Page 23 of Wrangling a Wild Texan

“Nice to meet you, Jared. I hope you don’t mind me crashing your swimming party.”

“Uhh . . . no . . . actually, I was just getting ready to go.” He pulled on his shirt. “I have baseball practice early tomorrow morning.” He lifted a hand at Sophie. “See you later, Sophie.”

Sophie didn’t say a word until Jared was gone. Then she melted down on the ground and covered her face with her hands. “Nothing goes the way I plan. Nothing!”

Sunny sat down on a nearby rock. “I know what you mean. None of my plans worked out the way I’d hoped either.”

Sophie lowered her hands and looked at her with stunned disbelief. “What are you talking about? Everything goes your way. You have tons of money and a big family who adores you and throws you the best birthday party ever and gave you your own cute apartment and your very own gallery. You have everything!”

“It does look that way, doesn’t it? But just because something looks perfect that doesn’t mean it is.”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “So what’s so unperfect about your life? Did you break a nail this morning? Ran out of the flavored coffee you like?”

“I don’t like coffee.” She held out her hands. “And as you can see, I chew my nails to the quick—a nervous habit I can’t seem to break.”

“What do you have to be nervous about?”

She hesitated before she spoke the truth. “My family finding out I’m nothing but a fraud and all the paintings I said I sold are actually in a storage unit in Houston growing dust.”

That seemed to get the smug look off Sophie’s face. “You lied to your family?”

“Don’t act so shocked. I believe you’ve been lying to your uncle about everything.”

“That’s different. I’m a teenager. You’re an adult.”

“Adults lie too. They’re just better at hiding it.”

Sophie scowled. “If you were so good at lying, my uncle never would have found out about me running you off the road.”

“That was my bad—not because I told people, but for lying in the first place. That was wrong. We should have told your uncle the truth about what happened. You driving while texting could get people killed—you included. You needed to be held accountable for your actions.”

“Well, I was. I can’t have my cellphone for an entire month. Which I think is way too harsh.”

“If you had run someone off the road and killed them, the penalty would be even harsher.”

Sophie huffed. “You sound like my uncle.”

“Well, he’s right.”

Sophie glared at her. “So now you’re siding with him? Just so you know, he thinks you’re an entitled rich girl who doesn’t know the value of money and is too stupid to come out of the rain.”

Sunny couldn’t help glancing back at the trees. “He said that?”

“Yeah, and a lot of other mean things too. So I wouldn’t be siding with him if I was you. He hates everyone. He just likes horses and stupid cows.” Sophie got to her feet and picked up a pebble, throwing it with all her might at the springs. It made a big splash before sinking to the bottom. “And he really hates kids.”

“Maybe he doesn’t hate kids. Maybe he just doesn’t understand them.” Sunny got to her feet and picked up a pebble. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed it at the springs and watched as it skipped across the glassy surface in moonlit ripples.

“Hey, how did you do that?”

“My brother Corbin taught me. It’s all in the flip of the wrist.” Sunny picked up another flat rock and held it out. “Hold it like this and try again.”

Sophie took the rock and tried again. It skipped once before sinking. “It sounds like your brother is fun.”

“Actually, Corbin was a lot like your uncle before he met his wife, Belle. He didn’t have a lot of time for fun. He was too busy trying to make money to take care of me.”

Sophie turned and stared at her. “Where were your parents?”

She skipped another stone. “My parents are two people who really don’t like kids . . . or each other for that matter. When they got in fights and separated, they would pawn me and Corbin off on whatever relative would take us.”

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