LITMIR.BIZ

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same, and her musical voice hurt his heart in ways it hadn’t hurt in years. “Can you talk?”

      “In a minute.” He sounded out of breath and hated that. But he was having trouble breathing. Lexi. Dear God. “I’m driving and hauling a horse behind me. Let me get off the road.”

      “Okay. I’ll wait.”

      He set the phone back in its holder and eased to the shoulder so he wouldn’t jostle Hematite. Then he grabbed the phone again. “I’m here. What’s up?”

      “It’s Rosie. She... Herb took her to Sheridan Memorial.”

      He felt dizzy. “Why? What happened?”

      “We won’t know until they do some tests, so we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but—”

      “Damn it, Lexi! What’s wrong with her?”

      “She might... She might have had a heart attack.”

      “No. Oh, no.” Panic gripped him. “She can’t. She’s too young. She can’t have a heart attack. She—”

      “Maybe it’s not that. But Herb’s scared. He asked me to come and take care of things here.”

      “Did he ask you to call me?”

      “No. I’m doing that on my own. I thought you should know.”

      “Damn right I should know! I’m a little north of Colorado Springs right now. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”

      “Can you do that? Where were you going before I called?”

      “It doesn’t matter. I’m changing my plans.”

      “But you’re hauling a horse.”

      “And the ranch has a barn.”

      “True.” She hesitated. “So you’re alone?”

      “No.”

      “Oh.”

      He couldn’t help smiling. He knew that tone. She hadn’t liked his answer. “I have a cat.”

      “Oh!”

      “Yeah, he came along for the ride. Are there any barn cats at the ranch?”

      “Not right now.”

      “Dogs?”

      “No, no dogs, either.”

      “That’s just as well, then. Did you call Damon and Finn?”

      “I don’t have their numbers.”

      So she only had his. She’d kept it in her phone for five years. He shouldn’t read too much into that, but he already was. “I’ll call them. And if you hear anything more about Mom, call me. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

      “Good. That’s good.” She hung up.

      He wondered how she’d meant that and if she’d be glad to see him. The thought of seeing her made him nervous, but now that he had no choice in the matter, he discovered that he wanted to. His mental picture was five years old, so she’d probably look different.

      Her hazel eyes would be the same, but guaranteed her hair would have changed. Women tended to do that, and she’d complained about her natural color. He liked the warm brown, but she might have dyed it or cut it.

      When he’d talked to his foster mother on Christmas Eve, she’d said Lexi had broken up with her latest boyfriend. And now Rosie was in the hospital. How could he be thinking of Lexi and their screwed-up relationship when the mother of his heart was lying in a hospital bed?

      First he called his buddy at the Bar Z to say he wouldn’t be arriving, after all. Then he used the conference-call function on his phone to contact Damon and Finn. He didn’t want to waste time repeating the news.

      Eventually he got them both on the line. “Listen, I don’t have time to talk, but Lexi called from the ranch and Mom’s in the hospital with a possible heart attack. I’m driving up there now. I want both of you to get there as soon as you can arrange it.”

      “Absolutely,” Damon said. “I’ll text you once I have a plane ticket.”

      “Me, too.” Finn sounded scared. “Is she gonna be okay?”

      “Yes.” Cade’s jaw firmed. “She has to be.”

2

      LEXI DISCONNECTED THE PHONE, put on her denim jacket and walked straight out to the barn to prepare a stall for Cade’s horse. Forking straw onto the floor and hay into the feed trough was the kind of physical labor she needed. Even so, she couldn’t seem to stop shaking.

      He’d sounded the same...but different. Older and maybe a little tired. She wondered where he’d been going with that horse at ten o’clock at night. And his cat.

      Everything about the situation suggested that he’d been on the move, leaving one place to start afresh. Whatever his plans had been, he’d changed them immediately when he’d heard about Rosie, and that was gratifying. And endearing.

      Knowing he was willing to drop everything to rush up here when the Padgetts needed him erased some of the resentment she’d felt over the years. He hadn’t come back to visit them in so long. Damon and Finn had been back a few times, but they didn’t have an ex-girlfriend they were trying to avoid. She’d heard mention of a reunion for all three of them, but that hadn’t happened.

      She’d lost track of how many boys had been fostered at this ranch, but she guessed about two dozen, all told. The max at any one time had been eleven. In the last years of the program she’d given free riding lessons to any who’d wanted them. Since Rosie and Herb’s retirement, several of the other guys had paid visits to the ranch, and she’d driven out to say hello and catch up on their lives.

      But the three men who called themselves the Thunder Mountain Brotherhood were the ones Rosie and Herb cherished the most. Lexi heard it in their voices whenever the Padgetts talked about them. She could understand the extra love they gave to those three. Cade, Damon and Finn had lived at the ranch the longest, so they were the ones Lexi remembered most vividly, too. Especially the frustratingly stubborn and sexy Cade Gallagher.

      He’d been the first kid Rosie had taken in, the one who’d started it all. Rosie had worked with Lexi’s mom at the Department of Family Services in Sheridan, and when Rosie had decided to create a foster program at the ranch, Lexi’s parents had volunteered to paint bedrooms and set up bunks.

      Eventually the program had outgrown the main house, so Lexi’s folks had helped build three log cabins and a washhouse for the older kids. Lexi had tagged along, and she’d become like a daughter to the Padgetts.

      She’d just turned thirteen at the start of the program, about the same age as the boys. She’d considered them awkward and unappealing, not worth her time, until one day soon after she’d turned sixteen.

      The image of seventeen-year-old Cade coming out of the barn on a hot summer day, his shirt hanging open and his hat shoved back, still had the power to stir her. He’d been laughing about some prank Damon had pulled, and the flash of his white teeth in his tanned face had been the most beautiful thing Lexi had ever seen.

      From that day forward, she’d nursed a massive crush, but she’d pretended the same indifference she’d always shown him. He’d had girls hanging all over him at school, and she hadn’t relished joining that crowd of groupies. She’d expected him to ask one of his giggling admirers to the prom.

      Then, to her complete shock, he’d asked her. He’d even seemed nervous about it, as if expecting to be rejected. Heart pounding, she’d said yes, and in that instant, everything had changed. They’d become inseparable. High school had given way to community college, and exploratory touching had given way to hot, sweaty nights in the back of his pickup.

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