Chapter 7
7
AURORA
It’s hard to be annoyed with Eliza when she’s so damn cute. She’s the type of woman that talks with her hands. Throughout the entire tour of the ranch house, she’s had her hands waving in her face and out in the space between us. I follow behind her and listen as she recounts family memories and every renovation that’s ever been done to the place.
Wade and Brody are her life, with this place coming right after. That much is obvious.
“What about you, my girl? Do you have any happy memories to share with me, or shall I keep yapping?” she asks once we step into the small office space.
It’s painted with soft browns and full of old, aging bookshelves so full of books there are stacks of them on top of the neatly lined rows. Trinkets decorate any and all empty spots and, of course, family photos in a million types of different frames. Anna is in several of them, as if she hasn’t only been here for two years but decades.
I shift away from Eliza and trail my eyes over the bookcase closest to me, taking in all the photos and the stories they tell. It’s a lot. Like I’m living through Eliza’s eyes for some of the most important days of her life. I look between a wedding photo that’s yellowing at the edges and a dark photo with a yellow time stamp on the bottom corner, marking about a time that would make the young boy riding a rocking horse with an oversized cowboy hat on his head Brody. I smile slightly before looking at the golden frame beside it.
My heartbeat stalls.
It’s a photo of a young couple at what looks to be a carnival. Simple enough, but not at all. While the young couple has to be Wade and Eliza, the one beside them . . .
“Who is this beside you?” I ask, my fingers brushing the top of the frame, tracing the grooves along the edge.
“Oh, this was a long, long time ago,” she says, more to herself than me. “That’s Bernice and James Rose. It’s been . . . oh, at least a decade since I’ve seen them last.”
“Did they live here?”
Eliza takes a step closer to me, her gaze burning into my cheek. “Yes. They moved up to Edmonton shortly after their son left town.”
My throat is so clogged I can hardly swallow as I ask, “When did he leave town?”
“Well, I’d say shortly after he met your mother.”
I snap my head to look at her before growing as still as death. “What?”
Her lips part on a soft, comforting smile. “I recognized you the moment I saw you. You’re a spitting image of your mother. My memory isn’t shot quite yet.”
“You knew my mother?”
“Knew of her and saw her a handful of times,” she corrects me. “Everyone here knew about Lee Rose’s city girl from up in Calgary. She spent a couple of years down here with Lee before they both left. Lee came back alone a few months later. We didn’t know why she didn’t come back with him at the time, but maybe . . .”
“It was because of me,” I say, knowing without a doubt that I’m right .
“That would make you, what? Thirty? A year older than Brody and Wanda.” She nods to herself. “Yes, that would line up about right.”
Hearing my half-sister’s name spoken out loud right now is a shock to my system. I’ve heard the name several times during my time in Cherry Peak, but it hasn’t hit as deep as right now. This time, it’s coming from someone who knows my grandparents and more about my father than anyone else does. At least anyone who’s here and willing to talk to me about him.
Fuck, that’s weird to think about.
“Yeah, I’m thirty. Wanda’s only a year younger than me?”
Mom didn’t mention that when she told me about her. My skin crawls at the realization that Lee Rose met another woman he liked enough to have a child with so soon after being with my mom.
If I didn’t already think the guy was a piece of shit for leaving my mom in the first place after she got pregnant with me, I would now.
Eliza lifts the gold photo frame with gentle fingers, bringing it closer to her. “I didn’t bring you in here today for this, Aurora. You have my word about that. This photo has been here for so long that I hardly notice it anymore.”
“I believe you,” I say sincerely. “Would you— could you tell me about James and Bernice?”
She stares at the picture for a moment more before setting it back down and looking my way. Tucking a short silver curl behind her ear, she gestures past the oak desk and yellow lamp toward the two brown chairs tucked into the corner of the office.
“I’ll tell you everything I know and remember. But first, I need to talk to you about why I asked you here today.”
“I’m listening.”
“Come sit with me.”
She settles into one of the chairs, and I drop into the other. Extending her hand into the empty space between us, she offers it to me with a cautious expression. The dump of information I’ve just learned has my thoughts running a million miles an hour. When I place my hand into hers, she squeezes, and I let the comfort relax me slightly.
“I need some help around here, Rory. I’m still young enough that I’m not ready to cut back my work altogether, but I can’t do it on my own anymore. Not if I want to keep my sanity,” she starts, the words heavy, like she’s upset she has to ask for this. “It’s like you were just plucked up and dropped into my lap here in Cherry Peak with that beautiful brain of yours. I want you to come work with me here. Work with all of us, if you’ll take me up on my offer.”
“I’ve never worked with a ranch before. Or the farming industry in general. I’m not sure I’m qualified,” I admit.
