Expecting the Rancher's Heir

All her life she’d come in a distant second to her father’s ambition to make Jarrod Ridge the number-one resort in the Rockies. She refused to settle for second place with her husband.

“Melissa, is everything okay?” Turning at the sound of her sister’s voice, Melissa watched Erica climb the steps and walk across the deck toward her. “You left the dinner so suddenly yesterday evening, I was afraid you might not be feeling well. Are you all right?”

“No, and I’m not sure I ever will be again,” she said honestly. “But I’ll survive. I always do.”

“What’s wrong?” Erica asked, clearly alarmed. “Are you feeling ill? It isn’t anything with the baby, is it?”

Melissa shook her head. “As far as I know the baby is fine.”

Erica looked around. “Where’s Shane?”

“I don’t know. Probably at his ranch.” Since learning she had a half sister and welcoming Erica to the family, the two of them had grown fairly close and Melissa did need to talk to someone. “I broke off our engagement last night.”

“Oh, no!” Erica immediately wrapped her arms around Melissa. “I’m so sorry. You both seemed so happy.”

Melissa shrugged one shoulder. “It’s probably better that it happened now instead of after we got married.”

“That’s true,” Erica agreed. “But it’s still so sad.” When the breeze picked up, she suggested, “Why don’t we go inside and I’ll make us both a cup of herbal tea?”

A few minutes later Melissa sat at the table, staring at the steam rising from the mug Erica had placed in front of her.

“Are you sure the two of you can’t work things out?” Erica asked quietly.

“I don’t see how.” Over the course of the longest, loneliest night of her life, she had asked herself a thousand times if she’d made the right decision. Each time the answer had been that she had. “We both saw our relationship differently and I’m not sure that could ever change.”

They were silent for several minutes before Erica asked, “Is there anything I can do?”

Melissa nodded. “You can be there for me when I let the rest of the family know the marriage is off.”

“You know that Avery and I will both be there to support you no matter what,” her sister said without hesitation. “For that matter, I can’t imagine any of our brothers being anything but supportive.”

“I hope so.” Erica hadn’t grown up in the same house with their father and therefore had no way of knowing how much emphasis had been placed on appearances and the family’s reputation. “I’ve decided that I’ll be going back to California soon.

I can have the baby out there without causing any disruption with the investors.”

“Melissa, you can’t do that. You’ll lose your share of the resort.” Erica shook her head. “No one wants to see that happen.”

“If I don’t, we could lose a considerable amount of funding for highly successful events like the Food and Wine Gala.” She rubbed the tension building at her temples. “We’ve probably already lost one of our biggest investors.”

Erica frowned. “Who’s that?”

Melissa gave her sister a sad smile. “Shane.”

“Do you really think he’ll stop funding special promotions because the two of you are no longer involved?” Erica looked doubtful. “I’m sure he’s made a lot of money from helping fund Jarrod Ridge projects. I wouldn’t think he’d want to give that up.”

“I don’t know. It could be a bit uncomfortable for both of us.” She took a sip of her tea. “But aside from Shane pulling out of upcoming projects, some of the others aren’t going to look kindly on me being pregnant and single.”

Erica touched Melissa’s hand. “I think you’re giving those people too much power over you. It’s none of their concern what you do in your personal life.”

“Shane said virtually the same thing,” she admitted.

Maybe she was giving too much credence to what others thought of her family. But it was hard to cast aside a lifetime of instruction on the importance of others’ opinions of her. For as long as she could remember her father had lectured his children on how their actions directly affected the resort and how important it was to protect Jarrod Ridge’s reputation above all else.

“The main thing is you don’t have to make a decision about any of this right away,” Erica said, rising to place her cup in the sink. “You have plenty of time to weigh your options, then you can decide what you want to do.”