from the shelf of vitamins she’d been contemplating, the woman flashed her a bright smile. “Thank you. All that jazz.”
“I... Pardon?”
“The boutique just off of town square,” the woman clarified. “All That Jazz. Run by Jasmine Tucker?” She grinned at Sierra’s blank expression. “You must not be from around here.”
At that moment, a teenage boy with a little girl in tow barreled toward them. They weren’t running, exactly, just moving at the uninhibited speed of childhood. “Mom! They didn’t have the brand you normally get,” the boy announced, skidding to a stop by his mother’s cart. “Will one of these work?” He held up two different boxes of cake mix.
Before the woman could answer, the little girl in the unicorn T-shirt tossed a box of crayons into the cart. “I need these.”
“Doubtful,” the boy scoffed. “You own more crayons than anyone else in North America, Aly.”
“These are scented. I don’t have scented.” At Sierra’s chuckle, the girl looked up, registering her presence for the first time. “Hey, we don’t know you!”
Sierra shook her head. “Nope. Today’s my very first day in town.”
“Welcome to Cupid’s Bow,” the blonde said. “I’m Kate Sullivan. This is my son, Luke, and my future stepdaughter Alyssa.”
“She’s marrying my daddy!” From the huge smile on Alyssa’s face, she was obviously excited about the upcoming nuptials. “Me and my sister get to be flower girls, and we’re gonna wear poofy dresses that—”
“How about you go with Luke and return the cake mix we don’t need?” Kate interrupted, taking one of the boxes from her son’s hand. “And don’t run, okay?”
“Okay,” the kids chorused without looking back at her.
“And they’re off,” Kate said with an affectionate sigh. “I came to the vitamin section to get more gummies for the girls, but, honestly, maybe I should be looking for a supplement for me so I can keep up with all of them. Let’s try this again, with fewer interruptions. I’m Kate Sullivan.” She extended a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Sierra Bailey,” she said as they shook hands.
“I’m so delighted you’re moving here.” Kate grinned. “With you around, people will have to stop referring to me as ‘the new woman in Cupid’s Bow.’ It’s been months!”
“Happy to help,” Sierra said, “but I’m not moving here, exactly, just working for a few weeks at the Twisted R.” Assuming she could successfully locate the ranch again.
“Oh!” A female voice from the other side of the shelf cut into their conversation and an elderly lady peeked over the top, only her tightly rolled white curls and gold spectacles visible. “Are you working with that poor Victoria Ross? Such a tragedy what happened to her. Hello, Kate, dear.”
“Hello, Miss Alma. This is Sierra Bailey.”
“I heard. My new hearing aids are a miracle. I hope you enjoy your stay here in Cupid’s Bow, Sierra. You tell poor Vicki that the whole town’s pulling for her.” She clucked her tongue. “Absolute tragedy.” A minute later, she pushed her cart away and disappeared down the bread aisle.
Kate smiled after her. “Not everyone is as active an eavesdropper as Miss Alma—she’s almost ninety and says living here almost a century gives her a vested interest in local events—but this is a small town. We all heard about Vicki’s accident. The Ross family hasn’t been the same since.”
“I haven’t met her parents.” She only knew they were traveling for “health reasons.” “Just Vicki and her older brother.”
“Jarrett. A real charmer, that one.”
“He’s...attractive,” Sierra said neutrally. “But charming? For the first hour of my interview, he read questions verbatim off a legal pad and barely said anything else. I can count on one hand the number of times he even looked up at me.”
The corners of Kate’s mouth turned down, and sympathy filled her amber eyes. “After his dad’s heart attack, I took some meals to the family. Jarrett was so shell-shocked, not himself at all. I haven’t seen him recently, but I was hoping that with his father and Vicki both doing better... Well. I suppose we all cope in our own time, don’t we?”
Sierra nodded. She’d witnessed patients and their families handle crisis in dozens of ways. Sometimes, catastrophes brought people together; other times it drove a wedge between them. There were patients who spiraled into a dark place and needed help finding their way back; others rebounded with astonishing resiliency.
Kate gave a small shake of her head, as if brushing away her moment of melancholy. “I live near the Twisted R—at least, I do until my wedding. My fiancé, Cole, and I are having a house built that won’t be ready for months. Meanwhile, Luke and I are staying on my grandmother’s farm, which is out the same direction as the Ross place. If you ever need anything, we’re much closer than town. I’ll give you my number. Maybe we can get together if you have an afternoon off.”
“Thank you.” Given Vicki Ross’s surly attitude, Sierra might need to occasionally escape the ranch to keep her sanity intact. “I’d love to visit that boutique you were telling me about.”
They had just finished exchanging cell-phone numbers when the two kids returned.
“Sorry we took so long,” Luke said, jamming his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I—”
“He was talking to a girrrlll,” Aly reported, making the last word three syllables.
He shot her a sidelong glare. “I ran into a classmate—”
“A girl classmate!”
“—who had questions about Friday’s math assignment.”
“No problem,” Kate said. “Sierra and I were busy chatting, too. But I guess we should dash if I’m going to get these groceries to Cole’s house for lunch. He and Mandy are probably starving. Call me soon, Sierra!”
“Will do.”
As she finished her own grocery shopping, Sierra felt a little smug. She’d been told more than once that she didn’t play well with others and that some people mistook her independent nature for aloofness. Yet she hadn’t been in town an hour, and already she’d made her first friend.
Maybe Cupid’s Bow wouldn’t be so bad after all.
* * *
JUST WHEN SIERRA was starting to think she’d driven too far, she spotted the intersection where she needed to turn for the Twisted R. On her first trip out to the ranch, she’d been irritable because she was late for her interview. This time around, she could appreciate the scenery more.
The wide-open space was both tranquil and somehow humbling. Picturesque pastures dotted with clusters of Queen Anne’s lace and mesquite trees framed the road, and she’d never seen a clearer blue sky than the one overhead. A deer lifted its head from the plants it was lazily munching to watch her pass, and she half expected that
