Chapter 1
One
Baylor
I’m exhausted, my body aches, and all I want is food and a bed. I drove through the night. It wasn’t my smartest decision, but the need to be home and put as much distance as possible between me, New York, and Todd pushed me forward.
It’s a twelve-and-a-half-hour drive. I made it in thirteen, counting fuel and bathroom stops, though somewhere along the way, I lost an hour to the time change.
Now, it’s eleven-thirty the next morning, and I’m finally rolling to a stop outside my best friend Sophia’s house.
I was supposed to fly, but I told Sophia the drive was good for me to clear my head.
After my altercation with Todd, I didn’t want to be around people on a crowded plane.
I needed time alone to process. She asked if I was okay, and I answered honestly, saying I wasn’t sure.
Sleep is all I can think about. I could easily disappear for the next twenty-four hours, but tomorrow is my big sister’s baby shower.
So instead, I’ll settle for a hot meal, a shower, catching up with my best friend, and if I’m lucky, a solid eight hours of sleep before a new day begins.
A day to celebrate my big sister and my niece.
The plan was always to stay at Sophia’s until after the shower, to surprise my sister.
Leighton and Courtlynn know the plan, and they’ve been sworn to secrecy, at least where Ellison is concerned.
I called Sophia last night to tell her I was on the road, and she’s checked in on me more times than I can count since I left New York.
She doesn’t know all the details of what happened with Todd, not yet.
That conversation feels like one that needs to happen face-to-face.
Besides, I needed the drive to process that I just uprooted my life. Thirteen hours alone to sit with the reality of what I’ve done. How I uprooted my entire life on impulse. I needed that time to try to make sense of my impulsive decision.
Should I have stood up and quit my job as I did?
No. But as soon as I hit the Tennessee state line, my unease started to settle.
Something about crossing that county line eased the tension inside me.
When I graduated from college, I wanted out.
I wanted more, and it turns out more isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
When I finally cross the corporation limits for Magnolia Ridge, I can’t seem to find it in me to regret my choice.
I don’t know where I’m going to end up. I don’t know what my life will look like a week from now, or even a year from now. Everything feels uncertain. Like I’ve stepped off the edge of something familiar, and I’m now free-falling, hoping to land somewhere safe.
My safe place has always been my sisters, my best friend, and my hometown.
What I do know is this: I walked away. I ended a five-year relationship, quit my job, and packed up whatever I could fit into my rental car before driving through the night back to the only place I was certain was holding me back all those years ago.
The memory of my parents was too much, so I fled, and now, here I am, going back, and it feels right.
I didn’t leave myself much room to second-guess my choices either.
If I had slowed down, thought too hard about the consequences, I might have stayed, which would have been worse.
So, I ran. I ran to save myself from what I knew would have been a lifetime of pain and feeling insignificant.
The last couple of years have shown me what life would have been like if I had stayed.
Instead, I chose distance. I chose silence over arguments, clarity over confusion, and my own peace over something that had been slowly breaking me for longer than I wanted to admit.
I stayed far longer than I should have, and tonight—well, last night now, I guess—the choice was easy. I chose myself.
And now I’m here, back where my sisters and my best friend are, where I can breathe a little easier, even if everything else feels like it’s falling apart.
I don’t have a plan yet. I don’t have answers.
But I have this moment, this small sense of relief, and the quiet certainty that leaving was the right thing to do—even if I’m still figuring out what comes next.
Grabbing my keys, phone, and purse, I climb out of the car.
I’ll get some of my things later; right now, I need a hug from my best friend and a nap, in that order.
The door to my rented SUV is barely closed before Sophia comes running out of the house, no coat, snow boots untied, as she rushes down the snow-covered steps to greet me.
I brace myself for impact as she collides with me, wrapping me in a fierce hug. I hug her just as fiercely.
“I missed you,” she mutters, before pulling back, tears in her eyes to match the tears in mine. “Come on.” She tosses her arm around my shoulders and leads me into the warm house.
“Where’s Nathan?” I ask her. Sophia started dating Nathan a couple of years ago, and they’ve been living together for about a year.
“Oh, he’s at his parents’ place, helping his dad work on his motorcycle.”
“He made an excuse to give us some catch-up time, huh?” I ask.
She grins. “He did.”
