[Canyon Cove 02.0] No Regrets

by Liliana Rhodes

  “I think there’s more to it than just that,” she said.

  I thought about what happened when I pushed him away. The ache that had been there since he left came back and reminded me what felt wrong.

  “I need to know what happened. I need him to tell me why he didn’t call, why he didn’t look for me.” I pushed aside my hurt and anger replaced it. “I waited for him and he didn't care enough to even call. I deserve better than that.”

  Part One

  A Chance to Remember

  Chapter One

  Tara

  Present Day

  October

  Ashley and I were seated in Mirabella’s, the restaurant and pastry shop we met at for just about everything. The warm colors of the restaurant were accented with pumpkins, ghosts, and goblins for the upcoming holiday.

  “I still can’t believe you cancelled on Mason at the last minute again,” Ashley said.

  “You ever have that one guy you’ve never been able to stop thinking about?” I glanced over at Ashley as she sipped her coffee. She didn’t need to answer. “No, of course not, Xander was the one and only for you.”

  “Excuse me?” Ashley said with a laugh. “We weren’t always together.”

  “You had what? Weeks apart? I’m talking years, honey.” I shook my head. “For years, Mason has been on my mind like a song you can’t get out of your head, but worse.” I chuckled as I vainly tried to push away my sadness. “There was no one else like him back home in North Carolina or any other place else. Trust me, I’ve looked.”

  “So then it’s good you’re going on that date with him.”

  “No, it’s not,” I said as I lifted my hot chocolate to my lips.

  The waitress came by and put down a plate of pastries between Ashley and I. I wanted one, but I couldn’t muster up the energy to reach for it. Everything was focused on remembering him.

  “Then why not? How could it be a bad thing when you’ve been thinking about him for all this time?”

  “Ashley, I’ve been thrown from a horse, kicked by a bucking stallion, but nothing in my life has hurt me more than Mason’s leaving. He might as well have ripped my beating heart out of my chest when he didn’t come back.”

  “When did that happen?”

  I sighed. “Fifteen years ago. It’s hard to believe it’s been so long since I last saw him. I still feel that pain as if it happened yesterday.”

  I wrapped my fingers around the mug so the ceramic would warm them. With a soft laugh, I looked back at Ashley.

  “Everything reminds me of him,” I said. “It always has. Even something as insignificant as this hot chocolate makes my mind drift over to him. All my memories of Mason are right here,” I said as I put my hand over my heart. “I can even remember the first time I ever saw him and feel that excitement as if it just happened.”

  “Was it love at first sight?”

  Ashley rested her chin on her hand, her eyes wide as she waited for my answer.

  “No, it was anything but love,” I said with a laugh. “I hated him. And the fact that he was such a gorgeous man made me want to hate him even more.”

  Fifteen Years Ago

  “What do you mean I didn’t get the job?” I asked. “It’s still March, I thought they were announcing it at the beginning of April.”

  Maddie Maguire and I were in the tack room cleaning up after a day of training. Her long brown ponytail swung as she shook her head.

  “I heard old man Abernathy’s son is coming back home,” she said. “He wants him to learn the business from the ground up so instead of getting someone who deserves the job a chance, that Mason is getting the job.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned if I’m just gonna stand here and take that. I’ve worked my ass off the past four years here in the hopes that I would get that job. I need that job.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to march right into that big house and give them a piece of my mind. They have no right to do this.”

  “Listen, Tara, I know things have been hard at home since your dad had that heart attack, but you can’t just go in there and think that they will let you stay here if you go off on them like that.”

  I shook my head as frustration consumed me. I couldn’t just stand there and let them give the job that I had worked so hard for to someone who didn’t deserve it.

  Maddie’s brow was wrinkled with concern. She knew how short-tempered I was and she knew how bad things were at home. I needed this job to help support my family, but I needed to stand up for myself first and foremost.

  “I promise I won’t lose it, but I need to go in there. I need to understand why I didn’t get the job and why they’re just handing it over to his son. Old man Abernathy is a reasonable man, I can’t believe he would just do this.”

  “Have you ever been into the big house?” she asked.

  “No, why?”

  “Because you’ll never see anything else like it. The first time I went in there, I was overwhelmed.”

  “Please, you know shit like that doesn’t bother me. It’s just money.”

  “Not like this. Money doesn’t even begin to describe this.”

  Maddie had a tendency to exaggerate at times, and I was sure this was one of those times. I could care less how much money the Abernathys had or how big their house was.

  I hung up the final bridle and walked out of the tack room and through the barn without looking back. Even though it was the end of our work day, I knew Maddie well enough to know that she would wait around for me.

  It had been four years since I first entered the gates of Abernathy Ranch, but this would be the first time I entered the main house. I followed the winding walkway through the field separating the barns and the stables to the main house.

  Although I had seen the house hundreds of times, it had never looked as large as it did at that moment. I was suddenly very aware of my worn jeans, my blonde hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, and the dirt under my fingernails after a long day of working with horses.

