And then again, maybe Patricio was just cashing in on the investment he’d made.
“Mi amor, where did you go?” Her mother’s soft voice pierced through Esme’s tumultuous thoughts. A pang of guilt and anticipation twisted in her gut as she looked at the paper again. It felt heavy in her hands: this could be the door to pursuing the vision she had for the future of Latinx television. But her father had never given her anything that didn’t come at a cost, and the price had almost always been her pride. She’d learned long ago to always look for the strings whenever Patricio Sambrano was involved.
“Mami, this is a joke. Just another way for him to put me in my place. His kids and his wife won’t stand for it.”
Her mother and aunts responded to this with a choir of clucks and shaking heads. Her aunt Yocasta spoke before her mother could. “Mi niña, you know I’ve never had anything good to say about that cabrón.” She didn’t have to say who the cabrón was. Yocasta was never shy when it came to cursing Patricio Sambrano’s name for the way he’d treated Esme and her mom. “But that baboso wouldn’t risk his company to make a point. What he would do is go over the head of that bruja he married and put you in charge, if it’s what he thought was best for the company.”
Even her tía Zenaida, who usually let her three sisters opine while she silently observed, chimed in. “Patricio was always ruthless when it came to his business,” she declared, while the others nodded. “If anything, I imagine he’d been keeping an eye on you and your hustle.” She leaned over to tug one of Esme’s curls, making her smile. “I hated that jackass, may he rest in peace.” At that they all crossed themselves in unison, as if they had not all been cursing the man’s name a second ago. Esme would’ve smiled at their ridiculousness, but she could barely move from the warring emotions coursing through her.
“For better or worse he always put that studio first,” Zenaida said, which prompted a flurry of nods from the older women. “If he picked you to be the president and CEO it’s because he thought you were right for the job.”
“His wife is going to make my life a living hell,” Esme said, unable to hide the real wariness in her voice. Carmelina Sambrano was not above humiliating her. But that got Ivelisse’s back up.
“She can try, but you can stand up to her,” her mother said with a confidence Esmeralda wished she felt. “And besides, you’ll be in charge.”
“I don’t know, Mami.” She hated that even thinking of being rejected by her father’s wife and children made her feel small.
Ivelisse made another clucking noise and pulled Esme closer. “Screw them. Go in there tomorrow and claim your place. Use them and this opportunity to do all the things you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t gotten the chance to.”
Esme’s chest fluttered with an ember of hope and longing at her mother’s words. Ivelisse was right, she’d been killing herself for the past five years—trying and failing to get her projects off the ground, but she could not get a break. Because her ideas weren’t “commercial” enough, or relatable to the “mainstream” audience. She was tired of getting doors shut in her face because she refused to compromise. As head of Sambrano Studios she could make her dream come to life. Put shows out there that reflected all the faces of Latinx culture.
If she wasn’t pushed out by Carmelina first.
“Mami, that woman is never going to let me stay. And I don’t want to sink to her level.” Ivelisse had been a wonderful mother, gentle and kind, but she was a fighter when it counted, and the mention of her old foe lit a fire behind her eyes.
“Carmelina won’t know how to fight you, baby. That woman has never done a day of work in her life. When you go in there—smart, competent, full of fresh ideas—that board won’t know what hit them.” That ember was now a tiny flame fueled by the faith Esme’s mother had in her. Still, she’d learned the hard way not to trust anything that came from her father.
“But won’t the board have someone picked out already? Someone that doesn’t come with the drama that I will certainly cause?”
Her mother averted her eyes at her question and that gave Esme pause. “Mami?” she asked wearily as she scanned the paper in her hands again, looking for whatever her mother wasn’t saying. And when she got to the very last paragraph she understood. Her body flashed hot and cold, just from reading that name. There in black and white was the last push she needed to jump right into an ocean of bad decisions.
“Him?” she asked tersely, and from the corner of her eye she saw her mother flinch.
Rodrigo Almanzar, her father’s protégé and the person who for years had been the only tie she had to Patricio. The man she’d given her heart and her body to only to have him betray her when she needed him most. The man whose very name could still make her ache with longing and tremble with fury. How could it still hurt so much after all this time?
She felt tired. Tired of this damn thing hanging over her head. Tired of all the complicated feelings she had about everything having to do with Sambrano Studios. Especially when it came to the tall, brawny, arrogant bastard who was probably hoping she’d do the very thing she’d been considering. Let her pride and her baggage make her decision for her.
And she might have, if he wasn’t the one who’d end up as president and CEO. She wouldn’t do it out of greed, or even to appease her mother, but she would do it out of spite. Rodrigo had betrayed her just so he could continue as her father’s lapdog. Now she’d take the thing he’d sold his soul for...just when he thought he finally had it.
“Actually,” she said, standing up, already feeling the fire in her gut that usually preceded her doing ill-advised things. “You’re right.” The four women in her living room were all looking at her with varying degrees of anticipation. “I’ve been saying for years that if given the chance to shoot my shot I wouldn’t hesitate to take it. This isn’t exactly how I’d hoped to get it, but now that I do, I’m not wasting it. Tomorrow, Sambrano will get its new president and CEO.”
Her mother eyed Esme with suspicion, probably guessing what had been the deciding factor for her change of heart, while her aunt Yocasta crowed with delight, “Ay, Ivelisse, what I wouldn’t give to see the look on Carmelina’s face when Esme walks into that boardroom tomorrow.”
Esme smiled wryly at her aunt, but her mind was already racing toward the other shocked face she was looking forward to seeing.
