Chapter 3
Chapter Three
TEMPERANCE
The sun beat through the window over the large porcelain farm sink in Aunt Reenie’s kitchen.
My coffee mug was held aloft, my arm frozen in place as I stared through the glass to the view beyond. It was a view that had been a huge part of my childhood, but it still managed to take my breath away every time I looked at it.
Acres and acres of cleared land that led to the foothills and mountains beyond. Every time I saw it, I was reminded of just how small I was and how much unbelievable beauty this world could hold.
My great-grandparents had received this parcel of land on the outskirts of town as a wedding present years and years ago and had built a beautiful two-story farmhouse and big barn on it.
When they passed away, the house had gone to my grandparents.
My grandfather eventually added a detached garage with a covered walkway so my grandmother didn’t have to walk through the elements to get to her car.
A couple outbuildings came after that for the tractor and other equipment needed to maintain the land and animals my family raised over the years.
Then, years later, it passed to my aunt.
She hadn’t had the heart to part with it when she moved me to Chicago, choosing to rent it out to a sweet young family of four until she returned ten years ago instead.
It had fallen into a bit of disrepair as Reenie grew sicker, but I’d done what I could while tending to her.
Now… Well, now she was gone, and the house was officially mine.
And I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with it.
When I was growing up, I used to dream of living in this house, of starting a family and raising my kids right here.
I lost count of the number of times I’d sit in my cramped apartment in Chicago and imagine I was back in that big rambling house as I looked out the window to the concrete and steel that surrounded me for miles.
But now that I had that dream, I wasn’t sure I had it in me to keep it.
However, the thought of parting with it caused an ache deep down inside of me that refused to go away.
I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do.
My life was in Chicago, but the thought of never having this house to come back to ripped me apart.
Even during all the years I spent away from this place, there was still a small piece of me inside that was content in the knowledge that the farmhouse remained, waiting patiently for the day I finally felt ready to return
“I wish you were here, Reenie,” I murmured into the quiet kitchen.
“I wish Mom and Dad were here.” Pulling in a stuttered breath, I stood still as one lone tear broke free and trailed down my cheek.
“I wish I wasn’t so alone.” The silence weighed me down, and I eventually pleaded, “Tell me what to do, Reenie. Please. Give me a sign of what I should do.”
I lost track of time as I stood there sipping my coffee and looking out at the swaying evergreens while I waited for something, anything that would point me in the right direction.
It never came, so I eventually finished my coffee, deposited my mug in the sink, and moved out of the kitchen to the mudroom. Slipping my feet in the Wellingtons I kept by the back door, I left the confines of my gorgeous farmhouse and headed out to the barn.
Back in the day, all four stalls held horses that I grew up on the backs of. Now only Reenie’s American Paint remained.
“Hey, beautiful girl,” I murmured, reaching up to pat Stargazer’s head when she lifted it over the stall door. She made a gentle chuffing sound and butted at my hand with her snout, silently communicating what she wanted. “Yeah, yeah. I know. You wanna run, don’t you, girl?”
Stargazer made another chuff and began scuffing at the straw-lined floor as I unlatched the door.
My girl wanted to run, and I needed the freedom that a ride would give me to clear my head. It was a win-win for both of us.
My cheeks were pink and the tip of my nose had gone numb from the chilled wind that had been whipping around my face for the past hour and a half.
We’d gone through the woods, following one of the many trails that had been well worn through time.
It led to a valley between the tree line and the foothills surrounding the property.
There, I was able to really let her go, holding onto the reins as she took off at a full gallop.
It had been cathartic for both of us, being surrounded by nature as far as the eye could see.
Over the past few months, I’d kept my girl close to the farmhouse, but today I went farther to explore. It was second nature, leading her to the places I’d visited so often in my childhood. Even after two decades, I knew the paths and trails like the back of my hand.
Once our wandering was done for the day, I led Stargazer back to the barn and took care of her, unsaddling my girl and brushing her down before settling her back in the stall with some oats.
I was heading back to the house when the phone in the back pocket of my jeans began ringing. Pulling it out, I looked to see an unknown number flashing across the screen.
“Hello?” I answered, thinking it was a lawyer or someone having to do with my aunt’s estate.
“Temperance, baby.”
At the sound of the familiar and unwanted voice, my boots came to a jarring halt, sending up a plume of dirt from the hard, cold ground. The blood in my veins ran colder than the breeze blowing my hair all around.
Perry Frasier had become the bane of my existence for six months before I packed up and came back to Hope Valley.
He was a doctor at the hospital where I worked, and at first, things had been good enough.
We chatted on occasion when we ran into each other, and even engaged in a bit of harmless flirting.
I’d turned him down the first few times he asked me out, but eventually his charms wore me down and I agreed.
We went on a couple of dates and, due to loneliness, I’d put out on the third date.
Shortly after, word started spreading that Dr. Frasier was a skirt chaser and made a habit of trying to nail as many nurses as possible.
Knowing I’d been just another notch on that asshole’s bedpost hadn’t sat well with me, so I’d ended things almost as quickly as they started. He hadn’t liked that one bit. Apparently, on top of being a playboy, he didn’t handle rejection well at all.
