This Hick?

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

KAREN

T his isn’t happening.

My eyes flicked to the clock on the dashboard every ten seconds, willing time to bend in my favor. Wilson Phillips’ “Hold On” played softly on the radio of Rylee’s car, but the upbeat tune didn’t loosen the tight knot in my stomach. My foot tapped incessantly on the floorboard as hundreds of brake lights blazed to life ahead of us.

I really should have booked a taxi.

I’d packed the night before and checked in early for my flight. Every single detail had been finalized before I went to bed last night. Knowing Rylee, I told her I needed her to pick me up and take me to the airport an hour before I actually needed to get there.

And it still didn’t work.

They were all going to fall apart while I was gone. Their poor husbands were going to be forced to chase after them like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. That used to be my job. But my friends had all left the big house and me. I didn’t have anyone to chase after anymore, which was why I was trying to get on a plane and find something different.

Something that could be mine.

“I’m going to miss my flight,” I muttered, my voice tense as I glanced at Rylee, who was humming along to the music as if we weren’t trapped in bumper-to-bumper hell. She didn’t have a single care in the world.

“Karen, relax. We’ve got plenty of time.” Rylee grinned, giving me a side-eye. She was completely unbothered. She drove like we were on a Sunday cruise, not like I had a flight to catch. Why would she be bothered? She had a hot, very rich fiancé making sure she was never bothered again.

“No, we don’t,” I snapped, unable to help myself. “I still have to check in, check my luggage, get through security. And I need snacks. You know I’m not paying those insane in-flight prices for a tiny bag of pretzels.”

Jenny snickered from the backseat. Mary Ellen and Lauren were squished in on either side of her, laughing at something on one of their phones. “You’re wound tighter than a top, Karen. What do you think? The plane’s going to leave without you if you don’t get there three hours early?”

“Yes! That’s what planes do! They have a departure time and that’s when they, you know, depart .” I twisted in my seat to give her a pointed look. “I’m not taking any chances.”

Mary Ellen laughed softly. “She’s not going to relax until she’s sitting at the gate with at least an hour to spare, already snacking on her overpriced airport Doritos.”

“You’re damn right I’m not,” I said, crossing my arms and staring straight ahead, even as the corner of my mouth twitched up. They knew me too well.

They had surprised me by showing up at all. I had asked Rylee to take me to the airport. I knew the other three all had things to do and men to screw. That was rude. My bad.

But they were newlyweds and I didn’t want to interrupt their lives. Rylee was late picking me up because she stopped and picked up all of them.

It was hard to be mad when they were all taking time out of their busy lives to send me off. I was very literally moving on to greener pastures. I was leaving Dallas and heading for Nowhere, Kentucky. Technically, the closest town to where I was going was called Wind Ridge, but it sure sounded like the middle of nowhere.

I had no idea what was waiting for me, which was also making me very anxious.

I grabbed my phone from my bag and opened up the airline app, frantically checking for any delays. No such luck.

I glanced at Rylee’s speedometer, heart sinking further as I noticed the needle was barely touching thirty. I wanted to reach over and lean on the horn until the cars in front of us parted like the Red Sea.

“What’s the name of the ranch again, Karen?” Lauren asked, her phone in hand.

I groaned internally, not even needing to glance at her to know where this was going. “Rocking Horse Ranch.”

Lauren’s fingers tapped against the screen, pulling up images. “Oh wow, it’s beautiful! Look at those wide-open spaces. That barn looks like something from a painting. And horses! Oh, you’re going to be surrounded by them.”

Horses. Livestock. Dirt. My nose wrinkled. I had nothing against horses, but spending weeks in the middle of nowhere at a ranch? Not exactly my idea of fun. I was a city girl. I liked coffee shops and boutique shopping, not hayrides and horseback riding. Heels and dresses, not boots and jeans. Perfume to smell nice, not to cover the smell of a day of work in the muck.

But the idea of a fresh start was too enticing to pass up, even if it meant adapting to a lifestyle completely foreign to me. Uncle Don had made the offer I couldn’t believe I actually accepted. It was an act of desperation made out of loneliness after I learned Rylee would be moving out of the Big House. My uncle offered free room and board in exchange for helping him balance the books, which sounded reasonable until you factored in the ranch part.

The ranch thing was concerning to say the least. Give me air-conditioning, reliable Wi-Fi, and a Target within driving distance, not barns and hay bales. But I owed Uncle Don. He’d been like a second father to me growing up, especially after my dad passed. Just thinking about my dad still hit me like a punch in the gut when I thought about it too long. It had been ten years but it was one of those wounds that never really healed.

I was happy to spend time with my uncle. I wanted to reconnect, but that didn’t mean I was excited about the ranch. I would have preferred if he could have come to Texas for a visit. As the traffic slowly inched forward, the girls in the back seat continued going over more details about the ranch.

