let me down, Savannah. Please answer. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t necessary. You’re all I have.
Love,
Richard
Savannah read the letter a second time and was so caught up in what her brother had written that she didn’t hear the back door open.
“Savannah, can you...” Her husband’s words died when he saw her with the letter, tears streaming down her cheeks. “What’s wrong?” he asked urgently, kneeling down in front of her.
She lowered her head. “It’s a letter from Richard.” Her voice was shaky despite her efforts to control it, and she felt more than heard Laredo’s sigh.
“What does he want?”
Rather than explain, she handed him the letter. Savannah watched her husband’s expression as he read it, knowing he trusted Richard even less than she did.
“How come he knows about Laura and Matt?”
She looked up. “I’ve mailed him a Christmas card every year.” Savannah knew she shouldn’t have, and while Laredo wouldn’t have forbidden it, he obviously didn’t approve, either. But if Grady had learned what she’d done...well, he would’ve hit the roof. Her older brother tended to be volatile when it came to Richard, and he’d said over and over that he wanted no further contact. Nothing.
Richard’s actions had hurt Savannah, but it was Grady who’d mortgaged their cattle ranch, the Yellow Rose, to pay the inheritance tax and then slaved for six years to become debt-free. It was Grady who’d personally paid back every penny Richard had charged in town, rather than tarnish the good name of Weston. Grady who’d been robbed of the best years of his youth, paying for the sins of his brother while Richard squandered their inheritance—and then returned for more.
Laredo set the letter aside. “What are you going to do?”
“I...don’t know.” And she didn’t. Richard hadn’t asked for anything other than her forgiveness and the promise that she’d write with news of home.
How could she refuse? And yet how could she open that door and give her wayward brother another opportunity to abuse her family?
“Are you going to tell Grady?”
“I don’t know,” she said again. She wasn’t sure of anything at the moment. She could only imagine what Grady would say if she told him she’d been in touch with Richard. On the other hand, she didn’t feel she should keep it from him. After all, she and Laredo were Grady’s partners in the Yellow Rose; Laredo and Grady were not only breeding quarter horses together, they were good friends. And despite Richard’s faults, which were many, he was their brother.
“Grady has a right to know,” her husband reminded her gently.
“A right to know what?” Grady asked as he stepped into the kitchen.
* * *
Veterinarian Lucas Porter leaned against the porch railing and drank deeply from a glass of iced tea. Ranchers Cal and Glen Patterson stood next to him, enjoying the peacefulness of the moment. The day had been exhausting, and Lucas was tired to the bone. Tired but also exhilarated, following the complicated birth of a foal. The mare was a favorite of Cal’s and he’d been worried. Lucas was glad Cal had enough common sense to call him when he did. Another hour and it would’ve been out of his hands.
“She’s a real beauty,” Cal boasted.
“She’s something, all right,” Lucas couldn’t help agreeing. Over the years, he’d assisted in bringing a number of foals into the world. His sense of wonder never seemed to dim. He could be reeling from lack of sleep, but it never failed. Any birth immediately gave him a renewed sense of joy in life.
“Aren’t you going to call Jane and tell her?” Glen asked his brother. “Annie’ll want to know, too.”
Annie. Annie Applegate. This wasn’t the first time Lucas had heard the woman’s name. Apparently she was a lifelong friend of Jane’s who’d recently moved to Promise.
“Annie—she’s new in town, right?” Lucas asked, entering the conversation. “The one who’s opening the bookstore?”
“Yeah,” Glen said. “Friend of Jane’s. Cal likes her. So do I,” he added, meeting his brother’s eyes.
Cal nodded. The more taciturn of the two, he didn’t seem to mind Glen’s answering for him.
Lucas envied Cal and Glen their close relationship. They ranched together, and between them ran one of the most prosperous herds in the county. They’d begun experimenting with crossbreeding cattle, together with their neighbor Grady Weston, and had achieved some real success. Lucas was impressed with their research, which had been written up in agricultural journals as far away as Scotland and Australia. The Patterson brothers and Grady Weston were fast making a name for themselves.
“What’s Jane doing?” Glen asked. “I thought this was her day off.”
“It is. She’s with Annie. Since Jane talked Annie into moving here, she feels personally responsible for the bookstore’s success. I made her promise not to lift anything and she said she wouldn’t, but I know my wife. She’s working as hard as half a dozen men about now.”
Lucas gathered that the women in Promise were thrilled with the idea of a bookstore. Just that morning, he’d gone into the café at the bowling alley for coffee, only to find a sign-up sheet for reader groups by the cashier. Annie already had three or four such groups forming, and the bookstore hadn’t even opened yet.
Lucas didn’t understand the point of reading groups. He didn’t want anyone telling him what he should or shouldn’t think about a book. He was quite capable of forming his own opinions, thank you kindly. Women, though, seemed to look at it differently. There was a group to talk about the classics and one for romance novels; there was even a group to discuss “simplicity” books. Simplicity? If women found it so all-fired necessary to simplify their lives, they might start by cutting out all these unnecessary groups and weekly meetings. But then, no one had asked for his thoughts on the matter.
“Have you met Annie yet?” Glen asked, glancing casually toward Lucas.
“Not formally,” Lucas said before taking another long swallow of iced tea. He’d seen her around town a few times. She was tall and fragile looking. From what Cal had told him, she’d been involved in a car accident a while back, followed by a bad divorce. Apparently it was the need for a new beginning that had brought her to Promise.
New beginnings were something Lucas understood. Three years ago, after his wife’s death, he’d returned to Promise, seeking a fresh start for himself and his children. He’d spent the first ten years of his life in Promise; then the family had moved to Oklahoma City. His parents had retired in Promise soon after he graduated as a veterinarian. When his wife died, his mother had urged him to make the move back, promising to help him care for his two young daughters. And she had. He couldn’t have made it this far without his parents’ help. If only Julia...
Pain tightened his chest at the thought of his wife. Julia had been dead for almost four years, but the ache inside him never seemed to diminish. True, the sharpness of his loss had dulled with time, but not the empty feeling deep inside him. At night
