PROLOGUE
LYDIA
Coming home to Willow Ridge wasn’t on my list of things to do when I graduated college. I thought I might get to explore the world a little more, see what else is out there.
But there’s something about my small town that keeps me from ever really leaving.
And I can’t really blame my family. There’s seven of us children, and all six of my older brothers live on the ranch. They have their own families now. Some even have kids. My parents adore having grandchildren, and even I’ll admit, going home is more fun now that I’m not the only girl other than Ma living there.
My big brother, Foster, sometimes talks about the sway Jade Mountain has over lost souls. I never really thought of myself as alost soul.
But I am, really.
I’ve been lost for a while, and I don’t know what I’m looking for. Which is probably why I decided to take up work living with one of the illusive, reclusivemountain menas a personal assistant.
I can’t bring myself to go back to the ranch just yet. Not when there’s still something I can do entirely for myself, something that gives me more purpose than wonderingwhat if.
And honestly, I’m not sure I could go home and face them all with that particular question hanging over me.
I’m not sure I can go home and be…alone.
“What do you mean you took a job working for amountain man?” one of my best friends, Darcy, hisses, leaning over the table, decaf coffee cupped between her fingers. “Why?”
“Who cares aboutwhy?” my other friend, Mable, says, eyes wide. “Have you met him yet?”
I laugh at the pair while I take a sip of my latte. “No, I have not met him yet. And the job has great payplusa room.”
Darcy raises a brow as she sits back, hand moving to her stomach, which she rubs tiredly. “Okay. Maybe it’s the mommy hormones hitting me. I would be excited any other day, but not while eight months pregnant. I just want to make sure you’re safe. But I am so, so glad you’re home.”
At that, Mable nods in agreement. “We are. Seriously. But maybe I’m a little peeved you aren’t coming home to the ranch.”
Consideringbothof my best friends are living with my brothers, Darcy pregnant by one, Mable living in the cabin of another, I probably shouldn’t be surprised they’d hoped I would take back my bedroom in the main house, and we could start hanging out again.
Though, I doubt Darcy has much time for that anymore. And Mable is doing her own thing with Walter and his son, so…
Yeah, not so sure how much time we’d have together, anyway.
I shrug, take another sip of coffee, and set the cup down. “It will look great on my resume. And I need to do…more, you know?”
I need more than just being lost in life. More than feeling out of place in my home surrounded by all these lovey-dovey couples, wondering if I’ll ever have the same.
I need more than justwhat if.
ONE
CADE
“What do you mean, you hired me anassistant?” I ask, walking onto the front deck of my cabin, taking in the sprawling mountain views and white capped peaks, thick forest and literal peace beyond.
“She’s more a ‘manager’, but yes,” Tobias Madden, my oldest friend, says. “I put out an advert and found someone who will help you reshape your image. You need to stop sulking around, living like a caveman. You’re Cade fucking Abernathy. You’re worth 2.7 billion dollars just in family money alone. Everyone thinks you’re dead.”
“Maybe that’s for the best,” I reply, voice low. “I don’t need my image reshaped. I need peace.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not happening.” On the other end of the line, I hear the bustling of Tobias’s office; the twenty or so young want-to-be lawyers all vying to be better than the other, none of them fit to survive a real day at his family firm. “Your aunt is paying me to do this. So, I’m paying a local girl to move in and get you in shape to meet with future investors.”
I grit my teeth against the thousand or so curses I want to throw his way. Just thethoughtabout having to deal with some localmovingin— “What do youmeanby moving in?” I snap.
Tobias laughs uncomfortably under his breath. A door closes in the background, so I imagine him walking into his high rise New York office that overlooks Manhattan.