Copyright © 2021 by Adriana Herrera
Can wallflower Iris Daniels heal the heart of Gold Valley’s most damaged cowboy? Read on for a sneak peek of The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass, the brand-new Western romance by New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates!
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass by Maisey Yates.
The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass
by Maisey Yates
IRIS DANIELS WONDERED if there was a particular art to changing your life. If so, then she wanted to find it. If so, she needed to. Because she’d about had enough of her quiet, baking, knitting, underestimated existence.
Not that she’d had enough of baking and knitting. She loved both things.
Like she loved her family.
But over the last couple of months she had been turning over a plan to reorder her life.
It had all started when her younger sister, Rose, had tried to set her up with a man who was the human equivalent of a bowl of oatmeal.
Iris didn’t like to be mean, but it was the truth.
Iris, who had never gone on a date in her life, had been swept along in her younger sister’s matchmaking scheme. The only problem? Elliott hadn’t liked her at all.
Elliott had liked Rose.
And Iris didn’t know what bothered her more. That her sister had only been able to imagine her with a man when he was so singularly beige, or that Iris had allowed herself to get swept along with it in the first place.
Not only get al
ong with it, but get to the point where she had convinced herself that it was a good thing. That she should perhaps make a real effort to get this guy to like her because no one else ever had.
That maybe Elliott, who liked to talk about water filtration like some people talked about sports, their children or once-in-a-lifetime vacations, was the grandest adventure she would ever go on.
That she had somehow imagined that for her, dating a man who didn’t produce any sort of spark in her at all, simply because he was there, was adventure.
That she had been almost eager to take any attention she could, the idea of belonging to someone, feeling special, was so intoxicating she had ignored reality, ignored so many things, to try and spin a web of lies to make herself feel better.
That had been some kind of rock bottom. Truly terrifying.
It was one thing to let yourself get swept away in a tide of years that passed without you noticing, as things around you changed and you were there, inevitably the same.
It was quite another to be complicit in your own underwhelming life. To have willingly decided to be grateful for something she hadn’t even wanted.
But as horrifying as that was, it was also what brought her down to the vacant shop where the Sugarplum Fairy bakery had once been.
She had been turning over the idea of leasing the building for months now.
And she had finally developed her plan enough that she was ready to dive right in. She had projections and products, had found out what permits she would need. She already had a food handler’s card. She had a whole business plan. The only thing she didn’t have was the building, and a business name.
One thing at a time.
There was a number posted on the sign on the window for a property management company. She took a deep breath, and dialed it.
“Hi,” she said when the woman on the other end answered. “My name is Iris Daniels, and I’m interested in renting out the building at 322 Grape Street.”
“Of course, Ms. Daniels. If you want, I can send over the information packet that I have here.”
“I would like that.”
A couple hours later, Iris was sitting at Sugar Cup Coffee House feeling morose. The email that the management company had sent to her was comprehensive, and included all of the information that Iris could’ve wanted. As well as the astronomical sum of money it would cost to rent the space.
She did know that it would be expensive. Any place in this part of town was bound to be. It was just that Gold Valley was a tourist attraction, and the historic buildings in town got heavy foot traffic. So many people came from California, dreaming of a simpler life, and they brought California money with them. The kind of money that was rare for people in Gold Valley to have.
In fact, she imagined the building itself was owned by a Californian and managed by a local company.
She felt a sense of impotent regional rage. Californians and their lack of turn signals and deep pockets...
She hadn’t had a dream in so long. The idea of giving up on this one was... It was crushing. Crushing in ways that she didn’t really want to think about.
She closed the laptop, and stared into her coffee.
Sugar Cup was the most adorable red brick 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 flare.
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 Iris up with Elliott.
But Rose also had a sort of mischievous magic that Iris herself didn’t possess.
“I called about the bakery.”
“Not yay. It’s being managed by a different company now, which means I think it got bought by someone else. And the rent is higher than it was when I looked into it a couple months ago. I just don’t think there’s any way I could ever afford it.”
“You know Ryder would help you.”
She nodded slowly. She did know that. But she didn’t want to put strain on her brother when he had just started a new family. Plus...
“But that’s not what you want, is it?” Rose asked.
Iris nodded. “I want to be independent. And maybe I’m jumping into it a little bit too fast. Maybe I’m being too ambitious.”
“I don’t think so,” Rose said. “I don’t see why you can’t have everything.”
She had a feeling her sister was being overly supportive in part because of what had happened between them a few months back. But she appreciated the support either way.
“Well,” Rose said brightly. “We just have to figure out another way to problem solve this. Is there a way to figure out who bought it?”
“It might be... Somewhere. I mean, I don’t know what difference that would make.”
“You don’t want to deal with the management company. Whoever has this all set up probably has a management company because they don’t have a business brain. They probably don’t have the resolve to handle all this kind of stuff. Which means if you talk to them directly, maybe they won’t hold firm on the rent. You can’t go through the rental company, because they’re set up to be a barrier. You need to remove the barrier.”
“I don’t... That’s not how it’s supposed to work, though.”
And even as she heard the words come out of her own mouth, she realized what she was doing.
She was wimping out. She was taking this first hurdle, and allowing it to be insurmountable. Well, she couldn’t do that. She was going to have to make it... Surmountable.
“Okay. Where do you suppose I might find the information?”
Rose sat down, and Logan pulled a chair up to the table, while Rose helped Iris scour the document.
Texas Tough Page 18
