The Best Thing (Stevens Book 8)

Prologue

Beth Stevens walked down the magnificent drive of oaks, towards the plantation house. She had waited until the last tour of the day because she wanted to be able to linger a little and ask some questions. It was a beautiful spring day, and the grounds of the plantation on the Ashley River in South Carolina was a perfect setting. The plantation had been in movies and photo shoots for decades, and it was the epitome of the antebellum south.

There had been plenty to occupy her time during the afternoon. She had taken a tractor tour of the farms, walked along the river, toured the old boathouse, studied the gardens, eaten in the café, admired the stables, and shopped in the store. It wasn't hard to picture how the place had looked two-hundred years previous when it was an operational plantation.

While Beth had enjoyed her day, she wasn't playing tourist. She was there on a fact-finding mission. She was a history major at the University of Georgia, and she had decided to study her family tree for one of her class projects. Her father's side was well documented, but her mother's side was a mystery, and there was nothing that Beth loved more than a good mystery. After months spent in libraries and online, she had traced her maternal side back to one woman named Mary and the  River Moss Plantation. Mary had been an African woman brought to Charleston in 1840 and sold to the Ramsey family as a slave. The records of her sale claimed that Mary was about nineteen, which was Beth's current age. It was a fate that was impossible for Beth to identify with, not only because her skin was white but because she was raised in a world of privilege, unlike Mary, who hadn't had a choice.

However, since Mary was one of her great grandmothers, she wanted to know what it had been like for her living at River Moss Plantation. Beth was connected to Mary by blood, and for her to have survived and fought for her freedom meant that she had to have been a hell of a strong woman. Beth was hoping that in finding her, she could find some of her strength.

Beth walked up the steps, following the crowd that had gathered at the bidding of the tour guide. Beth was short, and it was hard for her to see over the tall people in front of her, so she worked her way around the edge of the crowd until she found an opening that allowed her to see the man who was talking.

The man was unbelievably handsome, and Beth could hear the comments of the admiring women around her. He was tall with dark hair trimmed short, a white button-down dress shirt with the plantation's logo and blue jeans. His voice was deep, and the southern drawl was outrageously charming. His smile was meant to charm as well, and Beth had the feeling that he was laying it on a little thick for the audience.

He welcomed them, introducing himself as Wyatt and telling them how pleased he was that they were there. When he turned to rake his gaze over Beth's side of the group, she noticed his shocking green eyes. He flashed another smile at Beth, and she could only stoically stare at him, her eyes unblinking behind her thick glasses. His smile faltered and looked at her oddly before smiling again and turning his attention back towards the crowd.

Beth wanted to kick herself. She knew when a handsome man smiled at her, she was supposed to smile back. Her twin sister, Mave, had lectured her on it ad-nauseum over the years. Mave wasn't like her though, where Mave was a beautiful strawberry blond with long legs, the Stevens family blue eyes, and took after their father Rainer Stevens, Beth was dishwater blond on the short side with brown eyes like her mother, Alice Stevens. They couldn't be more different in not only their looks but their confidence.

Wyatt ended his lecture on the rules and started the tour by leading them all inside the house. He held the door open while those on tour passed him, and Beth couldn't help but be aware of Wyatt as she brushed by him while he talked to the other guests. She wanted to look at him but didn't dare, so she moved to the other side of the room as soon as she was able.