Second Chance at Sunflower Ranch (The Ryan Family #1) by Carolyn Brown

“But—” Mia started to argue.

Addy shook her head. “I love you. I’m glad you’re home. I’m sorry that Ricky did this to you, but there are no buts, Mia. Accept the fact that you messed up.”

“I already did,” she whined. “I told you I was sorry, and I didn’t have a right to come back home.”

“That’s the first step. The second one is proving it.” Addy hugged her again.

“Where is Ricky?” Jesse asked.

“I don’t know. I guess he’s in Vegas still, but I never want to see him again.” Mia brushed her kinky dark hair away from her wet cheeks.

Her eyes and height are from Jesse, but at least she got her curly hair from me, Addy thought and then wondered why on earth she would be thinking about genetics at a time like this.

“I feel ugly again,” Mia whispered. “Ricky made me feel pretty. I should have known that he only saw my money. I’m like a tall, lanky old sunflower growing wild in the field. The girl he left with was a tiny blonde with blue eyes, like a delicate little rose.”

“Being tall does not make you ugly,” Jesse said. “How do you know that he left with a girl?”

“He wrote a note saying that he was leaving with the love of his life, that I should be out of the hotel by noon, and that he was taking the rest of the money we had. We!” She doubled up her fist and hit the hay bale beside her. “He didn’t put a dime into the trip and spent all of my money at poker. He kept saying that he could feel a lucky streak, and when he won enough, we’d travel around the world.”

“How did you get home if you didn’t have any money?” Addy wasn’t sure she even wanted to know the answer.

Mia looked at the ceiling. “After the kissing fight, I hid a hundred-dollar bill in the pocket of the hotel bathrobe. I didn’t have enough for a hotel, so I drove the whole distance. I only stopped for gas, and I got hot dogs and chips when I filled up the truck. The trip took almost twenty hours, and…” She started weeping again. “My life is ruined. Everyone will know what he did to me.”

“I expect if Justine can hold her head up, then you can, too.” Addy wanted to cry with her. Mia didn’t deserve what had happened, but she had made bad choices. Addy realized two things in that moment. One was how much she loved her daughter. The second was that she had never fully appreciated all the love and support she had had through the years.

Mia’s brow wrinkled, reminding Addy of Jesse when he frowned. That she hadn’t seen herself in Jesse’s mannerisms was a mystery. Addy thought of clearing the air completely and telling her that Jesse was her father, but that could come later. One crisis today was enough for all of them to get through.

“Why would you say that about Justine? What has her being pregnant got to do with me?” Mia asked.

“Ricky is the father of her baby,” Jesse answered.

Mia’s green eyes popped wide open. She stared at Jesse like he had horns, a pitchfork, and a long-spiked tail. “You’re lying.”

“Nope, he’s not,” Addy said. “After the way he’s treated you, why would you think Jesse was lying to you?”

“Because that would mean…” She jumped up to her feet and began to pace again. “I can do the math. That means she got pregnant at the end of last summer. Ricky and I were secretly dating back then. He was cheating on me.”

“Maybe he was cheating on her,” Jesse said. “Ever think of it that way?”

Addy did some math in her head, too. “So you were dating him your first semester of college? When you came home on weekends…”

“Dammit!” Mia crossed her arms over her chest. “He said we had to be careful because Poppa didn’t like him. He was seeing Justine the whole time, wasn’t he?”

Addy had thought she was a blessed woman when Mia was growing up. Her child never gave her any problems, but now she realized that her daughter had been saving it all up for one big boom—like an exploding bomb that rattled every emotion and hit every raw nerve in her body. “Betsy told me that Justine wouldn’t tell anyone who the father was until the baby was born. Guess Ricky was telling her the same things he told you, that they should keep things secret, too. You should go talk to her. Y’all were friends before you went to college.”

“What would I say to her, Mama? I didn’t know it at the time, but I was the other woman back then,” Mia said softly.

“Just being able to share might be good for both of you,” Jesse offered.

“But first, you have to go home, talk to Sonny and Pearl, get a shower, and unpack your truck. Then after lunch, you and Jesse will have a long visit about whether you can work on the ranch or if you’ll need to find a different job. Betsy might hire you to clean her house. She mentioned a couple of months ago that she wasn’t happy with her cleaning lady,” Addy said.

Mia groaned.

Addy stood and was surprised that her legs supported her. She took a few steps, went up on her tiptoes, and hugged her daughter. “Get in your truck and go to the house. We’ll be along in a little while. Mia, I know this seems like the end of the world right now, but it will pass, and you’ll be stronger on the other side of it. I love you, and I’ll help you.”