Myles had agreed to let Avery use his song, which led to more offers. He’d decided not to record a solo album or anything, though. At least for now, as his first priority was the school and the private practice with his father. After he’d talked with Dr. Law, they’d agreed to still go into business together. But only if Myles could work the hours he wanted to work. The Jackson patriarch had agreed to Myles’s terms, and the new practice would open next spring.
Aria continued to paint every day and had even vended at the Art Fair over the summer. She’d done a few shows and was set to debut her latest collection in the Detroit Institute of Arts next March.
“I can’t believe this day is here,” Aria said, as they stepped onto the raised porch in front of the school.
Myles kissed the inside of her wrist, right over her pulse point. “I know. Seems like yesterday that I presented you with the deed.”
“What a day that was. The second-best day of my life.”
The first was their wedding day. True to his word, Myles proposed right in the middle of a Halloween party. All of his siblings and Brent were in attendance and, apparently, in on the entire thing. Aria smiled, remembering when he’d dropped to one knee and told her he wanted forever with her.
Aria had bawled like a baby—after she’d shouted yes.
They married in August, in a small chapel in Florence, Italy. The only people in attendance were Brent, Ian and Bailee, and Ms. Pennie. The decision to elope was an easy one. They wanted their day to be all about them and no one else.
During the ceremony, they vowed to love each other, to cherish one another, and to always do what was best for them. They kissed under the moon and retreated to a private villa for an extended honeymoon.
That was two months ago, and it had been nonstop working to get the school up and running since. Finally the day had come. The school had received many applications from eager students, ready to learn. Aria had been surprised by many things during the process. The funding process had been daunting, as she’d expected. But it was Dr. Law who had come through with the save. One day, he’d dropped by her and Myles’s house with a sizable check in hand for the school. Aria had tried to give the check back, but he wouldn’t have it. He’d told her then that he wanted to contribute. His only condition was that the school would offer art and music classes.
Now, as they stood in front of The Metamorphosis School of Fine Arts and Music, Aria couldn’t be happier that they’d decided to make the change.
Their families were gathered. Her father, Brent and Celeste came out. And Myles’s siblings, their spouses, and Dr. Law joined the celebration. Her mother had even shown up out of the blue. Aria wasn’t fooled into thinking her appearance was a turning point in their relationship, though. Rumor had it that Dr. Law had mentioned it to her and strongly encouraged her to attend.
“Ready?” Myles asked, interrupting her thoughts.
Aria smiled. “I’m ready.”
He handed her a pair of big scissors and Aria cut the huge red bow that had been hung in front of the door. The crowd cheered as she and Myles opened the doors, and encouraged their friends and family to explore the renovated space.
As people walked the halls, Aria hung back with Myles. She bumped her hip into his. “I couldn’t have done it without you.” She looked at him. “And I wouldn’t want to.”
Myles kissed the corner of her mouth. “I love you, too.”
“Good.”
* * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from Then Came You by Kianna Alexander.
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Then Came You
by Kianna Alexander
Chapter 1
“That’s a girl, Molly. Rest up.”
Robyn Chance ran her hand along the top of the heifer’s head, then stood from her kneeling position. Molly, deep into her first pregnancy, was lying atop a soft bed of hay in a quiet corner of the main barn. Other than looking after the calf, it had been an uneventful Monday for Robyn.
Robyn got her clipboard from the nail on the nearby post and jotted down her observations on Molly’s chart. The animal seemed to be handling the pregnancy as well as could be expected for a first-timer, and Robyn expected the calf to make its appearance soon. Smiling, she returned the clipboard and moved toward the wall-mounted sink to wash up.
She’d just dried her hands when her phone vibrated in her pocket. “Hello?”
“Yes, hello. I’m trying to reach Dr. Robyn Chance?”
Her ears perked. “This is she.”
“Dr. Chance, I’m Zachary McMillan, from the San Diego Wildlife Conservatory. How are you today?”
This is the call I’ve been waiting for! She sat down on the old wooden bench just outside the barn door. “I’m fine. I hope you are as well.”
“I am.” There was a brief pause. “I’ll get right to the reason I’m calling. We’d like to offer you the position of director of veterinary services here at the conservatory if you’re still interested. I know it’s been a long review process.”
She could feel the smile spreading across her face. “Yes, I’m definitely still interested.” She could gush about how this was her dream job, how it presented the perfect opportunity for her to finally get off Chance land, out of Grandeza and into the world at large.
“Wonderful! There’s only one caveat.”
She sucked in a breath. “What’s that?”
“We’ll need you to be here and ready to start in three weeks. Would that be possible?”
She swallowed. That didn’t give her much time to find a replacement. Despite that, she wasn’t about to turn down an opportunity like this. “I’ll be there.”
