Daisy and I step out into the parking lot, each looking a bit equally dazed.
“Do you really want to dance on the side?” I hold my hand over my eyes for shade, taking her in as the sun pours all its glory over her. Daisy is a golden goddess. For some reason, the thought of her dancing makes me more than a little bit sad. It’s funny that I don’t at all feel that way about Caila. My sister is a force to be reckoned with. I’ve always known that no matter what road she chose in life she’d succeed by a mile, head and shoulders above the rest. But Daisy is a sweetheart who’s not looking to turn this into a lifelong career. I’m terrified that she’ll be rubbing elbows in the boardroom tomorrow with the very men she’s taking her clothes off for today.
“I don’t know what I want. Right now I want it because I can’t seem to catch a break making any real money anywhere else. Do you think I’m making a big mistake?” She winces so hard it looks as if she’s about to cry.
“Not if you don’t.”
We leave it at that and take off to get ready for Piper’s party. It feels as if everyone’s world is shifting just a little bit this weekend.
By the time I get upstairs, Piper has primped herself into the princess she is, and Scarlett is ready to go, too. They wait patiently as Daisy and I put ourselves together. Of course, I’m not headed to the Black Bear with the rest of them for the big blow out. I’m only in it for the first leg of the journey, the quick jaunt to Wyatt’s ranch to speak with Marley about her Rags-to-Riches story, literally. That also happens to be the name of her clothing line, which has propelled her into fashion stardom. Rumor has it, they have a spread in Glitz magazine coming up next fall. She and Baya have really made a name for themselves.
We hop into Piper’s car because the birthday girl insists on driving, and everyone knows the birthday princess gets her way on her big day, and in Piper’s case, every other day after that. She turns up the radio and sings at the top of her lungs all the way out into the rolling countryside. Piper is in a great mood, a shining star of a mood. And, to be honest, her enthusiasm is a bit contagious because by the time we roll onto the property we’re all singing along right there with her.
The four of us stumble out of the car to the quiet looking ranch house. It’s so beautiful out here it takes my breath away. Out in the distance, dozens of horses roam free in an oversized corral, and everything in me is just itching to go over and love on one of those precious beasts. But the air, it’s that fresh country scent I’ve missed so darn bad over the last few months. It’s the scent of raw earth mingling with the animals, the fresh bleached sheets blowing out on an actual clothesline out back. And that one little laundry miracle makes me like Marley that much more. This, right here, is the Earth as God intended as far as I see it.
Piper gives a quick knock to the oversized rustic door, but not a soul answers. She gives another far more aggressive beating before twisting the knob and stepping inside with caution.
“Surprise!” An entire crowd of people pop out from behind the furniture, spill out from the hallways, and every free orifice as the four of us gasp in shock. There’s not a hint of an extra car out in that driveway. How ever they pulled off this mega miracle, it’s amazing through and through.
A thought hits me quick as a train wreck.
Oh God, oh God, oh God! This place is chock-full of family and friends! Gah! FAMILY!
I do a quick sweep of all the cheerful looking faces for that boy I’ve been impaling myself on for the last nine plus weeks and solidify when I spot his smiling, mostly frozen grin quickly melting with that equally stunned deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. But it’s not that shocked expression he’s wearing that has my muscles pulling an early version of rigor mortis. It’s that gorgeous, well coifed, Tennessee beauty queen wrapped around his waist that has me at full attention.
I stagger on over as the party pours outside, taking their deafening laughter and overall merriment with them.
“Sammy?” My stomach drops like lead right through the floorboards.
“Oh, Cass! I’m so glad you’re here!” She swoons over his body with her own, and Cade doesn’t move, still looking from Piper to me as if trying to piece together the puzzle. “This is him!” Sammy practically mouths the words. “Cade and I were just talking about how wonderful things used to be between us. Isn’t this great?” she squeals with delight so loud I think my eardrums just burst in rebellion to her pleasure. “We’re getting back together!”
“What?” Piper and I shout in unison before taking a brief moment from the lunacy to examine one another.
“This is the nut job you said was stalking your brother?” I bark as if demanding answers to every problem in the free world, and, at this very moment, I wish I could.