Home Is Where You Are (Courtright Ranch #1)

Prologue

AINSLEIGH

“Get in the car, Ainsleigh,” Aspen, my best friend since freshman orientation, demanded from the front door.

“I’m coming,” I shouted from across the house. I didn’t want to leave the comfort of our house. I wanted to stay here blissfully unaware of what I knew I was about to discover.

My heart didn’t want to accept what my gut told me was the truth.

I knew something was up with Kyle, my boyfriend of six months, but I kept making excuses for his behavior.

There was no way he’d cheat on me. I’d known him since freshman year, when he pursued me endlessly.

Maybe he wasn’t answering his phone because he was studying.

Maybe he wasn’t replying to the numerous text messages I’d sent because he’d fallen asleep.

There were so many other reasons that he could have for not responding, but my gut just knew what my heart refused to accept.

A chill spread throughout my body as I stepped into the crisp Virginia air.

I got in the backseat of Aspen’s car, and Dylan, my other best friend, rode shotgun.

None of us spoke a word on the short five-minute drive to Kyle’s fraternity house.

I knew they were giving me time to calm my nerves and prepare myself, but I wished one of them would crack a joke or something to take my mind off the rampant thoughts.

We pulled up to the house, the yard packed full of cars, as music blared from inside.

I didn’t even know they were having a party tonight.

Kyle never mentioned it because he knew this wasn’t my scene.

I could go out to a bar or club, but I hated being in a space with his fraternity brothers.

They were all selfish jerks who talked poorly about the girls, as if women were just conquests for them to mark off a list I was sure they kept.

“Let’s go find Kyle,” Dylan said, the tone of his voice wary.

He opened my door, grabbed my hand, and squeezed as he helped me out.

My legs shook the whole way to the house.

Why the secrecy about this party?

If he’d just told me, I wouldn’t have been worrying for the past couple of hours because he was late to the plans we’d made.

A few of his fraternity brothers gave looks of shock as I walked into the house. They looked at me then at each other before turning and taking off in the other direction.

I pulled away from Dylan and sought them out. My gut told me that the direction they were headed was where I’d find Kyle.

We went downstairs, passing people in the hall I swore would whisper to themselves as soon as I passed them, like they knew some big secret that I didn’t.

Only I did know.

I just had to see it with my own eyes before I could accept it.

We rounded the corner to the game room, where Kyle and I would hang out often when the rest of his brothers would go out on the town; Kyle was always the designated brother to go and get anyone who got too inebriated to drive.

There sat my beloved boyfriend of six months on the couch, a beer in his hand—something he swore he never drank—with a half-naked woman on his lap. His hand nestled on her lower back above the skintight skirt she wore. Their mouths tangled in passion as if they were the only two in the room.

Aspen went to move around me, surely about to give him a piece of her mind, but I held my hand out to stop her.

He wasn’t worth any of the words she’d lash him with.

He wasn’t worth anything at all.

One lone tear fell down my face as I took in the sight before me.

His fraternity brother beside him whispered something in his ear, then Kyle’s shocked expression met mine. He moved so fast the girl in his lap fell to the floor.

I didn’t withhold my chuckle as she got the karmic justice she deserved.

“You have got to be kidding me!” I screeched.

“Ainsleigh, I can explain,” Kyle shouted from across the room as he threw the beer bottle into the trash and made his way over to me.

There was nothing to explain. Who knows how long this had been going on? I wasn’t about to let him try to slither his way out of it.

“Don’t even waste your time. I was worried something happened to you, so I came over to make sure you were okay. To my surprise, whoever her name is has been keeping you company just fine. Enjoy your life, Kyle.”

I took one long look at the future I thought I’d have before I turned and walked away.