Relief, sweet as cool water on a hot day, poured through Connor. They were going. He’d never been so pleased about anything in his life.
Jerilyn, also in jeans, peered over Tori’s shoulder. “Hey.”
“Hey,” CJ replied, his voice cracking on the single syllable. He cleared his throat and said it again. “Hey.”
Tori’s gaze shifted to meet Connor’s. She gave him a careful smile and a nod. He did the same.
“I packed a basket,” she said. “Some cheese and fruit, some whole-wheat crackers. Some juice …”
Jerilyn pulled a face. “All totally healthy,” she added. And she and CJ groaned in unison.
“Ready to go?” Connor asked.
“Yes, we are,” Tori replied, her gaze sliding away from his. “I’ll get the basket and we can be on our way.”
His relief that she wasn’t backing out on him faded. He could see the day stretching endlessly out ahead of them. A day of careful smiles and sliding glances, of unacknowledged tension.
But there was nothing else to do but gut it up and get through it. The muscles in his shoulders knotting, he turned and went back down the steps toward the waiting SUV.
It was a good day, the sky clear and blue, with only a few fluffy white clouds gliding slowly toward the west.
Russ had horses picked out and tacked up for each of them. Connor, who had learned to ride six years before when he opened McFarlane House Louisville at a former horse ranch, got a big palomino mare. Tori got a handsome bay gelding. CJ’s gray seemed calm and steady-natured, as did Jerilyn’s blue roan. Russ, Melanie and Ryan all rode the horses they favored for everyday riding at the Hopping H and at Russ’s original ranch, the Flying J, which abutted the H.
Melanie had pack saddles full of food and drinks. She tucked the stuff Tori had brought in with the rest, and they rode out.
In a wide, rolling pasture dotted with wildflowers, they spread a couple of blankets. Melanie and Tori put out the food. They ate as the hobbled horses cropped the grass nearby.
The kids were finished with lunch in no time. They wandered off to explore, CJ and Jerilyn side by side, Ryan happily trailing along behind.
The grown-ups chatted about casual stuff. Melanie said she and Russ were turning a nice profit with the guest ranch. Russ talked about buying more land. Connor dared to kid him that if he didn’t watch out, he’d become a land baron. Russ laughed and said maybe he would. His easy response pleased Connor. He was making progress healing the early breach with his cowboy brother-in-law.
Tori mentioned some Outward Bound–type program, ROOTS, that a local woman, Haley Anderson, was trying to start up in a storefront in town. Melanie said she was so happy for Haley, to have found the right place for ROOTS at last.
And then Melanie wanted to know if Tori had met Erin Castro, who was new in town and apparently going around asking questions about the Cateses, the Cliftons and the Traubs.
Tori frowned. “No. I haven’t met her.”
Russ said, “Grant told me that woman started in on him at the Hitching Post. She had a thousand and one questions.”
Connor remembered the blonde woman he’d spoken to at the bar at DJ’s. “I met her at the summer kickoff barbecue. She introduced herself.” He described their brief conversation.
Russ grunted. “She’s up to something …”
“But what?” Melanie wondered aloud.
Russ added, “Grant said she has this tattered yellowed newspaper clipping, a picture of some old-time gathering of—”
“Let me guess.” Connor predicted, “The Cateses, the Cliftons and the Traubs.”
“You got it.”
“Maybe she’s writing a tell-all,” Tori suggested lightly. “The secrets of Thunder Canyon, Montana, revealed.”
“She better watch herself,” Russ muttered darkly. “Folks around here don’t like strangers poking in their private business.”
And the conversation moved on.
Connor didn’t say much to Tori. She returned the favor. He didn’t think his sister or her husband even noticed that they kept their distance from each other and avoided eye contact.
He couldn’t help glancing Tori’s way, though, when he thought no one was looking. She was so pretty, strawberry-blond hair shining in the sun, her skin like cream. There was something about her, even beyond her fresh good looks, something that drew him. He couldn’t explain it, and he certainly didn’t understand it. It just was, like the blue sky above, the wide, rolling pasture below.
And it’s going nowhere, so get over it, the voice of wisdom within advised.
The kids wandered in and out of their view, sometimes disappearing into a small stand of pines on a ridge to the northeast, sometimes coming near, but then turning to head off in a different direction before they got too close to the adults. Their laughter and chatter rang out across the rolling field.
Once, when they were all three in sight, near a weathered fence that separated the pasture from the next one over, Melanie got up. “Time to talk a little business.” She set off toward the three by the fence.
“Business?” Tori glanced at Connor—and then apparently caught herself actually looking at him. Her gaze slid away.
Russ, stretched out on his back, with his hat over his eyes, said lazily, “Connor’s decided it’s not a bad idea if CJ does a little honest work this summer.”
Tori sent Connor another swift glance. What? She was surprised that he’d taken her advice.
He gave a curt nod and looked away.
Russ, still with his hat over his eyes, continued, “He and Red agreed that she should make the offer.” According to Melanie, Russ had always called her Red. Even back when she didn’t like it in the least. Now, though, it was his pet name for her.
Melanie had reached the three teenagers. Connor— and Tori, too, he noticed out of the corner of his eye—watched as the scene played out. Melanie spoke.
CJ instantly started shaking his head, backing away. It looked like a no-go.
But then Jerilyn said something. Melanie nodded and offered her hand. The girl took it.
And then CJ spoke up again. Melanie turned to him and said something. He nodded. And Melanie shook his hand.
Ryan shot a fist in the air and they heard him exclaim, “Yes!”
Russ lifted his hat enough to glance toward the scene by the old fence. “Mission accomplished, if you ask me.”
“Looks that way,” Connor agreed. “Your wife is amazing.”
“She certainly is.” Russ spoke with deep satisfaction. Then he put his hat back over his eyes and let his head drop to the blanket again.
Melanie returned to them. Connor thought she looked sort of bemused. “CJ starts tomorrow,” she told him. “Nine to one, Monday through Thursday. I guess we’ll have to take turns driving him out here—Jerilyn, too.”
“Either Gerda or I will do it, no problem.” Connor would slip his housekeeper a little extra for the inconvenience. “So you’ve got two new employees, then?”
“Oh, yes, I do. CJ turned me down flat. But then Jerilyn spoke up and said how she’d love to work at the Hopping H. So I offered her the job.”
Connor could guess the rest. “And then CJ suddenly changed his mind.”
“And it’s great. I can put them both to work, and Ryan will love having them around.” She added, sounding