Of course, he found love with his wife and stepson.
And I want to carve out a path for myself. Especially considering I don’t know if I’ll ever get to have what he has. What all my brothers have.
“You need a hand getting all that to the truck?” Foster asks, arms crossed as he leans against the doorframe. “Or are you too ‘miss independent’ for your older brother’s help?”
I press my lips together, head cocked. “Well, you might as well be useful,” I reply, which earns me a small smile from him.
“Here I thought you were coming home to beathome. Instead, you’re running off again,” he says, grabbing one of my bags. Before he can reach for my purse with all my confidentialfiles—and the contract with the signed NDA—I grab it, which he eyes warily. “You’re all grown up now. Doing your own thing.”
Yeah,I think, heart pounding.Running away again to escape the feeling of not quite belonging.
So totally independent of me.
THREE
CADE
Iimpatiently pace the front deck, waiting for that tell-tale rumble of a truck engine that alerts me to my peace being destroyed.
Since moving into my cabin, I’ve managed to keep it low key. No one but my old friends know where I am, and I’ve only let the occasional professional in when absolutely necessary. But with the power of YouTube, I learned how to do most things on my own, so maintaining my own home is now entirely in my hands.
But maintaining my own image?
That’s in the hands of a…cowgirl.
A cowgirl with my entire future in the palm of her hand if Tobias’s plan doesn’t work.
As much as I don’t want to go back to working for the family company, I could handle being a silent partner and hiring someone else to do all the work for me. That way, I could go back to living in peace.
But if it doesn’t work, then all of this will be for nothing.
Three months. Who the hell signs an airtight three month contract and NDA? It took a lot of probing, but I got Tobias to send me a copy of her actual contract. Not even the pay packet would have been enough to convince me to sign what she had.But maybe to her, thirty grand is a lot of money for three months.
What am I thinking, Iknowit’s a lot. Not just to her, but probably for a lot of people.
I stop my pacing and stare over the gravel driveway leading up to my cabin. The road is clear; it’s one of the few things I know how to do on my own now that I’ve been here as long as I have. So, I know she isn’t stuck somewhere on the private road.
I glance down at my watch and sigh. She isn’t even running late. Hell, she told Tobias she’d be here anywhere between two and three, and it’s only just two in the afternoon now.
But I can’t stop anxiously checking. As much as I hate this stupid plan Tobias came up with, I’m not a total jackass. It’s not her fault she doesn’t know exactly what she signed up for. She only thinks she’s here for the rebranding of my image from the eyes of someone who can see through the sins of my past and give me redemption.
I’m the last person who needs redemption, anyway. No, the last person whodeservesit.
I sigh, gritting my teeth as I turn away from the railing surrounding my deck. The low hum of an engine makes me turn to find a truck coming up the driveway. It’s an old Ford make, looks like the kind of vehicle one of the other men living up here might drive, but not a girl with a college degree and the mind to agree tothis.
I still as I watch her pull up in front of the cabin. The engine shuts off and out steps a woman unlike anything I’ve seen before. Immediately, I notice she’s a whole lot younger than I am. That should tell me everything I need to know about her; her naivety, her intentions. Maybe she thinks she can get more out of me than just the thirty grand offered for the three months she works.
As she takes in the cabin, I drink the rest of her in. She might have been younger, but she’s all thick curves, even beneath the dark blue jeans and green turtleneck she wears. Her hair is a silky deep brown, pulled up in a flowing ponytail that whips around her when she closes the door to her truck.
But when her eyes meet mine, my breath catches in my throat. A smile curves her lips, sweet and alluring. “Hey!” she calls out, lifting her hand in a wave. “I’m Lydia. Lydia Sterling.”
I swallow hard, moving to the railing.Lydia Sterling. I knew of her family, had met her father once at some fundraiser at the lodge a couple years before the fire. He’d been a gruff, no nonsense man. So why would he let his daughter accept a job like this one?
He wouldn’t, I remind myself as I watch her wave again.She didn’t tell him anything about this.
Because she signed a NDA and contract.
I shake my head, stalking from the deck to the stairs leading down to my front drive. From the corner of my eye, I notice her hand falter and lower. For a split moment, I feel a twinge of guilt for not…waving back.
