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

Anna Grace, like most of the daughters of the charter members of the Belles, had been a cheerleader in high school, but she had risen even further on the social ladder because she had been elected homecoming queen and still got to ride in the parade every year. She had gone on to college, joined a sorority, and then come home to work in her daddy’s oil business. She was thirty-one now, and her mother, Mary Lou, made no bones about the fact that it was time for Anna Grace to settle down. What Mary Lou wanted, she got—plain and simple.

“Think a pharmacist is good enough for Anna Grace?” Cricket asked. “A couple of weeks ago, I heard her telling Jennie Sue at the café that she had been dating a dentist, but she really wanted to marry a doctor.”

“Her mama seems to think that a pharmacist would be just fine. I heard through the grapevine that she was already looking at wedding venues,” Lettie whispered.

“Good Lord!” Cricket gasped. “Bryce just took over the pharmacy today!”

“Yep, but when a good-lookin’ bachelor comes to town, you can expect Mary Lou to try to snag him for her daughter. She would like to have grandkids before she’s ninety,” Lettie said.

“So would we,” Nadine sighed.

“You’ve got Jennie Sue and Rick’s two daughters,” Cricket reminded them.

Even though neither Lettie nor Nadine had ever married or had children, they had been surrogate grandmothers to Cricket’s two nieces. They had taken Jennie Sue under their wing when she came back to town six years ago, and Cricket couldn’t remember a time when they weren’t her friends.

“But we want a grandson,” Lettie said. “And your biological clock is ticking, girl.”

“Then you’d better adopt Anna Grace,” Cricket said.

“We’ll do without before we do that,” Lettie declared. “She looks down her nose at me and Nadine like we’re aliens.”

“We ain’t Sweetwater Belles.” Cricket steered Lettie away from the alien subject. Aliens got the blame for everything in her life. If she lost her car keys, then the aliens stole them. If she burned a pan of biscuits, then the aliens had abducted her for a few minutes, and it was their fault. “If you ain’t a Belle, then Anna Grace doesn’t waste her breath speaking to you.”

“That’s the truth,” Nadine agreed. “I’m so glad that Jennie Sue told them to go to hell after her mama and daddy died.”

Cricket giggled. “I’m not sure she said it just like that, but they sure knew what she meant. I was there when the Belles all came to the house after Charlotte and Dill died in the plane crash. I’d always thought I wanted to be in that crowd, but good glory! I learned real quick that I’d rather be pickin’ beans as puttin’ up with those women. That reminds me. I’ve got a bushel of beans and a bucket of tomatoes that I need to bring in and wash, and I’m still covered with mud.”

“Go on then,” Nadine said. “We’ll be in town tomorrow, so we’ll stop by the bookstore. I’ve still got a chapter of The Great Gatsby to read before we come to the book club meeting next Monday.”

“I’ll bring the cookies to club that night,” Lettie offered. “I know you’re super busy since Jennie Sue and Rick are off on their vacation.”

“Thank you,” Cricket said. “That will help a lot. See y’all tomorrow.”

“Bye, now,” Lettie and Nadine said at the same time.

Cricket laid the phone back on the table and headed back outside. She brought in the beans and tomatoes, took care of them, and put them in small baskets to take to the bookstore with her in the morning.

“Poor Bryce,” she muttered as she rinsed the mud from the beans and laid them out on paper towels to dry. “He’d better be fast if he hopes to outrun Anna Grace.”





Chapter Two



Bryce was grateful that the two employees who had worked for the previous owner had agreed to stay on when he bought the drugstore. Ilene, a gray-haired lady who had worked there for thirty years, managed the soda fountain and helped stock shelves. Tandy, a middle-aged pharmacy technician, helped him but wasn’t too proud to stock shelves, manage the register, or do whatever needed done. They had made sure the transition was an easy one when he took over the store, and on Wednesday, his second day at work, they were waiting at the back door when he arrived.

“Good morning, ladies,” he said as he slid out of his SUV and headed across the small parking area to unlock the door.

“You might be singing a different tune by noon,” Ilene told him.

“I thought you’d have more time, but it looks like the vultures are circling,” Tandy laughed.

He turned the key in the door but didn’t open it. Instead he looked up at the blue sky without a cloud anywhere in sight. “Vultures? What are y’all talking about?”

“You’ve been earmarked to be married by Christmas to one of the town’s most elite women, Anna Grace Cramer. Her daddy owns Cramer Oil Company, and her mother is one of the Sweetwater Belles.”

He opened the door and stood to the side to let them enter before him. Ilene flipped on the lights and reset the thermostat, then went to open the front door.

“What’s a Sweetwater Belle?” Bryce asked and wondered why the upper crust of Bloom would want their daughter married to him when they didn’t even know anything about him.