Chapter One
The first sensation that made Isabel realize that she was officially in the South was the blast of sandy hot air she felt on her face when she stepped out of the doors of her train carriage. Surprisingly, it was exactly how she had imagined it to be. Like the old Westerns that she used to watch sitting on her father’s knees as a ten-year-old. That was the image of the South that she had, a romanticized notion based on years of watching cowboy films idolizing shotgun slinging and rugged men in cowboy hats.
And that seemed to be what she got.
Mitchell Town was small, as she had discovered earlier from research she had conducted online. It gave her the impression that it was a forgotten old town, a perfect place to hide away, and it would also fulfill all her dreams of living out in the South. It was something straight out of a Western romance.
The only problem was that it wasn’t very romantic. Answering an ad for a mail order bride – that was not the life she had envisioned for herself. She was a successful fashion editor for a magazine; she had her life all planned out. She even had raised enough money for a down payment on a small studio apartment in Brooklyn.
But then everything changed and she found herself here.
Isabel stood for several seconds on the train station and looked about her. It was like she had traveled back in time. Narrow New York streets, hordes of tourists, the blinking lights of Times Square, millions of colorful stores… They had all been replaced by a vast emptiness, long stretches of sand everywhere she looked. The few people she did happen to see milling about the train station were all dressed in clothes that nobody in Manhattan would be caught dead wearing. Unless it was for a costume party.
Isabel chuckled to herself, tucked in quickly-drying strands of hair behind her ears, and picked up the two massive suitcases she had packed.
She had become a mail order bride. Even though she had answered the ad several weeks ago, she was still not quite prepared for it.
The ad was from a horse breeder: Liam Mayer. There was no picture of him attached to the ad. The only information she had about him was that he was in his late thirties, he owned a ranch, and was raising a ten-year-old daughter named Sophie by himself.
Isabel liked the sound of the ad solely because of how anonymous it would make her. How she could simply arrive and get lost in this small town with a population of no more than three hundred people. She didn’t know how to be a mother, but Sophie was ten years old. It wouldn’t be like she had to change diapers or sterilize feeding bottles.
Isabel started walking in the direction of the ranch based on the directions that were sent to her by post after she answered the ad. She had been told that nobody would be there at the station to receive her. She hadn’t known what to wear because as much as she had thrived on watching Westerns when she was growing up, this was 2016. She had never been to this part of the country before and had no notion of what people actually wore in such a place.
So she settled on wearing a thin white cotton dress to combat the heat, a pair of high leather boots, and a wide leather hat. A dress like that would not only make her comfortable, but she knew that it was also the best way to camouflage her weight. She was very conscious of it especially when she was meeting people for the first time.
Once she had left the train station and held up the map of directions to match her surroundings, Isabel appeared to be completely alone. It was almost like a ghost town. She dragged the suitcases behind her as she approached what could only have been the High Street in the center of the town. It, too, was empty.
Where is everybody? she thought to herself as she walked past the deserted shops. A barber's shop, a convenience store, a small bank, and two bars. Isabel turned her head to look around and found no one – at least no one was outside. The stores could have been open for business or closed, but not a soul was going to step outside in this heat. And here she was, lugging two suitcases behind her.
It was going to be her wedding day, for heaven’s sake! And nobody had come to greet her at the station. As the heat began to slowly burn Isabel’s back and sweat started to accumulate on her forehead, she also felt a pinch of rage begin to color her cheeks. What kind of rancher was this man? This Liam Mayer who wouldn’t even come to the train station to greet his new bride? Why didn’t he even bother to send his daughter?
Isabel had always had a certain impression of men from the South – cowboys who were strong and courageous, masculine and romantic; warriors, brave and sexy as hell. But where was her cowboy? That was partly the reason she had signed up for this deal anyway. Because she wanted to escape, but also because it would fulfill her fantasy of being taken by a muscular, rugged cowboy.
A sudden feeling of dread gripped Isabel as she walked slowly but surely towards the Mayer Ranch. What if Liam Mayer wasn’t how she had imagined him to be? What if he wasn’t attractive at all, or if he was a coward… a lazy man? It would be worse if he wasn’t attracted to her. If she was too big for him… too fat. Just like she was too fat for New York.