“Lemon?” My little brother’s voice breaks and I freeze.
“Wyatt? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Daddy, Lemon. Daddy’s dead.” My bag slips off my shoulder and I lean against my apartment door as the ringing starts in my ears. My throat turns bone-dry, my stomach twists in knots, and my heart feels like it’s just been ripped right from my chest.
CHAPTER TWO
Lemon
Thirty coffees, Johnny Cash’s greatest hits on repeat, and three shitty motel stays after I got off the phone to Wyatt, I follow that white line and pull into a diner lot to visit the restroom. I’m in Marshfield, Missouri, or Springfield, or somewhere else I’ve never cared to visit. I should have just caught a flight to Memphis, Texas, and had one of my brothers come pick me up, but no way was I leaving my car with Stavros. It’s the only possession aside from the gallery that’s in my name. The clothes, heels, and expensive Persian rugs, I could take or leave. I never needed any of that stuff to be happy, but my car is my baby, and I refuse to leave it behind. I may need it yet to live in when I go back to New York.
I splash my face with water in the restroom and grimace as the huge diamond on my finger twinkles in the overhead lights. Stavros’s words when he gave me this ring come floating back to me. “You’re special.” “Unlike anyone I’ve ever met.” No good, cheating liar. I wish I really had castrated him. There ain’t nothing special about Lemon Winchester. If there was, he wouldn’t have slept with my best friend.
I know running away with my tail between my legs is not how my mama and daddy raised me, but I won’t stay in a relationship with a cheater. I’m worth more than that.
I don’t know what the hell I’ll do when I come back to the city. Ambrose agreed to take care of the gallery for the next few weeks, but heading home to Red River Canyon wasn’t in my five-year plan. Yet, here I am, driving a Ferrari across the country to the ranch I grew up on.
I leave the diner restroom, grab a couple of snacks from the vending machine outside, and head back to my car. I blast Dolly from the speakers, because like my mama always said, there’s nothing a Dolly song, some elbow grease, and a little hair spray can’t fix.
The sun is melting into the horizon and the day’s dust is settling as I drive up the dirt road and through the gate at Winchester Wild Ranch. I park in front of the house and just sit in my car, unable to believe I didn’t fall asleep at the wheel. The engine ticks as it cools, the last rays of sunlight glance off the dash, and I let out a deep breath.
“Hi, Daddy,” I whisper, fighting back tears as I remember him sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch, whiskey in hand, condensation trickling down the glass as the heat of the day bled away into a balmy night. Now, I’ll never get the chance to see him again.
A man with a cowboy hat pulled low on his head, tight Wranglers, and worn dusty boots comes flying out of the house. “You can’t park here, ma’am. This is private property. The bed-and-breakfast is three miles down the road.”
I open my door, climb out of the car, and for the first time in twelve years, I come face-to-face with my first love. Colton Hayes. I don’t have a single childhood memory without that boy in it. “Hi, Colt.”
He tips his hat, those eyes narrowing under heavy brows as he looks me over from head to toe. The hurt on his face is evident as he whispers my name like a curse. “Lemonade?”
“The one and only.”
“What are you doing here?” he barks.
I shrug one shoulder. “I could ask you the same thing. The gate has my last name on it, after all.”
“Right.” Colt’s eyes narrow. “Well, you’ll forgive me for not knowing what you’re changing your name to these days. It seems you’ve had a few options.”
“Excuse me?”
“Where’s your husband, Lemonade?”
“It’s just Lemon now,” I bite out. I have no intention of divulging the humiliating whereabouts of my ex-fiancé.
His brow furrows but he quickly schools those perfect, chiseled features and folds his huge arms across his chest. “Well then, Lemon now, welcome home. Are you staying long?”
“I don’t know, Colt. My daddy just died of a massive heart attack, and my whole world was blown apart, so I figured I’d come home for a little while to lick my wounds. Is that okay with you?” I shake my head. I should have known this was the wrong thing to do. I should have stayed far, far away, so I never had to see that face, or those gray eyes again. “Now, if you’ll excuse me …” I brush past his wide shoulders. “I need to see my family.”
“Right, I forgot I was never a part of that.”
I spin around and stalk closer, keeping my voice low, “You know what? I’ve been driving for several damn days straight. I just got here and already you’re startin’ in, so what is it you want from me, Colton?”
“Well excuse the hell outta me.” He laughs. “I guess you really can’t take the country out of the girl.”
“Screw you.”
“Oh, and to answer your question”—he leans into my personal space, and for half a second I think he’s going to try to kiss me, but he opens his mouth and all of the butterflies in my stomach crumble to ash— “I don’t want nothin’ from you, least of all that.”
I pull away to see his face, and that smirk that I had always loved so much spears me right through the chest. Colt backs away, and then climbs into a truck that I remember all too well. I can’t believe I didn’t even notice it when I pulled in.
He kicks over the engine and careens out of the drive at breakneck speed, and all I can do is stand there with tears in my eyes and my mouth hanging open. If I thought Colton was rock-my-world kind of handsome when we were teens, he’s so much better now. Broad shoulders, thick arms, a toned muscled body, and tighter jeans than he has a right to be wearing, but it isn’t any of those things that drives the knife through my chest. It’s the way those steely eyes assessed me as if I were the enemy that really broke my heart, especially after he’d spent so long looking at me like I hung the moon and stars.
“There’s no place like home,” I mutter under my breath as the screen door opens and I turn to see who else has come to give me a piece of their mind. Mama, Wyatt, Wade, and West all stand on the front porch. Mama had a thing for W’s. Except when it came to me—I was special. That’s what she always told me. I silently curse her for filling my head with lies. If I’m so damn special, why did my fiancé cheat and my ex-boyfriend run outta here like the devil was chasing him the second I returned home?
My family’s faces are a mixture of relief, somber delight, and total and utter boredom from West and Wade.
“Hi.” I wave.
“Lemonade,” Mama says on a sob as she rushes toward me and engulfs me in her arms. She’s always been fit from working the land alongside my daddy, but right now, she’s skin and bone. I’m afraid to hold her too tightly for fear she might snap.
“Hi, Mama,” I say, as the floodgates open. She squeezes me tightly.