Chapter One
Summer, early January, South Auckland, New Zealand
“I wantyou-outo show me the way!” Cassandra Miller-Pope, Cassie for short, beat her palms on the steering wheel of the in-your-face red SUV and cast a sideways wink at her long-term friend Emma Montrose.
Their grins ricocheted off each other, toothy and comfortable and perfect, as Cassie sped along hedge-lined country roads. The city of Auckland was cosmopolitan these days, but the proximity of true countryside never failed to astonish her. And now, she owned a slice of that green herself.
“I’m so glad you could join me.” Cassie pressed her prescription glasses up her nose, mentally high-fiving her transition lenses that had battled the glare and won. After staying away for so long, she’d forgotten the intensity of the New Zealand sun.
“I’m thrilled you’re here, even if it is for merely a month.”
“Me too. Letters and emails aren’t the same as an in-person visit.” Her good cheer took a nosedive. “I wish I could stay longer. With the business and Kevin…” She lowered her speed to pass a horse and rider and wished she could slow her life in the same way. “It was difficult carving out a month in the schedule Kevin wants to set.” A problem because suddenly, her enthusiasm had waned for her singing, her upcoming year, her life. “I’m not certain of the farm cottage condition since no one has lived in the place for months. Not since Grandad died.”
“Probably full of rodents. Mummy mouse and Daddy mouse and groups of baby mice.” Emma tightened the black-and-red scarf tying back her sun-kissed brown hair. Curls rippled through the strands now that it was longer, highlighting her friend’s oval face and pursed lips.
“Ugh! Don’t tell me that.” Cassie overtook a pack of cyclists, sleek and trim in their colorful cycling gear. Tight Lycra. Not anything she’d consider wearing with her determined—overweight, according to her mother—curves. In her peripheral vision, she caught a flash of Emma’s white teeth, the twinkling I-got-ya-good blue eyes. “Oh, you’re winding me up.”
“Can you feel the key in your back?”
“Yes.” Cassie spoke crisply, broadcasting affront in a perfect mirror of her mom’s lectures. “Don’t you remember I’m a famous country star? You can’t tease me.”
“Huh!” Emma wrinkled her nose. “Hate to burst your bubble but you’re famous in the US. In New Zealand, you’re plain Cassie.”
A groan—half-laugh, half-despair—rasped her throat before it emerged, victorious and loud. “Don’t remind me. Kevin keeps telling me to record a pop crossover song, that other artists are doing well jumping genres, and I’m missing the proverbial bus. But the truth is I kinda like being anonymous at home. It’s a treat to shop at the mall or hire a zippy SUV without people gushing over me.” She paused for a calming inhalation and shoved her manager’s face from her mind. “Don’t get me wrong. I love my fans, but this normalcy is pure gold. Enough about me. What about you? I can’t believe you finally wore down Jack. I still have your letters, full of studly Jack and his supreme hotness, how he didn’t register your presence. Good on you for ripping off his blinders.” She peered at the faded road sign and indicated to turn onto the gravel surface. “Ah, thisisthe road. I recognize the stand of trees and the dam.”
Emma craned her neck. “You’re a long way from anywhere.”
Pleasure suffused Cassie at the expanse of green. No strangers she had to play nice with. No bossy, demanding manager. No disappointed parents. Just a landscape of farmland and trees, paddocks of sheep.Oh!Cute, shaggy Highland cattle. Fresh air. Peace. “Clevedon township is ten minutes in the other direction. I have a phone. It will be fine.I’llbe fine. The peace and quiet will be good for the songwriting I plan to do.”
“Fair warning, I intend to drag you out to socialize. Shopping excursions. Dinner. A fruity cocktail or two at my favorite nightspots.”
“Done deal, but don’t tell Mom.” Cassie paused, her mind busy, thoughts shooting to the last crazydiscussionwith her mother. “Huh, when in New Zealand…don’t tell Mum. When she pauses to take breaths between her high-power business meetings, she mentions grandchildren. Yep, grandchildren! I asked her what she was drinking, but that didn’t go down well.”
Cassie caught Emma’s grimace and returned it with a wrinkle of her nose. During her childhood, before the family had left New Zealand to chase business opportunities in the States, her parents had kept busy with their careers. Later, as a teenager, she’d wondered how her parents managed to conceive her since they never spent much time in the same vicinity. Weird her mother would ask about grandchildren when she’d cheerfully handed over child-rearing duties to staff. Her mom had missed birthdays, school functions, lots of firsts.
And when she had spent time with her parents…
Cassie blinked rapidly to push away the onset of tears. “This is Grandad’s place.”
She pulled up outside the single-level weatherboard house, the air exploding from her in a silent O as she studied her inheritance.
“You can’t stay here.” Emma broke the oh-crap silence first.
Cassie eyed the peeling paint, the gap-toothed baseboards, the overgrown grass and weeds surrounding the house like a gang intent on robbery. The bushy trees loomed, creating dark shadows of neglect and gloom and creepiness. “I didn’t think it would be this bad.”
“Perhaps the inside will be okay.” Emma’s voice held doubt.
“Fingers crossed.”Please let it be all right. She exited the rental vehicle and groped for calm. She refused to stumble at this obstacle, not after she’d informed her mother of her plans.
Her mother had scoffed, but in her polite and firm manner that left most people unclear if they’d been slighted or not. Cassie knew better. The silk-wrapped words reeked of insult and the harsh memory steeled Cassie’s spine. She’d rallied her troops—Emma in this case—and sailed forth with her plans.
She lassoed her panic, forced herself to analyze.Yay. One childhood lecture had stuck. Her second scan took in the gigantic spider web, the cracked window pane, the moss on the faded red roof. Not much of an improvement. “I hoped I was seeing things.”
“Nope. It’s a sad, run-down house,” Emma confirmed.
“Once the lawn is mowed…” Happy memories of holidays spent with her grandparents had driven her here. Failure was not an option.
“I’ll ring Jack.” Emma pulled out her phone. “He won’t mind helping. Clevedon Oysters isn’t far away and my man has a weakness for shellfish. That will work as a bribe.”
