Her protective wall seemed to crack just a little. Heck, she really wanted to rush forward and cling to her father the way she used to do when she was younger and found herself frightened or hurt.
But times had changed. She needed to remember that. She wasn’t a little girl anymore and she didn’t need anyone, especially not her father. Repairing the wall around her heart, she started moving again — was her stride suitably confident? — and then sat down across from Richard without a word.
“It’s so good to see you, Brielle. I’m glad you made your way to Seattle,” Richard said, his smile not deflating in the least despite the cool look she was sending his way.
“You really left me with no choice, Father,” she replied, trying to tone down the bitterness in her voice but not quite managing to pull it off. She’d had to take a bus to Seattle. A bus! The trip had taken three days. Three days of pure hell.
“Again, I will say that I’m very sorry I had to do things the way I did, but I need for you all to understand that anything in this life worth having is worth working for.”
“This whole rescuing-a-failing-business thing is stupid, Father. I don’t know anything about business. Do you remember my college major? You’re setting me up for failure, and you know it.”
“I would never do that. I love you, Brielle. I know how strong and capable you are. Heck, from the moment you were born, you had your brothers and me wrapped around your tiny little fingers,” he said with a chuckle.
“The only business that’s left is a stupid ranch in Montana.”
“I know. Your brothers have already taken possession of the other businesses. I’m very pleased to be seeing results already.”
“I can’t go to Montana!”
“I hope that’s not true, Peaches, because I think it’s just the place you need to be.”
“I’m not Peaches anymore!” She obviously couldn’t pull this off. She was too dang upset.
“You will always be my baby girl. I love your brothers dearly, but you will always hold more of my heart than anyone else. And I know you can do this. I wouldn’t have asked you to do a task I thought you’d fail at.”
They gazed at each other for several moments. Two personalities so much alike in some ways, but so different in others. But the bottom line was that Brielle knew he had the upper hand, knew he didn’t need to back down. He knew that, too.
“And if I do fail, I lose everything?”
“Failure isn’t an option. You’re a Storm.”
“You don’t know me anymore, Father!”
“I know you better than you think, Brielle. You’re a fighter. I got lazy as a parent and forgot how to raise you, but it’s never too late. Don’t give up before you’ve had even a chance to see yourself shine.”
“Crew gets to be in sunny California and I have to go to Montana. How is that fair?”
“You shouldn’t have taken so long to choose.”
“So I’m being punished because I didn’t want to play your game?”
“You’re not being punished at all, Brielle. I know you’ll figure that out once you’ve decided to put your heart and soul into this.”
“Well, it sure as hell feels like a punishment.”
“I understand that, darling, but go to Montana and I promise that you’ll find yourself.”
He had to be crazy. How could she find herself amongst a bunch of cows?
“I need money. I have nothing,” she told him. If she could just get enough to get by for a little while, she’d manage to find another job, and she’d show him that she didn’t need him to prove herself a success.
“You have a budget to work with,” he said, then paused before speaking again. “You’ll get it once you reach Montana.”
“And how am I supposed to get there? It took the last of my funds for the damn bus ticket here.” She was still ticked he hadn’t even paid for an economy-class flight.
“I will get you there.”
Brielle greeted his words with silence, but she knew she’d been defeated.
She’d go, but only because she had no other options before her. She wouldn’t succeed, and she knew it. Still, it would be a place to rest her head, a place where she could figure things out and begin mapping out her next steps.
Yes, she would go. But she certainly didn’t have to be happy about it.
Chapter Two
It was a freaking nightmare. Sure, most ranches probably had dusty old trucks, and what else did she expect to be waiting for her at the ridiculously small airport in Sterling? But the rusty orange clunker didn’t even have air conditioning!
And now that she’d managed to get this antique off and running — sort of — she was hit with another shock as she looked at the house standing before her. What could she say about it? Country bumpkin?
She stood aghast in her stiletto heels and stared at the giant monstrosity of an ugly house before her. It was large, that was for sure, with a huge wraparound covered porch that some people might have found appealing, but Brielle wasn’t the type of girl to hang around on a front porch. Screw that quaint little rocking loveseat; she’d never use it in a zillion years.
The house was in desperate need of a paint job, and the windows looked as if they hadn’t been updated — ever. Taking a cautious step forward in the dirt and gravel, she let out a very unladylike curse as she stubbed her toe and broke a manicured nail, her high-heeled sandals offering zero protection.
“This can’t work. There’s no possible way,” she muttered. How could her father do this to her?
She could come up with only one answer: Because he doesn’t love me.
Think about it. There was just no way that the man who had raised her could love her. He’d put her in the wilds of Montana with a bunch of cows and wheat fields. Ten thousand acres of that stupid wheat and those wretched cows. Or bulls. Or whatever.
The only thing she knew about cows was that they tasted damn good when prepared by a top-level chef. Maybe that wasn’t sensitive — some of her best friends were vegetarians. But get real. She knew nothing about the world’s bovine population, and she wanted to keep it that way. Sensitivity had its limits.
Once she finally made it to the wide front steps, Brielle reached a tentative hand out to the railing. It didn’t look sturdy enough to hold her weight, and she didn’t weigh much. She made sure of that.
When the rail didn’t rock, she felt better, but not much. Holding on tight, she made her way up. But when she reached the porch, she felt a tickle on her hand. Crap! She looked down to see a huge, hairy, ugly-ass spider scurrying across her fingers. And Brielle lost it.
Screaming as if she were being attacked, she jerked her hand back, lost her balance and went tumbling backward, landing hard on the dry grass, dirt and rocks in front of the steps. She felt a bruise forming on her rump, and then Brielle did something she hadn’t done since she was thirteen years old. Twelve years of repressed emotions ended in one hell of a tantrum.
“I hate it here!” she shrieked, feeling like a fool but not caring. She hadn’t been at the ranch for five minutes and already her world was crumbling. “Spiders, cobwebs, rocks, dirt, grime, and who knows what else! Lions and tigers and bears…”