Page 73 of Trusting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 2)

Grace was only five, almost six when their dad left, and Ava was only four so she doubted she would have any memory of it if Grace hadn’t.

Ava took in a deep breath. “Yeah, I do. And I remember sleeping in the car, Mom said it was camping.”

“Camping,” Grace said at the same time as her sister. They’d slept in the back of their mom’s Explorer and put blankets up over the windows. Now that she thought about it as an adult, and how scared she’d been in her SUV alone before Easton had shown up, she couldn’t imagine how terrified her mom must have been with four little girls.

“I think she was trying to make it fun.” A sad grin lifted on Ava’s face. “And I don’t think we did it that long. I was only four, but I remember by the time I started kindergarten we were in that apartment.”

“The one right off of Highland.” They’d stayed in that apartment until Grace turned ten. She remembered her mom had worked two jobs because she promised Grace that when she’d turned double digits she’d be able have a room that she’d only have to share with one sister. She’d chosen Audrey because even though she was her youngest sister, she was the quietest. Which left Ava and Viv sharing a room. Their mom slept out on the couch.

They were there for three years until Grace turned thirteen. Her mom made another promise that when she was a teenager, she’d be able to have her own room, and she’d made it happen. She’d managed to buy them a small four-bedroom house in the valley where the girls had lived even after their mom passed.

Grace had sold the house when Viv left for school and that was the money that their mom left them, which is what they’d all used to start Brewed Awakenings.

Blake and Viv returned, requiring Ava to be back on camera duty. Grace stayed on the couch as the trio went out onto the patio.

Today had been eye-opening for Grace in so many ways. She’d seen her mom and their struggles in an entirely new light. And she’d definitely seen Easton in a new light.

He was rich. That should make her happy, but for some reason it didn’t. Why hadn’t he told her that? Did he not trust her?

They weren’t actually in a real relationship. She wanted to tell him about the talk she’d had with her sister, but she didn’t know if she should. And what would be the point. He probably hadn’t told her because he didn’t see a future with her. And why would he? She was the Ice Queen and he was...whatever the male version of Mother Teresa was. Father Terry? No, that sounded creepy for some reason. Father T. Rhys? Better, but not great.

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