Lukas nodded but didn’t say anything more. I could always count on him not to push me. He knew me better than that, knew I would shut down entirely if he did.
That courtesy was something Mom hadn’t extended to anyone, though. She was often lost in her own world, indifferent to others’ emotions until they somehow came back to affect her. Dad’s death hadn’t helped, either. If anything, she’d become more withdrawn over the years and quicker to adopt a victim mentality whenever she was met with opposition.
My brother called her selfish, and my therapist called it narcissism. Po-tay-to / po-tah-to, as far as I was concerned. Whatever it was had caused a rift between us that I didn’t know how to mend.
Or if I even wanted to.
“Home sweet home,” Lukas said, pulling up to the large wood-framed gate at the front of our property. He rolled down the window and punched in the code as we waited for it to swing open slowly.
I looked at the empty hooks hanging from the worn cedar beam across the top with a pang of regret. When I was a kid, Dad and I had come up with a name for the property. He said it hadn’t mattered that it wasn’t a working ranch; everything needed a name—something that set it apart from every other plot of land that people built on. So, we’d come up with Blue Moon Ranch, and he’d had a sign made the very next day.
After he died, it was the first thing our mother had taken down. I screamed at her for hours when I realized what she’d done. Then the silence settled in. There was no sympathy or remorse in her features. Just a stony coldness that she still wore.
Lukas crept along the winding road that led past his home. It was a massive ranch-style house that looked like it had been plucked from the pages of a magazine. The exterior was made of dark rock and cedar, featuring huge windows that allowed for an unobstructed view of the sprawling acreage on each side. White pipe fencing gave the illusion of a fenced-in yard, but it was little more than a picturesque decoration.
As we drove by, I noticed the darkened windows and drawn curtains. If it weren’t for the single light illuminating the porch, it would’ve looked deserted.
“She’s fucking subtle, isn’t she?” Lukas asked. I followed his gaze to where a figure sat in a rocking chair adjacent to the front door. She was hidden behind a cloud of smoke, but I didn’t need to see her face to know what lie behind it.
I turned away, feeling uneasy. Despite the dark tint, it felt as though our mother’s contemptuous stare was burning a hole through the window. Every ounce of her disdain and disappointment was evident. She might as well have put out her cigarette directly on my skin. “So much for quitting, huh?”
“Did you really think she was going to? She’s like a fucking freight train these days. One goes out, and she’s reaching for the next,” Lukas said, pulling up to my temporary home.
I didn’t bother with a response. Neither of us had ever believed our mother when she said she was going to do anything. Smoking had been a hot-button topic growing up. Lukas and I had begged her to stop, but she never did.
“So, you’ll need to get groceries because I haven’t had a chance to go to the store, but there should be plenty of drinks to choose from,” Lukas said, hopping out of the SUV and grabbing my bags.
“Are we talking water, tea, and coffee? Or something stronger?” I asked, trailing slowly behind him up the softly lit cobblestone path that led to the front door.
The guest cabin I was staying in matched the exterior design of Lukas’s house on the hill, but it had a cozy feel that the big house didn’t have. It was small in comparison but still had two bedrooms and bathrooms for guests. The living area was an open-concept space with tall ceilings that made the room feel larger than it was, and a small office was located just off the entrance.
Lukas keyed in the alarm code and flipped on the switch as we stepped inside. He set my bags down in the entryway. “You know I always have a premium selection on hand,” he said, smirking. “Especially when it comes to family reunions.”
I came up behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist. “I love you,” I mumbled into his back. “I knew I was your favorite sister.”
He patted my hand, chuckling. “You’re my only sister.”
“Semantics,” I said, stepping back and brushing past him.
Lukas walked over and pulled two glasses from the bar cart in the living room. “Thirsty?”
I nodded vigorously before plopping down on the couch, letting out a lungful of air as my body sank into the plush fabric. It’d been one hell of a day, and the prospect of the days to come was already exhausting me.
The clink of ice cubes against crystal pulled me back as Lukas shook the glass above my face. “Bless you,” I said, grabbing it with both hands and sitting up. The amber liquid burned as it hit my tongue but finished smooth as hell. “Oh, this is the good shit.”
“Nothing but the best for the bigshot CEO. I know you’re accustomed to a certain level of luxury,” Lukas said, raising his glass.
“And you’re not?” I snorted, gesturing around the room. “I received the same inheritance as you did, Big Brother. Not to mention the very successful business you run.”
Lukas had always loved working with his hands, and Uncle John nurtured that. With a little investment from our family trust and a lot of dedication on Lukas’ part, he started Hartfelt Homes—a premier construction group that specialized in custom houses. When he inherited the ranch, he gave the main house a major facelift, and built this little cabin from the ground up. Most of the homes in Pinecrest had Lukas’s touch to them in one way or another. If something needed fixing, he’s who everyone called.
“Semantics,” Lukas said, smiling. He settled into the armchair across from me. “So, how long do you plan to stay?”
That was a great question. An excellent one, really. And the answer was complicated. While I knew I could easily take the time off given the situation, I wasn’t sure if I should.
I looked down at the glass, tapping the outside three times. “I don’t know.”
He shifted, furrowing his brows. “What’s that mean?”