him. He shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun off the dirty window and studied her, taking in her head of long blond hair that feathered out in the breeze from under her Western straw hat.
She wore a tan canvas jacket, jeans and boots. But it was the way she sat astride the brown-and-white horse that nudged the memory.
He felt a chill as he realized he’d seen her before. In that very spot. She’d just been a kid then. A kid on a pretty paint horse. Not this one—the markings were different. Anyway, it couldn’t have been the same horse, not considering the last time he had seen her had been more than twenty years ago. That horse would be dead by now.
His mind argued it probably wasn’t even the same girl. But he knew better. It was the way she sat on the horse, so at home in a saddle and secure in her world on the other side of that fence.
To the boy he’d been, she and her horse had represented freedom, a freedom he knew he would never have—even after he escaped this house.
Nate saw her shift in the saddle, and for a moment he feared she planned to dismount and come toward the house. With Ellis Harper in his grave, there would be little to keep her away.
To his relief, she reined her horse around and rode back the way she’d come.
As he watched her ride off he thought about the way she’d stared at the house—today and years ago. While the smartest thing she could do was stay clear of this house, he had a feeling she’d be back.
Finding out her name should prove easy since he figured she must live close by. As for her interest in Harper House…He would just have to make sure it didn’t become a problem.
“I THOUGHT WE’D ALREADY discussed this?”
McKenna Bailey looked up from the real-estate section of the newspaper the next morning as her sister Eve set down a platter of pancakes.
“You don’t need to buy a place,” Eve Bailey said as she pulled up a chair and helped herself to a half dozen of the small pancakes she’d made. “You can live in this one and use as much of the land as you need for this horse ranch you want to start.”
McKenna watched her older sister slather the cakes with butter before drowning them with chokecherry syrup. “Are you nervous about getting married next month?” she asked, motioning at Eve’s plate.
Eve looked up, a forkful of pancakes on the way to her mouth. “No, I’m just hungry.”
“Right,” McKenna said. “Like the way you’ve suddenly started holding your fork with your left hand?”
Eve looked down at the fork, then at the engagement ring on her left hand and smiled. “It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
McKenna nodded, smiling at her older sister across the table, the same table they’d shared since they were kids.
“I am doing the right thing, aren’t I, marrying Carter?” Eve asked with a groan as she pushed her plate away.
“You love Carter and he loves you,” McKenna said. “Be happy. And eat.”
“You’d tell me if you thought I was making a mistake?”
McKenna nodded, smiling. Carter Jackson had broken her sister’s heart back in high school when he’d married someone else. That marriage had been a disaster, ending in divorce. McKenna had no doubt that Carter loved her sister as much as Eve loved him. For months the poor man had been trying to win Eve back; finally at Christmas he’d asked her to marry him. The Fourth of July wedding was just weeks away now.
Eve pulled her plate back in front of her and picked up her fork. “I really am hungry.”
McKenna laughed and went back to studying the real-estate section of the Milk River Examiner. But none of the houses interested her. There was only one place she wanted, and even though she’d heard the owner had died recently, she didn’t see it listed. Maybe it was too soon.
“I’m serious,” Eve said between bites. “Just live in this house. With Mom and Loren living in Florida, it’s just going to be sitting empty.”
McKenna looked around the familiar kitchen. So many memories. “Dad doesn’t want the house?”
Eve shook her head. “He’s moved in with Susie, and they’re running her Hi-Line Café. He seems…happy.”
“Do you know if anyone has bought the old Harper place?” McKenna asked.
“You can’t be serious.” Eve was staring at her, her mouth open. “Harper House?”
“Did you leave me any pancakes?” their younger sister, Faith, asked as she padded into the room in a pair of pajama bottoms and a T-shirt and plopped down at her chair. “What about Harper House?”
Eve shoved the platter of pancakes toward Faith without a word and gave McKenna a warning look.
“Is anyone going to answer me?” Faith asked as she picked up a pancake in her fingers, rolled it up and took a bite. She looked from Eve to McKenna and back. “Are you guys fighting?”
“No,” Eve said quickly. “I was just telling McKenna that she could have this house,” she said with a warning shake of her head at McKenna. There was a rule: no fighting, especially when Faith was around.
The youngest of the three girls, Faith had taken their parents’ divorce hard and their mother’s marriage to Loren Jackson even harder. Because of that, both Eve and McKenna had tried to shelter their younger sister. Which meant not upsetting her this morning with any problems between the two of them.
“It would be nice if someone lived here and took care of the place,” Eve said.
“Not me,” Faith said and helped herself to another pancake.
“It’s our family ranch,” Eve said.
“That’s why I want a place of my own close to here,” McKenna said.
Faith shot her a surprised look. “Are you really staying around here?” Since high school graduation she and Faith had come home only for holidays and summer vacation from college.
“I think I’m ready to settle down, and this area is home,” McKenna said.
Faith groaned. “Well, I’m not coming back here to live,” she said, getting up to pad over to the kitchen counter to pour herself a cup of coffee.
“I don’t want to see this house fall into neglect, either,” McKenna told Eve. “But I want my own place. This house is…”
“Mom’s and Dad’s,” Faith said as she came back to the table with her coffee, tears in her eyes. “And now, with Mom and Dad divorced and her married to Loren and living in Florida, it just feels too weird being here.”
McKenna knew that Eve had come over this morning from her house down the road to cook breakfast in an attempt to make things more normal for her and Faith. Especially Faith.
“Where are you and Carter going to live after you’re married?” McKenna asked Eve.
“My
