Jacqueline could never be at fault. No, not his baby. Not the sweet blessing that had arrived long after he and her mother had considered their family complete with just one daughter.
Priscilla sighed. It still amazed her that she was a week away from turning thirty and her life was still divided into two sections. The eight years before her sister was born and the twenty-two years since.
“So why are you heading for Wyoming?” Lisa’s voice broke into her thoughts. “There’s nothing there but...a lot of Wyoming.”
Thankful for the switch in subject, Priscilla latched on to her friend’s question. “Remember when I mentioned last week how I’ve been chatting with Bobby Winslow—”
“The retired race-car driver? What does he have to do with this sudden road trip of yours?”
“Well, Bobby started this children’s summer camp in his hometown of Destiny, Wyoming.”
“And he’s asked you for help?”
“Well, no.” A small detail Priscilla had never let get in her way before. “But we have spoken about fund-raising and promotion for the place.”
Okay, so maybe Bobby had been joking when he said he should hire her. And maybe she’d been doing the same when she said she would send him an email with a financial prospectus. Even so, she’d started the research necessary for such a project just a few days ago.
Before her life had been turned upside down. Before she had nothing but time on her hands.
“I know this is going to sound rather snobbish, but isn’t that a little outside of your area of expertise?” Lisa asked.
That was exactly why Priscilla had pointed her convertible to this part of the country after she’d escaped L.A. two days ago. “I’ll admit a summer camp is less high-profile than organizations I’ve worked with in the past, but I’ve been looking for something new. Something different. I’d already planned to take the rest of the summer off to rethink my career options. The foundation means the world to me, but after ten years...” Priscilla’s voice faded for a moment as she swallowed the lump in her throat. “Maybe I’ve given back enough.”
“Okay, I get why you’ve abandoned your plans for a getaway to the French Riviera with the jerk whose name we won’t ever mention again, but traveling solo through the Wild West instead?”
Solo? Priscilla looked over at the passenger seat, where her passenger snoozed away in a monogrammed sleeping bag on top of a tufted, lamb’s wool pillow. “Who said I was alone?”
“Oh, please don’t tell me you have Jacqueline’s ugly mutt—”
“Sebastian Niles A King’s Elegance is not ugly and he’s not a mutt. He’s a purebred smooth-coat Chihuahua my sister thought would make a cute fashion accessory before she realized a live animal requires actual care and feeding. And...love. Besides, I think the poor thing was as traumatized as I was by what we witnessed in that dressing room.”
“Su-gar,” Lisa drawled again, “are you sure about this?”
“About needing to get away from the craziness going on back home? Absolutely.” An odd thrill raced through her at the thought of having so much free time ahead of her. Yesterday the country had celebrated its independence. Now it was time for her to do the same. “I’ll visit Bobby and his wife for a few days, share some ideas I’ve worked up, and then who knows where I’ll head next. Maybe Chicago or New York. Or a deserted tropical island with no media access.”
“Well, wherever you end up, please remember to check in. I’ll be up to my false eyelashes finalizing samples for next spring’s collection, but that doesn’t mean I’m not here to listen to your wild adventures.”
Priscilla snorted. “I think you’ve got the wrong sister.”
“Oh, no, I think you’re destined for something wild. And wicked. You need to let down your hair and have some fun. And I mean that literally.”
Priscilla automatically brought her hand up to the tightly wound roll at the back of her head. “I don’t have the top up. The wind will make it a mess.”
“That’s the point of having a convertible. Don’t tell me you can’t remove a simple hair clip.”
Of course she could. Priscilla had been wearing her hair in a Fresh twist style for so long she could put it up, and take it down, in her sleep. It’d been a style her mother favored, which meant Priscilla had always rebelled against it.
Until she wore it for the funeral. And every day since, it seemed. No, that couldn’t be right. Her mother had been gone for fourteen years. Okay, so maybe she’d wore her hair this way ever since she started working at the foundation her junior year in college.
After a flip of her wrist, the warm summer wind took hold of her long locks, lifting and brushing them back from her face and neck. A quick glance in her review mirror revealed how different she looked.
“Feels pretty good, doesn’t it?”
Priscilla had to admit her friend was right. “How did you know I did it?”
“I heard you sigh.”
“It’s just hair, Lisa.”
“It’s a start. Next up? Something wild and wicked. Just you wait and see.”
The conviction in her friend’s words brought forth a genuine laugh this time before she thanked Lisa for being so wonderful and ended the call.
* * *
By five o’clock that afternoon, Priscilla was exhausted. She had a cramp in her foot and her backside felt as if it was stuck to the leather seat beneath her. Plus, her sidekick was wide-awake and doing enough butt wiggling that it could only mean one thing.
Her car’s navigation system told her the center of Destiny was still twenty miles away. Thanks to an internet search on her phone, she’d booked a room at a local inn, but her four-legged friend didn’t look as if he could wait until they arrived to take care of business. After passing an impressive compound of log homes, she spotted a side road that led to a wide area near the river they’d just crossed. She drove there and pulled to a stop in the shade from a cluster of trees, shut down the engine and got out of the car.
“Don’t get lost,” she called out, peeling off her suit jacket as the pup headed straight for the woods. “This isn’t like the manicured lawns of Beverly Hills.”
Making her way to the water’s edge was a bit tricky in her three-inch heels, but as soon as she found an oversize rock to sit on, Priscilla slipped out of her shoes and dipped her aching toes in the crystal blue waters. “I need to wear flats the next time I plan an escape.”
Unable to resist, she stood and waded in farther, pleased to find the creek’s bottom wasn’t as rocky or muddy as she’d thought it would be. She looked around, noticing a rope hanging from a tree that arched over the water. The clearing was obviously well used. It was easy to picture a group of kids or a family enjoying a picnic here, but at the moment it was only her. With the cold water swishing past her calves and a light breeze caressing her bare arms, Priscilla reveled in the solitude of the natural surroundings, feeling as if she’d drawn her first deep breath in months.
No ringing phones, no disapproving fathers or whiny excuses from her sister, no annoying clicking and flashing from the paparazzi’s cameras...
Just peace and quiet.
* * *
“Honey, I’m a man who needs female companionship.”
Dean Zippenella hoped he sounded sincere, but a part of him knew he’d already lost this argument. Usually he had no problem when it came to charming the ladies, but this one—his favorite one—was stubbornly quiet in the passenger seat of his truck.
“Look, you’ve made your feelings perfectly clear, over and over again,