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  “Come on, Ry-guy. Let’s go eat and then we can figure out which room is yours.”

  Ryan eagerly went over to his aunt. He loved his Auntie Erin, and he was the sunshine to Dylan’s thunderstorms. Once he and Erin had started toward the house, Leah turned her attention back to Dylan.

  “You had your chance to do the right thing,” she said. “Come now, or there will be consequences.”

  She already knew how this was going to end. But it was important to make Dylan aware that he was making a choice. Dylan picked up a rock.

  “I told you I want to ride the horse.” He turned and threw the rock at the horse, narrowly missing it.

  “That’s enough,” Leah said, closing the distance between her and Dylan and taking him by the arm. “We do not throw rocks. And we especially don’t throw them at another living being. You tell Mister Shane you’re sorry.”

  “No.” Dylan wrestled himself from her grasp, which hadn’t been that tight, and threw himself to the ground. “I want to ride the horse.”

  He started wailing, kicking and screaming. This would go on for a while, and there was nothing to do but let him finish it out.

  Leah took a step back and turned to Shane. “I’m sorry my boys scared your horse. You’d best take him and be on your way. It’ll be easier if the horse isn’t here to distract him.”

  Shane shook his head slowly. “What are you going to do to him?”

  “Nothing. He’s going to sit here and throw his fit, and then we’ll go back to the house and have something to eat.”

  “You said something about consequences. What are they?”

  She knew the look on his face. It was the same one she got whenever Dylan threw a fit in public. Shane sounded like he thought she was going to beat him or something. But neither Shane nor the people who thought they could insert themselves into her business had spent countless hours in therapy with her son.

  “He’ll lose some of his privileges, including screen time. He and his brother had too much of it on the drive anyway. I’m sure that’s why he’s acting up now.”

  Shane looked doubtful. “I’d like to check on him later.”

  Who was this man to think he knew everything there was to know about her family?

  “What do you think, little guy? Can I come see you later?” Shane bent in front of Dylan only to get a handful of dirt tossed in his face.

  “Hey!” Shane jumped and wiped at his eyes. She probably should have warned him not to go near her son while he was in the middle of a fit. For a seven-year-old, Dylan could be incredibly violent. But it wasn’t his fault. The past few years had been chaotic for him, and he was acting out of the fear and insecurity planted in him by his unstable father. Jason was a great dad when he was clean, but his relapses turned their lives upside down. Things had gotten worse since Jason’s death from a drug overdose. In a child’s mind, a terrible father was better than a dead father.

  “Please ignore him,” she said, motioning for Shane to come near her.

  Wiping the dust from his face, Shane sputtered as he walked in her direction. “He just threw dirt in my face.”

  “Maybe you should have waited for my response before stepping in. Right now, he is so deep in his animal instincts that he can’t be rational or reasoned with. As I said, you should go now. I’m going to sit here and wait this out.”

  It was exhausting enough having to deal with Dylan’s fit. But having to once again justify her actions made Leah even wearier. She’d hoped that coming out to this isolated ranch with her sisters, who also understood how to handle Dylan, would allow her to get a break from the judgment of everyone around her.

  To help Shane see her resolve, Leah sat on a nearby rock. But instead of doing as she asked, Shane came and sat next to her.

  So much for getting a break.

  * * *

  The last thing Shane needed was to get involved with a single mother desperately in need of a daddy figure for her children. Been there, done that and even had a World’s Greatest Dad coffee mug to show for it. But when Gina had ridden out of town on the back of a Harley with a guy who promised more excitement than he could, she’d taken Natalie, and there hadn’t been a single thing to do about it. Unless a man legally adopted a child, he had no rights to the kid in the future.

  And yet, there was something about Leah and the pain written on her face that drew him. She might not want him here, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave.

  When Helen was alive, she’d told him about her ex-husband, the Colonel, and how her biggest regret in divorcing him had been leaving his three daughters behind. She’d loved them like her own, but she’d been given no visitation rights. However, she’d continued to pray for the girls every single day. When Gina left, Helen had been his rock. She’d told him about her love for the girls, and while he had been comforted by the fact that he wasn’t alone in his pain, he also wasn’t ready to befriend a beautiful woman with two kids he’d never have any right to.

  Except he’d promised Helen he’d look out for the girls. Only they weren’t girls now but grown women, and keeping his promise wasn’t looking as easy as it had been to make it. Still, Helen had been there for him in his darkest days. In many ways, she’d been like a mother to him. He owed it to her to be there for the girls she’d been unable to love the way she’d have liked.

  Dylan continued to scream and flail in the dirt. Shane had moved Squirt to a safer spot where the little boy wouldn’t be tempted by him and Squirt wouldn’t be spooked. Leah said she had everything under control. But, from Shane’s perspective, this was a mess. How could she let her son act like this?

  Worse, he couldn’t believe she’d gotten into this mess in the first place. Though he was in no position to judge, it seemed like poor parenting to leave your children alone like she had. He’d often watched Natalie for Gina because otherwise Gina would have left Natalie alone. Once again, he wondered exactly how much his promise to Helen was going to cost him.

