Destined Read Free Page A

a
child.
    The vent didn’t conduct
conversation very well anymore, maybe full of dust from the intervening years.
All she’d heard were snippets of her being considered their sister, and how badly
they felt about hurting her feelings. When they’d mentioned Melinda, a big,
cold fist took hold of her heart and squeezed it until she thought she’d expire
from the pain.
    Lying back on her bed, the same
narrow little twin she remembered from forever ago, Sinclair studied the
ceiling. She’d obviously been wrong about Craig and Ashton’s interest in her
going beyond the familial. Her stupid longing had blinded her to the true
facts. They wanted the girl next door. Melinda was coming home after a failed marriage.
Ash had told her that in one of his last emails, and it was time Sinclair faced
up to the real world. No way could she stay here and see that bimbo fit herself
between the two men Sinclair loved. Maybe it was too corny to think they’d be
the only two men she would ever love, but it sure felt like that right now. The
shattering pain in her chest took her breath away again, and she fought another
deluge of tears.
    It was time to take action. She
knew it was unlikely there was another placement available in order to finish
out her degree, but that didn’t mean there weren’t other jobs for her. Just not here. Not in the same house as the men she didn’t
measure up for, and certainly not to hang around and see that Melinda be
welcomed back. Come to think about it, she didn’t think she wanted to be around
people who wanted to be with that woman.  
    Rolling onto her feet, she opened
the lower drawer of the dresser she and her Mom had painted and decaled all
those years ago. Little princess patterns glittered up at her, and the pink
painted wood felt a bit warped under her hand. Delving under a neatly folded
stack of nightgowns, she drew out the small box she’d been given when Mom
deemed her responsible enough to care for important things. It held her birth
certificate and some letters from her birth father. It didn’t matter that he’d
stopped writing years back. She still read them from time to time.
    Sinclair Marlys Allard-Renton. Her birth mom was French
Canadian, and Sinclair thought Sondra had gone back to Quebec. Dave was still
in Wyoming, but she had no idea where. In any event, she enjoyed a little
matter of dual citizenship, and if there was ever a time to start over, it was
now. Ignoring the part of her that pointed out mature women didn’t run from
their problems, she reached for her cell.
    ****
    “You’re nuts.” Candy Grant threw
her a glance that spoke volumes. “You can’t just take a bus up to Canada and
think things will work out.”
    Slouching further back in her seat,
Sinclair adjusted the seat belt, and answered her best friend. “I just want the
next couple years of my life to work out. I was nuts to think I meant anything
to the brothers, Candy. All those hours of study and classes,
with the goal of coming home and working here, on the ranch especially. Bringing something of worth to a … relationship with them.”
    “I’m not opposed to ménage, kiddo.
Lord knows I’ve had myself a couple of threesomes. And those men are fine. And
I know how much you care about them. But, Sinclair, maybe they’re right. I
mean, if they see you like a sister…”
    “Yeah, it sounds gross. And they
used that against me, to keep me at a distance, when it was really about
Melinda Roberts. They should have simply told me they preferred her.”
    “Skank.”
    Candy’s older brothers knew all
about Melinda, and had passed on their opinion to Candy. Not because the older
woman was easy. Sinclair, too, didn’t have an issue with anybody who was honest
about their needs. Lord knew she wished she’d been honest about her own and
relieved herself of her pesky virginity, seeing as saving it for her men was now
a lost cause. Not that they’d ever been her men. It was the point that Melinda
turned