She went into the office and pulled the cord to open the blinds, Frisco mewing behind her. The sunshine had started to stream over the Gulf of Mexico, and while there were a few islands between the ranch and the actual Gulf, Emma stood in the golden glow and fed off the energy of the sun, the sea, and the sky.
Another sip of her hot chococoffee, and Emma sat down at the computer. She had processed all of the invoices yesterday, and she needed to go through accounts receivable this morning, as well as look ahead to Friday, which was payday.
She had paperwork to process for Ted, now that he was here, and she’d need to meet with Ginger to make sure the Bureau of Prisons got the packet back they wanted, by the deadline. That ensured the ranch got the promised checks from the BOP, and Ginger would stay in good standing with them.
Emma got to work, only marking time by how restless she became the closer noon got. When her stomach gave one mighty growl, she allowed herself to glance at the clock in the corner of her computer screen.
Almost noon. Praise the Lord.
She got up and went into the kitchen, Frisco right behind her, intending to put together a shredded Caesar salad and pull out one of the leftover mini-sandwiches from yesterday. She did just that, and sat at the bar. She could take her food back to her office, but she’d made a pact not to eat in front of a screen, because then each bite was mindful.
Emma wasn’t exactly overweight, but that was because she worked really hard at not letting herself develop bad habits. The truth was, she’d lost ten pounds in the past year, after gaining twenty-five the year before.
The weight didn’t come off as fast as it went on, that was for dang sure, especially the closer to forty she got. She didn’t recover as easily from a busy day either, and if she didn’t get enough sleep? She couldn’t catch up without literally snoozing all day on the weekends.
This weekend, she had another trip to San Antonio on her calendar, and she swiped open her phone to check which hotel she’d book for herself. She stayed in a different one whenever she went, and she’d never used the same name twice.
She always paid in cash, and she’d even thought about renting a different car every other weekend when she went to visit her daughter. If anyone watched her for very long, they’d easily see she went to San Antonio on the second and fourth weekends of every month. Month after month, for years.
She’d made that deal with Ginger the day she’d shown up on the ranch, asking about the administrative job. She’d never told Ginger what she was doing, because Ginger assumed she was going to visit her family.
They’d talked a lot about family and the importance of it, and Emma hadn’t lied. She was going to see her family—just not the family Ginger knew about.
Her sisters had never asked her to come visit, and Emma probably wouldn’t have gone anyway. Sally and Meredith were like Mary Poppins—practically perfect in every way. They both had husbands with respectable jobs, and families of boys and girls—the exact same number of each.
Sally had two boys and two girls, while Meredith only had one of each. They all still lived in Lincoln, a posh little suburb of Dallas, where her parents still resided as well.
Only Emma had broken the mold and dared to move outside city limits. Only Emma hadn’t been married. Only Emma didn’t have the perfect family unit to bring home on holidays and anniversaries.
She’d never told her parents or either of her sisters about Missy either. She’d wanted to, and she’d even called Meredith, the oldest sister, to tell her. But their mother had called in, and Meredith had made it a three-way call.
She’d said, “Em was just going to tell me something.”
“Oh?” their mother had asked. “I’m sure it’s just something about one of her students. You’ll never guess what I learned from Margaret today. Her daughter is pregnant!”
“Oh, no,” Meredith had moaned. “Not Ginny. She’s not even married. She should give that baby up for adoption.”
They’d continued their conversation while Emma sat there and listened, horrified. No way she could tell them now.
She wasn’t married. She was pregnant. And yes, it had to do with one of her students…and his father.
She’d hung up silently, and Meredith hadn’t even noticed for another twenty minutes.
The doorbell rang, and Emma was glad for the distraction. She didn’t like to dwell on negative things, but they’d all been stirred up with three simple words.
Have we met?
She left the rest of her salad on her plate and went to get the door. They didn’t get a lot of visitors to the ranch, and Emma couldn’t remember the last time she’d used this door. She expected to see a salesman standing on the porch when she opened the door, and she regretted interrupting her lunch to do it.
There wasn’t anyone on the front porch anyway. “Hello?” Emma stepped out onto the porch, her eyes scanning the front yard and the dirt lane beyond, the trees, all of it.
A blue truck sat at the fence just beyond the grass, but Emma couldn’t see anyone sitting behind the wheel. No one walked down the sidewalk or the road. She looked left and right, wondering how someone could ring the doorbell and then disappear so quickly. They’d have to positively fly down the steps and around the corner of the house.
She hated pranks and jokes, because making someone else feel stupid wasn’t funny. She eased back into the house and closed the door, locking it behind her. The air conditioning blew, and Emma was surprised she hadn’t heard Frisco yowl when it had clicked on. The cat didn’t like the sudden whoosh of air, and sometimes he ran under Emma’s desk as if the devil was trying to get in through the vents.
Instead of returning to the kitchen, Emma edged over to the front window, which was a bay. It jutted out, and she moved to the other side before barely cracking the blinds, so she could see the whole front yard, the blue truck, the fence, and the road beyond.
That blue truck hadn’t been there earlier—at least Emma didn’t think so. She wasn’t sure. There were so many trucks on the ranch, and she didn’t even know if it belonged to Hope Eternal or not.
She held very still, her heart pounding in the back of her throat, and watched the landscape in front of her. Literally nothing moved. It was just another normal day, full of sunshine and blue sky, with the breeze gently disturbing the grass.
No one used the front yard unless Nate was throwing a ball for Ursula so Connor would cheer up. Everyone loved Ginger’s German shepherd, Emma included. Well, Frisco wasn’t a fan of the big dog, but even they got along okay.
Suddenly, a man emerged from the corner of the house, and he didn’t glance left or right as he went. He carried a clipboard and a handheld instrument, and Emma thought perhaps he was checking the meters on that side of the house. Energy or water or something. People did that, right?
But why would he ring the doorbell?
She watched as the man went over the fence instead of through the gate. Odd, Emma thought. He did look around suspiciously then, and he turned and looked right at the house. Emma sucked in a breath and shrank back, but there was no way he could see her.
She inched forward again, trying to memorize his face. He was white, and he stood almost as tall as the truck. He wore a blue baseball cap with a white letter D on it, and she wasn’t sure what team that was for.