never should’ve tried to be a daddy’s girl. Not after how he treated my mother.”
Garrett debated whether to tell her that his mom and her mom had been loosely connected, that they’d actually belonged to the same Native American women’s group when they were younger, even if they’d barely known each other.
No, he thought. He wasn’t going to say anything. His mom was already making too big of a deal out of it, and he didn’t want Meagan blowing it out of proportion, too.
She cleared her throat. “None of us have anything to do with Dad anymore. Not me or my brothers. I’m not even sure if he knows that I went to prison or that I have a daughter. But he probably wouldn’t care, anyway.”
“You should start riding again and stick with it this time.”
“That’s what Tanner said. But he’s biased, especially with how much Ivy loves it.”
“I keep my horses here. They’re on the other side of the barn. I ride nearly every day, so you’ll be seeing me around, sometimes in the mornings, other times in the afternoons, depending on my schedule. You can ride here, too, if you want to take it up again. That’s a perk that comes with working at the stables. You can use any of the horses that belong to the hotel.”
“Thank you. I’ll think about it.” She smiled at Ho-Dad. He was pestering her to pet him again.
After the tour ended, Garrett and Meagan went back outside, with the grass beneath their feet and the sun shining through the trees.
She glanced around. “It’s so pretty here.” She looked higher up the hill. “Oh, wow. There’s a house up there, all by itself.”
Well, hell, Garrett thought. He couldn’t very well leave his home out of this. She would find out sooner or later that he resided on the property. “That’s where I live. I had it custom-built.”
She glanced at him and then back up the hill. “I should have guessed it was yours. It’s like a castle that overlooks your kingdom.”
He downplayed her words. He didn’t like to think of himself that way. “It’s just a beach house.”
“Well, it looks spectacular, even from here.”
Garrett didn’t thank her for the compliment. Someday he hoped to have a wife and kids to live there with him. Only he’d yet to find someone who loved him for himself and not his money.
But that was the last thing he wanted to think about, especially while he was in the presence of the beautiful young woman who’d ripped him off. He wasn’t going to let her sad story sway him, either. So she’d had a troubled childhood. So had he, but he hadn’t become a criminal. Or an ex-con or whatever the hell she was now.
He took her back to the hotel, and they parted ways, with Garrett doing his damnedest to forget about her.
But when he returned to his office, she was still on his mind, burning a fiery hole right through it.
What a day, Meagan thought. But she’d gotten through it. She’d seen Garrett and secured her new job. Still, she was feeling the aftereffects of having been in his company.
And now she needed to go home and decompress. These days, she lived in a guesthouse on Tanner’s property, a far cry—thank goodness—from the correctional institution.
She climbed into her car and pulled out of the parking lot. Once she got on the main road, the traffic was heavy, the sights and sounds quick and noisy. Meagan had grown up in LA, but, since she’d gotten out of prison, she felt like a tourist, gawking at the city that surrounded her. Being free was a strange and wondrous feeling. But it was confusing, too. Everything felt different, somehow.
When she arrived at her destination, she parked in front of the main house, a bungalow built in the 1930s, where her brother and Candy resided. With its stucco exterior, brick chimney and stone walkway, it had tons of curb appeal.
Meagan’s place, a guesthouse in the back, was just as charming. She even had her own little courtyard that included a patch of grass, a smattering of flowers and a fountain with a naked putto, a Cupid of sorts, who appeared to be peeing in the water. Most people would call it a cherub, but she knew the difference. Cherubs were angels, hailing from heaven, and putti were mythical beings who misbehaved. In that respect, Meagan could relate.
She noticed that Candy’s car was missing from the driveway, which meant she was still out and about. She’d taken Ivy grocery shopping with her this afternoon. Tanner was at work and wouldn’t be home until later.
For now, Meagan was all alone. She took the side entrance to her house and opened the gate.
She unlocked the front door, went inside and placed her purse on the kitchen table. Next she wandered into Ivy’s room. It was fully furnished and decorated in a fairy-tale theme, but Ivy wasn’t occupying it yet. Although Ivy had gotten to know Meagan from the prison visits, she’d thrown a panicked fit when they’d tried to move her in with Meagan. Bedtime was the worst. Her daughter absolutely refused to sleep there. So, for the time being, Ivy was still living with Tanner and Candy.
It made Meagan feel like a failure as a mother. But she needed to be patient and give her child time to adjust. It had only been a week.
Meagan went into her own room and heaved a sigh. She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled off her boots.
Barefoot, she returned to the kitchen and checked the microwave clock. To keep herself busy, she brewed a cup of herbal tea and sat in the courtyard. The water from the fountain flowed from tier to tier, making rain-like sounds.
After a short while, she heard a car pull into the driveway. Meagan hopped up and headed over to it.
Candy was just getting out of the driver’s side, looking as gorgeous as ever. She was a long, leggy brunette, a former beauty queen and model who’d become a yoga teacher. She and Tanner used to date when they were teenagers. At the time Meagan was only eight, but she’d adored Candy, impressed that her brother was seeing someone so sweet and pretty.
Then, after their baby sister died and their parents started going through the divorce, Tanner couldn’t handle having a girlfriend anymore, so he’d broken up with Candy.
Now all these years later, they were back together and engaged to be married. Who knew it would turn out this way? Meagan certainly hadn’t seen it coming, especially the part where she ended up in prison while the couple helped raise her child.
Candy walked around to the passenger’s side of the vehicle and removed Ivy from the safety seat. Meagan had one in the backseat of her car, too. Tanner had bought two of them, so they didn’t have to switch the same one out all the time.
Ivy was dressed in a bright red romper with her silky brown hair fastened into fancy pigtails sitting high atop her head, twisted and parted in clever ways. Meagan didn’t have a clue how to fix her baby’s hair like that. It was all Candy’s doing.
Ivy glanced over and grinned, waving at Meagan. She wanted to melt on the spot. She waved back, excited by the acknowledgment. Her daughter was