  Abernathy Manor was a huge two-story stone mansion with tall, wood-framed gables. After the original house was destroyed in a fire fifty years ago, a new house was built years later on the remains of the original structure along with a nearby barn.

  The mansion was a never-ending work in progress as Mrs. Abernathy continued to change and fix things in the house. She even added stained glass that she had collected on her trips to Italy. The result was that Abernathy Manor was an impressive combination between the old and the new.

  Breathing in deep as I approached the house, I decided to follow the stone walkway around to the front. While no one had ever said so, it was common knowledge that anyone who worked at Abernathy Ranch was only welcomed in the house if they were invited.

  While I knew Maddie would have opted for one of the back doors, there was no way I was going to lower myself to that. If I was going to make a fuss about not getting the job, then I was going to do it in the front door, not the back.

  As I approached the large wooden double doors with panels of stained glass, I tried to see if I could peek in, but I couldn’t see anything. I listened as the doorbell chimed through the house and was happy to see Lucy, Maddie’s sister, open the door.

  Lucy had her dark hair pulled back into a tight bun. She wore the crisp grey uniform all Abernathy house employees wore. Maddie and Lucy had spent most of their lives at the ranch since their mother worked there when they were children. Since she didn’t always have sitters, she brought the girls to work with her. Once they were old enough, they started working there too.

  “Tara! What are you doing here?” she whispered as she stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

  “I’m here to talk to old man Abernathy. I heard he’s giving the manager job to his son. So I’m here to give him a piece of my mind.”

  “Well then, come in I guess. He’s in the study with Mrs. Abernathy and Mason.”

  Lucy opened the
door wide, and for the first time I got a glimpse at the inside of Abernathy Manor. As I stepped past the doorway, my eyes were drawn to the glass wall ahead of me. On the other side of the glass was an open courtyard framed by balconies from the second floor of the house. In the courtyard was a lush garden with a seating area and a fountain. I had never seen anything like it inside a house.

  “This is your first time here, isn’t it?” Lucy asked, but didn’t wait for me to answer. “You have to see this.” She opened a small panel in the wall by the door and pressed something. With a gentle whir, the glass wall slowly slid open as the panels disappeared.

  “Holy shit,” I said under my breath.

  “I love that. Trust me when I say you don’t want to be the person who left it open when it starts raining.” She tapped the button again and the glass began moving in the opposite direction, closing the wall. “Come this way, I’ll take you to Mr. Abernathy’s study.”

  I finally understood why Maddie warned that the house was overwhelming. Everywhere I looked there was something that caught my eye and made me forget why I was there. Not only that, but the obvious wealth in the house made me feel out of place. The home I lived in with my parents could easily fit into that courtyard with room to spare. The thought reminded me why I was there and even though it made me angry, I focused on that and not the lavishness of Abernathy Manor.

  “That’s his study over there with the double doors,” Lucy said. “I’d love to stick around, but I need to check on dinner.”

  Lucy ran off down the hall before I could say anything. I pushed my shoulders back and held my head up high as I walked towards the large double doors. As I approached, I heard raised voices coming from the other side. I recognized Mrs. Abernathy’s and her husband’s voices immediately. There was one more voice I didn’t know, but that only left one person—their spoiled son, Mason.

  “No,” Mrs. Abernathy said. “You’ve been away for six years now, first with college and then graduate school. Not once did you come home in all that time. I am not letting you spend another year away, especially not all the way in Germany.”

  “I wasn’t asking for permission, Mother. I was telling you that I’m going,” Mason said.

  “Mason, you know your father isn’t well and—”

  “Do not talk about me like I’m not here,” Mr. Abernathy said. “Now Mason, as my son, you know I’m expecting you to take care of everything here once I’m gone.”

  “Dad, don’t start.”

  “It’s the truth. I can’t sit here and pretend I’m immortal.” Mr. Abernathy laughed. “You’re twenty-four years old and you’ll do whatever you want to do. I’m glad I raised you to be your own man. But my time is limited, so I’m asking you to take some time to work here. I need you to learn the business. I need to know that you can take care of it once I’m gone.”

  In the four years that I had been working there, old man Abernathy lived up to what we called him. We didn’t mean any disrespect, it was just our way of letting off steam from working for someone we rarely saw. None of us knew exactly how old Mr. Abernathy was, but he was frail and gaunt and looked like his wife’s father instead of her husband. Considering he rebuilt Abernathy Manor more than forty years ago, we knew he had to be up there.

  The voices in the study had calmed down, but instead of knocking to tell them I was there, I leaned closer to one of the doors and pressed my ear against it. The door swung open, knocking me off balance, but instead of falling I was caught by a pair of muscular arms.

  I looked up to see who the arms belonged to and saw a rugged, tanned face smiling at me. He had a closely cropped beard, short dark hair, and warm light brown eyes. As he helped set me onto my feet his smile grew, revealing dimples.

  “You should watch where you’re going, sweetheart. I might not always be around to catch you,” he said.

