Prologue
Charlotte
I leaned my elbows on the stainless-steel countertop in front of me, reaching up to rub my temples, hoping no customers were looking my way as I did so. Today was proving to be an extremely long one. The lunch rush had been exhausting. It seemed like every table I’d served had wanted their food immediately after it was ordered, so they’d been rude and unpleasant. And then, on top of that, they barely tipped even though I’d busted my behind to get them what they needed.
The cherry on top? The girl who was supposed to come in to relieve me for the dinner shift decided that she didn’t want to show up. So, I was stuck covering her shift. I knew I could’ve denied working; I wasn’t on the schedule after all, but I knew I needed the money after only making a whopping forty dollars from the lunch rush. Which really sucked because I’d served numerous tables, and all the tickets added together had been close to a grand.
People tended to overeat when they went out for lunch. And normally, I wouldn’t complain, but jeez. Forty dollars for all that money?
I straightened up when my manager stepped out of the back. Robert was the better manager out of the two that normally worked the evening and overnight shifts. Miranda was… difficult. But Robert was very laid back and nice. God knew I needed someone nice in my life. But it hadn’t been easy for anyone in here to become friends with me. I kept a wall up around me that could rival The Great Wall of China.
“You doing okay?” he asked me. His voice was low and raspy from years of smoking cigars. And he couldn’t yell. His voice was always no more than really a whisper. But you knew when he was angry. Thankfully, he’d never been angry at me.
I blew out a soft breath and nodded my head. “Hanging in there,” I said. That was the best answer I could give him, to be honest.
His lips tilted up the slightest bit. “You want some food?”
I snorted. I was hungry. My stomach was so empty it was beginning to hurt, but I couldn’t afford a meal—not today.
“Broke,” I confessed with a shrug of my shoulders.
He turned to the cook on duty, Brian, and ordered my favorite meal—Tilapia served over rice with green beans. I offered Robert a soft, relieved smile, my heart clenching in my chest. He was always looking out for me.
“I’ll cover your meal,” he told me, “and your tables once your food is ready. Got to eat, girly. Can’t have you wasting away on me.”
I snorted. I’d learned to go without food—learned it at a pretty young age. I wasn’t at risk of wasting away anytime soon.
But I didn’t tell him that.
I checked on my tables, refilling drinks and delivering food as it was ready. One table even ordered dessert, so I sliced up a fresh apple pie, warmed it up, added ice cream, and served it, too. Once my own meal was done, I headed into the back, seeking out Robert. He wasn’t in his office, but the back door of the restaurant was propped open. I poked my head around the corner into the cooler night air.
“My food is done,” I told him as he inhaled on his cigar.
He nodded and put it out before coming inside. He washed his hands and then waved me off. I quickly grabbed my food from Brian, pressing a kiss to his cheek in thanks before I took my food to a table in the back of the restaurant. I scarfed it down quickly, not wanting Robert to have to cover me for too long. He was already doing me a favor by paying for my meal so I wouldn’t go home hungry tonight.
I just prayed the overnight girl showed up on time, which was rare. It seemed like no one showed up on time at this place, but Joseph, the general manager, would never freaking fire them.
Once my plate was empty, I handed it off to the new dishwasher, washed my hands, thanked Robert, and took my tables over again. Tips were much better as the night progressed, and I quickly made what I should have made during the lunch rush and then some. It was a blessing, really, even if I was still a couple of hundred away from what I needed for rent. I just prayed my landlord hadn’t dragged himself out of his house yet to come put an eviction notice on my door.
He was a stickler about rent, and I was five days late. Today was the last day I had to pay. But I was trying hard not to think about that.
The overnight girl actually came in on time, so after cashing out my credit card tips, which was another hundred, I clocked out, grabbed my bag, waved goodbye to Robert, and headed out the door to walk home.
I was only a mile down the street from my apartment. This area of San Antonio wasn’t too bad, but I could never be too careful, so I had pepper spray ready in my hand and my phone unlocked in my other in case I needed to quickly dial 9-1-1.
When I made it home, my heart skipped a beat in my chest at the white paper stuck to my door. Swallowing down nausea, I quickly grasped it and ran my eyes over the black text.
I had twenty-four hours to get out of my apartment. Crap.
Heaving a tired sigh, I opened my door, mentally adding up the money in my account and the money in my pocket. I had seven hundred and eighty-two dollars to my name. I needed eight hundred, but I knew my landlord wouldn’t take whatever I had unless it was the full amount.
Looks like I was about to be homeless come tomorrow night.
God, life sucked sometimes.
I rubbed my temples and dropped onto my pullout bed. I lived in a simple studio apartment. I bought a pullout couch from Goodwill that served as my bed. My fridge door touched the arm of the couch every time I opened it. I had a small burner for a stove—no oven. My microwave took up my remaining counter space.
I didn’t even have a table.
But this had been home. I hadn’t wanted to live on the east side, and the west side was way too expensive for me to even think about living there. And the south side was almost as bad as the east side.
Tears burned at my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Life had dealt me a crap hand, but I’d survive. I always did.
I dropped back onto my bed and closed my eyes. I’d deal with my eviction tomorrow. For now, I just needed some freaking sleep.
~*~*~
My phone ringing woke me up. I groaned and slapped my hand around, finally grasping my prepaid phone. It was nothing more than a flip phone. It did the basics, and that was all I needed. I just needed a way for my job to contact me.
“Hello?” I grumbled. It was way too early to be receiving any kind of phone call. I could tell that by the dim light shining in through my un-curtained windows.
“Is this Charlotte Jones?” a man’s voice asked, one I didn’t recognize.
I rubbed my eyes. “It is,” I responded, trying to keep the surliness out of my voice. “How can I help you?”
“My name is Gregory Haynes. I was your great uncle Samuel’s attorney.” I had a great uncle alive? “I’m contacting you because he passed away a few weeks ago, and he’s left you his ranch. I’m sorry I’m just now contacting you. It took me a while to track you down.”
I sat up in bed, now fully awake. “Are you sure you have the right person?” I asked. My mom had been crappy. It had just been us. I’d been told all our family was dead, so I’d never looked. I hadn’t even wanted to know if they’d been telling the truth, honestly. Because if my extended family was as horrible as my mom had been, I was better off.
“I’m very sure, Charlotte. You look a bit like your great aunt did at your age.”
I stared at the blank, brick wall in front of me. “Sorry; I’m having trouble grasping this. I just woke up.” A yawn slipped past my lips at that. “I didn’t know I had any family alive,” I confessed. “Where is this ranch located at?”
“Blue Belle, Tennessee,” the attorney told me. My eyes widened. I did know my mother was from there. Guess he was telling the truth after all.
I rubbed my eyes again. “I guess I’ll be on my way soon,” I told him. “Can I call you back and let you know when I’ll get there? I might need a ride from the bus station,” I sheepishly confessed.
“Of course,” he assured me. “I look forward to hearing from you, Charlotte.”
I ended the call and stared down at the time on my phone. It was seven freaking fifteen in the morning, which meant it was too early for all of this. But this was also a sort of blessing.
I was being evicted. I had less than twenty-four hours now to get out of this apartment before the constable came to remove me himself.
But I’d just inherited a ranch. A ranch. That meant land. A house.
A home.
And since he was my great uncle, maybe it was paid off, too, and I only had to pay taxes every year. And I prayed those weren’t too expensive.
I had no idea why this stranger had left me his home, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Looked like I was moving to Blue Belle, Tennessee.
