Page 19 of Traces Of You

It’s what family did.

He and Clay climbed into his SUV and drove across the property to the cafe. There were seven cars in the parking lot, people walking out with bags of baked goods. Not everyone stayed to eat, but came to pick up.

They went around back. Reenie was pulling muffins out of the oven, then turned to pack orders that had come up on the screen.

“Hey,” Ford said. “What are you doing?”

“Helping your mother,” she said. “I’m not sitting here while she works.”

“It’s like we are a team,” his mother said. “I told her to sit and relax, but she wouldn’t hear of it.”

“Can you take a break and talk?” he asked his mother. “Reenie, this is Clay.”

“I remember,” she said. She held her head up and walked over to his brother to shake his hand. Not the shy, mousy girl that Clay remembered her as.

Not even as he had.

In just the short time she’d been with his mother, she seemed like a different person.

Was Clay right? Was he being played?

5

MAKE THE RIGHT ONE

Two hours later, Reenie was throwing open the windows in the old cabin and trying to air it out.

She hadn’t even known this was here. It was down the road from the main house and in the opposite direction from the rest of the operations here.

As much as the property had changed and what their business was, the view of the mountains in the back was the same.

She couldn’t wait for her first sunrise and sunset. To feel some kind of peace and security, even if it was for a short period.

There was a knock at the front door and it opened before she could get to it.

“Why isn’t this locked?” Clay asked.

“Sorry,” she said. “I was going to bring everything in.”

“Cleaning supplies,” Clay said, dropping a box of things on the table. “You’ll need it. My mother is bringing over sheets and towels and anything else you need.”

“I don’t want to impose.”

“You’re not. There is no furnace here. I’ll show you how to light the wood burning stove. My truck is full of wood and I’ll bring it in.”

“I’ll help.”

“I’ve got it.” Clay turned and left.

Ford’s older brother wasn’t as friendly as she remembered.

A heck of a lot bigger. Much bigger than Ford who she’d always thought was huge.

Considering a stranger was living on his property that he had to babysit, it wasn’t hard to guess why Clay wasn’t welcoming her with open arms.

Not that anyone ever welcomed her in her life anywhere.

Which was wrong because Brooke Ridgeway hadn’t once questioned why Ford deposited her in the kitchen and told her to stay put.