Chance was in the yard outside the barn. He was about to get on Maverick and head out, but he turned at the sound of Dave’s voice and smiled.

“How’s it going, son?”

“Everything’s great. She got back yesterday afternoon and I took this morning off.”

Dave smiled. “I’m glad to hear it. I thought it was odd to see you in the barn at lunchtime. So, I used it as an excuse to come say hello. I was worried there might be a problem.”

“No problems that I know of, but I haven’t been out there yet today. I’m going to check on them now.”

“They’ll be fine. I know it. You’re like me. You’re going to have to learn to step back a bit, trust your men to take care of the herd while you take care of your family.”

Chance met his gaze and nodded.

“Speaking of your family. How’s your dad doing?”

“Better.” He always felt a little awkward talking to Dave about his dad. He was loyal to them both, even though that seemed to be a contradiction.

“Good. You should get down there and see him sometime soon.”

“We’re thinking of going this weekend. He and Alice both want to see Hope again, and Missy can’t wait to meet her.”

Dave nodded. “I look forward to the day I get to meet them.”

Chance sucked in a deep breath and nodded. Part of him looked forward to that day, too. Another part of him didn’t relish the idea at all. He’d love to bring Dave and his dad together and he’d love Missy to meet the guys and their wives, but something about bringing his two separate worlds together felt overwhelming.

“I used to think that day would never come,” said Dave, “but now I believe it will.”

“Why’s that?”

Dave smirked. “It’ll be your wedding day.”

Chance swallowed and nodded again. That hadn’t occurred to him, but it was true. He could hardly get married without his dad and Dave being there, or the brothers and his sister, and … he shook his head. It really was overwhelming.

“I’m not wrong in thinking that you’re going to have one of those in the not-too-distant future, am I?”

“I don’t think so. I mean. I hope that’s the way it’s going to work out. It’s not marrying Hope that’s got me worried; it’s the thought of having all of you guys and all my Summer Lake family in the same place at the same time.”

Dave smiled. “It must be a strange idea to you, but I like it.”

“Why?”

“Because …” Dave shrugged. “I dunno, maybe I’m getting old, you can call me a sentimental old fool, but to me it’ll be like making you whole again. Bringing the two halves of your world and your life together, making them one.” He shrugged again.

Chance nodded and blinked rapidly. What Dave said made a lot of sense, but it also made his eyes leak a little too. “I guess we’ll just cross that puddle when it rains, huh?”

Dave smiled. “I guess we will. In the meantime, let’s get back onto safer ground. Where are you up to on the contract Seymour sent over?”

Chance shook his head. “I’ve been meaning to come talk to you about that.”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“You’ve read it, right?”

Dave nodded.

“Then you know what’s in it.”

“And you have a problem with what’s in it?”

“Not for myself, no. He’s practically handing me the keys to the kingdom and screwing himself over into the bargain.”

“I don’t see how he’s screwing himself over.”

“I guess he’s not, but the contract favors me over him. I didn’t think he’d do that. I thought there would be sneaky clauses in there to trip me up or close me out.”

Dave shook his head. “He’s trying to do what’s best for you and for Hope. He’s protecting her, too. You did see that?”

“Of course. The temporary agreement will become permanent if and when Hope marries me, and it will end if we ever break up. She’d get everything back if that ever happened.”

Dave nodded. “It’s a kind of prenup, I guess.”

“Yeah, except it feels more like it’s some kind of weird dowry. If I marry Hope I get all these cattle and all the land and everything. It’s weird.”

“I honestly believe he’s trying to do right by you.”

“So do I. It just surprises me.”

“It shouldn’t. Seymour’s a father who wants to do right by his daughter and the man she loves. It doesn’t hurt that he likes what he sees in you and has a great deal of respect for you.”

“He said that?”

Dave smiled. “He did, repeatedly.”

Chance smiled in spite of himself. It was important to him that Hope’s father should see him as a good man, as someone he could respect, not just some deadbeat his daughter had picked up and who needed to be managed.

Dave looked up at the sound of voices approaching the barn. “Uh-oh, I think that’s Shane’s guests on their way out for their afternoon ride. I’m going to skedaddle before they get here. They seem to think I’m as old as the West itself, and once they start asking questions I get stuck with them for hours.”

Chance chuckled. “Okay, I’m going to get out of here too. See you later.”

Dave tipped his hat and set off a fair trot back to the cottage.

~ ~ ~

Hope pulled up in front of the house and stared up at it for a moment before she got out of the Land Rover. “I wish you were still here, Mom,” she whispered. She closed her eyes for a moment and pictured her mom standing smiling at the top of the stairs outside the front door. She wished she could run up those stairs and hug her. She drew in a deep breath and then slowly blew it out, then smiled. “But I know you’re still with me.”

She got out and had to blink away the tears when she looked up and saw her dad standing at the top of the stairs smiling, just as she’d imagined her mom doing. Her mom was gone, but her dad was still here, and the two of them were about to embark on a new chapter of their lives, a new chapter of their relationship with each other.

“Come on up,” he called. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, Dad.” When she reached him, she didn’t hesitate to go straight to him and hug him. He hugged her back and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. He used to do that when she was small, when her mom was still alive, but she didn’t remember him doing it since they’d moved away from this house. “It’s so good to be back.” She didn’t just mean back in Montana; she meant back at a place where hugging each other felt good and genuine.

“It’s good to have you back.” He smiled and echoed her thoughts. “Back in this house, back in my arms, back in my life.”

