salmon and finally deep, boiling scarlet, we got to see it all twice. I’d never known Texas was so beautiful.
We made camp, cooked steaks and, when Cody was snoring inside the tent, JD and I sat by the embers of the campfire, sipping red wine. The temperature had dropped fast once the sun went down and I was glad we had the blankets Esther had insisted on. But for now, I was sitting between JD’s legs, he had his chest pressed against my back and his arms wrapped around me and I was as cozy as a person could be.
We looked up at the sky as the stars came out. First it was just one tiny pinprick of white in the middle of the deep blue. Then another, then a flurry and suddenly, they were coming too fast to count. I looked up in wonder as they spun a tapestry of silver overhead. I’d never seen the Milky Way before.
After a long time, I said, “I keep wondering how my dad could do it. Burying the baby, substituting me, covering it up all those years.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be too hard on him,” said JD. “He’d lost his wife and child.” His voice grew rough and I knew he was remembering his own pain. “The poor guy was in agony and he dealt with it the best way he could.”
I nodded, reached up and hugged his arms with mine, letting him know that I was there for him. And I felt his body relax.
I gazed up at the stars. I’d been doing a lot of thinking over the last few weeks. I’d finally realized what I’d been feeling, when I’d looked around at the wrecked penthouse. It didn't feel like home anymore. And that had been weirdly freeing.
When I married Adrian, I’d had a dream of setting up my own architecture firm. I figured I’d work at my dad’s company for a few years and then, when the time was right, I’d strike out on my own. But then Adrian walked out on Cody and me, my confidence hit rock bottom and my life had gotten stuck on hold. I’d moved into the penthouse my dad built, one floor up from the company offices. Living and breathing McBride Construction every day, I’d gotten sucked in. I was just grateful to be able to do what I enjoyed and with a child to raise, my own dreams had taken a back seat. It had taken becoming CEO to remind me that, unlike Miles, it wasn’t the business that I loved: it was designing buildings. At the same time, I’d come out of it more confident, more able to deal with people, and with a little more faith in myself.