The Long Road Home

Mia sighed. “Talk to Alyssa.”

Priscilla went back to the living room, deciding she’d deal with the separate beds first, then the phone. She got the reluctant teenager to help her and Mia wheel the cot into the guest bedroom, but Alyssa was adamant about not turning off her phone.

“It’s bad for your rest!” Priscilla insisted. “You can’t sleep if you keep waking up to text.”

“I’m fine. And everybody does it.” Alyssa snapped, “My dad and mom bought me this phone and they think it’s okay.”

Was she going to have to call her brother? Priscilla wondered. She was sick of the debate and they’d only been going at it for a few minutes.

“If I have to stay in here with you, you’ll keep me awake,” complained Mia, sounding even more grouchy. She put her hands on her hips and faced her sister.

Alyssa gave the younger girl an evil stare. “Oh, okay, I’ll put my phone on vibrate, nerd. You won’t hear anything.” She looked at her aunt. “I have to know what’s going on. I can’t be out of the loop.”

Honestly, what on earth could be so important? Priscilla made the cot up with sheets and a pillow. “It’s not like the Department of Homeland Security will be calling you.”

Alyssa caught the sarcasm. Her eyes flashed. “My life is super important to me! I’m young and I don’t want to miss out. We already had to come to this stupid small town out in the middle of nowhere for the summer. Dad said...”

“Okay, okay,” Priscilla interrupted, trying not to feel insulted. The girl was only a teenager. And she simply didn’t want to make an international call over texting, for Pete’s sake. “Make sure you keep the phone on vibrate.”

“Yeah, you’d better,” grumbled Mia. “Or I’m going to be getting up and ramming the stupid thing down your throat!”

“Oh, you’re so tough!” Alyssa came back, looking ready to lunge.

“Whoa, whoa.” Priscilla grabbed Alyssa’s arm to intervene. She told Mia. “Your sister has promised to be quiet. You’re tired. Why don’t you get into your pajamas and climb into bed?”

Alyssa grumbled something before walking away and Mia went to her suitcase where she opened it on top of the dresser, rummaged around, and pulled out pink Hello Kitty pajamas. Priscilla would have to assure her mother that the garments were indeed being used.

After that, Priscilla returned to the living room but she wasn’t interested in TV. Disgruntled and out of sorts with all the upheaval, she went to her office to listen to some soothing music on headphones and play some computer solitaire until she felt calmer. Then she was able to place the orders she had planned and go over some invoices. When she decided it was time for bed, she came out to find that the TV was off and Alyssa was in the bathroom, a sliver of light seeping out from under the closed door.

Priscilla went to her own bedroom to change into her nightshirt. Then she peeped out into the hall, noting the apartment’s one bathroom was still closed. It might be closed for quite a while, too. She guessed she would have to grab her keys and go downstairs to use the bathroom in the store. With a teenager around, it would probably not be the first time. She only wished bathroom use would be the only problem her nieces presented. If they didn’t drive her crazy this summer, she would be lucky.

CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_7bf91668-a338-5e4a-8c22-4ebc9573254c)

“COME ON, AUNT PRISCILLA,” called Mia, heading for the car. “I can’t wait to get on the back of a horse again!”

“You are the back of...” started Alyssa before a dirty look from Priscilla stopped her from completing the sentence.

The teenager clamped her mouth shut and got into the front seat, while Priscilla slid behind the steering wheel.

They were heading out to Sam’s ranch again, after a couple of days’ break while Mom had kept the girls busy running around Sparrow Lake. Though she felt guilty for admitting it, Priscilla had enjoyed taking time off from her nieces and working at the cheese shop. It was peaceful in comparison to the chaos upstairs. She was glad she had the business since the place had become her second home, especially at night, when the apartment’s bathroom was too often occupied and her office commandeered as a third bedroom. The cot in the guest bedroom hadn’t worked out, since Alyssa’s phone had been too noisy for Mia, even on vibrate. After the first night sleeping on the love seat—luckily, the sisters hadn’t come to blows—Mia had asked Priscilla if they could move the cot to the office. Priscilla had complied, but now there was no space left to use the computer or the desk in that room.

