Page 1 of Totally Off Limits

CHAPTER1

“Mia, want a dance with papa?”

“Yes!”

Sierra Hayden smiled at her three-year-old daughter Mia, full of light and sunshine. Although her daughter’s hair was blonde and growing long like Sierra’s, everything else about her looked like her daddy: her formerly cobalt blue eyes had become dark orbs, and she had the cutest cleft in her little chin.

Which ensured that Sierra would never forget the man, try though she might.

Still, she couldn’t help but smile as she watched her daughter skipping toward the dance floor with her hand in her grandpa’s while some Mariah Carey song played louder than she would have liked.

“Mommy loves you, Mia!”

Goodness, that child was adorable, the light of her life.

“Sierra, have you not heard a word I said?”

At the sound of her mother’s voice cutting through the syrupy music, Sierra tried to refocus. As a rule, she attempted to not listen to many of the woman’s words—or, at least, to not take them to heart—but sitting around a family table at a wedding made it pretty much impossible to escape her parent. “I’m sorry. What were you saying?” Sierra picked up the wine glass, wishing she could lick the last few drops from the bottom.

“IsaidAustin will be visiting us during our Independence Day celebration.”

“Celebration?It’s just abarbecue, mother.”

“Yes, where we’re celebrating our independence from the British. But stop trying to sidetrack me. I need to know if you’ve taken the fourth off from work.”

“I don’t have to take holidays off now that I work for Dr. Peterson.”

“Good. Because we’d like for you to give Austin a chance.”

And her mother was never going to stop pushing this man on her until she saw that nothing would ever come of the pairing—meaning the Fourth of July “celebration” was going to be yet another event she’d have to simply endure.

Besides…why couldn’t her mother just accept facts? If Sierra were the moon, Austin was the sun—a shining star warming everyone around him and, while that wasn’t a bad thing, he wasn’t for her. Instead, Sierra yearned for a distant star, someone who could take her away from it all while igniting a fire in her, even if it meant she was consumed completely in the process.

And everything else she wanted was so far away that she couldn’t bear to think about it—but it was next to impossible to ignore anything, considering her glass was as dry as dust.

Hoping to shut her mother up, she said, “It’s not like we’ve never met before.” But she could see it in Rebecca Hayden’s ice blue eyes, much like a dog with a bone, and there would be no prying that bone out of her mouth.

So Sierra quickly turned her attention to her own grandmother. Although the sweet old woman’s hearing was shot, she’d had a slight smile on her face since they’d arrived at the church earlier in the day, happy to be part of a celebration. But she’d been mostly ignored since they’d sat at the table—and talking with her would be a great way to avoid Rebecca. “Grandma, do you need something else to drink?”

“No, I went a while ago.”

Damn Mariah Carey. Grandma’s hearing was bad enough without the music and crowd noise—and it didn’t help that she wasn’t wearing her hearing aids. “Adrink, Grandma,” Sierra said, holding up her own empty glass. “Do you need me to get you something else to drink?”

“No, no, honey. I’m all right.”

Although she still wasn’t sure if Grandma had understood her, Sierra noticed the goblet half-filled with water next to her grandmother’s hand. “Just let us know if you need us to get anything.” Grandma smiled, nodding, and then began looking around the room again, soaking in the atmosphere.

And that left an opening for her mother to pick up where she’d left off. “We’re not changing the subject young lady. I was telling you about Austin. He’s graduating from Harvard—and we know what that means.”

One of Sierra’s sisters, Faith, a pretty triplet with strawberry blonde hair and emerald eyes, leaned over the table. “Is he moving back to Winchester?”

“I think,” her mother said, jaw set firmly as if in stone as she reached for the carafe of water, “it means that he could bepersuadedto if he had a reason.”

“Running his dad’s mine could be a reason,” Faith said, her eyes full of stars.

Sierra stood, trying not to smirk but finding it difficult. Damn, she definitely needed more alcohol. “He’s all yours, sis.”

“What’s your problem?” came the voice of Layne, her brother—and, quite possibly, her mortal enemy. It was like he was singing backup in her mother’s band. “You have every damn thing handed to you on a silver platter, and you just shit all over it.”

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