Page 76 of The Rebel Heir

Well, the past wasn’t exactlydraggingher back. As of yesterday morning, when she’d left Charlotte, North Carolina, to start the twelve-hour drive to the Berkshires, she’d willingly returned to her hometown of Rose Bend, Massachusetts.

The hometown she’d vowed—eight years earlier—to never step foot in again.

Had it been only about her, she still might be settled in her Ballentyne condo.

But it was no longer only about her.

Sydney pried a hand loose from the steering wheel and splayed her fingers over her stomach. Seventeen weeks, her doctor had confirmed the day before yesterday.

Love, so deep, so fierce it was terrifying, welled up inside her as it did every time she thought of the tiny, vulnerable person growing inside her. Love and…fear. Oh God, Sydney was scared. Not only for herself, but for the life she would soon be responsible for. On her own. Yes, it was her choice to raise her child as a single mother, but that decision didn’t make the future any less daunting. It didn’t mean she wasn’t questioning if she was doing the right thing.

Shaking her head, as if the abrupt motion could dislodge her doubts, she eased her foot off the brake and guided her Nissan Rogue over the covered bridge. In seconds, she emerged from the dim shadows into the sunlight. Several feet in front of her, off to the side, stood a white sign with a scrolled top and dark green lettering.

Welcome to Rose Bend, MA. Pop. 4, 815.“All are welcome where none are strangers.”

Her heart thudded against her chest. Yes, she’d driven almost 800 miles in the last two days, but not until this moment, with the nose of her SUV nudging the town line, did her stomach plummet into free fall and her pulse short-circuit.

“I’m doing this,” she blurted out, her voice rebounding in the interior like a blow horn. “I’m really doing this.”

Was she reminding herself…or questioning her sanity? Yeah, she had no clue. But with her apartment lease canceled, all her belongings either packed away in storage or piled inside this vehicle, with her ties cut, she had no choice but to go forward. Literally and figuratively. As if to drive home that point, she pressed her foot harder on the accelerator.

The peal of her cell phone ringing through the car speakers jolted her from her thoughts. Sydney glanced at the display screen and grinned at the name above the phone number with the 704 area code. She accepted the call, and a second later, her best friend’s smooth, bayou-rich voice filled the car’s interior.

“Woman, are you there yet? You haven’t checked in since you hit the Massachusetts state line a few hours ago, and you know how I worry. And worry causes me to frown. And frowns cause lines in my forehead. And my next Botox appointment isn’t for another two weeks. So, in order to keep me worry- and wrinkle-free, I need you to call me on a regular basis to let me know you and little Arwen are safe and still Daffodil Corner-bound.”

Sydney snickered. Stephanie Landry was—in a word—dramatic. And gorgeous, bold and aLord of the Ringsfangirl. Hence, her insistence that Sydney’s baby would be named Arwen, after the elf princess, if it was a girl, and Aragorn, the ranger and king, if a boy. Yeah, no way in hell was that happening.

Like Sydney, Stephanie had been a transplant to the Queen City. Her work as a PR rep for the Hornets, the city’s professional basketball team, had brought her to Charlotte from New Orleans six years earlier. From the moment the two women had bumped into each other at The Unknown Brewing Co., a local brewery, they’d become best friends. Maybe the fact that they’d both been seeking a new start in a place far from home had made them kindred spirits. Maybe they’d bonded over raisin beer. Either way, they’d been inseparable. Until now.

Swallowing past the thick knot of loneliness lodged in her throat, Sydney shook her head, even though Stephanie couldn’t see the gesture.

“For the last time, it’s Rose Bend.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Woman, your passive aggressiveness is showing. You might want to clean that up,” Sydney drawled.

Stephanie huffed, and Sydney could easily imagine the gorgeous redhead rolling her eyes. “I admit nothing,” Stephanie said. “And I definitely don’t admit that I might have a ragey vendetta against the supposed oasis of perfection that is stealing my best friend away from me.”

“I never said it was perfection,” Sydney murmured. “Or an oasis.”

Particularly not for her.

Family. Acceptance. A sense of belonging. Those had never been hers to have in her hometown. Hell, there was a very good chance it still might not be hers now. But for her baby, it could be different. The burdens of Sydney’s childhood didn’t have to be her child’s. She wouldn’tletit be.

“Hey,” Stephanie said, her voice softening. Sydney had zero doubts that if she were with Stephanie, her friend would already have her bundled up in one of her tight, Egyptian musk-scented hugs. “I give you shit, but you know I have your back. A hundred percent. Yes, I’m missing you, but you’re doing what’s best for you and baby Arwen. And yes, I might hate on Carnation City, but if you believe it’s where you belong right now, then it’s where you should be.”

Tears stung her eyes, and Sydney blinked against them. Stupid hormones. She’d never been much of a crier—she’d learned at an early age that tears solved nothing—but since she’d been pregnant, they popped up like stray hairs on a chin.

“Thanks, Steph. I swear, one minute I’m certain that I’m doing the right thing. And then the next…” She laughed, but it possessed too much of a sharp edge to be considered humorous. “The next I’m second-guessing every choice I’ve made for the last six months. Was I wrong to divorce Daniel? Should I have remarried him after I found out I was pregnant? Should I have stayed in Charlotte, the place that’s been a home to me for almost a decade? Am I being impulsive? Am I placing my own needs above the baby’s? Am I being—” she paused, then pushed out the last, damning word “—selfish?”

Of all the questions and worries that plagued her, the last one tormented her the most. Her ex-husband Daniel had thrown that accusation at her when she’d rejected his proposal to remarry, and it’d dug beneath skin and bone, excavating old hurts and insecurities. For years, she’d been proud of how she’d matured. She wasn’t the rebellious girl she’d been when she’d left home all those years ago. But with one hurled insult, Daniel had relegated her back to being that teen. Still…

His words wouldn’t have shaken her, if somewhere, in the darkest corner of her heart, she didn’t already question herself.

“Hell no, you’re not selfish! How could you ever think that? Oh wait,” Stephanie snapped, the smooth molasses in her voice hardening to rock-hard toffee. “Lemme guess. Daniel. It sounds like something that would come straight out of his uptight mouth.”

“Steph,” Sydney said, caution invading her tone. “Daniel’s not a bad guy. He’s just…” An image of her ex-husband solidified in her mind’s eye. Tall and lean, skin a beautiful mahogany, his strong, fit body clothed in one of his customary tailored suits with a tie. A handsome, distinguished, successful man who made the perfect dean of students at a prestigious private high school. “He’s just set in his ways,” she finished.

---