Chapter 1

Chapter One

Hunter

"I don't know how many times I need to say this. I am not going to law school," I said through clenched teeth. I'd said those exact words so many times. Perhaps saying them in another language would help? My best friend Cade was currently learning American Sign Language. Would that work?

My mother pursed her lips and put her fork down on her plate, her cobb salad left half-finished, all of the bacon and eggs shoved to the side.

Why did I keep agreeing to come to these lunches with her? It was a ritual I couldn't seem to break myself out of. Along with going to charity events or country club weekends. Without fail, law school would come up.

"I just think—" she started to say, and I pushed my chair back. I'd barely touched my own salad. I'd only ordered it so she wouldn't comment on my eating habits.

I couldn't look directly at her. "I'm not doing this with you anymore. If you can't accept my choices, then you can't accept me. Give Dad my love."

"Hunter," she hissed, worried that I was going to make a scene. Oh no, a scene . The worst thing that could possibly ever happen to her.

Part of me imagined really making a scene. Screaming or yelling or flipping the table. But then everyone around us would have their day disturbed and the workers would have to clean everything up and they didn't deserve that. So, threats of a scene were the best I could do under the current circumstances.

The sun was shining when I left the restaurant hungry. I thought about sending Cade or Reid a message that I needed them, but Cade was working and Reid was probably sleeping after her bartending shift at Sapph and I didn't want to wake her up.

As I was contemplating my next move, my phone rang. My mother, of course. I ignored the call and started walking away from the restaurant and toward somewhere I could get a decent burger.

My parents liked to eat at the kinds of restaurants where the food was absolutely spectacular, but the portions were so minuscule that you got about one bite per course. I'd grown up used to dining that way, but nothing at those places could top a really good burger when you were ravenous.

Remembering that one of my favorite food trucks was probably still serving and parked not far away, I headed toward the park and was thrilled to find that the line wasn't too long. Finally, something had gone right.

While I waited, I checked my social media pages. I had several that I had to manage. One for my yoga teaching business, one for my hair tutorials, one page for regular posts and my watercolor art, and then one for my closest friends. It was a lot to manage, but I'd developed a system and there was a plan for each one. My parents were absolutely horrified by my career choices. In truth, I didn't need to work. My trust fund took care of most of my needs, but I couldn't stomach the idea of not doing anything with my time. Or doing what my parents wanted me to do with my time. If they weren't working, they were having pointless conversations over too-small portions or pretending to smile at people they hated during a charity auction while bidding on things they didn't need and telling themselves they were contributing positively to society.

If they weren't my parents, I wouldn't have anything to do with them.

And then I'd remember that the reason I had a trust fund and could spend my time doing things like teaching yoga and making hair tutorials without worrying I was going to be homeless was because I was their daughter. There were struggles I would never have to face because of them and their money. My family's money.

Someone cleared their throat and I realized I was next in line. I ordered my burger and then decided to eat it at one of the picnic tables. I slipped off my heels and let my feet rest in the cool grass. I'd worn a "family appropriate" outfit and I was already sweating and wishing I had brought a change of clothes. Most days I lived in yoga gear or my professional wardrobe if I was doing something for the real estate company, or casual clothes that I didn't mind getting paint on. I also had a wardrobe for making videos, including sponsored items that I had tried and loved.

The clothing my parents deemed appropriate lived in the back of my closet and only came out when I had to see them. Most of it was void of color and only designers that my mother deemed acceptable. Boring. Boring and lifeless.

I almost grinned to myself when I managed to get a little grease spot on the tan skirt I'd worn.

When my stomach was finally satisfied, I put my shoes back on and headed back to my apartment.

I might have been able to stop my parents from forcing me to go to law school (up until now at least), but I hadn't been able to get them to budge on where I was supposed to live. True, my apartment was spacious and beautiful, but it had been picked by my parents. At least I'd gotten to decorate it the way I wanted. And the floor-to-ceiling windows with the gorgeous city views in the living room didn't hurt at all. But if I'd had my choice, I might have chosen differently.

Sighing, I kicked off my shoes and stripped out of my outfit on my way to the bathroom. Right now, I needed a bath and an edible. And maybe some cookies for after the edible hit.

Every time I had to see one or both of my parents, I kept a kind of emergency recovery kit stocked, which included plenty of frozen cookie dough ordered from one of my favorite bakeries up the coast in a tiny town called Castleton. Cade's love language was cake, but I was all about cookies. Especially the ultimate s'mores cookies. Those were calling my name tonight. Comfort cookies.

I popped my edible, cringing at the taste, and preheated the oven before covering a cookie sheet with parchment paper and arranging the pre-formed balls of dough so they didn't run together when baked.

My mother called again, but I ignored her. She sent me a terse text message saying that I needed to call her back and I wanted to tell her that I didn't need to do anything. That I could choose one day to cut off contact with her and Dad. I didn't want to. As much as they irritated me, I did love them. Just in small doses. Smaller doses than they thought were acceptable. I might be a grown woman, but they still treated me like I belonged to them and had to do everything they said.

The oven went off and I shoved in the tray of cookies before heading to the bathroom to decide which bath bomb I wanted to use from my collection. I put a movie on my tablet and once the cookies were done, I filled the tub.

