Read Online Good Together by C. J. Carmichael - Free Book Online Page B

doesn’t change how you feel about Mom.”
    Suddenly apprehensive, Mattie asked, “Why would it?”
    “I know how close you two were. You were always her favorite.”
    “Not true,” Mattie said automatically, though she suspected it sort of was. Not that her mother had loved her more than her sisters. But she’d been the only one of Beverly Carrigan’s daughters to give birth to grandchildren and after the twins were born, during the weeks Mom came to stay with her on the ranch, they’d had so many opportunities to share stories and experiences, to bond as women, rather than as mother and daughter.
    “You’re the oldest. Which automatically means you had more years with her than the rest of us.”
    Their mother had died, tragically, when the twins were only two years old. The accident happened after midnight, on a cold night in March. She’d been in the barn with her husband, trying to help a cow manage a difficult delivery.
    The cow had gone wild and rammed her poor mother into the concrete wall of the barn.
    Death had been instant. No suffering, the doctor told them later, which was of some comfort, at least.
    The damn cow and her calf had been fine. Her father had sold both, wanting them off the ranch. But of course, the sale had come too late. Nothing could change the outcome. Or the awful knowledge that their mother, who had always been terribly nervous around cattle, would only have been helping under duress.
    “I was twenty-two when Mom died. So you were—”
    “Twelve.”
    “Gosh. So young.”
    “Callan was only eight,” Sage pointed out. “I wonder why there were so many years between us? Five between you and Dani. Then four more between Dani and me, and another four between me and Callan. Did Mom have trouble getting pregnant?”
    “She never said so.” Mattie was still mulling over how young Callan and Sage had been when their Mom died. Maybe that was why they didn’t seem to harbor the same anger toward Hawksley that she did.
    Her bad feelings toward her father had even deeper roots than her Mom’s death, dating back to the arguments she’d overheard from behind their parents’ closed-and-locked bedroom door.
    Hawksley had an awful temper.
    And no one had borne the brunt more than his wife.
    “Given what a beast dad was, I’m surprised she stayed in the marriage as long as she did. She would have had options.” Their mother had been born Beverly Bramble, after all, an ancestor of the original Brambles who founded Marietta. They’d built a fortune on the copper buried into the mountain of the same name. And diversified into banking once the ore was depleted.
    The original Bramble Manor was still one of the grandest homes in Marietta. These days Great Aunt Mable lived in the stately Victorian, along with cousin Eliza, who had turned the place into a bed-and-breakfast and was reported to be writing a family history.
    “There are always two sides in any marriage, Mat. That’s kind of what my secret is about.”
    For a moment Mattie was reminded of her own marital woes. Did Wes have a list of grievances against her? If so, she wished he’d at least given her a chance to hear them. “Compared to Hawksley, Mom was a saint.”
    “I know you’ve always thought that.” Sage took her feet off the table and shifted into a more upright position. She gazed at the crackling fire for a moment, absent-mindedly twisting a strand of her hair at the same time.
    “Because it’s true,” Mattie said, feeling suddenly tense and uncertain.
    “Is it? I saw something, Mat. About a year before Mom’s accident.”
    The room fell quiet, the only sound the snapping and popping from the fire. Tuff picked that moment to wake up and come looking for them. Mattie pulled the little fluff ball into her lap, where she settled immediately back to sleep.
    “I was home from school. Sick with a fever, at first, but then I felt better and decided to sneak into Mom’s room to play with her jewelry and