The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass - Maisey Yates Page 0,1

redbrick coffee place, with wide pastry cases overflowing with cookies, scones and cakes. The floor was all scarred barn wood, and from the ceiling hung a massive chandelier, all glittery and proud in the middle of the rustic flair.

Iris couldn’t even enjoy it right now.

“Hi.”

She turned and saw her sister Rose standing at the counter with her now fiancé, Logan.

Rose patted Logan on the shoulder, then scampered over to Iris’s table.

“What are you doing here?”

“It’s strange for you to be here,” Iris said.

Logan and Rose worked full-time at Hope Springs Ranch, her family’s ranch. Iris still lived in the house. She was basically a rancher wife, without the benefit of the husband.

She had spent years of her life taking care of her cousins and siblings. Cooking for them, cleaning. It was a full-time job even now.

But it was a full-time job that didn’t have any pay, and didn’t have a lot of personal satisfaction at this point.

Her brother was married now, and while Sammy had always been involved in the household to an extent, she now lived in the house. And was... Well, it was her house.

It made Iris feel like there wasn’t as much to do. And like she didn’t really have the authority to do it.

It was the same with her sister Pansy and her husband, West. They were firmly established at their own home, raising West’s younger brother. A family unit apart from the one the Danielses had spent years building after their parents had died when they were kids.

And now that Rose and Logan were engaged, Rose had moved out of the main house too, and Iris just had...less and less to do.

She and Logan no longer came to the farmhouse for every meal. Instead, they usually ate at their place.

It seemed fitting that they were all settled first. Well, she couldn’t have imagined another way for it to go. She was a practical girl, and she tried not to give in to self-pity. Self-pity didn’t help anyone. But she’d always occupied a particular position in her family. She was steady and she was well-behaved, and she was...well, she was the one who had to shepherd them all into the safe, happy, finished places of their lives.

Ryder had taken care of them, it was true. But the emotional well-being of her siblings, that she be a good example...all of that was an essential part of who she was.

Of what her mother had needed her to be.

And sure, there were hard things about that, but she’d never seen the point of arguing with the way things were.

She’d tried. But she’d lost her parents at fourteen. She’d exhausted her lungs arguing with the universe back then. And it hadn’t changed a thing.

And yes, it burned a little more at the realization she was the only one left alone. And maybe she was irritated by the fact that a few months ago her pride had suffered a mortal wounding at the hands of her sister.

Unintentional of course.

But when Rose had tried to set her up with Elliott, who had ultimately been after Rose and not Iris, it had driven a splinter deep beneath Iris’s skin.

She should be grateful, she supposed.

With everyone so decidedly moved on, that left her in the house with Ryder, Sammy and baby Astrid, feeling like a third wheel.

Her poor eldest brother had his maiden spinster sister living in his house with him while he was trying to adjust to being a husband, and a new father.

Of course, being in the same house as her niece was wonderful. And she knew that Sammy appreciated having help with the baby.

But it just served as yet another reminder of what Iris didn’t have for herself.

She was always enjoying things through other people.

Their milestones. Their triumphs. All of them falling in love. Having children.

It made her ache, and it was inspiring her to act. And this bakery was supposed to be her way out of that.

And now it just felt like she had been shaken out of an impossible dream.

“We decided to have a date morning.” Rose frowned. “You look upset.”

Iris hesitated. She knew that if she told Rose about what was going on, Rose would immediately go into scheming mode. And when Rose schemed, things tended to go... Well, they went. Awry or well, that was never a guarantee, but something always happened.

She might as well see where Rose’s momentum could take her. She was currently stagnant. And sure, sometimes Rose had terrible ideas. Like trying to set