Chapter Eleven

The title of Lady Disfigurement was still up in the air, but for now I was half mummy face. Dr. King determined the cuts didn’t call for stitches, but he was worried about infection, especially since we were camping. He had fretted about whether we should get back to civilization, but it was one night, and I was no quitter. And I loved sitting around the camp fire next to Shelby, who had stolen Sawyer’s camp chair, because guess who hadn’t brought one?

Shelby took my hand. “Honey, now don’t you worry, I have some magic cream at home that is going to make it look like you never ran into that nasty old tree branch. You’ll be as pretty as you ever were.”

Was that a compliment or a slight? I had to say I think she was sincere. Why did she have to be nice? I wanted to hate her, especially since Sawyer was sitting on a rock on the other side of her. It was probably for the best he wasn’t near me, but there was nothing I liked better than when he was near me, unless he was flushing out my wounds with some antiseptic crap he carried around in his doctor kit; that burned like it was molten lava. Even then, though, I wanted to kiss his face off. It had been so close. I loved it when he was all doctory. I’d made sure to make it to my annual eye exams now that he was my optometrist. He’d told me a few months ago that I had beautiful corneas.

I tried not to think about it and instead I smiled at Shelby, who was wearing one of my sweatshirts and swimming in it, I might add. All the girl brought were shorts and tank tops. “Thank you. Maybe the scars will add some character.”

She laughed and patted my hand. “Emma, you are a delight.”

A delight? I hadn’t heard that one before from a peer. “So are you,” I breathed out.

Unfortunately, it was true. Ask Kellan, who was drooling across the way for her. He kept asking Sawyer if he wanted his camp chair. Kellan was happy to take the rock. Ashton probably would have offered too, but he had mysteriously disappeared after we’d returned from our excursion. He said he had to get to the nearest town that had reception for an important business call. That was odd. Who had a business call on Saturday? And what business? Was he leaving the Ranch already? I wouldn’t blame him. It’s not like it was a career that had a lot of upward mobility, and the pay wasn’t stellar. Dad was fair and always gave bonuses, but judging by the expensive SUV Ashton drove, he was used to a more lucrative career. He’d done something in construction when he lived in Vegas. He never said exactly what. I hoped he made it back before the sun completely set. These roads at night were hard to navigate.

For a moment, I took in the fire at twilight. The way it crackled and danced. In it I saw my mom. This was her favorite thing to do when we camped. I eyed the dutch oven with her famous pineapple upside down cake that we were going to have for dessert. It was about ready to be enjoyed. I could smell the sweetness. It smelled like Mom. I looked around at the faces that reflected the glow of the firelight: Jenna’s, Brad’s, Aspen’s. Sawyer’s I saved for last. His beautiful face was already smiling at mine. Four beautiful people inside and out who had helped me through the most difficult year of my life.

While I was staring at Sawyer, Jenna said, “You know what this reminds me of?”

We all turned our attention to the cute preggers lady.

Jenna gave me a mischievous grin. “Remember when we were about thirteen and we begged your mom to let us spend the night outside because we wanted to set off the firecrackers we had been gifted without anyone knowing?”

By gifted she meant we stole them from her older brother.

I shook my head at her. “We were real geniuses.”

“Well, maybe if someone hadn’t left the bag near the fire pit.” Jenna smirked.

“Hey, my s’mores needed saving.”

Jenna rolled her eyes.

“What happened?” Sawyer asked.

“Well, let’s just say Emma could have been a great pyrotechnician”

I turned to Sawyer. “We lit up the sky like the Fourth of July. My mom and dad came running out after the initial boom to find our backyard lit up in an array of colors. While my dad dragged Jenna and me to safety, my mom stood and smiled, taking it all in. I thought she would have been furious, but she kept saying how beautiful it all was.” I choked up.

“She was the best,” some emotion crept into Jenna’s voice too.

“And could she bake,” Brad remembered fondly. “That chocolate peanut butter fudge she made every Christmas was the bomb. She always let me lick the spatula.” That meant a lot to Brad, who only grew up with his father.

“I remember when I got my wedding dress back,” Aspen tried not to gag, “and the alterations were all wrong. Your mom stayed up all night painstakingly taking stitches out all while telling me not to listen to the naysayers telling me I was wasting my life getting married so young and having a baby. Babies were a blessing, she said, no matter how they came. She never judged me for getting pregnant with Chloe or when Leland ran out on us.” Aspen cried. “Every week for a year she brought me a box of diapers with cash hidden in it.”

I never knew that. My tears flowed. I had to catch them before they soaked the dressing on the injured side of my face.

“Not once did she ever forget mine or Chloe’s birthday.”

“Her birthday presents were the best,” now Jenna was choking up.

Brad was nodding.

“They really were,” I said. “I don’t know how she did it, but it was like she knew exactly what would make you supremely happy. And it was never anything you asked for. When I turned nine, she gave me a telescope. Never in a million years would I have ever thought about asking for one. But night after night after my mom put the twins to bed, she would take me out on the deck and she would show me the moon and tell me stories about when she was growing up and where she was when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. We even got to see some of Jupiter’s moons through that old thing.”

