PROLOGUE
Della
Age 18
Graduation Day . . .
“Proud of you, girl,” Cornbread Granddaddy says, pulling me into a side hug.
“Thank you.” I tilt my head back and give him a beaming smile.
Today was my graduation, and I am finally done with high school. I worked hard in the past four years to get to this moment. I was given the honor of being the valedictorian of our class. I kept my speech simple yet hopefully meaningful to my peers. It probably wasn’t, but at this point, it didn’t really matter. It was done, and I was heading for a bright future.
I had plans, and Cornbread Granddaddy was determined to see me go through with what I wanted to do with my life. The plan was for me to go to college at the University of Tennessee. I’d gotten in with a full-ride scholarship. I actually received acceptance letters from eight different schools, some of them closer to home, but UT was my dream school. I don’t know why, but it just was.
“You ready to head back to the ranch now?” he asks.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” I didn’t expect there to be much of a celebration for graduation. Other than Cornbread Granddaddy, it’s not like anyone in my family really cared.
Maddox, my big brother, hadn’t even come today. He was at the ranch working.
It’s not like our dad cared. He never did. Not really. Since that day of the funeral when we buried our mom, I haven’t spoken to him. I didn’t even know where the man was. He’s the reason my mom was killed in a car accident. I just know it. I don’t know why I feel this way, I do, and I don’t regret it.
So, to me, it was just Cornbread Granddaddy.
People laugh when I call him that, but that’s what I’ve always called him. Our grandma, the very woman I was named after, gave him that name because he always loved eating her cornbread. Said it was the best in the entire state. No one could ever make cornbread like her.
Cornbread Granddaddy keeps an arm around my shoulders and guides me to his old pickup truck. I love that truck. It’s what he taught me to drive in. Before I even got my learner’s permit, I learned how to drive that thing on the old back roads leading to the ranch.
As ever the gentleman that he is, he holds the door for me to get in the passenger side. I take care getting in with my white sundress. With the wind blowing, I didn’t want to take the chance of it catching the hem and me flashing my panties to the whole world. Settling in my seat, I smile at Cornbread Granddaddy and place my cap and gown on my lap as he shuts the door for me.
“You did good with your speech,” Cornbread Granddaddy says once we’re on the road. “Thought it was good. Inspiring. You got a way with words in you. Same way your grandma had.”
”Thanks. I don’t think anyone else thought it was good.”
“They did, girl,” he mutters and makes a turn. “Folks around here, you know how they are. They know you’re heading places and they’re not.”
“Are you okay with me going so far away for school?” I asked him this question like a million times already. “If you need me to, I can still change schools, go closer, and help out at the ranch. It’s not a problem with me, I swear. I can help out. I’m good at it.”
I never worked anywhere else besides helping at the ranch. After school, on weekends, and in the summers were always spent working on the ranch. I helped where I was needed. It’s how I learned to cook, by helping Judy. I knew how to ride like the rest of the guys on the ranch and could even fix a fence.
One thing Cornbread Granddaddy made sure of was that I knew how to work like the rest of them. I might be girly to an extent, but I was also a tomboy. Boots and jeans were just as easy for me to put on as it was for me to slip on a dress and heels.
“You’re gonna go to that school, girl,” Cornbread Granddaddy clips out sternly. “You worked hard, and I want you to go get that degree. If you come back here when you finish school, you’re always welcome home, but we got the ranch. Your brother’s got it and knows what he’s doing. You do what you need to do to be happy.”
“But I am happy at the ranch,” I tell him, looking out the passenger window, enjoying the view of the fields as we go by.
“You can be happy somewhere and still be miserable. You gotta span your wings. Learn there’s more to this world than just the ranch.”
I heard that a lot from him this past year.
Maddox and I even got into it a few times. They both knew I had dreams, and I wanted to build something for myself. I always wanted to create and develop my very own business, and grow it from the ground up. I was great with numbers. It’s why I decided to go for a finance degree. I was going to learn all the ways to be able to run a business.
Neither of us said a word the rest of the way back to the ranch, and that was fine. It wasn’t like the silence between us was deafening. When words were needed, they were said. I found I was content to sit back and watch the scenery go by.
Well, I watched the scenery and thought about the fact that in just two months I would be leaving for college. I was leaving Saddle Ridge. A part of me felt like it was the wrong thing to do, but a much bigger part of me knew it was the best thing for me.
Maddox had the ranch. He could take care of it and didn’t need me. He said that plenty of times. I wasn’t needed around here.