  He glanced over at Leah, trying to gauge her reaction. She sat there, acting like she didn’t have a care in the world, picking several of the long blades of grass that had gone far too long without cutting. She was twisting them into some kind of shape.

  “What are you making?” he asked.

  A soft smile crossed her face. “I was trying to remember how to make the little grass baskets Helen had taught us to make when we were small. I thought it would be fun to teach the boys.”

  She held it up, then frowned slightly. “I’m missing a step. I wonder if I can look it up online to find the answer.”

  “I’ve never done anything like that,” Shane said. “All I know how to do with grass is make a whistle.”

  He picked a few blades, then demonstrated.

  At the sound, Leah smiled. “Oh, that’s wonderful. You’ll have to show me how to do it. The boys will think it’s so fun.”

  At her words, Dylan paused and looked over at them. Leah shot Shane a look.

  “Show me,” she said, her eyes darting to Dylan before she shook her head at Shane. She seemed to be signaling him to continue ignoring Dylan.

  Even though it didn’t seem right to not acknowledge the boy’s silence, Shane did as she asked. Leah picked some grass of her own and tried copying his motion, but all she accomplished was contorting her face and sending the grass flying through the air.

  Dylan giggled.

  Leah didn’t look at him and instead tried again.

  As she had in her previous attempt, she failed.

  “You need to roll your tongue slightly,” Shane said. “I can’t tell if you’re doing it or not, but when my dad taught me how to whistle, that’s what he told me to do.”

  Once more, Leah took some grass and tried to make it whistle.

  Dylan got up and came over to them. “You’re doing it wrong. Let me show you.”

 
He tried taking the grass out of her hand, but she shook her head. “I’m done. Let’s go inside and have some lunch.”

  For a moment, Dylan looked like he was going to argue, but then he nodded. “I’m hungry.”

  “All right then.”

  Leah got up and brushed the dirt from her pants. She smiled at Shane. “As you can see, everything is okay now. We’re going to go inside and eat. You should take your horse home.”

  Once again, she was dismissing him. And it still didn’t feel right.

  “We should talk about what just happened,” he said. Talking wasn’t his strong suit, but the situation had been intense. He’d come by to be neighborly and had ended up in the middle of a family crisis.

  Dylan had already started for the house. She turned and gave Shane the kind of stern look he imagined she used on her sons.

  “There’s nothing to talk about. I have everything perfectly in hand. You don’t need to feel obligated to look out for my children or me. We’ll be fine.”

  The resignation in her voice told him that there was a lot more to her story then he knew. Sure, he knew the little Helen had told him over the years. But she hadn’t been in contact with the girls enough to have details beyond the newspaper clippings of marriage and death announcements she collected. There were also a couple of articles about a man being found dead of a drug overdose, the death of a little girl, and one about a fatal car accident. The bare bones, not enough to know anything other than these women had been through a lot recently. Leah’s husband had died weeks before Helen passed. Was that why her parenting seemed so chaotic?

  Maybe sticking around to see what he could do to help wouldn’t hurt.

  “We’re neighbors. Helen was a good friend. She wanted me to look out for you.”

  Leah shook her head. “Look, I know you think I’m a terrible mom. But you have no idea what we’ve been through, and we’re doing our best to move on.”

  She gestured at the house, and one of the sisters was beckoning Dylan inside.

  “Since things got bad with his dad, we’ve been in therapy. I worked two jobs to pay for a child psychologist to help us figure out how to handle these fits. As for your horse, I know things got out of hand. I’m sorry for that. In the future, please don’t bring him over.”

  Though she still sounded weary, there was a determined expression on her face that made him realize she was stronger than he had first thought.

  “I just want to help,” he said.

  “Then go home. I don’t know what Helen told you about our childhood or what you’ve read in the papers about us. But if you think that any of it means we need someone to take care of us, you’re wrong. We’ve learned how to take care of ourselves. We don’t need you.”

  It was as if she had read his earlier thoughts. The stubborn set to her jaw and the pain in her eyes made him want to take care of her anyway. But he also knew that it wasn’t worth the grief it would bring to his own life to chase after a woman who didn’t want him.

  So how was he supposed to keep his promise to Helen?

  “Okay.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card for his ranch. He’d bought a hundred of them years ago and still had more than he could count left. At least he’d be getting rid of one more. “My number’s on here. You might not need me now, but if there’s anything I can do to help you all get settled, give me a call.”

  She took the card, but from the look on her face, it would probably go straight into the round file when she got inside. “Thanks.”

  He watched as she walked into her house, her posture straight and determined, and yet the air of sadness around her made him wish he could do more for her. But that was the kind of thinking that got a man in trouble. How many times had he tried playing the white knight, saving the damsel in distress? And while he’d been taken advantage of in the past, Leah was different. She didn’t want anything to do with him.

  Chapter Two

  Shane didn’t need anything from the sale barn, but he stopped by the Wednesday livestock auction just the same. It was a good chance to socialize with the other ranchers in the area and to keep up on the news. Most folks wouldn’t call Columbine Springs a happening place, but if you wanted to know what was happening, at least among the ranchers, the sale barn was where you’d find out.