“Your mom was the coolest.” Jenna stared into the fire, now ugly crying.

“Yeah, she was,” Brad agreed.

“She was my most memorable patient.” Sawyer didn’t want to be left out.

I gave him a meaningful look. If it wasn’t for my mother, I wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t have had the worst and best year of my life with the man who owned the amber eyes that looked so dang sexy in the fire.

Sawyer gave me a closed lipped smile. “I know I didn’t know her well, but I do know how much she loved her daughters. I don’t know if she would want me to say this, but I think you were her favorite.”

“Oh, hands down,” I laughed through my tears. I knew that wasn’t true. My mom always said she loved us equally but differently. I do believe, though, that she and I had more in common, so it made our relationship easier. Don’t get me wrong, my mom could dress up just as fine as my sisters, and boy could she wow, but she was most comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt like me. She didn’t mind getting dirty, in fact, she encouraged it.

I noticed Shelby got awfully quiet and curled into herself, staring into the distance as if her thoughts were a million miles away. I almost asked her what was wrong, because despite the fact that my mom wouldn’t have liked that she was impeding her plans for me, Mom never overlooked the opportunity to help someone, even if she didn’t like them.

Before I could, Brad jumped up. “I say we have some cake and toast Shannon Carrington, mom to us all and mother of one of the best people I’ve ever known.” Brad gave me his most charming smile.

I waved him off. “You’re a goof, but I love you.”

Brad pointed at me. “For that, you get the second biggest slice of cake.” Brad was one person who could eat more cake than me, though I was always ticked that he seemed to lose weight from the effort while I was guaranteed to have another dimple on my butt tomorrow. Oh, well. No one was seeing my naked butt anytime soon, so I might as well enjoy myself. I knew Mom would want me to, and she’d think my dimples were cute no matter where they were.

~*~

After the lovely night of tributes to my mother, it was time to hit the hay. This was where things got awkward. Since Shelby didn’t have a sleeping bag and no one had brought an extra one, Aspen and I put what we had together for the three of us to sleep together. We laid my bag unzipped on the bottom and used Aspen’s bag for the top, as well as two blankets, one of mine, and one Sawyer had chipped in for the cause. He was the cause, so it was only right.

We had to put Shelby in the middle because she had no body fat and basically no pajamas, unless you counted the fire red negligée she’d brought. Did she think she was going to parade around in that in front of Sawyer? Feelings of hate were starting to bubble up again even though she was super grateful I let her wear my sweatshirt to bed. I, on the other hand, was wearing thermal underwear with pandas all over them. I wasn’t planning on showing those off to Sawyer. Aspen was more cutely dressed in hot pink flannel pajamas.

I was more than ready to go to sleep by the time we settled into our makeshift bed in the flashlight-illuminated tent and got way too cozy for comfort, but Shelby had other ideas.

I had just closed my eyes when I heard the sniffling. She even did that cutely.

“Shelby? Are you okay?” I whispered.

“I’m so sorry.” Shelby turned toward me. “It’s just, it sounds like you had such a nice momma. I wish I could have known her.”

Aspen sat up a bit and even in the dark I could tell she was giving me a look like what should we do?

I wasn’t sure what to say. Sure, Mom would have been nice to her, but she also would have done her best to make sure Shelby kept her paws off Sawyer. “What about your family? They’re from Roswell, right?” It was the best I could come up with.

She sniffled and nodded her head. She had to take a minute to think and compose herself. “Well, to be honest, my family, we . . . well, we don’t always see eye-to-eye.”

“Is that why you moved here?”

“Not exactly, but it has something to do with it.” She seemed hesitant to say anything.

It made me all the more curious, especially considering where she lived and her current job. I didn’t want to act nosy though, so I closed my eyes, thinking that was the end of it. Nope.

“You see, I was engaged.”

Oh.

Aspen and I both popped up and propped ourselves up on our elbows, intrigued by this revelation. I’d wondered about that tan line on her wedding finger.

Shelby pulled the covers around her tighter as if she needed the comfort. “A few years ago, at a concert my parents wouldn’t have wanted me to be at, I met Ryder.” Her voice hitched with the pronunciation of his name. Immense loss sounded in the change of her tone when she said his name.

We would get to that in a moment; what I wanted to know first was why did her parents care what kind of concerts she was attending? “Shelby, how old are you?”

“Twenty-eight.”

So a few years younger than us, but come on.

“My birthday is on Valentine’s Day, the day I got engaged,” she cried.

Of course she was born on Valentine’s Day. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty herself, hadn’t hand carved this woman in her image and sent her down from the heavens.

“What happened?” I tried to sound more sympathetic than curious.

She sat up and took the sleeping bag and blankets off Aspen and me. She pulled her knees up to her chest, along with the covers. This forced Aspen and me to do the same if we wanted to stay warm. Nights at this elevation were chilly no matter the time of year.

