Mason didn’t stay at the Arrington’s ranch house that night. He went back to his place and spent a sleepless night thinking about Becky. The worst possible thing had happened: She had fallen in love with him. She hadn’t told him, but he didn’t need words to know the truth. It was there in her eyes when they rode back to Earhart Ranch. Every time he glanced over, he saw a tenderness that made his chest feel like it was being squeezed in a vise.

He had come to Bliss looking for Tender Heart. And he had found it in a feisty woman with eyes the color of twilight and a heart the size of Texas. Becky was the personification of the series. Inside her was the wild and untamed spirit of the Earharts and the single-minded determination of the mail-order brides. She was a free spirit who believed she could accomplish all her dreams and find her happily-ever-after. And Mason believed that she would. But not with him. Not with someone who was so jaded and lost. She needed someone as innocent as she was. Someone who still believed in love.

Unfortunately, once Becky set her sights on something, she didn’t give up easily. The Reed property was a perfect example. She still hadn’t given up on buying it. And now that she’d set her sights on Mason, he didn’t doubt that she would do everything in her power to get him and the ranch too. Which was why he had no choice but to leave Bliss. Once he was gone, she would forget about him and move on. She would find another Honey Bee who deserved her love.

He finally fell asleep as the light of dawn crept through the window. When he woke, it was late afternoon. He got up and fixed himself something to eat, then showered, dressed, and parked. He had just zipped his suitcase when he heard the whinny of a horse. Only a few seconds later, the front door opened and boot heels clicked against the floor. He recognized the determined stride immediately and wasn’t surprised when Becky appeared in the doorway.

She wore her customary cowboy hat, t-shirt, jeans, and boots. Her hair hung in a tangle around her shoulders as if she’d ridden hard to get to him. She lifted the cat she carried in her arms. “I found Furball on the porch. He must’ve followed you back here.” Her eyes landed on the open suitcase on the bed before piercing him with heartbreaking blue. “You’re leaving.”

He reached out as if to scratch the cat, but let his hand drop. “I need to get back to Austin.”

She cradled the cat closer as tears shimmered in her eyes. Tears that made Mason feel as if he were suffocating. “Don’t lie. You don’t need to get back to Austin. You’re leaving because I broke the rules.” She swallowed hard. “You’re leaving because I fell in love with you.”

Hearing the words from her lips was a mixture of heaven and hell. They eased an ache down deep inside, and at the same time created a new one. This new one was much deeper than the last. It was a struggle not to pull her into his arms and try to find relief from the pain. Instead, he tightened his hands into fists.

“I’m the one who broke the rules, Rebecca. I knew you didn’t know how to play my game, and yet I made love to you anyway.”

She stared at him. “Made love? I thought it was just sex.”

He hadn’t realized the slip until she pointed it out. Now, it was too late to deny it. “Not with you,” he said. “It wasn’t just sex with you.”

She blinked back the tears. “But you’re still leaving.”

It wasn’t a question, but he answered it anyway. “You don’t want someone as screwed up as I am. You want someone without all my baggage.”

The tears dried up as quickly as they had appeared. Suddenly, she was the feisty Becky he’d first met. “Don’t you dare tell me what I want, Mason Granger! Or what I need. I have enough people trying to control my life. My mama thinks I need a husband to tame my wild ways. My daddy thinks I need to remain his little girl forever. And my brother thinks I need to run the ranch his way. Well, I don’t need any of those things. I want to own my own ranch with a man who treats me like a woman and an equal. I don’t give a damn what kind of baggage he has. Baggage is something you choose to carry with you. If you’re tired of carrying it, all you have to do is let it go.”

He smiled sadly. “Unless you can’t.”

She stared at him for what felt like forever. It was easy to read the disappointment in her eyes. A disappointment that made him feel gutted. “I should’ve learned from Lucy,” she said in quavering voice. “I should’ve learned never to fall in love with a Honey Bee. Because while they can make sweet honey, they can never stay.” A tear rolled down her cheek, and she quickly brushed it away. “Goodbye, Mason.” She walked out with the cat still cradled in her arms.

He waited for the front door to slam before he whispered. “Goodbye, Rebecca.”

Once she was gone, he got his briefcase and pulled out the deed to the ranch. It didn’t take long to sign it over to Becky. He realized that he was trying to assuage his guilt. But he also truly believed that the ranch should belong to someone who understood the history. He left the deed and the keys to the front door in the center of the bed before he packed his Range Rover. He placed his mother’s urn next to him in the front seat. Becky was right. He needed to let go of some baggage.

The field in front of the little white chapel looked as wilted as Mason felt, and he wasted no time opening the urn and pouring out his mother’s ashes. There was no wind to catch them. They settled into the sun-parched ground like tiny gray feathers. He stared down at them and tried to come up with a prayer. But all that came to him was a wish. The same wish he’d had all his life.

