Shane’s phone rang—again—and he ignored it. Robin had been sick with a head cold for a few days, and he’d checked all the calls, thinking one would be her, asking him to bring her something to eat, more medicine, or just to come over and keep her company while she slept.

She’d done all of those things over the past few days.

But it wasn’t her calling, and he knew it.

His father had called four times this morning already, and Shane simply wasn’t in the mood. He wished Austin hadn’t gone in to the Fourth of July German pancake feast hosted by the Grape Seed Falls Fire Department. Then he could tell Shane what their dad wanted.

“Maybe you haven’t made as much progress as you thought,” he told himself as his phone finally stopped buzzing in his pocket. He yanked on the hose to get more slack as he moved to the next trough.

Horses didn’t care if it was a holiday. Cows either. They needed to be fed and cared for, no matter if it was Independence Day or not. If Robin was feeling up to it, they had plans to go to the fireworks show later that night at Lady Bird Johnson Park.

He loved the park, as it was one of the places he’d first gotten to know when he’d first come to town. It had a swimming pool, tennis courts, and hiking trails. He’d seen people get married there, celebrate birthdays there, enjoy time with their families. He’d always gone with other cowboys, and it seemed the park put off an air of belonging no matter who came to it, no matter what reason.

Tonight, the open fields would be filled with blankets as people came together to celebrate, and Shane sure hoped Robin would be feeling better. The past few days had been hard for her, as she still had a schedule to maintain and couldn’t really afford to take time off. People counted on her to come whether she was sneezing or not. Horses too.

Shane couldn’t help feeling like the days he had left with her were slipping away. Right through his fingers like smoke. He finished filling one trough and moved to the next one, this one for the colts that had been born in the spring.

What do I do? he begged the Lord, something that had been happening more and more lately. He didn’t want to watch Robin walk out of his life in only seventeen days. With a jolt, he realized that today was the halfway point of her stay here on the ranch. Day eighteen.

“What do I do to keep her?” he whispered as if the two horses now drinking in front of him would answer—or worse, spread his question all over the ranch. He spent so much of his time and energy trying to keep things together; he should be able to figure this out too.

After all, he’d kept his brothers together after everything had fallen apart. He’d kept his mother from getting hurt too badly financially. If he’d wanted to, he could’ve kept his relationship with his father on good terms too.

So he just needed to figure out how to keep Robin in his life when day thirty-five came.

He finished watering the livestock and retreated into the tack room. No one was scheduled to go out today, and he’d have some privacy behind these walls. He opened his Talk To Me app and hailed Doctor Sloan.

The man had helped Shane a lot over the past week or so, but he needed more. So my dad keeps calling, and I can’t answer the phone. Should I? I know it’s just going to make me mad, and I don’t want to be mad today.

He sent the message and immediately began typing out another one. I’m also dating someone, and she’s set to leave in only a couple of weeks. I’m desperate—

He stared at the word, trying to think of a more positive one. He couldn’t. He was desperate.

So he left the word and kept going. I’m desperate to keep her in my life, and I just don’t know how. She’s a free spirit and I’m afraid if I ask her to stay, she’ll leave forever. If I just….

“Just what?” he wondered. He stared at the sentence, at a loss for how to finish it. So he sent it as it was.

“Act like I don’t love her? Pretend like I don’t care if she leaves?” Shane exhaled and tipped his head toward the ceiling. “I love her, Lord. What should I do?”

His phone bleeped, a sound specifically for the Talk To Me app. With pure frustration and absolute desperation pulling through him, tears gathered in his eyes as he bent to look at his phone again.

Doctor Sloan had messaged. Do you have time for a phone call?

Yes.

Ten seconds later, his phone rang, and Shane swiped the call on. “Hello, Doctor Sloan.”

“Morning, Shane.” The man had a pleasant, deep voice that never varied. He never acted like Shane was putting him out, even on a holiday. “I thought a call would be better. Is it okay?”

“Absolutely fine.”

“So let’s begin with your father.”

Shane sighed and ran his gaze along the saddles hanging on the wall. “If we have to.”

“I think you should answer the call,” Doctor Sloan said. “This could be the exact closure you need.”

“I don’t want to be friends with him.”

“I know that, and you don’t have to be. What I’m saying is, maybe it’s time to talk to him again, even if it’s painful. Maybe then you can close that chapter of your life. Maybe then that anger you harbor can be released.”

“Maybe.” So much depended on what his father would say, and Shane hated that he didn’t know why he was calling.

“You have to let go of it at some point,” Doctor Sloan said, and it wasn’t the first time he’d told Shane such a thing. “Perhaps a phone call would allow you to do that.”

