Map of Wild Vista Ranch
Chapter 1
Katie
Crash!
I barely jerked at the sound of my plate crashing to the floor. Didn’t register the sound of people rushing over to make sure I was okay.
All I could focus on was Todd, the guy who had just walked in.
With none other than his new woman to be. The mistress I got left for.
“Katie!”
Someone jerked on my arm while they called my name, and I mentally had to shake myself from the stupor that I was placed in.
“What?”
“Are you okay?”
I glanced down at the floor then up to my best friend’s face.
“I got to get out of here,” I told her, quickly standing up for my seat. “I’ll pay you back.”
“Wait,” she called out but I was already out the door, hardly glancing back to see if that man had even glanced my way.
Once I made it to the car, I took deep, steady breaths, needing a moment to compose myself.
Todd was my ex-husband, divorced because of his cheating ways. And staying here in the great town of Westbanks, OR, with a grand population of just about two thousand meant that I kept running into him a whole lot more than I liked.
And though he and I had been divorced now for two years, the hurt was still there.
Finally, I started up my engine, sending a message to Lucy, my best friend, that I was having dinner with, that Todd had walked in and I had to get away.
She told me not to worry; she’d cover the bill and would stop by on her way home.
Leaving her would be the hardest thing, but it had to be done. Todd didn’t care about the family he hurt, but I sure as hell did. And I refused to keep putting my daughter and I through this heartache.
Twenty minutes later, I strolled into the house, seeing Tiffany at the table, working on some homework.
“You’re home early,” she stated, glancing up at me from her workbook.
“Yeah. Did you eat?”
“I did. Got home about ten minutes ago, so still light out mom.”
“Oh, I know sweetie,” I told her, kissing the top of her head. “Can you do this a little later, I wanted to talk to you.”
She frowned as she stuck her pencil in the workbook and then looked at me.
“What’s going on?”
“You only have about three weeks left of school, but I thought after you were done, we could move somewhere else?”
“Seriously? Why the sudden change?”
“I saw your dad, with…,” I trailed off, not sure what to say but Tiffany was far smarter than her thirteen years.