Shelby gathered her thoughts while resting her head on her knees. Even in the dark I could see the tears trickle down her beautiful face. And those thick, long eyelashes of hers? I’d found out earlier in the day they were all real.

Shelby let out a meaningful sigh. “Ryder wasn’t my parents’ ideal boyfriend or husband for me. He was a little rough around the edges and he didn’t have the right . . . credentials,” she hesitated to say.

“Credentials?” Aspen asked.

Shelby bit her lip as if she knew what she was about to say was a bit snobbish. “His education, financial situation, and family ties were less than desirable to my parents.”

“But you didn’t care?” I had to ask. Though Sawyer had an impressive resume, I couldn’t let him be with someone who would think less of him because he wasn’t properly bred.

Shelby shook her head with a sad smile. “Not at all. Ryder,” she swallowed, “was, or at least I thought he was, the smartest, funniest man, and when he wanted to be he was all gentleman, but he was a tad unconventional.”

Both Aspen’s and my eyes said, what?

Shelby fidgeted a bit. “Although he never had any formal higher education, he was real smart. He worked for a software company. He was like a Bill Gates.” Her voice shined with pride.

“Did he own the company?”

“Oh, no. That might have made it better for my parents, but Ryder was happy without those kinds of pressures. He believed life was too short to spend it living at work. Well, until the end, except I don’t think he was really working like he said he was.”

Now we were getting to the crux of it.

“Ugh,” Aspen spat. “I know where this is going. Men are vile pigs.”

Shelby nodded. “They can be.” She pulled her knees tighter to her. “My momma and daddy hired a private investigator and there were pictures of him with this woman while he was on a business trip.” She full-on started to bawl.

People really hired private investigators? I thought that was just in the movies.

Aspen was good enough to wrap her arm around Shelby. “It’s better that you found out before you married the cheater and had a baby with him.” Resentment and regret wove through Aspen’s words. She never regretted having Chloe, but she wished for a different father to help raise her daughter. Leland was, for the most part, an absentee father. He hadn’t lived around here for a long time and he only paid child support when it suited him. Aspen’s parents had stepped in and helped raise Chloe. She was with them this weekend.

Shelby nodded. “I suppose so. I just don’t know how I could have been so fooled. For three years I gave him my life and defied my parents, all so we could be together,” she choked out.

“I’ve been there,” Aspen growled.

“He’s why you moved here?” I asked. This way I would know who to properly hate when Shelby rode off into the sunset with my man.

Shelby turned my way and wiped her eyes. “Yes,” she didn’t sound so sure.

I tilted my head, asking for more clarification.

Shelby lifted her head. “You see, my momma’s family are the Hobbs.”

I sat up straight. “As in Hobbs Eye Centers?” As in one of the largest eye store chains in the country?

Shelby gave a tentative smile and a slight nod. “That would be correct.”

“Whoa,” Aspen whistled.

“Does Sawyer know that?”

Shelby shook her head. “I didn’t think it would be good to spread that around. I don’t want people to look at me any different. My parents thought it would be best if I got as far away as I could for a while, and this is about as far west as our stores go, so they worked it all out.”

Wow. They must have really hated this guy—and me, inadvertently.

“It’s not really what I would like to be doing. I have a master’s degree in nursing. I was a midwife for a hospital in Roswell. It wasn’t exactly what my parents wanted me to do. They always hoped I’d go into the family business. I’m here trying that out.” No wonder she lived in such a nice place. So, I guess she wasn’t growing marijuana on the side like I first figured.

“How do you like it so far?” I asked.

She took in a breath and let out some shudders. “Everyone has been real nice at the center.”

I bet they had.

“And it’s interesting, but I miss working with mommas and their babies.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I love babies. I wanted to have a house full of them. I thought Ryder wanted that too.” Her tears came again. This explained why she had been so excited for Jenna and Brad’s baby even though she didn’t know them.

This time I put my arms around her. I wanted those same things too.

Shelby turned into me and cried on my shoulder. “Y’all have been so nice to me. I was afraid to move to a new state all by myself, but you all have made me feel so welcome. You even let me borrow your clothes and sleeping bags. Y’all are just so sweet.”

I looked at Aspen over Shelby’s head; we both were wide-eyed. I wasn’t exactly sure we had been nice to her, or even welcoming. I mean, earlier in the day I wanted to rip her arms off and push her into the river.

Shelby continued to snuggle right into me, taking comfort. Once she quit crying, she took a cleansing breath. “You know, I think Colorado could really be a new beginning for me. I think I’d even like to give Sawyer a chance.”

My arms fell away from her while my heart stopped beating.

“What do you think of him, Emma, being his stepsister and all? Is he a wicked stepbrother?” she teased. “Or is he a man who is true to his word and character?”

I turned away from her with tears in my own eyes now. Sawyer was of the not-so-wicked variety, and I had never known a man truer or kinder than him, but that was none of Shelby’s business.