Asher still sees me as the girl I was.
It's time to show him the woman I've become.
Asher
I'm a man of few weaknesses.
Cassidy is one of them.
She's my Kryptonite.
Too beautiful.
Too Tempting.
And completely off-limits.
Almost losing her is the wake-up call I need.
I hope I haven't left it too late to claim the only woman I've ever loved.
Chapter One
Cassidy
My mother is finishingher second whiskey as I dish up supper. Thanks to her frivolous spending, our grocery budget is meager, so I’ve made a chicken pie and stretched it out with plenty of vegetables. God knows what she buys, but it’s always a struggle to get through the month to my next paycheck.
Now in her mid-forties, she’s still a knockout. She has a great figure and a lovely face, and she uses both to good advantage. I’ve lost count of the number of lovers she’s had over the last ten years.
“What you need is a man to loosen you up a bit,” she says as we sit down to supper. She pauses to take a slug from her tumbler of whiskey. “You’ll need a bit of a makeover first, though. Put on a little makeup and buy some new clothes that fit you better.”
It’s the same every night—my mother already tipsy, pointing out my shortcomings. I bite my tongue. It only makes her worse if I answer back. The best course of action is to say nothing at all.
The chicken pie is delicious, served with homemade bread rolls, but she hardly notices what she’s eating as she rambles about aman in town allegedly having an affair with a married woman. She seems to thrive on bad news and misery, which is why I keep a good distance between myself and the coldhearted woman who calls herself my mother.
I eat a mouthful of my pie, wondering for the hundredth time where my father is.
I was eleven when my parents first split, and he took me to Denver. I spent the next five years with him, missing the wide-open spaces of Silver Springs. Then my father’s business went under. He wasn’t the same after that. Not that we were close before. With no way to support himself, let alone a teenager, he brought me back and dumped me on my mother’s doorstep. He said a girl my age needed security, and he could no longer provide that for me. Why he thought my mother could, is beyond me. He knew as well as I did that her behavior was unpredictable at the best of times—he just chose not to remember. He left me on her front porch, a shy, awkward teenager full of insecurities and hormones.
Life has been a struggle ever since. I’ve almost saved enough to move into a tiny apartment in town. I’ve had all I can take of living here, with a parent who treats me with indifference at best and disdain at worst. I’m twenty-one years old, and it’s time I took control of my life.
“I always wanted a beautiful little girl who looked like me,” my mother sighs wistfully. “You know, if you made a little effort, lost some weight, and got your hair styled properly, you’d be quite attractive, Cassidy,” she says, determined to ram my shortcomings down my throat.
I clench my teeth. “Beauty isn’t everything, Mother. I’d rather be smart. Even the most beautiful people can be ugly on the inside,” I say with a meaningful look in her direction.
“If you’re so smart, why don’t you go back to college and get a better job,” she retorts, ignoring my snub. “Working in a veterinary surgery isn’t exactly aiming high, is it? Although I must admit, Dr. Cole is a good-looking man,” she adds with a lusty grin, causing me to almost choke on a mouthful of vegetables. “I asked him for a drink last week when I saw him in town, but he ignored me. He must have a girlfriend,” she says as if that’s the only reason a man would turn her down.
The idea of my mother asking Brand out is mortifying. I know Brand isn’t interested in a relationship with anyone, let alone a woman like my mother, who drinks, smokes, and gossips too much. Brand has never said anything, but rumor has it he lost someone he loved years ago.
My mother leans back in her chair, her pale blue eyes raking me up and down. “You’ll never get anywhere with any man looking like you do, you know.”
I drop my fork, leaving the rest of my food untouched as I turn to look at my mother, my eyes flashing with anger and pain. “Why do you hate me so much?”
The following silence is laden with tension as she considers her reply. “Did you know your father wanted a son? He never said it, but I could see his disappointment when you were born. He wanted to try again for a boy, but I refused. One kid was enough. When you were eleven years old, and your father divorced me, he said he’d take you with him if I’d loan him enough money to set up his car renovation business. So, I did, and he took you off my hands, even though he didn’t want you either.”
I stare at my mother in horror, the color draining from my face. She’s always had a vicious tongue, but this is a new level. Over the years, I’ve had to accept that my mother and I will never have the close relationship I always yearned for, but it’s devastating to learn that neither of my parents ever really wanted me.
I get to my feet and clear the table without a word, carrying the plates into the kitchen. Escaping onto the porch, I take deep breaths to keep the tears at bay. I wrap my arms around myself, cold despite the balmy summer evening. Walking out to the front yard, I stop at the railing separating our land from the Stanton ranch. It’s a beautiful view at night, with the moon painting the leaves of the spruce tree in the front yard silver.