Brokenhearted Beauty(Divine Creek Ranch 19)(3)

When the sun rose, she scrambled some eggs and made a piece of toast for breakfast. She peeled one of the tiny oranges she loved and poured a glass of juice and took breakfast out onto the balcony.

The day was guaranteed to be a scorcher, but that early, it still showed refreshing promise. Humidity hung in the air and she took a few seconds to wipe down her chair. Hesitating before sitting down, she decided to stretch out of her comfort zone. She opened the French doors wide and turned on the entertainment system in the living room. She selected a playlist of Country and Western songs—safe songs—and went back out to the balcony.

No George Strait, Garth Brooks, or Steve Wariner. She’d always adored those entertainers but hearing their music brought Patterson Elder to mind, which always made her cry. She’d cried so much in the last three months and she didn’t want to cry any more.

Florida Georgia Line was a much safer choice. “Hands On You” played softly while she ate her breakfast. A soft breeze teased the ends of her hair as she finished her juice and she sat back and tried to just…be. Evelyn had commented in her loving way that Leah needed to do something to relax. She had vacation time coming to her but she didn’t want to take it. It was never a good time to be away from the store, but not because she didn’t have a reliable team in place. Her assistant store manager and department managers were more than able to do their jobs. She still maintained that it just wasn’t a good time to take off.

Looking at the ends of her hair, Leah realized how much it’d grown in the last three months, so her usual pixie style was now more of a pageboy. One more thing she’d been putting off doing.

The breeze picked up again and movement near the corner of the roof drew her attention. An intricate spiderweb stretched between the gutter and the brickwork. Normally spiderwebs creeped her out, but this one was out of range for walking through or sticking to her and it was currently decorated with a thousand brilliant dewy diamonds. She smiled as it trembled tautly in the breeze, making each row sparkle. Smiles had been few and far between in the last few months, so seldom that the expression felt stiff on her face. That quickly, her mood plummeted. There hadn’t been much to smile about recently, had there?

Her sister was knocked up, living in her own place across town, a little garage apartment that six months before she would’ve turned her nose up at and called a dump. Presley Ann was still working at the store but who knew how long that would last or how reliable she’d be once the baby came. Leah couldn’t even get excited about the prospect of becoming an aunt. She felt certain that at some point, Presley Ann would turn over responsibility of the baby to someone else, likely someone her dad hired.

And her dad. Yeah. She knew he meant well but he tended to micromanage. He’d made good on the promise to send her help but that hadn’t stopped him from showing up daily, under the guise of checking on her. In the beginning, she’d hardly noticed but now it bugged her a little. She’d kept up with the store and hadn’t let it suffer despite how deep in a funk she’d gotten over Patterson’s death.

Shaking her head to banish the depressing thoughts, she gathered her dishes and shut the French doors. A chime from her phone alerted her to an incoming text message, from Evelyn as it turned out.

“Grace Warner gave birth to Grant Jason Warner at eleven o’clock last night. Seven pounds and eight ounces, twenty inches long. Mom is doing fine. They’re at the hospital here. I heard that she went into labor at her sister’s binding ceremony reception.”

Leah sent a brief reply, saying she would stop by the hospital on her way to work. A few minutes later, as the sun began to burn off some of the humidity, she made the short trek into Divine and stopped to get flowers for Grace.

She’d known Grace a long time and she liked seeing how happy her life had turned out. She was obviously content with her men, and now their daughter Rose Marie had a little brother to chase after. Leah had been invited to Grace’s sister Charity’s binding ceremony the evening before but she hadn’t had the energy or the inclination to attend. The idea of being around that many happy vibes had been too painful to consider. Not because she was jealous but because it hurt to be around happy people and not be able to muster a genuine response.

She thought of Presley Ann again as she walked through the hospital toward the labor and delivery department entry. Another situation she simply couldn’t summon any happy thoughts for.

A nurse ascertained her identity before letting her in, along with her little vase filled with yellow roses, and pointed her toward Grace’s room.