“Sounds great. There’s some intake paperwork we’ll need. I’ll have my assistant email it to you as an attachment, and you can either send it back, or hand-carry it when you arrive. Either way, it will help to speed the onboarding process along.”
“I’ll be looking out for it. Thank you for the opportunity.”
“We’re looking forward to having you on the team.”
After the call ended, she leaned against the backrest and sighed. She should be over the moon with happiness. She’d applied for five positions, and out of them all, this was the one she’d wanted most, the one that seemed like a long shot. Snagging this job represented the biggest accomplishment of her veterinary career.
When she received good news, she’d usually go
straight to the main house to tell her parents. But this time was different. No matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t tell them about his.
Because Cooper and Thelma Chance, owners of one of the largest cattle ranches still operating in New Mexico, had no idea their daughter had been seeking other employment. I started my career here, and I’m pretty sure they expect me to stay forever. She was now the sole heir to Chance Cattle Enterprises, though that had not always been the case.
The old, familiar pain rose in her chest, squeezing her heart like a fist. Would Lacey have stayed? If she were still here, would she have wanted to live out her whole life on Cooper land? There was no way to know the answer to that. Tears threatened to well in her eyes, so she pushed away those thoughts. They led only to sorrow.
She stood and headed for her office in the one-story brick structure a few hundred yards away from the main barn. Once she’d shut herself inside, she sat behind her old oak desk and pulled out her planner. Her week was fully loaded with tasks to accomplish, and right at the top of the list was acclimating a newly hired rancher to the Chance operation. One of their best men, Amos, was retiring, and it was critical they had a full staff as a busy time of year was almost on them. He was due to report for his entrance meeting tomorrow, and she hoped to get him started by Wednesday. She hadn’t been able to find out much about the rancher so far. Mary Ellen Carter, the ranch manager who’d been working with the Chance family for twenty-plus years, had done the hiring. Since the fall calving season was approaching, all nine existing ranch employees were busy with the thirty-two pregnant cows and heifers in stock. Robyn had been assigned to meet with the new employee and get him situated.
She took a deep breath and shut the planner. How am I going to help the new guy and find a replacement vet at the same time? It would have been hard even if she had more time. But being limited to the three weeks before she was to start another job complicated things exponentially.
Her parents would be shocked enough to learn she wanted to leave. Then they’d have to digest that her departure was just around the corner. Any longtime employee leaving on such short notice would surely wound them. And she was their daughter, not just any staff member. She frowned at the thought, cringing at the prospect of breaking the news to them.
A knock sounded at the office door. Robyn’s gaze followed the sound. “Come in.”
Mary Ellen entered, with that ever-present smile on her lips. “Afternoon, Doc.”
“Hey, M.E.” Mary Ellen had been calling Robyn “Doc” ever since she’d returned home with her veterinary degree from UC Davis.
Mary Ellen eased farther into the office. She was dressed similarly to Robyn, wearing a green long-sleeved T-shirt emblazoned with the Chance Cattle Enterprises logo, jeans and brown work boots. The only difference in Robyn’s attire was the white lab coat she wore over her clothes.
Mary Ellen’s wavy brown hair, streaked with silver, surrounded an oval-shaped face that held kind blue eyes. “Wanted to see if you’ve made your rounds to the southern pasture yet.”
She shook her head. “I’m headed there next. Is something wrong?”
“I’m not sure. Amos called me and said one of the older cows is looking a bit sluggish, though.” Mary Ellen shrugged. “You know how it is when calving gets near. She may just be worn out, but you never can tell with these things.”
Amos was one of their more experienced hands, and everyone knew he possessed good instincts when it came to the herd. “I’d better have a look at her, just to be safe.” Robyn stood, tucking her phone into her hip pocket. “I think I know the cow you’re talking about. Odds are, she’s had her last breeding.”
“I’m headed over there, so you can ride with me.”
They exited the building and climbed into Big Red, Mary Ellen’s extended-cab pickup. As the truck bumped down the dirt road toward the southern part of the property, Robyn watched the familiar scenery roll by. Autumn had kissed the land, turning the verdant greens of spring and summer into rich golds and reds. Behind the carefully maintained fences, stock wandered, grazed or rested. She knew every tree, every hay bale, every patch of grass like she knew her own name. The glow of the afternoon sun illuminated the land, reflecting off the mountains in the distance and warming the air like an embrace.
There was a whole world beyond those mountains, one she’d never had a chance to explore in her thirty-two years on Earth. She wanted to see it, experience it for herself.
As much as she loved this land, her parents and their extended family of employees, she couldn’t remain on Chance land forever. The burdensome pain of the past, combined with her incurable wanderlust, wouldn’t allow it.