Should I have reached out to Cade? I knew she would have dropped everything to come and be my friend and therapist after lunch with my mother. But she had so much going on now. She was happy, and I didn't want to be a cloud in her sky. No, it was better for me to handle my family on my own, the way I had my whole life.

My parents had probably wanted more children, but it hadn't worked out, no matter how much money and time they had spent trying for their spare. Nope, they got me, an ungrateful bitch who refused to carry on their legal career legacy.

I had gone along with the program getting a business degree, but that was where it ended, and they'd been furious ever since.

Sighing, I sunk into the bath and rested my head on an inflatable pillow as I shoved a cookie in my mouth. My edible had finally kicked in, and I was languid, warm, and unbothered.

At least the day wasn't a total waste.

Eventually my mom gave up and Dad started calling. He was always the easier one to handle, so I picked up the second time he called while I was making dinner.

"Hey, Dad," I said, trying not to sigh.

"Hello, pumpkin," he said, and I rolled my eyes at the nickname. Bit silly to call me that just before laying on the enormous guilt trip I knew was coming.

I turned off the stove so I wouldn't burn anything and braced my back against the island.

"How are you?" he asked, as if he didn't know. As if he was just calling to chat for no particular reason.

I listened as he launched into all of the reasons I shouldn't have left lunch so abruptly, how I had upset Mom, how I was their only daughter and it was my job to carry on the Larson legacy. I'd heard him say all this so many times I'd considered making Bingo cards and filling them out whenever he called me about something like this. Most of the words had been repeated so often that they'd lost all meaning.

When I could finally get a word in edgewise, I reiterated that I was my own person, that I was doing work that I enjoyed, that money wasn't everything, that I could have done something really abhorrent, like going on a reality show or starting a podcast.

Eventually I was able to calm him down enough and promise that I wasn't going to cut them off and that I was absolutely going to be attending the historical society lunch that my mom was in charge of in two weeks and that I would send flowers to "apologize" for leaving lunch the way I did. The flowers were one thing, but I'd rather get hit repeatedly by a train than go to her lunch, but I would. To keep the peace. Or at least as much as I could keep without wanting to say to hell with it and deleting them from my phone.

Sorry I was so busy today. How did lunch with your mom go? Cade asked in our group chat.

About as well as expected. I kind of stormed off and went to get a burger. Just got off the phone with Dad. Think I smoothed things over. Going to send flowers. You know the drill. I answered.

Cade and Reid had been through this routine enough times with me to know how it went.

You've got to put up better boundaries, kid Reid sent. She had an equally tumultuous relationship with her mother. Reid had been raised to fulfill her mother's dream of becoming a ballerina and then Reid had smashed that to pieces and quit and things had been volatile ever since. They barely spoke, and it almost always ended in a fight and Reid cutting off contact for a while.

It wasn't healthy, exactly, but I couldn't really give her advice in that department when I had my own parental situation.

I'm working on it I sent and then Cade changed the subject by sharing a picture she'd taken of her girlfriend, Eloise. It still blew my mind that my friend Cade, the one who loved cake and chaos, was dating a famous author. It still didn't make a whole lot of sense, if I was being honest. Not that I thought Cade wasn't good enough for Eloise or anything like that, I just didn't see them together. Eloise was this older woman with this huge career and she'd fallen for Cade, who'd been working as her assistant at the time, and I wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Yes, Eloise had gotten her a new job, but still. I didn't like it. I'd never say anything negative to Cade about it. She was head over heels, and she was happy. Eloise hadn't done anything directly to cause me to pull Cade aside, but I had my eye on her. They were going on a book tour in about two months and that would be the real test. If she was asked about her relationship status, what would Eloise say? Would she tell the truth? And what would she do if people linked her with Cade and started being awful? I didn't know her well enough to know if she'd step up and protect my friend.

She said she's coming to Sapph with us this weekend Cade sent, and that did surprise me. Cade had organized a few hangouts with Eloise already, but this was bringing her into our territory. Eloise was older and freshly out as bisexual and Sapph could be overwhelming even when you were used to queer spaces.

Jury was still out on Eloise.

The next day was a busy one for me, which was good since it didn't leave a whole lot of time to ruminate on my parental situation.

I had a showing at one of my properties in the morning, then a meeting with my boss at the agency to check in and see how things were going, a few PR packages came in that I needed to unbox and film (including doing my hair and makeup and styling an outfit), I had a new print to launch in my watercolor shop, and then I was teaching two yoga classes back-to-back. I managed to shove enough food in my mouth and stay hydrated in between. One of the yoga classes was heated and fainting in the middle of teaching wasn't very good for my brand.

Fortunately, teaching was one of my favorite things. I'd set up my playlist and had written out a little plan, but more often than not, the classes my students liked the most were where I came up with a flow in the moment. My brain knew the drill at this point, and I found myself linking poses that might not seem like they flowed together and creating a funky flow. Wisdom and quotes that I didn't even know that I knew flowed from my mouth and I sounded like a person who actually knew what the hell she was talking about instead of someone who only pretended to.

It was a full house tonight and everyone was in a good mood. We'd just switched sides, and everyone was deep into their flow when all hell broke loose.