“Oh, my sweet girl.” She smiled sadly and sat on my bed. “I knew this day was coming, but I’m not ready for it yet.”
“Me neither, but Barbara, I can’t—I can’t keep doing this. Six years with him, and twenty-two years of not being able to live. I have to go.”
“I know.”
“It was one thing to continue dating him while he was away at school and I was trying to save money for this, but it’s an entirely different thing to be engaged to him. And you know Mom and Dad won’t let me say no!”
“I know,” she said again, and there were tears falling down her plump cheeks.
“Barb, don’t cry, please don’t cry!” God, now I was going to start crying. She’d been our maid since before I was born, she’d taken care of me growing up and she was the reason I’d wanted to go to culinary school. She was also the reason all of this was about to be possible.
Dad refused to pay for the schools, not like I expected him to or would have allowed it, but I’d gotten loans and simultaneously started asking Barb for her help. There was no way for Barb or me to bet on the races without word getting out that we were doing so, and Dad would flip if he knew. I didn’t want to use his money for anything, so I’d sold a few things Mom would never notice were missing from my room, and used that money for Barb’s brother to start placing bets for me. All the bets started off small, since I hadn’t sold anything of much value, and over the last four years they’d multiplied like you wouldn’t believe.
I’d paid off the loans before replacing what I’d originally sold from my room first, and then continued to place higher and higher bets. The last race I’d bet on, and won, I’d put down close to six figures. You get the right races, and the right pockets with horses competing; you can make a fortune. And I had.
Barbara and I had spent many nights planning this day, but like she’d said, we weren’t expecting it to happen just yet.
“I’m sorry,” she said and wiped away some tears. “I’m happy for you, baby girl, really I am. I’m just gonna miss you so much.”
“I’ll miss you too.” I hugged her fiercely and let a few tears escape as she held me. She would be the only person from this entire state I would miss. “As soon as I get to Oregon and get settled, I’ll get a phone and call you so you’ll have my number.”
She nodded and cleared her throat as her arms left my waist to grip my hands. “You can do this, Kamryn. I just know it. You have the money, you have the smarts, you have the talent, and you have the drive. Get away from here, baby girl, and don’t come back to this life. This life is its own form of prison.”
It was. God it was.
“Do you have everything packed?”
“I do.”
“All right.” She cleared her throat and her lips quivered as she spoke, “I’m going to call my brother and have him come right over to take you to the train station. I’d just pulled some cookies out of the oven. You go take some and a glass of milk to your daddy. Your mother is at her tennis lesson and then going to a massage, so she won’t be back for some time now. By the time you’re done sweet-talking your daddy, Ray will be here and I’ll have your suitcase and money waiting in his car.”
I took a deep breath and stood when she did. “I’ll miss you, Barbara, I love you.”
“I love you too, baby girl. Go live.”
Chapter One
Kamryn—May 4, 2015
“KC! GIRL, I am definitely going to need some chocolate to get through today.”
“Kinlee, seriously?” I huffed as I came through the double doors with trays of cupcakes. “We aren’t even open yet. That key I gave you was for emergencies if I wasn’t available.”
“You’re open, I flipped the board for you.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled. I’d met Kinlee almost immediately after moving to Jeston, Oregon, and I thanked God every day for that. I’d never had a friend like her, and didn’t know how I would get through day-to-day life without her. “Only you, Lee, only you.” I handed over a chocolate cupcake with peanut-butter cream-cheese frosting and started stocking my pastry case.
Within two weeks of getting here, I’d bought an SUV, found a condo, and had already leased a small space for what would be my bakery. Over the next two and a half months I was overseeing renovations for KC’s Sweet Treats, and that’s how I’d met Kinlee. She was two years older than me, shorter than short, with long black hair and a bubbly personality I’d die for. She and her mom had the boutique right next door to me and she’d come by asking if I knew what was going to be put in next to her store. One thing led to another, and I was her new best friend because I could bake. Kinlee could be crude, she could be sweet, and she was loyal to those she cared for. And I absolutely adored every bit of her.
Barbara and I spoke at least once a week when Mom and Dad were both out of the house, and though I missed her like crazy, I didn’t regret my decision. I did feel bad for leaving her in that hell storm though. Apparently my parents and Charles’s family had gone nuts but ultimately saw it as a chance for more publicity and twisted it to wind up on a few news stations. How? I don’t know, and I really don’t care. Other than talking with Barbara, I didn’t pay attention to anything that had to do with racing or Kentucky. My life was in Oregon now, and that was all I cared to focus on.
And I loved it here. This city of roughly fifteen thousand people had an old-time small-town charm to it, and I wondered how it’d taken me twenty-two years to get here. There was no doubt in my mind: I belonged here.
The best part? No one had a clue who I was.
The minute I’d gotten here and checked into a hotel, I’d found a salon, chopped fourteen inches off my hair and dyed my golden locks a rich brown. Even with the fourteen inches gone, my hair still brushed the tops of my shoulders, and with the thick, black-framed glasses I bought at a drugstore, I looked like a new person. And I couldn’t be happier.
“Oh my God, heaven!” Kinlee groaned and hopped onto the counter near the register, “Kace, tell me how you aren’t fat yet?”