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

Maybe you’re wrong about Anna Grace, too. Cricket’s mother’s voice was clear in her head.

“Mama?” Cricket whispered.

But there was no more from her mother, and before she could figure out why she’d heard the voice so clearly, the bell above the door rang, and Anna Grace came into the store for the first time ever. Cricket blinked a dozen times, but the tall blond woman did not disappear.

“May I help you?” she finally asked.

Anna Grace was wearing a cute navy dress that day with matching high heels and had a matching bag draped over her arm. She crossed the floor with the grace of a runway model and sat down in the wingback chair across from Cricket’s desk. She crossed one long, slender leg over the other and took a deep breath. “I need to talk to you.”

Here it comes, Cricket thought. She’s going to tell me to leave Bryce alone or else she’ll ruin my business.

“About what?” Cricket sat down in her desk chair and got ready for the bullying.

“I want to apologize for all the times when I’ve been hateful and mean to you, and to ask for your help.” Anna Grace kept her eyes on a spot on the wall behind Cricket’s head.

“Thank you for that, but I don’t believe you.” Cricket reached under the desk and pinched her thigh, proving she wasn’t asleep but fully awake. “I think you are here to tell me to step aside where Bryce Walton is concerned, that you intend to start up a relationship with him, and eventually marry him because he’s a pharmacist.”

“If my mother was sitting in this chair, you would be right. She gave me orders to do just that this morning, but…” Anna Grace actually blushed.

Cricket folded her arms over her chest. “I think you will do anything to get what you want, and then later, you and your friends will laugh at me for being so gullible. Well, I’m an adult now. I’m not a teenager who wants to be included in your circle of friends, and I’m not someone you can bully anymore.”

“If I was sitting where you are, I would feel the same way,” Anna Grace said. “I don’t want to date Bryce. I don’t want a relationship with him. I’m in love and have been for a long time with Tommy Bluestone, a biology teacher who lives in Sweetwater. Mama won’t hear of it, and Daddy says if I marry him, I’ll have to move out of the house and find a job elsewhere because he’s not living with Mama when she’s that mad. So I just let them think I’m dating other guys, but I haven’t dated anyone but Tommy in more than three years.”

“Are you serious?” Cricket eyed her carefully. “I heard you just recently broke up with a dentist.”

“I have to invent a reason to break up with my imaginary boyfriends when Mama begins to insist that I bring them home for a weekend, or that I invite him to go out to eat with us so she can meet him.” Anna Grace looked absolutely miserable when she admitted that.

Cricket shouldn’t feel sorry for her after the way Anna Grace had looked down on her all those years, but she did. “That must be tough.”

“You can’t even imagine.” Anna Grace looked like she might break into tears any minute. “I wish Jennie Sue was here so I could talk to her, but then she probably wouldn’t even answer my calls after the way we all shunned her when she married your brother.” She lowered her voice and looked around the store. “I was proud of her for what she did. I’d never admit it to anyone else, but I was. She stood up to her mother and all the Belles when she came back to town. I want to know how she did it, because I can’t live with all this stress any longer.”

Cricket still wasn’t sure this wasn’t just playacting. “She had the guts to go after what she wanted, even before she met Rick. She rented an affordable apartment and cleaned houses for enough money to live on. You know all this, and yes, all her old friends did shun her for doing it. What makes you think she’ll even talk to you?”

“I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t,” Anna Grace said. “I want to make Mama happy, but I can’t make her happy and be happy myself. Tommy has asked me to marry him.” She pulled a black velvet box from her purse and popped it open to show Cricket what looked like an engagement ring. “Mama would throw a Southern hissy if she even knew I had this. The diamond is barely half a carat, and I think it’s gorgeous. I love it. Tommy saved up for a long time to buy it for me.”

“That reminds me of your sweet sixteen ring,” Cricket said.

Anna Grace held out her hand to show a ruby ring on her right hand. “This is my sweet sixteen ring, and I guess other than my engagement ring having a diamond instead of a ruby, they kind of do resemble each other. My birthday is in January. Mama didn’t think a garnet was fancy enough, so she bought a ruby, which is about the same color. But how did you…” She frowned.

“I remember every one of y’all’s rings. You came to school showing them off and bragging about them,” Cricket said. “I was sixteen that same year, and we were still mourning my mother’s death. Rick was in the service and couldn’t even come home. I was lucky that Lettie and Nadine brought me a cake that day. So yes, I remember that and every mean thing y’all did to me. I hated school because of you.”

“I’m so sorry.” A tear made its way down Anna Grace’s cheek and dripped off her jaw.