I’d hoped the distance I’d put between us the past months would have been enough to put him off, but apparently I’d been wrong.
“How the hell did you get this number, Perry?” I asked in a tone as harsh and biting as the winter wind.
“I wouldn’t have had to track it down if you hadn’t changed your number in the first place,” he snapped. “I’ve been going outta my goddamn mind trying to find you.”
“Are you serious?” I asked on a bark of incredulous laughter. “You had no goddamn right tracking my new number down.” My voice rose. “You ignored me when I told you to leave me the hell alone. Then you ignored the hospital board when they told you to stop harassing me.”
“I can’t believe you went to the fucking board. If you’d have just talked to me—”
“I didn’t want to talk to you, Perry! I don’t want a single goddamn thing to do with you. How have you not gotten that by now?”
His voice went low and gentle like it did every time I told him to leave me alone.
It was a tone full of condescension, like I was being completely irrational.
“Look, I know you’re going through a tough time right now.
I heard about your aunt, baby. I’m so sorry for your loss.
You say the word and I’ll get to you quick as I can. ”
“Do not come here,” I ordered instantly.
“You shouldn’t be alone. I can—”
I interrupted before he could finish speaking his terrible idea out loud. “I’m serious, Perry. Don’t come here.”
“Baby, I want to be there for you.”
In all my life, I’d never met someone as clueless and self-absorbed as Perry Frasier, and his complete disregard for everything I said was actually starting to worry me.
“I don’t want you here,” I stressed. “And for the love of all that’s holy, stop calling me baby.
I’m not your baby. I’m not your anything. ”
“Temperance—” he tried, but I’d had enough.
“You come here, I swear to God, I’ll get a restraining order. I’m not kidding. Never call me again, Perry. This is done. Lose my number.”
With that, I hung up and stomped the rest of the way into the house. The peacefulness I’d been feeling after my ride on Stargazer was blown to smithereens with that one phone call, and now I was going to need so much more than fresh air and nature to soothe my frayed nerves.
The Tap Room had been a staple in Hope Valley for as long as I could remember. It wasn’t the only bar in town, but it had the reputation as being the best back in the day, and to hear people talk, that reputation had held strong while I was gone.
As I pushed through the doors at seven on a Thursday evening, I saw the place had a decent-sized crowd.
It wasn’t wall-to-wall, but most of the tables were occupied, and the air was full of laughter and muffled conversation.
The chill that came with winter in the mountains clearly hadn’t stopped the residents of this small town from enjoying a night out.
Winding my way through the tables, I was headed for an empty one off to the side of the stage when I heard my name called over the crowd.
“Temperance?”
My head swiveled in the direction of the bar and my mouth dropped open in shock. “Oh my god, Rory?”
“Tempie?”
Rory let out a loud squeal and rounded the bar quick as a flash. I did a little girly hop of excitement just as she reached me, and the two of us slammed together and swayed side to side as we held onto each other.
Rory Hightower had been my best friend since kindergarten.
As a matter of fact, she was more than just a best friend, she’d been like a sister to me.
She was the one I trusted with absolutely everything, and she was the only one who knew the whole truth about my past. Leaving her had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but I’d thought it was necessary to make a fresh start with a new life.
There were a few phone calls, some letters, and a couple Christmas cards exchanged between us over the years, but those eventually petered out, leaving behind a large friend-sized hole that I’d never managed to fill.
Seeing her and hugging her now made me realize what a huge mistake it had been to distance myself from her. My throat closed up and my sinuses began to sting as I battled back a flood of tears.
“Oh my god,” I repeated on a breath, squeezing her even tighter. “It’s so good to see you.”
My voice was thick with emotion as she pulled from my hold. She kept her fingers wrapped around my upper arms as she studied me closely. “It’s so good to see you too, babe. More than you know. You look fantastic!”
“Me?” I scanned her up and down, taking her in.
She had a bright multicolored scarf laced though the beltloops of her fitted, extremely-faded-in-a-good-way jeans.
Up top she wore a tight red tee with the words “I’d Tap That” in large white letters across her chest. Her left wrist had a multitude of mismatched bracelets and bangles that totally worked all together, while the right had a killer brown leather cuff with a silver disk that had the word “Troublemaker” stamped on it.
She matched the ensemble with a pair of kickass scuffed brown cowboy boots that rounded the whole look off in a cowgirl-meets-hippie way that totally worked for her.
Her long black hair was hanging thick and loose down her back, and her face was made up just enough to highlight her sharp cheekbones, plump lips, and wide doe eyes. “You look absolutely amazing!”
“I’m so sorry about your aunt, honey. I was at the funeral, but I didn’t want to intrude—”
“Don’t even worry about it,” I said, waving her off. “I wasn’t in my right mind to talk to anyone anyway, but I should have made an effort to see you before now. There’s no excuse for it.”
Her expression grew sympathetic, and her fingers clenched around my arms. “Please, you’ve had a lot goin’ on lately. You’ve got nothing to feel bad about. You’re here now, and that’s all that matters. We have a ton to catch up on, babe. Pull up a stool and fill me in. I wanna know everything.”
And just like that, it was as if no time at all had passed between Rory and me.