The Ranch She Left Behind

“Everything seems perfect,” he assured her. It was strange—especially given that she clearly already had an army poised to protect her—but he still had the urge to put her at ease. “We’re going to turn in early, I’m sure.”

He lifted one eyebrow playfully. “Most of it is already a bit of a blur. For instance, I can hardly remember this morning.”

She gave him a grateful smile. But the sisters had reached the driveway, so she launched one more time into a rote introduction. Max said the polite phrases, shaking hands with the two beauties who stared at him as if he were Jack the Ripper. They talked about having plenty of food to share, but he insisted on heading back into his own side of the duplex.

He almost got away. Just as he reached his own door, he saw a shadow fall behind him. He turned, and wasn’t surprised to see Gray Harper standing on the front porch.

Max had figured out, finally, what must have happened. Small-town grapevines being what they were—someone must have reported the kiss.

“Look,” he said, “I don’t know what’s bugging you guys. I’m here to do a construction project, a resort just outside town called Silverdell Hills. You can look me up, if you’d like. I’m a paying tenant. I have no intention of annoying your sister-in-law in any way.”

Gray tilted his head. “Well, apparently there’s a story going around—”

“I’m sure there is. I’m not sure exactly what the story said by the time it reached you, but she kissed me, not vice versa.”

The other man grinned. Though he was irritated, Max had to admire that Gray didn’t try to deny it, or to pretend that Max had imagined the unanimous, wordless antagonism.

“Fair enough,” Gray said. “That is what we heard, actually. That she kissed you. But Ro and Bree couldn’t believe it—and it does sound a bit out of character.”

“I wouldn’t have a clue.” Max shrugged. “I hadn’t ever met her—I mean, met her by name—until ten minutes ago. When I was told I had a landlady named Penelope Wright, I pictured some blue-haired grandmother who would grow delphiniums and make cookies for my daughter.”

“She does make a mean cookie, I hear.” Gray smiled. “Look, I don’t blame you for being ticked off. But you know how sisters can be. Or you will, if you live here long. These sisters, in particular. They worry about Penny as if it were their full-time job.”

Max raised his eyebrows. “Gray. I don’t know what Penny’s problems are. But I know what mine are. I came here for some quiet time to focus on my daughter, who lost her mother last year. I’m not a con man or a pervert. But I am tired, and I need to get my daughter home, fed and put to bed.”

“Okay.” Gray nodded. “But there’s just one last thing. No offense intended, honestly. But Bree won’t sleep if I don’t tell you. See, Penny’s the baby of the family, and she’s been through a lot. When they heard the story about this morning, they about flipped.”

“Just say it, Harper,” Max said, trying not to sound as impatient as he felt. “Whatever it is, no offense taken, I guarantee.”

“Well.” Gray shifted, clearly uncomfortable. “They want you to know that Penny...well, her brother-in-law, Dallas... The thing is...he’s the sheriff.”

The sheriff? So?

Then Max understood, and, finally, he started to laugh. This was about as unsubtle a warning as he could possibly imagine. He began to wonder whether Penny might be more than merely charmingly naive. Maybe she was a little barmy. Why else would her whole family feel so frantic to caution him that she was protected?

Or...on second thought...maybe the whole family was nuts. Maybe, by renting this duplex in a hurry, he’d just stepped into the biggest nest of crazy in all of Colorado.

“Fantastic.” He let his laugh die off to a dark chuckle. “The sheriff of Silverdell. Got it. You can report that I am sufficiently intimidated by the badge. But listen. I’m going to say this one more time, and then I really think you should let it go. Your sister-in-law may have problems. In fact, I’m starting to be pretty sure she does. But I am not one of them.”

CHAPTER FOUR

ELLEN WAS SO mad at everybody she wondered if she might explode. For the past half hour, she’d been sitting under the biggest tree in the orchard behind their new place, with her back against the trunk. She was uncomfortable, but she’d rather be miserable here than cozy back at the duplex.

To let off steam, she was tearing off blades of grass and throwing them as far as she could—which wasn’t far, because it was windy and the grass kept boomeranging back in her face.