  “Hey, Shane!” Arnold Hastings, one of the old-timers, gave him a wave. “We were just talking about that bull of yours. Ol’ Mike was wanting to add a new bloodline to his herd. I told him that you won’t find a finer bull than Big Red.”

  Given that Arnold had his own prize-winning bull, it was a fine compliment. “Thank you. I appreciate it. Do they have anything good for sale today?”

  Arnold shook his head as he chewed on a piece of hay. “Nope. Bobby’s trying to get rid of that old mare of his again, but he can’t seem to get it through his thick skull that no one wants that useless mare. ’Bout all she’s good for is being led around on a rope. Even then, the creature is better off being put out to pasture. But since Bobby’s little girl won a bunch of buckles on her barrel racing, he’s sure someone’s going to be willing to pay a lot of money for her.”

  An image of the little boys next door came to mind. Shane hadn’t been back since he met them last week. He’d wanted to give them time, but he also wasn’t sure how to approach them since Leah had made it clear she didn’t want him there.

  He’d promised the boys he’d teach them the rules about horses, and then they could ride. But none of his mounts were suitable for children, especially the little one. Natalie had taken her horse when she and Gina had left.

  “There’s nothing wrong with my horse,” Bobby said, joining the conversation. “Belle is a great mare, and she’d be perfect for someone with kids. She won a lot of buckles for my Sara.”

  Just then, a lightbulb went off. The problem was, Leah didn’t want him butting into her life. But if she did warm up to the idea of having him around for the sake of the boys...

  “How much do you want for her?” Shane asked.

  Bobby grinned. “I told Frank I wouldn’t take less than five grand. But for you, I’d take two and a half.”

  Was he seriously considering spending twenty-five hundred dollars on a horse for a couple of kids he wasn’t even sure would get to ride it?

  He hesitated.

  “Now, Shane, that’s a good deal, and you know it.”

  Arnold snorted. “You just offered that mare to Jimmy Ball for two grand last week.”

  “And he’s real interested, so you better make it quick.”

  The last thing he needed was another animal to feed. Not with things so uncertain now that he wasn’t sure if the women would let him graze his cattle at Helen’s ranch. He’d intended to ask them, but as firm as Leah had been in sending him away, he was having his lawyer draw up an agreement, so everything was in writing. He and Helen hadn’t needed one, but the women seemed like they would want it.

  “I’m not interested,” Shane said. “I was just curious what you were asking, in case I run into someone in need of a retired barrel-racing horse.”

  At the word retired, Arnold snickered. Bobby glared at him and started to speak, but before Shane could figure out what he was saying, a familiar voice rang out.

  “I’m here to buy some cows.”

  Leah.

  At least now he knew they intended to work the land themselves, so they probably wouldn’t be interested in leasing him the land for grazing. Good thing he hadn’t jumped on the horse offer, since now he’d be figuring out a new financial plan.

  “I ain’t seen her around before,” Bobby said. “Look at that. There’s two of ’em.”

  Three, actually, but Shane wasn’t going to correct him.

  Arnold got out of his chair. “I wonder if those are the girls who inherited the old Wanamaker place. Helen was making noises about leaving it
to her ex’s kids. Don’t know why. It’s not like they’re family or anything. I figured they’d probably sell the place and move on.”

  As Arnold chattered on about what he thought of the situation, Shane walked over to Leah.

  “Nice to see you again,” he said, approaching her.

  “Likewise.” She didn’t sound like she meant it. “I believe you know my sister Erin.”

  Shane tipped his hat to her. “Ma’am.” Then he looked around. “Where are the boys?”

  Leah gave him the same irritated look she’d given him when he’d asked her questions the day they’d met. Maybe she just looked irritated all the time. Which would be a shame because, other than the angry lines on her face, she was downright pretty. Dark brown hair, brown eyes, pink lips... What was he doing?

  “They’re not lost, if that’s what you’re implying,” Leah said. “They’re home with our sister Nicole, who has a degree in early childhood education.”

  Great. He was trying to be polite, and she took it as an insult. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I was asking after them, so I could say hi.”

  Erin leaned in to say something to Leah, who nodded. Leah turned her attention back to him. “I’m sorry. I misunderstood. I’m a little sensitive where my kids are concerned.”

  A little? Shane was tempted to say something, but Leah already looked like she was hankering for a fight.

  “No harm done,” Shane said instead. “What brings you to the sale barn today? I heard you asking about cows. I have a herd of my own. I could help if you want.”

  Most people didn’t look like they wanted to bite his head off when he was trying to be neighborly. Maybe his original theory of Leah always looking cranky wasn’t too far off the mark.

  “We’re going to turn it back into a working ranch,” Erin said, sounding way more cheerful than her sister. “We’ve decided to call it Three Sisters Ranch, and it’s our fresh start. I’ve been studying brands, and I think I’ve come up with the perfect one. So now, all we need are some cows.”