“I can’t believe Nate is the man you fell in love with. We went to school together all those years, and the two of you never once dated.”
“I know.” She nods. “He was always just Nate, the funny, flirty guy who played football. It’s weird how life works out sometimes,” she muses.
“Yeah, kind of like me packing up and moving home—oh, and let’s not forget quitting my job and leaving my five-year relationship. Can’t forget that.”
“Are you ready to talk about it yet?” she inquires.
“I probably should,” I say, before I word vomit everything that happened since getting home from work yesterday.
Compassion is written all over my best friend’s face. “Damn,” Sophia mutters.
“Yeah. So, here I am.” I hold my arms out at my sides.
“You can stay here as long as you need to.”
“Thanks, Soph, but once Ellison knows I’m here, I’ll go back and stay in my old room. It’s not something I ever thought I’d be doing, but I’m not cramping your space with Nate.” I wag my eyebrows, and she laughs.
“We’re happy to have you.”
“And I appreciate you more than you know,” I say, covering a yawn.
“Do you want something to eat before you nap?”
“No. Right now, I just need a soft place to land.”
“Come on,” she says, standing from the couch. “I’ll get you something more comfortable to sleep in so you don’t have to dig through your bags, and we can deal with everything else after you’ve had some rest.”
“Thank you, Soph. I love you. I’ve missed you,” I tell her.
“Love you, girl. I missed you, too, and selfishly, I hope that you’re home, here in Magnolia Ridge, to stay.”
I nod, but honestly, I don’t know where I’m going. I have no plan, but I’m comforted knowing that my sisters and my best friend have my back. I can take the time I need to figure it out, and that is priceless.
I follow Sophia to the spare bedroom and sit down on the bed while she goes to her room to grab me some clothes. Fifteen minutes later, I’ve changed, burrowed under the covers, and am drifting off to sleep.
My hands are full of gifts for my baby niece as I step into the inn.
The familiar smells of Alice’s pies hit me as soon as I walk in.
There’s a girl at the counter whom I’ve never met, which makes me sad.
I feel so disconnected, even though I talk and text with my sisters every day.
I visit as often as I can, but today feels different.
I’m home.
I don’t know how long I’m staying, or what happens next, but stepping inside the inn, a place that harbors so many great memories, and some painful ones, it feels right.
In my heart and in my gut, I know that I made the right choice walking away from New York and everything there that I left behind.
“Hi, are you here for the shower?” the girl greets me.
“Hi, I’m Baylor.” I smile at her. “This is my best friend, Sophia.” I nod to Sophia, who is standing next to me with a much smaller load of gifts in her hands. I can’t help it. This is my first niece, so I went a little overboard.
“Oh! The New York sister. I’m Kara. It’s so nice to meet you. Everyone is in there.” She points to the double doors that close off the dining area. The doors are never shut, but it makes sense because this is a surprise baby shower, after all.
It hurts my heart that I’m the “New York sister.” There was a time I longed for that, but somewhere along the way, that’s changed.
Maybe I’m the one who’s changed. Who knows, but I hate that I’m the “New York sister.” When I graduated from college and headed off into the unknown, that would have made me smile.
Now, it just makes me sad. “Thank you, Kara. It’s nice to meet you.
” I give her a finger wave and a smile because my hands are full, and that’s all that I can manage.
As soon as I open the door, I hear a screech.
I look up to see my baby sister, Courtlynn, rushing toward me.
Her smile lights up the room, and when I hear “Baylor,” I know it’s Leighton, my second youngest sister.
I barely have time to place the gift bags on the floor before they’re both wrapping their arms around me in a hug.
“I missed you so much,” Leighton says, pulling away first and wiping under her eyes.
“You need to come home more. In fact, just move home. Todd can deal,” Courtlynn tells me, as she also pulls out of our embrace and wipes at her cheeks.
I laugh off her words, not wanting to get into everything right now. “I missed you both so much. This place looks great,” I tell them, taking in all the decorations.
“Thanks. Copeland’s mom, sister-in-law, and niece helped, as did Kinzie,” Leighton explains. “It was a group effort.”
“Ellie is going to love it,” I tell them.
“Copeland said they’re on their way,” Kinzie calls out. She saunters over to me and gives me a big hug. “Missed you, Bay.”