Today she was taking the girls back to the Larson Dude Ranch for that promised Western lesson. She felt on edge, though she wasn’t sure what made her more nervous, the possibility of her nieces getting into another argument or seeing Sam again.

She needn’t have worried about Sam, however. Once they got to the ranch and were saddling up horses, he barely seemed to notice her. He merely gave her a quick nod before turning his attention to Mia and Alyssa, and she couldn’t help feeling a little hurt. Then, watching him work with the girls, she realized he wasn’t acting like the Sam she knew at all today. Though he appeared totally professional and gave one hundred percent to the girls, he didn’t do so with that easy charm that had won her young heart.

Charm he hadn’t lost if measured by their meeting the other day.

Something must be wrong.

“Where’s Logan?” asked Alyssa.

“He’ll be around later.”

“Okay.” With a look of resignation, Alyssa mounted her horse, not making too much of a fuss over the real reason she had probably come out to the dude ranch. At least the lack of reception for her phone meant she had to do something else besides text.

Sitting on the fence, her legs dangling into the corral, Priscilla watched the riding lesson closely. When it ended, Sam instructed the girls to remove tack, to brush down their horses’ backs with towels to dry them, then to check their feet and clean their hooves if necessary before bringing them out to the pasture.

As the girls got busy, he seemed as if he was trying to make up his mind as to what to do next—leave or stay. In the end, he walked over to Priscilla and climbed up on the fence to sit next to her. His arm brushed hers, making her catch her breath. She steeled herself against the sensation.

Clearing her throat, she asked, “You’re going to let them work on their own?”

“I can see them from here. Besides, they’re not beginners. They know what they’re doing.”

“They seem to,” Priscilla agreed, surprised that Alyssa took as much care with her horse as Mia did.

And Sam was still in that down mood. His brow was drawn and his mouth was pulled into a straight line instead of the teasing smile that always got to her. She wondered what was going on with him, but she wasn’t about to ask. She didn’t have to. Apparently he needed someone to talk to.

“I only wish I knew what I was doing,” Sam said.

“In what respect?”

“I’m worried about the future of the farm.”

Apparently, he was taking all the responsibility for the land on his shoulders despite the fact that his father had intended to sell the place.

“You’re just getting started, Sam. Take it easy. You just need a little patience.”

She felt like patting his hand or something for encouragement, but, not wanting to touch him, she kept her distance.

Sam sounded even more depressed when he said, “What I need is luck. I nearly lost some horses the other night when they mysteriously got out of the pasture.”

The way he said that made her ask, “And you think someone did it on purpose?”

“Logan swore the gate was locked when he finished. And the horses didn’t just wander out calmly. They were a little freaked, like someone purposely spooked them.”

“Oh, Sam, that’s terrible.”

“It could have been worse if one of them had wandered onto the highway. And that’s not all.”

“What else happened?” This didn’t sound good.

“The other day, after the ride, while I was at my cabin having supper, someone scattered boards with big nails in the parking lot. Loose nails and screws, too. If I hadn’t cleaned it up, some of my customers would have had ruined tires. That probably would have been it for them. They wouldn’t have come back.”

Priscilla frowned. “I haven’t heard about any kids messing around on people’s property, not since Brian Lange and his buddies were caught playing pranks and straightened out doing some community service. That happened a couple of summers ago. I wasn’t here at the time, but I heard all about it from his sister Kristen. You remember her, right? My best friend in high school?”

“Vaguely. Smart. Ambitious. Couldn’t wait to graduate to get out of Dodge.”

“She did that, but she came home to Sparrow Lake, too. Now she manages her aunt’s quilting shop.”