  My breath caught in my throat and my blood rushed to my cheeks. I couldn’t believe how gorgeous and cocky this man was. My initial reaction was to flirt back with him, but then I realized who he was—Mason Abernathy, the reason I had to continue working my ass off.

  “My name isn’t sweetheart and the last thing I need is for you to catch me,” I said.

  “If you say so, but that’s not how it looked to me," Mason said as he walked past.

  “Asshole,” I muttered.

  Mrs. Abernathy was an overly thin woman with silvery grey short hair and a pointed nose that turned up slightly at the tip. She eyed me up and down with her eyebrows raised and disdain covering her face.

  “I didn’t hear anyone announce you. Do they just let anyone in nowadays?” she said as she turned towards her husband.

  “Iris, can you please give us a moment?” Mr. Abernathy said. “I think I know what this is about.”

  Her lips curled as she walked past me and out the door. Mr. Abernathy sat behind an oversized desk that would have dwarfed most rooms, but was almost lost in this one. He was a slight man with wispy grey hair and glasses. Whenever I saw him he wore a perfectly tailored suit, and today was no exception. Behind him were floor to ceiling bookshelves, and for a moment I forgot again why I was there as I tried to read some of the titles.

  “I’m sorry to barge in on you, Sir,” I said.

  “No, Tara, you should have heard the news from me and not from the rumor mill. This is my fault. Please sit down.” He cleared his throat and drummed his fingers on the desk as I sat in an oversized chair facing the desk. “I’ll be honest with you, but I’m sure this won’t make you feel any better. Until Mason returned, I had planned to give you the manager job.”

  “Then why not just let me have it?”

  He sighed. “He’s my son, and one day all of this will be his. He needs to learn the ropes whether he wants to or not,” he muttered. “I need your help though. I need you to show him the ropes.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said as I stood up. “No, there’s no way I’m going to help him with the job that should have been mine.”

  “You’re a hard worker, Tara. Mason isn’t going to stay here for good. I know him. He’ll be here a couple of months tops and then he’ll be gone again. Just be patient. The job will be yours once he’s gone.”

  I sat back down and steadily met his gaze. I loved working at the ranch and he knew it. He also knew I was supporting my family at home. Mr. Abernathy had always been a fair man, but the thought of having to work alongside that cocky, beautiful man that was his son pissed me off. I wasn’t going to do something stupid though.

  “Okay, I’ll do it,” I said.

  Present Day

  Ashley laughed. “You didn’t hate him.”

  “I did,” I said, holding back my laughter. “He was so perfect and confident, nothing like me. I couldn’t stand him.”

  “Then how did you two end up together?” Ashley’s phone lit up and buzzed on top of the table. “Just a second, it’s Xander,” she said as she brought the phone up to her ear.

  I left the table to give her some privacy and made my way to the cash register at the front of the cafe. The manager, a petite blonde with a kind face, smiled at me.

  “Hi Amy, I’ll take care of our check,” I said.

  “It’s already taken care of,” she said.

  “What do you mean?” I looked back at the table where Ashley was juggling her phone while digging in her purse for her wallet.

  She widened her brown eyes as they met mine and then her eyes darted towards the door. I followed her gaze to the glass doors and spotted Mason standing outside.

  Dammit! I can’t believe he’s here.

  “He made me promise to not tell you he’s waiting for you,” Amy said. “I hope that was alright.”

  “It’s fine,” I said, letting out a deep sigh. “I have to deal with him eventually.”

  Ashley put her phone away, took one last sip of her water, and joined me at the register with her wallet in hand.

  “Please don’t tell me you paid,” she said.

&n
bsp; “I didn’t get to. Looks like Mason tracked me down.”

  Ashley looked past me and smiled. “He’s just waiting there for you,” she said.

  “He got here shortly after you did,” Amy said. “He’s been standing there for over an hour.”

  I shook my head. “Crazy sonofabitch,” I said. “You asked how we ended up together? That’s exactly how.” I pointed at him then turned back towards Ashley and Amy. “He’s stubborn. He doesn’t take no for an answer. He always gets what he wants. He’s demanding and infuriatingly handsome.”

  “You’re going to go out to dinner with him, aren’t you?” Ashley asked.

  “I don’t think I have a choice.”

  “I don’t think you want a choice. You still love him, don’t you?”

  I nodded my head slowly. “I never stopped.”

  Chapter Two

  Tara

  As I pushed the door open, Mason turned around and opened it further. He smiled at me, making soft wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and exposing his dimples. My heart did that annoying lurch it always did whenever I saw him, making me gasp slightly for air.

  I smiled back at him as I took a deep breath. Seeing him again was like taking a step back in time. Only this time I promised myself I wouldn't give him my heart. It still hurt from the last time he had it.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ashley,” I said as I turned to hug her.

  She hugged me back tightly. “I’m expecting details,” she whispered before letting go.

  As she got into her car, I turned towards Mason and his piercing gaze.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” I said. “You know I’ve always hated that.”

  “I have a lot of time to make up for. And I know you, you’re going to make this hard on me.”

  “You deserve it to be hard on you.”