Page 7 of Hero for the Holidays

CHAPTER TWO

FIASULLIVANFELTlike life was finally going her way. Her sisters were all in love and having lives. Which, when you were the responsible one left behind to take care of everybody, was kind of a big deal. She had the weight of the world on her shoulders for years.

From having to take care of the ranch when her parents had bailed, to joining forces with the other families, the youngest one in the group, the only woman in that group, to make decisions about the ranch being a collective. How they were going to support each other, and how they were going to strengthen things. And they’d done it. Then she had to fight for the improvements to Sullivan’s Point. For the gardens, the farm store. Everything.

And now it just finally felt like she could finally rest a little bit.

Everything with the store was going wonderfully. Sales were booming and the store was bringing more business to everyone, just like she’d thought it would. They were able to sell meat and produce direct, in addition to continuing with the bigger beef sales the Garretts and Kings made. Other local ranchers, farmers and artisans were benefiting too.

It had become a well-known stop along the highway to Oregon’s coast. Thanks to her.

And for once, it was a town hall meeting night and she wasn’t going to be the one bringing up a big item of business. It was really kind of awesome. They had town hall meetings once a month, and for the past couple of years, she felt like she’d been at the center of them. Pushing for more money. Pushing to make improvements. But finally everything was moving smoothly at Sullivan’s Point, and she didn’t need to do that. She smiled as she drove over to the barn area. They always hosted the town hall. They provided a lot of the food. Everybody brought something, but she and her sisters were accomplished bakers, and they provided pies and jams, pastries. Bread.

This was another thing Fia was so proud she’d built. She’d overseen restoring the old Sullivan barn into a meeting space, and now the front was grassy and well tended, with a big weeping willow tree, a firepit and an area for dancing. There were picnic tables and benches, and she knew a lot of the staff on the ranch ate lunch there during the day.

It was a safe space. Comforting and happy. Cheerful.

She’d known she was never going to be able to build a massive cattle empire like the Kings and Garretts, and she hadn’t had the interest in horses the McClouds did. It had been bold to follow her own instincts. To follow her heart.

But Sullivan’s Point was a labor of love for her. It was everything. She’d known at sixteen this was going to be all on her. Their father had been having an affair, and Fia had found out. She’d been desperate to try and deal with it, to try and keep it secret to hold everything together, even while knowing it would fall apart.

But she’d determined then that Sullivan’s Point, her family, her sisters...they’d be hers. Her responsibility. And she’d kept that promise she’d made as a desperate, angry teenager.

She could only be proud. This was her legacy.

She was the only one living in the house these days. Which was strange. She wouldn’t let herself think that it was lonely.

It wasnormal.

She was twenty-nine. Being on her own was a completely fine thing. She didn’t really envy her sisters; they were living lives she’d known she’d never have. She was just happy for them. But she hadn’t thought through the flipside of all this, which was that success as she’d defined it meant...being alone.

She wasn’t alone, though. She reminded herself of that as she surveyed the meeting space. She had Four Corners, and everyone in it.

Well. Almost everyone. Some of them could disappear without a trace and she’d be happier for it.

A cheering thought, really. One she used to fuel her actions.

She hummed as she started to get pies and cakes out of the back of her car and position them on the table that was already set up for the meeting. She loved this part. The calm before the storm. Before all the families, the ranch hands and some townspeople descended on Sullivan’s Point to have a conversation about the goings-on at the ranch, and then have a big bonfire party. Complete with live music.

The first person to show up was Alaina, along with her adorable, pudgy baby Cameron, and her husband, Gus.

She was really happy for Alaina. That everything had turned out okay, even with all the drama from her unexpected pregnancy. But she’d found the support she needed. She’d found the man she needed. After Cameron’s biological father had left Alaina pregnant and alone, Gus had stepped up and offered to marry her. It had become so much deeper than convenience. They were really, truly in love now.

Rory and Quinn arrived next, with their significant others. And again, Fia really didn’t feel isolated. Or rather, shetriednot to. She didn’t want any of that. Didn’t need any of that. She had the ranch. It was her life.

Her family.

Well, and so were her sisters. She’d chosen them. She’d chosen to shape her life around theirs. Very definitively.

They got everything set up like it was a well-choreographed dance. It was one of her favorite things. The way that they worked together like a team. Even with them living on their own now, it was like that.

Quinn and Rory still worked on the ranch, so it wasn’t like it was entirely different. Alaina mostly focused her efforts at McCloud’s Landing, because she was passionate about horses. Plus she had a child to care for. Fia understood that.

By the time the others arrived, and the barn started to fill up, Fia and Rory were having an in-depth conversation about a TV show they were both watching, interspersed with Quinn’s commentary on the most popular products of the farm store, while she looked over some spreadsheet on her phone. Which was just very Quinn.

She felt him arrive before she saw him. She always did. You would think that after all this time he wouldn’t impact her the way he did. But it was always like that. Always a prickling on the back of her neck, a jolt at the base of her spine. Always her stomach plummeting down into her pelvic bone.

The bastard Landry King had made an appearance.

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