“I’ll think about it,” Shane said, making a decision on the spot. If his father called again, he’d answer the phone. After all, if he called five times in one day, it must be something important. Right?

“All right. That’s all I can ask of you. So let’s talk about your girlfriend. Why’s she leaving in a couple of weeks?”

Shane explained about Robin, her job, her tiny house, and their somewhat crooked road to where they were now. “And I—I’m in love with her, and I don’t think I can let her go this time.”

“Have you told her any of that?”

“No. Like I messaged, I think it’ll push her farther away, not bring her closer.”

“Could give her something to think about.”

It could. But sometimes when Robin had too much to think about, she chose not to. She chose to leave so she wouldn’t have to.

“I don’t know her,” Doctor Sloan said. “But I have a pretty good idea of who you are, Shane. You’re a hard worker. A good man. If you’re in love with her, is it possible that she’s in love with you too?”

Shane replayed his last kiss with Robin, a few days ago in her house, while he knelt before her and she fondled his face. “It’s possible,” he admitted. She’d even said, “I’m not afraid,” though he supposed she could’ve been talking about transferring her germs to him. He hadn’t gotten sick, so the kiss had been worth the risk.

“She has other jobs, though,” he said. “And she won’t give them up to stay here with me, when there’s nothing for her to do.”

“So find something for her to do.” Doctor Sloan made it sound so simple. Dwayne wouldn’t hire her full time, as his operation was ninety-nine percent cattle. Sure, he might want more horses, but not enough to employ a farrier—especially one as skilled and highly trained as Robin—full time.

“All right,” he said with a note of sarcasm in his voice.

“Shane, if you want her to stay, she probably just needs one reason. Especially if you think she could be in love with you too. Find that reason.”

“Find that reason,” Shane echoed. Footsteps sounded outside the tack room, and he poked his head into the hall to see Kurt coming him way. “I have to go, Doctor Sloan. Thanks so much for calling.”

He hung up just as Kurt met his eye. “Hey, what’re you doin’ in here?”

Shane lifted his phone. “Talking. What’s up?” He pocketed his phone. “I got all the livestock fed and watered already.” He watched as Kurt opened Lucy’s stall.

“Yep, great. Felicity just wants to go for a ride this morning.” He cut a glance at Shane. “She’s not doing well. May thinks we should do something for her.”

“Like what?” Shane loved Dwayne and Felicity, and he couldn’t imagine the pain they were going through at having to deal with not being able to have a family when they wanted one.

“Oh, you know May. She thinks food will fix everything. Cake, specifically.” Kurt smiled, but it didn’t hold its usual humor. He stepped into the tack room to retrieve Felicity’s saddle. When he returned, the grin had faded from his face, only to replaced by a frown. “But Felicity doesn’t seem to be eating much at all. Not even cake.”

Shane didn’t know how to help her. Or Dwayne. “I’ll start thinking of something we could do.”

“Robin’s been over there, helping with the garden the last few days.”

“She has?”

“Dwayne said she’s coughing all over the cabbage, but yeah.”

Shane looked west, toward the homestead, like he’d be able to see through the barn walls and find Robin carefully moving vegetables out of the way as she searched out all the weeds.

“I could take my brothers over and make sure their yard is always kept up.”

“I already offered that. Dwayne says he likes doing it. Something different from the ranch, gives him time to think, that kind of thing.” Kurt finished saddling Lucy and took the reins in his hand. “C’mon, girl. Let’s go see your ma.” He took the horse down the aisle, leaving Shane with yet another thing to think about.

He had thirty seconds to think about heading back to his cabin and making breakfast when his phone rang—again.

Adrenaline spiked and his stomach fell, an uncomfortable sensation that left him a touch dizzy. He pulled his phone from his pocket and saw his father’s name on the screen.

“Five times,” he muttered. The line rang again. He didn’t answer.

His heart thundered in his chest.

Another ring. One more and the call would go to voicemail.

Shane took a deep breath and swiped open the call, ending his fifteen-year silent treatment with the words, “Hey, Dad.”

A long bout of silence came over the phone. So long that Shane frowned and checked to see if the call was still connected. It was. “Hello?”

“I just wasn’t expecting you to answer.” His father’s voice triggered something in Shane he hadn’t been expecting, and his chest hitched. He wanted to speak, and couldn’t. His dad seemed to be having the same problem, because neither of them said a word.

Finally, his father said, “It’s so good to hear your voice.”

Shane’s eyes felt so hot, and he hated that he was almost crying for the second time that day. When had he become so soft, so sentimental? “You too,” he managed to squeeze through his throat.

