It wasn’t meant to be.
Like most people living in Houston, Ivy knew of the Madaris family. They were a large family, all highly successful and wealthy. She had graduated from high school with Victoria Madaris, who’d been one of the popular girls. Unlike some of the other mean-spirited girls at school, Victoria had always been nice to her and Tessa and would speak to her when the other girls would not. For that reason, she’d always liked Victoria. And Victoria had even invited them to her huge party when they’d graduated from high school, but Tessa had been out of town visiting her grandmother that weekend and Ivy hadn’t wanted to go alone.
Then there was the fact that the matriarch of the Madaris family, Nolan Madaris’s great-grandmother, Felicia Laverne Madaris, was a good friend of her grandmother’s. According to Nana, their friendship began over sixty years ago when Nana was fresh out of college. Her first teaching job was at one of the local elementary schools, and one of her first students was Ms. Laverne’s oldest son, Milton Madaris Jr.
Nana remembered ten-year-old Milton as a holy terror of Long Pine Elementary School, and Ms. Laverne had to come to school quite often because of her son’s misbehavior. Over the following years, Nana had also taught Milton’s younger brothers Lee, Nolan and Luke, and they’d been just as much of a handful as Milton. Working together, Nana and Ms. Laverne had been able to turn those behaviors around somewhat.
A half hour later Ivy was pulling into her grandmother’s driveway. Before getting out of the car, she sat there for a moment while memories flooded her mind. The huge two-story Victorian-style home had always been her refuge; a place she’d loved to visit and found comfort in doing so. Thanks to her grandmother and grandfather, there had been so much love radiating inside those walls. Love that she’d desperately needed.
Her parents had divorced when she was twelve and as far as she was concerned, it had been twelve years overdue. No child should have been exposed to such constant fussing and back-and-forth bickering as she had. There had been a fifteen-year difference in her parents’ ages. It was a known fact that her father, Dr. Ivory Chapman, had enjoyed his life as a bachelor and highly respected physician, and hadn’t been in a hurry to settle down and marry. When he’d decided to do so, he’d been in his late thirties and wanted a young wife—one who would easily bend to his will. He’d thought thirty-year-old Reba Andrews, a nurse at the hospital, would be the perfect woman. He’d discovered too late that Reba had no intentions of bending to anyone’s will but her own.
Ivy had drowned out her parents’ constant bickering with her books and her love for computers. She had also escaped the dysfunctional madness by coming to this house to visit her grandparents every chance she got. Both had been educators and had encouraged her to read. They had even converted her father’s old bedroom into a library just for her. They’d also encouraged her love for technology and would take her to tech conventions every year. Her grandparents had shown her how a loving couple could live in harmony with each other and had tried shielding her from the ugliness they’d known she experienced at home.
After her parents’ divorce, the real battle between her parents began with her caught in the middle of a custody battle. In the end, the judge awarded them joint custody. Six months of the year with each parent. She was certain that neither truly wanted her, but had used her to get back at the other. Graduating from high school and leaving for college had been liberating and seeing her parents only during the holidays had suited her just fine.
As if Dr. Ivory Chapman hadn’t learned his lesson the first time around, her sixty-five-year-old father was dating a younger woman. This time it was someone he’d met at a club. When she had talked to him last weekend, it was obvious he was quite smitten. He’d even told her he was thinking of marrying the thirty-two-year-old and retiring so they could become world travelers. He’d sounded happy and she’d told him she loved him and had wished him the best.
Her mother had remarried two years ago and moved to Florida. Ivy liked her stepfather, Harnett Clemmons, and whenever she visited them she saw how happy her mother was. She loved her parents and was glad they’d each found happiness, although with someone other than each other.
Her grandfather had died five years ago, and Ivy still missed his presence whenever she came here. Nana, who’d retired years ago after over forty-plus years as an educator in Houston’s public school system, had been the one constant in Ivy’s life, which made this conversation hard. Why would her grandmother do such an outrageous thing as send Nolan Madaris those notes? Only Nana could answer that question and explain her actions.
She got out of the car, walked to the door and, using her own key, let herself inside. Placing her purse on a table in the living room, she called out to her grandmother. She didn’t get a response; however, she knew for certain she was home since her car was parked out front. Moving toward the kitchen, Ivy figured Nana was in the backyard tending to her garden.
Moments later she came upon her grandmother busily snipping away at her prized rosebushes. Without saying anything, Ivy just stared at her and all the love she could feel for any one person came flowing through.
They’d always had a close relationship, which made it difficult to get mad at her about anything. But this wasn’t about just anything. This crossed the line. Nana usually gave Ivy advice only when asked. Ms. Laverne must have somehow convinced her sensible grandmother to take part in her schemes.
“Nana?”
Helen glanced up at her granddaughter and smiled. “Ivy? I wasn’t expecting you until later.”
She and her grandmother had made plans earlier in the week to have dinner later today and take in a movie. “Yes, but we need to talk.”
“Oh? What about?”
“I think you know. I paid a visit to Nolan Madaris this morning to return his flowers, only to discover they hadn’t come from him at all. And then imagine how I felt when he showed me a note I had supposedly written him.”
Her grandmother smiled. “So, the two of you have finally met?”
“Yes, but that’s not the issue here. Why did you let Ms. Laverne talk you into doing something so outlandish?”
Her grandmother shook her head. “Laverne didn’t talk me into anything. It was both our idea and one we decided to execute. You and young Nolan were taking entirely too long to suit us.”
Ivy tilted her head to stare at her grandmother, certain the woman was an impostor who’d taken over her nana’s body. She recalled when Tessa and her family had discovered one of her elderly aunts had the first stage of dementia. One of the signs was changes in mood, personality or judgment. She could certainly attest to the fact that her eighty-year-old grandmother’s actions were out of character.
“I am in my right mind, Ivy,” her nana said, as if reading her mind.
Ivy drew in a slow, deep breath. “If that’s true, then we definitely need to talk.”
“I agree,” Nana said, placing the snippers on a nearby table and tugging off her work gloves. “It’s almost lunchtime. I made some chicken salad this morning. Go ahead and start on the sandwiches. I’ll be there in a minute to make the tea.”
Ivy nodded and turned to go back inside the house. Her grandmother was going to do more than make a pitcher of tea. She had a lot of explaining to do.
“SO WHAT DO you plan to do?” Corbin asked his brother.
“For starters, pay Mama Laverne a visit. I’m on my way there now,” Nolan said, getting off the interstate onto the ramp that would take him to what used to be the Madaris family homestead, Whispering Pines.
Years ago, the Madaris brothers had signed their shares of the ranch over to their youngest brother, Jake, keeping only an investment interest. That act of faith and show of confidence from the brothers had made Jake determined to make Whispering Pines succeed. And he had. It was listed as