Page 28 of Redemption

“I should hope it is for free, he owes us. Keep him away from me,” were Daisy’s final words on the matter.

“I don’t see that he would have reasonto speak to you, but I’ll tell him to stay away,” I agreed, instantly dreading that I would now have to go out of my way to speak to him again.

“Is that all?” Maddy asked. I nodded and she added, “Then I’ll leave you all to it,” and shot Leo a snotty smile as she left the room. He shook his head muttering something under his breath aboutwomen.

Once plates were cleared of food, the girls dispersed to go watch a movie or scroll TikTok, and Leo went home. I grabbed a wine, I’d been having a lot recently, and made my way out onto the porch, sitting down in the Adirondack chair and folding my legs under me.

I sipped the wine slowly, enjoying the flavors spilling over my tongue. The night was still and peaceful. The clouds sparse and the stars bright. Owls hooted in the distance. It was a night that I would have loved sitting out here with my father. We would have sat in silence, not needing to say a word, just bonding in the peace of the moment. Then he would have come and kissed me on the head and said goodnight.

I ached to feel that moment again and the idea that it would never happen stole my breath. It had only been two months but it felt like a lifetime. There were fewer tears in the house now and I sometimes forgot to allow myself to grieve, too concerned with making sure all my sisters were okay, so that moments like this took me by surprise. Like I’d forgotten, or something.

When my legs began to ache from their crunched position, my wine was all gone, and the owls had quieted, I knew it was bedtime. I went inside, switched off all the lights and just reveled in the silence of the house before trekking upstairs.

I lay there most of the night once again, thinking about everything I needed to do. I felt guilty about notbeing there more for the girls. Not doing more and being present. Tilly was back in school tomorrow so I made a mental note to drive her myself and give her a pep talk on the way. Maybe find some words of love and encouragement like Daddy would have. Or a lame joke like Leo would.

Then I would figure out what to do with the ranch. Maybe we needed to sell off some livestock for the time being, just until we were in a better place financially. Or sell some land. The thought immediately stuck in my brain. I couldn’t bear the thought of selling off any of our land.

I tossed and turned, slipping off to sleep only to wake two hours later when the sun came up and it was time to go outside to work on the ranch. I came in from the pasture with only ten minutes to spare until I needed to take Tilly to school.

“Crap,” I hissed, running for the shower. I lingered too long under the warm water and when I was standing in a towel, wiping the condensation from the mirror I heard Tilly call out, “See you later!” from downstairs.

I threw open the bathroom door and ran down after her, stopping on the porch outside. The cool spring air tickling my still damp, bare legs.

“Tills, wait! Let me drive you?” I called after her.

She turned, her blonde hair slicked back from her head and she had thick, dark eye makeup. She looked amazing and badass and everything I wished I was but it was such a change from her normal look, I wondered what had provoked it.

“Nice towel, sis,” she snorted.

I glanced down at the too short pink towel with yellow duckies on it, refusing to feel ashamed. Until I saw Jack Drayton appear in the distance. He was walkingdown the gravel drive, a little pep in his step compared to the way I’d seen him trudge recently.

“Ah shit,” I hissed. Tilly followed my gaze and smirked when she saw Jack, who still hadn’t spotted us yet, too busy gazing at the trees around him.

“If you can put some clothes on then I guess you can take me!” Tilly shouted loudly, drawing his attention. The moment he spotted us, me in my towel, his steps faltered and he tried to wipe the smirk from his face but I saw it.

“I’ll get you for that,” I growled at Tilly.

“Mornin’,” Jack said as he drew closer, his eyes doing a lazy perusal of my legs.Had I shaved them?Ugh, did it matter?

“I’ll be back soon, I just have to take Tilly to school.” I turned and waddled back to the house, trying to pull the towel down at the back to hide my ass. I threw on some clothes and made it back a few moments later.

“Get in,” I growled at a still-smirking Tilly and gestured to my Chevy truck. There was a silence as we drove, I was reluctant to break it, still feeling humiliated and embarrassed at Jack catching me in far too little clothing, but I needed to make sure Tilly was okay.

“So, how are you feeling about going back to school?” I asked, forcing some enthusiasm into my tone.

She didn’t look up from her phone. “Fine.”

Okay then.“I like your hair like that.”

She grunted.

“Did you find that style on the clock thing?”

She hit me with anare you stupidstare. “You mean TikTok?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, it has great tutorials.”

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