ago.
“Good for you, Ace.” Her dad’s childhood nickname for her landed like a jab. He didn’t even need to say how disappointed he was. The flatness of his voice said it all. “I’m sure you’ll do well at…what was the name of the school again?”
“Bowman,” she repeated through gritted teeth.
“Of course. Right. Good luck with the move. Let me know if you need anything. Sorry, kiddo, but I’ve got to run. Lots to do for tonight. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Bye, Dad.” Scowling, Mia jabbed her finger at the screen to end the call.
At least it was over with now. Her sister would be pleased, anyway. And Mia probably wouldn’t have to talk to her father again until Christmas. Hopefully.
Chapter Four
Three weeks later, Mia drove into Crowder again. But this time it was to stay.
For the next year, anyway.
It was her first real look at the place. When she’d come for her interview, she’d skirted the center of town to get to the university, then driven straight back to Austin afterward. She probably should have explored it more, but she hadn’t seriously expected to end up taking the job.
It’s not that bad, she told herself as she drove through the quaint town center, past an antique store, an old-timey ice cream shop, and a cozy-looking cafe. According to her research, Crowder sported a number of restaurants and most of the major fast-food chains. There was also a Walmart and a couple of decent-sized grocery stores, so it wasn’t as if she’d left civilization behind. You could get all the essentials here, if not necessarily all the luxuries she’d grown accustomed to in the city.
While she waited at a red light, Mia peered in the window of a boutique clothing shop. It appeared to carry a lot of brightly patterned dresses and filmy scarves of the sort favored by flamboyant grandmothers and eccentric spinster aunts.
Next door was a western wear store displaying all manner of cowboy boots, hats, and plaid shirts in the window. A few of the people walking on the sidewalk looked to have gotten their clothes there, but not all. Not even most. Aside from a few men wearing cowboy boots and jeans, most people were either dressed business casual for work or attired to beat the summer heat in flip-flops and shorts. Honestly, the fashion wasn’t that different from what you saw in LA during a heat wave.
The light changed, and Mia drove on past a yoga studio, a pizza place, and a library. Beyond that, a grassy town square with a band gazebo sat across from an unremarkable town hall building.
After a few more blocks, the charming downtown area gave way to less picturesque commercial ventures: an auto parts store, a pawn shop, and a seedy-looking bar. There was even a feed store to drive home the fact that she was in the country now.
Beyond that, retail properties gave way to more residential ones. Modest ranch-style houses squatted on generous lots shaded by the arms of spreading oak trees. As she drew nearer to the university, the neighborhood shifted to older bungalows with a few larger Victorians scattered here and there.
The GPS directed Mia through a maze of shady streets to the address on her new residential lease. When her phone announced she’d arrived at her destination, she parked on the street behind a dusty pickup truck and stared at the property with a sinking feeling.
She’d picked it out online, sight unseen. The listing had included photos of the garage apartment she’d be calling home for the next year, but not of the main house it sat behind.
There certainly had been no photographic evidence of the old denim couch that sat on the house’s front porch, the patch of knee-high weeds growing in the open ditch running alongside the street, or the chickens wandering around the gravel driveway.
Live chickens.
Hanging out in the driveway as if that was a perfectly normal place for chickens to be.
What have I done? Was she really supposed to live here? In this place that had forgotten the chic part of shabby chic, where livestock roamed freely and the nearest Sephora was two hours away?
As Mia sat in the car mustering the courage to unfasten her seat belt and take her first steps toward her new life, the front door of the house opened and a woman came out. She had short, spiky gray hair and wore Birkenstocks with a flowery muumuu that looked like it had come from the clothing boutique