Page 13 of The Rough Rider

“Out of respect, sure,” he said. “Alaina. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay. You come out to McCloud’s Landing nice and early. I’ll have some coffee for you.”

“I’m not sure if I’m supposed to drink coffee,” she said.

“Have you been drinking it anyway?”

She squirmed. “Well. Yeah.”

“Then I’ll be there with coffee on.”

And he tipped his hat and walked away from the circle of Sullivans.

“Back to the house,” Fia ordered.

And that was how Alaina found herself bundled up into a truck, driven back to the house and marched inside like she was a prisoner of war. The little eclectic farmhouse was always going to be the place that Alaina loved most. They had built the most beautiful life here, she and her sisters, after their parents had left them on their own.

Their dad had gone off to start a new life because their life here wasn’t enough.

Their mom had gone six years later because she’d never been able to accept this place without him.

Fia, Rory, Quinn and Alaina had stayed.

This was Sullivan’s Point. It belonged to the Sullivan family. It had been her father’s responsibility. The responsibility of those that carried the Sullivan name, and Sullivan blood.

Their mother was gone, and yes, it stung a little. But they were adults and she’d at least raised them all before she’d gone. She didn’t have Sullivan blood; the land wasn’t hers.

But their dad...he had a responsibility to this place. To the land. And he had simply left it. Like it didn’t matter. Like it didn’t mean anything.

When their dad had left, the house had gone gray. Their mother had been like a ghost. Fia had held things together, but the sadness had been inescapable.

When their mom left, the first thing Fia had done was take the antique table that had sat in the dining room forever, and put it right out in the yard. She had sanded it, and then she had painted it a bright blue. That had begun the process of adding color to everything in the place. Now Alaina could hardly remember it not being this way.

When it had all been wood and white paint.

Now it was red, yellow, tangerine. Spots of magenta, teal. They ate every meal on an eclectic set of china, mismatched teacups, carnival glass tumblers. They had decided that if they were left to their own devices, they would do it in style. And they had done so. And they had made... They had made a life. They had managed by hiring good ranch hands that they could trust, by working toward opening a farm store on the property that would be like a continuous farmers market.

They made pie and jam, they made cakes and they gardened. And while Alaina preferred working with horses to that, she loved what they did because it was part of them.

Because it was part of what they had done to survive.

It wasn’t her, though.

Fia had done everything she could to unite them, to bring them together.

But the longer it all went on, Alaina felt lost in it. Fia had been part of making Four Corners. And then she’d done something with Sullivan’s Point. She’d done it for them, and Alaina loved her for that.

But she wanted to know where she fit in this world. In this life.

It hit her right then that if she was going to marry Gus...

Well, her place would be his.

Her place would be Gus McCloud’s.

She was torn by that realization. Because it still wasn’t hers. But it was...a chance to be somewhere different. Do something different.

You’re really going to marry him?

Marrying Gus. Marrying Gus.

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