The wind whipped through the pasture, making the grass dance to its tune.
It’s not going to be easy to leave all this behind.
* * *
Troy Monroe drove his SUV down US 84, with the New Mexico scenery whizzing by his window. The ride from the airport in Santa Fe to his tiny hometown of Grandeza took around an hour, and he was relieved to be arriving soon.
The view outside his window was familiar yet stood in stark contrast to the island setting he’d just left behind. There, he’d seen crystal-blue waters and towering pines. Here, the grasses were taller, browner. The edge of the road was lined with rubber rabbitbrush and other shrubs. The branches of pinon and juniper trees reached skyward, with the rocky peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains towering over it all.
Grandeza was an unincorporated area of Rio Arriba County, with a population of less than three thousand. Their nearest neighboring community, Abiquiú, sat just southwest of town. Abiquiú was home to the famous Ghost Ranch that had served as a filming location for many Hollywood films. Proximity to Abiquiú was Grandeza’s only claim to fame—except among lovers of funk and soul music. Troy’s father, bassist Johnny Monroe of the jam band Zell’s Midnight Preachers, had been born and raised there.
He’d just flown back from North Carolina, where he’d visited his Uncle Carver, Aunt Viola and his cousins, Campbell, Savion and Hadley. In general, he would have no reason to rush home. But since he’d received that upsetting phone call at the airport, he wanted to get to Grandeza as fast as possible.
Jeannie’s sick. She’s asking for you.
He thought back on the insistent words of Helene, his grandmother’s favorite nurse at Grandeza Acres Retirement Villas. He’d spent the better part of his adulthood drifting around the Midwest, taking temporary jobs as a rancher or farmhand wherever he could find them. The only thing that tied him to Grandeza, and to a life he’d all but forgotten, was his father’s mother, Jeannie.
Dad’s been gone three years now. Johnny had been killed with most of the members of his band in a tour-bus crash along Route 66 in Nevada. He had no idea where his mother, Sylvia, was. He hadn’t seen or heard from her since he was seventeen.
He passed the faded, hand-painted wooden sign at the town limits and released a pent-up breath. The retirement home, located in the downtown area, came into view a few minutes later. Parking in a free space in the lot, he cut the engine. Taking the small boar bristle hairbrush from his glove box, he viewed his reflection in the rearview mirror and ran the brush through his close-cropped black hair. He used his fingertips to brush a few crumbs from his mustache, left behind by the pastry he’d had earlier. It had been a poor substitute for a real meal, but he’d been in a hurry. His eyes were heavy-lidded, revealing his weariness from a full day of air travel. His grandmother expected to see him “always presentable, never unkempt,” and despite her illness, he knew better than to go against her oft-repeated admonishment. After returning the brush, he got out and strode across the grassy lawn toward the building.
He entered and went to the reception desk to check in. A short walk down the tiled corridor and out the rear of the main building took him to his grandmother’s private unit. As he raised his hand to knock on the door,
Helene opened it. A fair-skinned, green-eyed redhead in baby-pink scrubs, she stood about shoulder height to him.
Her expression conveyed relief. “Come on in, Troy. She’s waiting for you.”
He stepped inside the too-warm apartment as Helene closed the door behind him. “I see Grandma’s still cold-natured.”
Helene nodded. “That’s why I never wear long sleeves in here.” She moved toward the galley kitchen, gesturing him toward the bedroom. “Go on back.”
In the cozy room, he found his grandmother propped up in her bed, a wealth of pillows at her back. She wore a blue housedress, her petite frame tucked beneath a large afghan. Her silver hair was wrapped around the pink, spongy curlers she favored, and gold-rimmed glasses sat perched on the end of her nose as she looked over the open newspaper on her lap.
He eased toward her, leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Hey, Mama Jeannie.”
She offered a small smile. “Hello, sweetheart.”
“Still reading the comic strips, I see.”
Her thin shoulders lifted in a shrug. “It’s the only part of the paper that’s not full of bad news.”
Pulling the nearby armchair closer to the bed, he sat down. “Helene called me and said you’re not feeling well. That you were asking for me.”
“Both true. The doctor says my pressure’s up.” She paused, took a few shallow breaths. “I’ve been getting really tired and winded.” She reached up to stifle a yawn. “So, they put me on bedrest.”
He studied her face, noting the pallor hanging over her. “I got here as fast as I could. Just flew back from North Carolina.”
“How are my stepson Carver and his family?”
“They’re doing well. All my cousins are married now.”
Her eyes widened for a moment. “Really? Isn’t that something.” She eyed him.
When the scrutiny went on a beat too long, he pursed his lips. “Come on, Mama Jeannie. Don’t give me that look. You know I’m not the settling-down type.”
Spark of Desire ; All for You Page 40