She didn’t want to be in this stupid town—if you could even call it a town when it had only one street with stores, and nothing at all to do. She wanted to be back in Chicago, with her friends.

Or at least the girls who used to be her friends.

She frowned as hard as she could, because she had a stinging in her eyes and a hot feeling in her throat that made her afraid she might cry. She picked up her cell phone for the tenth time in the past minute and checked for incoming texts. Nothing.

She had sent a group text to all her friends at least fifteen minutes ago. She wasn’t supposed to use the data package—her dad didn’t want her on the internet. The phone was only for emergencies. But she didn’t care. She needed to talk to somebody from home.

So she’d taken a picture of herself with the built-in camera, making sure you could see the mountains in the background, and she’d sent it to everyone. She was smiling like she was having the time of her life, and the text said, <3 CO! Epic sky, adorbs cottage. Miss u!

It had taken her a while to think of the perfect words. She couldn’t say duplex, of course. Cottage admitted that it was small, but it sounded quaint and fun instead of pathetic and trashy.

The picture of her was good, too. She’d held the camera high, which made her face look skinnier. Plus, she was wearing the gold earrings her mom had left her, which were very sophisticated. And real, which was important. Stephanie said only losers wore jewelry that wasn’t real.

But no one had texted back. Not even Becky, who had always been on the fringes of their group because Stephanie didn’t like her. Stephanie said Becky was greasy from eating too much fast food. Probably, though, Becky would be allowed on the inside now.

Now that Ellen was gone, and a place had opened up.

The wind rose, tickling her hair into her face, and her eyes stung even worse. She swallowed three times, trying to loosen that tight feeling in her throat, and then clicked on her Facebook app. Maybe she should just post the picture there, so everyone could see.

But Facebook made her feel worse. Her news feed was full of pictures Stephanie and the gang had just taken at the mall, where they’d gone to see a movie. “Less than a minute ago” they’d been horsing around at the Organic Highway counter at the food court. Laughing, throwing stuff at each other, making funny faces.

And, look at that shot! Becky stood so close to Gregory Parr the whole world could see she had a crush on him.

Well, Gregory Parr was the cutest guy in school. Ellen had a graph in her diary tracking how long it would take her to lose fifteen pounds, and what she’d do then to make Greg notice her.

Except for Stephanie, who had been held back in first grade and was older than the rest of them, no one in their group had a boyfriend. Not outright. But everyone knew who liked who, and everybody knew you didn’t go after the boys your friends had chosen.

But here was Becky, clearly trying to call dibs on Gregory. Ellen’s fury rose. If greasy Becky Fife thought she could just move in and take over every single part of Ellen’s life...her guy, her friends...

Ellen could imagine her dad’s reaction. “Could they really have been friends if they have forgotten about you in a week?”

Could Dad really be that clueless?

Of course they were going to forget her. They hung out together every day, and when you were gone, you were gone. You could hardly expect them to sit around for nine months waiting for you to come back.

Her tears had begun to fall. She reached up and ripped off her left earring angrily. They were only hooked over the edge of her ear, anyhow, because her ears weren’t pierced.

Thanks for that, too, Dad.

She yanked the second one, and the filigreed hoop went flying out of her hand into the tall grass around her.

“Oh, my God. No!” She got on all fours and tried to comb the grass, praying to see the winking gold. “No!”

A sudden rustling in the tree overhead startled her. She felt a spasm of fear and froze in place. No bird could possibly be that big. Not even an eagle. Well, maybe an eagle. What did she know about eagles?

She sniffed, trying to keep her nose from running. She hated hick places like this. It could be anything up there. A snake, or a cougar, or...

“What’s the matter? What are you looking for?”

And abruptly, there he was. A boy, draped over the lowest big branch like the Cheshire cat, his skinny blue jeans and sneakers dangling, his grin and upturned eyes laughing at her.

Suddenly, she was madder than ever. He must have been in the tree the whole time. He’d probably been watching her when she took the picture of herself. Pictures. She’d taken fifteen different shots, trying for one that looked perfect.