All Roads Lead Home Read Online Free PDF Page A

helped me decorate it. It’s the perfect space for me. Big enough to entertain my important clients and make me appear bigger than I am.
    I live alone.
    My choice.
    I don’t even have a cat. I guess the old wives’ tale doesn’t apply to me. Not that I would have time to care for it anyway.
    How could Wendy send me a letter from my dead brother? This hurts so much. Did he not trust me at all? I did what he wanted me to do. It was Jagger that gave up on me first and, only after losing Jamie, solidified my decision to leave and not look back.
     
     
    We were in love…so in love. We made it through the separation of attending different colleges but always made our time count when we reunited. It was crazy, but we did it. Jagger, Shane, and my brother all attended the University of Wyoming, and I was at Creighton University in Nebraska. The guys were in their senior year while I was beginning my freshman year. Another adjustment Jagger and I dealt with, but after I graduated, we had the summer to really plan. I knew I wanted to practice law in the city, but where? I still had law school to finish. It was assumed that I would stay close by, but after a discussion with my father, I applied to Yale Law School. I couldn’t have gone further, but daddy said that if I had the grades, then I could have my pick. It wasn’t easy for my father to give me this much freedom. I barely made it to Nebraska without a thousand arguments. Now I was actually asking him to send me across the country to further my education.
    I loved Daddy so much for believing in me. I wasn’t ashamed of the life my parents led, but like Jamie always said: I was a Tumbleweed, and I chased the wind.
    Sure I wanted a life with Jagger, but on my terms. Always after making love with him, he would promise me the moon and the stars. We were so in sync with one another and then at times, so very different. Like worlds apart different. He knew I always wanted to become a lawyer. I wanted to fight the injustice in the world. I thought he believed in me, but after the fantasy became the reality, I was wrong.
    Jagger, like his father, wanted the ranch life, just like Shane and Jamie. He was following in my father’s footsteps to one day take over for him. That dream never happened for Jamie, but mine did. And now after all this time, I receive this letter. I’m left to question all the choices I made since the day I boarded my plane and never once looked back.
    On that day I took with me: Jagger’s sheer look of devastation when I once again rejected him. The feeling of a father’s love and adoration when he hugged me goodbye. And Jamie’s smile. He was being brave for me and never allowed me to see his fear. Again, my big brother putting my needs above his very own.
    I allowed my mind to drift even further back, when Jamie was alive and always wanted what was best for me.
     
     
    “You know if you keep staring at the mailbox, you’re going to go blind.”
    “Shut up, Jamie. It’s coming today, I know it,” I said excitedly. “It has to come today.”
    He smiled back at me with his dazzling smile and steel blue eyes.
    “I hope so, Tumbleweed, I really do hope so. I was just making fun, don’t get all upset now. Does Jagger know you applied? Oh man, sweet girl! Your eyes tell me ‘No.’ Tenley, I told you to tell him. He has a right to know. It’s only fair.”
    “Jamie, don’t start. If you ask me, I think Jagger is secretly hoping that I don’t get accepted anywhere, and I’ll just remain back here with him.”
    “Is that so bad? I thought you wanted that.”
    “Yes and no, it’s complicated.”
    “It doesn’t have to be, baby sister. You love him. He loves you. That’s it.”
    “Jamie, you’re right. I do love Jagger, more than words can say, but I’m not going to become a lawyer working a ranch. I want more, and I thought you had my back on this.”
    “I do sweetheart, always. I just have to have his back as well. I love you so much. I