“Be happy, Mother.”

He started back to his car, but stopped when he saw Ms. Marble standing just inside the line of trees. She wore her usual floral dress, wide-brimmed bonnet, and white gloves. She carried a bouquet of pink roses. He didn’t doubt that she’d watched him pour out his mother’s ashes. Her eagle eyes were pinned on the urn he held under one arm. Although she didn’t say anything about it.

“Walk me around to the cemetery,” she said. “I’m worried I’m going to break an ankle with all these gopher holes.” He took her arm and allowed her to lead him. On the way passed the spot where he’d spread his mother’s ashes, she pulled out a pink rose from the dozen in her arms and leaned down to place it on the ground. He had to fight back the tears that threatened.

“She loved pink.”

“A lot of women do,” Ms. Marble said as they continued to a worn path that wound around the church. “I never much cared for it myself. But it was Lucy’s favorite color.”

He glanced down at the flowers. “Those are for Lucy Arrington? Her grave site is here?”

She glanced at him with surprise. “I didn’t take you for a Tender Heart fan.”

“My mom used to read the books to me when I was a kid. It’s the only time I ever remember her showing any genuine emotion. She’d laugh and cry right along with the characters.” He paused. “I guess that’s why I thought she might find happiness here. She certainly didn’t find it while she was living.”

Ms. Marble didn’t say anything until they reached the small cemetery beneath a stand of huge oak trees. She stopped at the gate and turned to him. “And what about you? Have you found happiness?”

He didn’t have to search too hard for the answer. He had found happiness. He’d found it with Becky. But just because he’d found it didn’t mean he could hold onto it. His mother had found happiness with each of the men she’d married, but it had never lasted. And his stepfathers had become the casualties in her quest for love. Mason wasn’t willing for Becky to be one of his.

He opened the gate and held it for Ms. Marble. “Maybe I’m like my mother. Maybe I won’t ever find enduring happiness.”

Ms. Marble snorted. “That’s bullshit.” The word surprised him. “Happiness doesn’t elude people. People elude happiness. I should know. I thought I could only truly be happy with one man. And when he died, I thought that was the end of my happiness. I was so convinced of this that I wasted years withholding love from my dear David.” She poked him in the chest with a gloved finger. “Don’t make the same mistake I made.”

She walked past him into the cemetery. He followed more slowly. Was she right? Was his fear of being like his mother causing him to make a huge mistake? He was still mulling over the question when he found Ms. Marble placing the roses on a gravestone shaped like an open book. Tears were in her eyes as she straightened and stared at the name engraved in the stone.

“Even though we were three years apart, Lucy and I were good friends. My daddy was the foreman of the Arrington Ranch, and as little girls, we used to come here to the chapel and play. We would use the lacy doilies her grandmother crocheted as veils and pick flowers from the fields for our bouquets.” She smiled as she looked down at the gravestone. “Of course, Lucy was always the more imaginative. While I just had an ordinary cowboy as a groom, Lucy’s groom would be a Persian prince or a Russian Cossack. She dreamed of going to all those exotic places.”

“Why didn’t she?”

Her smile faded. “Life has a way of changing your dreams. After she started writing the series, she became reclusive. She didn’t want to go anywhere outside of Bliss. She wouldn’t even do signings. When she got sick, all she wanted was to finish the last book.”

“And you think she did?”

She glanced at him. “Lucy could do anything she set her mind to.”

Mason paused for only a moment. “Except make Honey Bee fall in love with her.”

Ms. Marble’s eyes flickered with something before she looked back at the gravestone. She released her breath in a quivery sigh. “You can’t make someone fall in love. Either they do or they don’t. Although sometimes they do and they’re too stubborn to admit it.” She glanced at him, her eyes as intense and piercing as ever. “When I saw that urn in your kitchen window, I knew you had some unresolved issues with your mother. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been carrying her around. But now that you’ve put her to rest, it’s time to release her and move on. And I’m not talking about back to Austin.”

“Who told you I was going back to Austin?”

“I stopped by your house on my way here to drop off some cookies. I looked in the bedroom and found something very interesting on your bed.”

Mason didn’t even attempt to play dumb. “Becky and I have become friends. Since I won’t be coming back, I thought she should have the ranch.”

Ms. Marble’s almost invisible eyebrows lifted. “Deeding over an entire ranch seems like a pretty big gift for a friend.” When he didn’t say anything, she reached out and squeezed his arm. “I can’t keep you from leaving, Mason. But don’t take too long to figure out your mistake. Becky’s not the type of girl who’ll wait forever.”