Finding Us (Second Generation Book 1)

Chapter 31

HARLOW

It’s weird how easily I fell into a rhythm of being with Lyle and his family here on Port Ranch. I had never known a real loving family that did things together because they wanted to and had a huge extended family that was around. The only living grandparent I had was my mom’s mother and she lived in a retirement home in south Texas. We saw her maybe once or twice a year, but now I’m realizing that my parents just weren’t those types of people. They had a family because that was the expectation, they didn’t have a family to HAVE a family.

Brian and Tracy’s homestead was just that: home. They raised their daughters with so much love, as well as Granger who practically grew up here. Family and loyalty were important, but not in the same way they were with my parents. My parents wanted loyalty by following the master plan and not stepping out of line. To Brian and Tracy, loyalty was a helping hand or a drop in for coffee. Loyalty was the kids always have each other’s backs in school because family first and foremost. Loyalty was love and it was something their children and grandchildren WANTED to do, not something they were forced into doing.

The ranch started out as a place that I felt like I was a visitor at and only a few weeks in, I felt like I was part of that special brand of loyalty and love. I still woke up every morning with Lyle to make him breakfast and send him off for the day. I usually went back to sleep for an hour or two and then started to go downstairs in the morning to have coffee with Brian and Tracy and any of the sisters that ended up there.

Around lunchtime, I would help Tracy put something together for the guys who were bound to stop by. I sat around with them and listened to the arguing and joking back and forth. The cursing was something that still came as a surprise to me, but I didn’t expect them to change just because I was still that goody girl deep down inside. Most of the afternoons I would head back into our apartment and catch up on some reading or watch Netflix. I had taken up baking in my free time. I wasn’t even close to as good as Brielle or Tracy, but Lyle sure didn’t mind the cakes and cupcakes that ended up in the house.

Sundays we had big family dinner in the evening and I loved catching up with all the kids. They were currently home from school for Winter Break, but they usually stayed in their homes or back and forth between the homes that were down by the pond. Every once in a while they’d come up to visit, especially Laney and Ella. Those two have become my little friends, but the closer I get with the two of them, the sadder I get about my own relationship with my sister. Officer Ruiz had left me a message a couple of days ago saying that there would be a pretty big break coming in my case soon, but he didn’t say what. He did say that it might be concerning, but I didn’t want to call him back, mostly out of fear.

I stared at my phone, my sister’s number plugged into the call screen, but I couldn’t decide if I wanted to press to call or delete the number and put my phone away. I yearned to hear her voice and tell her all about the amazing man that I had met in Lyle, but I was still angry at her for that bait and switch she did with Lyle. Taking a deep breath (and a gulp of wine), I pressed the called button and listened to the phone ringing, three times...four times...finally, before the fifth, my sister picked up.

“Hello?”

“Abby? It’s me.”

“Harlow?” Her voice lowers to a hushed voice. “Give me just a second.”

I couldn’t hear her anymore, but I could hear a lot of noise like she walking through a hallway and then finally walked through a door and down some stairs. I didn’t know for sure, but my initial gut reaction was that she was at my parent’s place.

“I’m so glad to hear from you Harlow. Did you call because you heard about Mom and Dad?”

“No. I called because, uh, I missed you and I didn’t like how we ended the last conversation.”