LITMIR.BIZ

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Dylan said, but there was something wistful in the way he said the words.

      Logan laughed. “We never did,” he replied. “But we had a lot of fun in between brawls.”

      More silence.

      Then Dylan laughed, too. “Yeah,” he said.

      It was the first thing they’d agreed on in a decade.

      “You going to call Ty?” Dylan asked.

      “At some point.”

      “Well, tread lightly when you do. And don’t give my name as a reference—he’s seriously pissed at me right now.”

      “Why?” Logan asked, though he could imagine a thousand reasons—not the least of which was Tyler’s tendency to be a hothead.

      But Dylan shut him down. “Too personal,” he said coolly. This is between Ty and me. You’re on the outside,

      looking in. “Look, Logan, it was good to hear from you, but I’ve gotta go. Big date.”

      “Right,” Logan replied. He and Dylan had been civil to each other. When he saw Cassie the next morning, he could honestly say he’d tried. “Good luck with the movie.”

      Dylan said thanks and hung up.

      Logan looked down at Sidekick, who was gazing soulfully into his eyes.

      “One down, one to go,” he told the dog.

      Sidekick whimpered.

      Logan consulted Cassie’s note again, then dialed the number scrawled next to Tyler’s name.

      One ring.

      Two.

      Three.

      Then, the recording. “This is Tyler Creed. I’m busy right now, but I’ll call you back unless you’re selling something. In that case, you’re SOL. Wait for the beep, and spill it.”

      Logan chuckled, waited for the beep.

      “This is Logan,” he said. He recited both his cell number and the new one for the ranch phone. “Call me. I’m not selling anything.”

      Like hell he wasn’t.

      CHAPTER THREE

      SOLEMNLY, Alec presented Briana with a tattered piece of notebook paper. The pencil marks forming Vance’s number were pressed in hard, as though Alec had been afraid they would fade if he didn’t copy them down with all his might.

      The sorrow Briana felt in that moment weighed down her heart. Even Alec, Vance’s most loyal supporter, knew that the precious digits in that phone number were elusive. Like his father.

      Tears scalded the backs of her eyes, and she touched the pendant she always wore—she’d made it herself, scanning an old photo of her dad, resizing it, setting it in resin. He’d been a rambler, too, Bill McIntyre had, a well-known rodeo clown following the circuit during the season, parking his camper in his sister’s backyard in Boise when there were no rodeos to perform in. The difference was, he’d taken Briana on the road with him, after her mother died. She’d been Alec’s age then.

      Her aunt Barbara had objected, of course, to all the travel and Briana doing her schoolwork by correspondence instead of attending a real school. A young girl needed friends, Barbara had argued. Needed dance lessons and Sunday school and security.

      Every time they’d returned to Boise, Briana’s bossy but beloved aunt had hustled her off to the school for tests; every time, Briana had proved to be far above her grade level. In fact, she’d completed high school by the time she was fifteen. Bill had immediately signed her up for college-level courses, and she’d aced those, too, with his help.

      She treasured the recollection of the two of them sitting at the little fold-down table in the camper, lamplight casting a golden benediction from over their heads, bent over one textbook or another.

      Now, with her son standing hopefully before her, she missed her dad more poignantly than ever. Sure, he’d dragged her all over the United States in that old camper, but he’d been rock-solid, too. There for her, no matter what.

      Her greatest regret, where her children were concerned, was that she hadn’t given them the kind of father Bill had been to her. Instead, she’d been swept away by Vance’s good looks, charm and easy drawl.

      “Are you going to call Dad?” Alec asked, his voice small.

      Briana smiled. “Yes,” she said. “But only to ask how long he’ll be staying.”

      Alec looked desperately relieved. His gaze slipped to the pendant, on its simple leather cord, and the image of Bill “Wild Man” McIntyre, clad in full clown regalia. “You miss Grampa, huh?”

      “Lots,” Briana admitted. Her dad had retired from rodeo soon after she married Vance, giving up his beloved camper for a modest house a few blocks from Barbara and her family, saying he was all set to fish every day and wait for his grandchildren to come along.

      A month later, he’d passed away very suddenly, after a particularly nasty case of the flu had turned to pneumonia.

      The irony of that still bothered Briana. Her dad had been gored by bulls and trampled by broncs in his long career as a rodeo clown, and in the end, he’d died of an ailment a simple injection might have prevented.

      Alec leaned in, planted a kiss on Briana’s cheek. “’Night, Mom,” he said. “And thanks.”

      Briana waited until Alec and Josh had both settled in for the night, keeping herself busy by puttering around the kitchen, washing up dishes she’d left in the sink that morning, making up a grocery list, checking and rechecking her work schedule for the coming week. Finally, sweaty-palmed, she took the phone receiver off the hook on the wall and called Vance.

      “That number,” an automated operator responded, after three rings, “is no longer in service.”

      Of course it wasn’t, Briana thought, hanging up with a slight bang, feeling both relieved and annoyed. Vance would have had to buy more minutes to keep that particular line of communication open; instead, he’d simply gotten another phone, in another convenience store, with a new number he hadn’t troubled himself to share with her.

      She rarely had anything to say to Vance, but suppose one of the boys were sick or hurt? How would she reach him?

      Resigned, Briana sighed and checked the clock on the stove. Too early to turn in, especially with all that caffeine coursing through her system, and she didn’t feel like watching television or cruising the Internet.

      Wandering into the living room, she peered through the lace curtains toward the main ranch house. Saw its lights shining through the trees in the orchard for the first time since she’d moved into Dylan’s place as caretaker-in-residence. The sight was comforting, made her feel less isolated and alone. Not that she meant to get too friendly with Logan Creed—he was easy on the eyes, and she’d liked him right away, even if he did make her nervous, but he was a cowboy.

      Like Vance.

      He’d blown in on a stray wind, like some tumbleweed, Logan had, and he was likely to blow right out again, when the right breeze came along.

      Biting her lower lip, Briana turned away from the window.

      In the distance, the phone jangled.

      She ran to answer, smacking her shin on one of the kitchen chairs as she passed. Wincing, she grabbed up the receiver and said, “Hello? Vance?”

      Silence.

      “Hello?” Briana repeated.

      “It’s Logan,” her neighbor said quietly.

      “Oh,” Briana said.

      “I’ll make this quick, since you’re expecting another call,” Logan replied affably. “I checked

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