too, and he’d see the value of his inheritance. Right now, she had to worry about weathering this latest storm with him.
“You know that Dad probably wouldn’t have died that night if he hadn’t been—”
“Drinking. I know.”
Hannah didn’t like bringing up their father’s death, but she never wanted Luke to forget. He needed the reminder, especially now when he was experimenting with alcohol and drugs. She didn’t want him to make stupid decisions that would put his life in danger—like going for a horseback ride after drinking a twelve-pack of beer.
Joe Buck hadn’t ridden far when he’d lost his balance and had fallen off Buster, cracking his head open. By the time Hannah had noticed the horse wandering aimlessly in the ranch yard, it had been too late. She’d found her father’s lifeless body in a ravine behind the house, his hand clutching a beer can.
“You can take a nap after you load the hay,” she said. The herd should have been fed this morning, but she’d wasted the past two hours fetching Luke.
“You’re not my mom. You can’t tell me what to do.”
The jab hurt. She’d been more of a mother to Luke than Ruth ever had. Hannah had been the one to make her brother’s breakfast before school. Not Ruth. Hannah had done the family’s laundry and made sure Luke’s Little League uniform had been ready to wear on Saturday morning. Not Ruth. And when Luke had taken Melissa Walter to the school dance this past spring, Hannah had been the one to purchase a box of condoms and give Luke a safe sex lecture. Not Ruth.
“You’ve been running wild since Dad died and it’s got to stop. If you’d help out more, we could expand the herd.” And I could keep an eye on you. The thought of something terrible happening to Luke terrified Hannah. They might be at odds right now but he was all the family she had left, and she loved her brother.
“Bison suck.”
“They’re keeping a roof over our heads and food on the table.”
“Connor said his father thinks Dad was stupid to buy bison instead of cattle.”
Hannah was well aware that their neighbors believed raising bison for specialty meat markets was a waste of good land. “I don’t care what Mr. Henderson thinks.”
“School’s dumb. I wanna drop out.”
It took a moment for Hannah’s mind to switch gears. “What do you mean you want to quit school?” At least from six-thirty in the morning until three-thirty in the afternoon, Monday through Friday she knew where her brother was.
“I’m not learning anything.”
“You’re staying in school, Luke.”
“Just ’cause you’re my legal guardian doesn’t mean I have to listen to you.”
Hannah laughed. “Oh, yes, it does. You’re not dropping out. End of discussion.”
“You can’t stop me.” Luke was three inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than Hannah. If he didn’t want to go to school, there wouldn’t be much she could do to make him go.
She opened her mouth to challenge him, then decided no good could come from arguing her point when he was hungover. Hannah had taken care of others most of her life and at times like this she dreamed of only being responsible for herself.
“I bet Connor’s mother would let me live with them.”
Not on your life. “Mrs. Henderson doesn’t even want you hanging out with Connor anymore.”
“Liar.”
“You can ask her yourself.”
“Why would she say that?”
“Maybe because she caught you two drinking and she thinks you’re a bad influence on her son.”
Luke laughed, then moaned and pressed his hands to his head. “Connor drank before we started doing stuff together.”
“Did Connor talk you into drinking?”
“No. Ben Nichols and I got slammed last year.”
“Is Ben the one who gave you the pot?”
“Yeah.”
She’d found Luke smoking in the hayloft over Christmas break and had flipped out. He’d been so stoned he was lucky he hadn’t started a fire in the barn.
“Maybe you should smoke pot, then guys might like you better.” Luke could be downright ugly toward her when he wanted to be. “I bet if you weren’t such a nag, Seth wouldn’t have dumped you.”
Hannah gaped at her brother in the rearview mirror. “For your information, I broke up with him.”
Seth Markham had caught Hannah at a weak moment when he’d proposed to her following her father’s funeral. She’d been in a state of panic after learning about the financial mess the ranch was in. When Seth had promised he and his father would pay off the Blue Bison’s debts, she’d decided that marrying him was the only sensible thing to do if she didn’t want to lose her and Luke’s inheritance.
Seth had pressed her to wed right away but Hannah had needed time to grieve. Three months passed, and when she still hadn’t set a date, Seth became angry and they’d argued. He’d almost convinced her to go to the courthouse that day before he’d let it slip that he and his father had planned to sell her bison and expand their cattle herd. Hannah had promptly returned his ring.
“Watch it!”
Startled out of her trance, Hannah realized the truck had drifted onto the shoulder and was headed straight toward a hitchhiker. She slammed on the brakes, then swerved back into her lane—right into the path of a shiny metal object lying on the asphalt. The rear tire blew and the truck fishtailed off the road and down an embankment, where it stopped inches from a barbed wire fence.
“Luke, are you all right?” She craned her neck over the backseat.
Her brother crawled up from the floor. “Shit, Hannah. You could have killed us. Didn’t you see that guy?”
She looked out the passenger window. The hitchhiker had dropped his duffel bag on the ground and was jogging toward them. He wore military fatigues and a white T-shirt that showed off his powerful arms and an impressive chest. He had short, dark hair, thick beard stubble covered his face and aviator sunglasses hid his eyes. No wonder he hadn’t jumped out of the way—he’d been wearing earbuds.
Luke opened the back door and got out of the truck.
“Everyone okay?” the man asked when he reached them. He took off his shades and ran his gaze over Luke.
“We’re good,” Luke said.
Hannah joined Luke and said, “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention to my driving. I didn’t hit you, did I?”
“Not by a long shot. How about you?”
His