She chuckles. “You’re more than qualified. And even if you weren’t, I’ll be here too. Like I said, I’m not ready to step back yet. But soon. And we need the ranch ready for when that day does come.”
My mouth is dry. A mix of surprise and appreciation for the offer takes flight in my mind.
“I don’t want to sound like I don’t want the job—because I do. God, I miss working with numbers. But are you sure, like positive , that you want me for this? If you posted a job listing, I’m sure you’d have dozens of resumes come in from people who know how to do this job far better than I do.”
Her nod is full of conviction. There isn’t a fleck of doubt in her stare as she watches me. “I’m positive, Rory. I may not know you all that well yet, but you’re no stranger. You’re not from Cherry Peak, but there’s still some country blood in you. One of us, my dear. That’s what you are.”
I bite down on the inside of my lip to keep from telling her that she’s wrong. If there’s any country in my blood, it’s more watered down than a warm stadium beer. This place doesn’t call to me, and I sure as hell don’t call to it. My home is in Calgary. That won’t ever change. No matter how far I run or how long I ignore what I left there .
“I don’t know a thing about country life, Eliza. And I won’t lie to you and say that I’m interested in learning. But I’ll take the job as long as you know that I’m not planning on staying.”
“Well, I appreciate your honesty. And I’m perfectly alright with that.”
I snort. “Some call it bluntness more so than honesty.”
“Aren’t they the same thing?”
“Maybe.”
“Am I allowed to ask why you’re here if you don’t plan on staying for long?”
I fight past the immediate urge to close up and shift in my seat. “I came here to meet Wanda. And to learn about Lee—my father, I guess. I don’t know if I even want to call him that. But Wanda was supposed to be here to help me figure that out.”
“It seems there are gaps that have been left in the story for far more than just us in Cherry Peak, then,” she says.
My laugh is angry. “That’s an understatement.”
She gives my hand another firm squeeze before releasing it and holding the armrest. “I don’t know a lot about Lee. Only bits from when he was a young boy, long before he became the big name he is now. But his parents, I’ll share all I know.”
“Thank you,” I say with a relieved exhale.
For the first time since arriving in town and learning Wanda’s gone—my hopes of learning about my lineage lost with her—I have hope. I’m fully aware that I might not learn anything that will bring me closer to a meeting with Lee Rose, but maybe I’ll be able to answer some of my burning questions.
Like why what he had in this place was more important to him than my mother. Than me. The life we could have had.
What made Wanda and her mother so much better than us?
Clearing my throat, I close off those thoughts. They’ll do nothing but tear at my heart, and it’s far too sensitive already.
“What kind of people are they? James and Bernice, I mean.”
Eliza hums. “They’re kind people. Bernice and I grew up here together, but James moved from Nova Scotia a couple of years before Lee was born. Some of my favourite laughs came from James’s blunt jokes. He’s a hard-looking man, but he’s a comedian at heart. And Bernice, well, she’s a bit more like you than she is her husband. She’s quiet but not because she’s shy, and I can’t forget about her brutal honesty.”
“You’re a bit too observant, Eliza Steele,” I mutter, feeling like I’ve been put under a microscope.
Her laugh is warm and kind, making it harder than usual to keep my walls high and reinforced. My gut tells me that it would be okay to let this woman in, but it’s too early for my mind to agree.
“I’ll take it. There are worse things to be.”
I search the office for anything that will tell me more about the unknown side of my heritage, but there’s nothing more than the single photo on the shelf.
“Do you still talk to them at all?” I ask, hesitant to hear both a yes and a no. I’m not sure which would be better.
“No. Time and distance have taken its toll on our friendship.”
My stomach falls. Clearly, a no was worse.
Catching onto my disappointment, she’s quick to add, “But I do still have their house number in my contact book. You could give it a try and see if they’ve changed it in the past few years or not. There isn’t anyone better to tell you about your father than the two of them.”
I nod, offering a half-smile in return for her offer. “What about Wanda? Do you think it’s worth trying to track her down?”
“Sweet girl, Wanda’s been gone for over a year on a mission to get to know Lee. She may have grown up here with him, but he was no more a father to her as he was to you.”
“What?” I gape, guilt swelling in my chest.
Eliza grimaces. “Lee Rose has a lot of making up to do, Rory. With everyone. Even family.”
“I thought . . .”
She reaches for my hand again, and I let her take it. “That Wanda had the life you didn’t get a chance to have. I know, honey. How could you have thought anything different with the information you had?”
“Maybe it’s a good thing she isn’t here. I’d have said something stupid and put my foot in my mouth.”
“But you didn’t. And now, you have a potential place to start on your search for answers,” she soothes me.
“I do. You’re right.”
And I don’t plan on wasting it.