“It might not be as bad as you think, Karen,” Mary Ellen said. “It’s just a change of scenery, right? And who knows? You might actually enjoy the peace and quiet.”

“Yeah, it’s beautiful,” I said, my voice flat. “But it’s also a working ranch, so I hope you all enjoy imagining me knee deep in shit because that’s probably what I’ll be dealing with while you’re all still enjoying your brunches and mimosas back in Dallas. Your mansions and sports cars and fancy dinners. Me? I’ll be eating grits and gnawing on jerky.”

Jenny cackled from the back seat. “Oh come on, Karen. You’re the queen of order and organization! You’ll have that ranch running like a Fortune 500 company by the end of the first week.”

I rolled my eyes, but a small smile tugged at my lips. “I’ll try my best not to reorganize all the hay bales into a color-coded system.”

Rylee glanced at me again. “You know this is going to be good for you, right? A little break from all your spreadsheets, numbers, and nine-thirty bedtimes?”

I huffed but didn’t argue. They weren’t wrong. My day-to-day life in Dallas had become predictable. My friends were all moving forward—engagements, weddings, new jobs, and businesses. New dreams. Meanwhile, I was sitting behind a desk, crunching numbers for companies I didn’t care about, and then heading home to microwave dinners and early nights. Thrilling.

Maybe shaking things up a bit wouldn’t be the worst thing.

“I think cowboys go to bed early,” Mary Ellen said with her usual thoughtfulness. “They get up with the sun.”

“Did you read that in a book?” Jenny said with a laugh.

“Actually, Arch loves cowboy movies. By the way, if anybody offers to take you to the train station, don’t go.”

I turned around and gave her an exasperated look. “What the hell does that mean?”

She just laughed. “Trust me, no train stations and you’ll be fine.”

I shook my head. Mary Ellen the bookworm knew just enough about everything to make conversation but not enough about any one thing to really explain it.

The excruciatingly long ride continued with the chatter turning to other topics, but my mind kept circling back to the ranch and what awaited me there. Part of me was looking forward to a change in scenery, but another part of me was dreading the fact that scenery included a lot of shit. Horse shit, cow shit, and God knew what other animals lived on the ranch.

But another part of me was curious, maybe even a little excited at the prospect of something so entirely different from what I knew. It was an opportunity to prove to myself that I could handle more than just spreadsheets and grumpy baristas.

“There’s the exit!” Lauren called out from the back seat.

The traffic gods finally showed mercy. Rylee carefully navigated up to the domestic departure terminal. I leapt out of the car the second we hit the curb, already mentally calculating how long it would take me to check in, go through security, and get to my gate.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” I said, pulling my suitcase out of the trunk. My friends followed, grabbing my bags and helping haul them toward the entrance.

“This feels like we’re sending you off to war or something.” Rylee joked. Despite her usual carefree demeanor, I saw the glimmer of emotion in her eyes. “We’re going to miss you, Karen.”

“Yeah,” Jenny said, wiping a tear from her eye. “What are we going to do without our mom?”

I smirked but my throat tightened. “Probably fall apart without my excellent time-management skills and obsessive need for planning.”

“Exactly,” Mary Ellen said, her hand on my shoulder. “I could really use your number-crunching skills with all this wedding planning. But don’t worry, we’ll try to keep it together.”

A lump formed in my throat as we all stood in a little circle just outside the doors. The reality of me leaving hit hard. These girls were my family, my sisters from other misters. We had all come together and made our own little family. They were the people I leaned on for everything. We had spent our nights and days together until recently.

It was the end of an era.

“Promise me we’ll all get together again for Mary Ellen’s bridal shower,” I said, my voice cracking slightly.

Jenny nodded. “You’re not getting out of that. We’ll all be there, no matter what.”

I swallowed hard and pulled each of them into a hug. We stood there for a few long moments, huddled together, holding on tight. My heart squeezed. I hated goodbyes.

“You better come back with a cowboy,” Lauren joked as we pulled apart, wiping a tear from her eye.

I scoffed. “Not likely. I’m there to balance the books, not rope in a ranch hand.”

We all laughed again. I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and grabbed the handle of my large suitcase. “Alright. I’m off to the wild west.”

“Text us when you get there!” Rylee called after me as I headed toward the doors.

My heart was heavy but also, just maybe, a little lighter knowing that this wasn’t goodbye forever. I was finally getting to have my adventure. They all had theirs and I had been supportive. It was my turn.

I turned back one last time, waving at the group before I stepped into the airport. I was ready—or as ready as I’d ever be—for this new chapter. It was time to trade my spreadsheets for something a little messier. A little out of my control.

And, honestly, maybe that was exactly what I needed.