He left the stables in favor of the fresh air, the wider sky. He needed clarity of thought, and he needed time to sort through his tangled emotions. Thankfully, there was nowhere better than Texas to do exactly that.

“Your mother said you were dating someone,” he said, and every defense Shane had flew sky high.

“That’s why you called? And when do you talk to Mom?”

His dad sighed, and Shane put the brakes on his anger. “I mean, I didn’t know you talked to Mom.”

“Of course we talk,” his dad said. “We have three sons and a…history together.”

History. Shane almost snorted. Yeah, they had a history all right. Still, he marveled that his mother had found the patience and forgiveness to speak to her ex-husband after what he’d done to her and their family.

“I called because I wanted to apologize. For everything.”

Shane’s jaw tightened and he asked, “What’s everything exactly, Dad?”

“I know we all lost a lot—”

“No, Dad. You didn’t lose anything you wanted to keep. Mom lost everything. The house. Her friends. Her spouse. I lost everything. The ranch I’d worked on for decades, my home, my livelihood. You? You didn’t lose anything.” Shane tasted the bitterness in his words, but as they left his body he didn’t harbor so much ill will anymore.

“You weren’t around when we sold off everything we could to pay your debts. You weren’t there when I moved Mom from the home where she’d lived for four decades of her life into a condo. You aren’t here when I send her money every month. So I’m really interested, Dad, in knowing exactly what you think you lost that was so precious to you.”

His father didn’t say anything.

“That’s what I thought,” Shane said. He couldn’t believe his father had called five times on a single morning to stay silent. “Look, I don’t have time to talk right now. Maybe you can text Austin. He still seems interested in knowing you.” At that moment, Shane realized why he was so angry. Why he’d been carrying this furious load around for fifteen years.

Along with everything else he’d lost, he’d also lost his father and best friend. A man he’d once admired and aspired to be exactly like. And he hated that the man’s blood ran in his veins, that he had the potential to do what his father had done.

“You don’t know me,” his father said so quietly Shane wasn’t sure he’d spoken or if the breeze had whipped up.

“You’re right, I don’t.” Shane took a deep breath. “And honestly, Dad, I don’t really want to know you. I don’t want to think you’re happy and thriving when I’m still paying for the choices you made.”

He thought of Robin and how he didn’t even have somewhere for the two of them to live.

She has a house. The words were right there in his mind, but he dismissed them. He wanted to be the one to provide for her. Give her somewhere to plant her roots.

“What are you talking about?”

“That woman I’m dating? I have nothing to offer her. I work someone else’s ranch, living in a cabin meant for two with three of us. Why would she even want me?” He shook his head, more realizations rolling over him. “I really can’t do this right now. My counselor said I should talk to you, but man, I knew I’d feel this way.”

“You’re in counseling?”

“Another thing I’m paying for because of your decisions. I’m messed up, Dad, and it’s your fault.” Shane took a big breath, his voice about to break. “It’s your fault.” It did crack that time, and the tears did fill his eyes. He didn’t care. There was no one around to see, and his father should’ve known all this time the hurt, the pain, the furious injustice, his actions had caused his sons.

“I’m so sorry, Shane.”

It was nice to hear, Shane would admit, but the apology also didn’t fix anything. It wouldn’t erase the twenty-five dollars he had to pay Doctor Sloan for the phone call this morning, and it wouldn’t miraculously provide him with a big house in which he and Robin could raise a family.

“I’m sorry too,” he said. “I have to go.” He hung up before his dad could say anything else. He let his arm drop to his side, the phone still clutched tightly in his fingers. He closed his eyes and tipped his chin toward the sky, letting the sunlight paint over his face with heat and light.

“Help me let go of this anger,” he prayed.

Instead of the peaceful, filling sensation Shane had hoped for, a scream ripped through the sky. His eyes popped open, his heart pounded, and his feet already moved him in the direction of the sound.

Please don’t let it be Dylan or Austin, he prayed. Not only because he didn’t want more medical bills he couldn’t pay, but because he didn’t think he could handle watching another brother suffer through something right now.

Then he felt like a jerk, hoping it wasn’t someone related to him. He didn’t want it to be anyone on the ranch—or Robin.

No one screamed again, and he couldn’t see anything in the pastures between the barn and the homestead. The radio on his hip sounded with, “Dwayne, Kurt, Shane, it’s Chadwell. They coyotes have been here, and Miss Robin found the evidence.”

Relief poured through Shane that the casualty wasn’t a human being, but he still wanted to reach Robin as fast as possible. Judging by the scream, she’d been pretty upset.

“Where?” he barked into the radio.

“Her house. It was her dog the coyotes got.”