She nodded. They’d never left each other’s lives, but the distance between them for the last twenty years had been more than miles. “This feels like a whole new beginning, doesn’t it? We get to leave behind the cold years.”

He chuckled. “Is that how you think of it? The cold years?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t, not until the words came out of my mouth. But yeah, since Mom died, there was no warmth between us, was there? Now there is, and it feels so good.”

“It does.” He kept his arm around her shoulders and led her inside. “I’m sorry that I had no warmth to give you. I feel like I was frozen inside.” She looked up into his eyes and he smiled. “Now I feel like I’m starting to defrost.”

She smiled back. “I like the sound of that.”

“I like it, too. I just hope I don’t dissolve into a puddle.”

She chuckled. “I don’t think you’d manage that if you wanted to.”

“Probably not. Do you want to come sit outside with me? I thought we could catch up before we start talking about work.”

“That sounds good to me.”

They sat outside on the deck and sipped the lemonade he had ready for them.

“That tastes so good,” said Hope. “Where did you get it?”

She’d never seen him look quite so proud of himself. “I made it.”

“You did?!” She couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice.

He chuckled. “I’m not entirely hopeless.”

“Sorry, I know, but you’re not entirely domesticated either, are you?”

“No, but I’m working on it. You probably won’t believe it, but I baked some cookies too.”

Hope laughed. She couldn’t remember ever seeing her dad bake. “You did? Why?”

He shrugged. “I like cookies.”

“You’ve always liked cookies, I know that, but you’ve never baked them before.”

He nodded; his smile was tinged with sadness. “I spent some time in your mom’s sewing room.”

Hope pressed her lips together. In all the years since her mom had died, she’d probably been in her mom’s sewing room less than half a dozen times. She didn’t think her dad ever went in there.

“I needed to. It seems the time has come to do a lot of things I’ve been avoiding.” He nodded to himself. “It was hard, but there was something good about it, too. It made me feel like she’s close. She’s still here, and she wants me to be happy. I went through her things, they brought back so many memories. I found her little recipe book.” He waved his hand at the jug of lemonade. “It took me back to all the times she stood in the kitchen making lemonade. I baked the cookies because it was a recipe she made up especially for me. Normally you get oatmeal or chocolate chip. I like both so much that she started baking oatmeal with chocolate chips in for me.” He stared out at the mountains with a sad smile. “She thought I was crazy, but she loved me.”

Hope had to blink away the tears. She remembered the lemonade now he’d told her, but she didn’t remember the special cookies. Hearing about them gave her a different view of her parents’ relationship. She wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was a grown woman, with a relationship of her own, with a man she loved. Thinking of her mom and dad as being just like her and Chance gave her new insight. It made her heart hurt even more for her dad and for the love he’d lost. She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

He squeezed back and then visibly pulled himself together. “I’m sorry, too. I lost my way for far too many years, but coming back here, coming home, is helping me find my way again.”

“I’m glad. I feel the same way.”

He nodded. “I guess we have Chance to thank for it. If it weren’t for him, neither of us would be here. How is he?”

She smiled. “He’s doing great. He took this morning off to spend with me, but he’s back out on the range this afternoon.”

“Good. I hope he’s going to have an even bigger herd to keep him busy soon.”

Hope smiled. She didn’t want to comment, because she didn’t know what to say.

“And you’re going to be busy, too.” He raised an eyebrow. “If you’re still interested in learning about day trading?”

“I am! I’m excited to get started. There is one thing I want to run by you first, though.”

“What’s that?

“Chance and I are planning to visit Summer Lake this weekend. We’ll be gone for a few days to see his family. Do you think we should get started before I go, or would it be better to wait until I come back?”

“Whichever you prefer. We can wait if you want?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I want to get started right now, but I know what you’re like, and I take after you. Once we get started on something we find it hard to break off.”

“It’s only a few days, isn’t it?”

She nodded.

“Then how about we spend this week giving you an overview? I’ll teach you the big picture before we dive in. Then you’ll have time to digest the basics while you’re away, and when you come back we can get down to business. Unless you’d rather wait? I don’t want to force you to start if you’re not ready.”

“No. I’d much sooner get started.”

“Right now?” he asked with a smile.

“Well, I was hoping you might start telling me what you can while we’re sitting here drinking Mom’s lemonade.” She didn’t know what made her say that, but it felt right. It felt like saying they were back together again, and that her mom was here with them. The way he nodded told her that it sounded right to her dad too.

“Okay, then. Let’s get started.” He raised his glass. “Here’s to a new beginning.”

She touched her glass against his. “New beginnings.”

The rest of the afternoon flew by as he told her the basics of day trading. She found it fascinating and loved seeing her dad so animated. It was clear that anything to do with the markets was a true passion for him. It was also clear that he was so successful because he didn’t think like most people. It seemed every detail he explained to her, he first told her what was accepted wisdom. Then he proceeded to highlight the pitfalls and to tell her his alternative strategies and the reasoning behind them. Hope loved this new insight into him and his mind. She felt as though she was getting to know him as a contemporary for the first time. This man talking to her wasn’t trying to be her father; he was just a man sharing his knowledge and his passion for his work with someone who was interested to learn from him. It felt good.

When he reached a logical breaking point, he looked up at the clock on the wall. “I’m sorry. I had no idea of the time. It’s almost six. Do you need to get home?”

Hope shook her head. Chance would be finishing work soon, but she didn’t want to leave her dad just yet. “I don’t want to go,” she said with a smile. “I’ll just text Chance and let him know where I am.”

“You go if you want to, Hopey. I don’t mind. We can carry on tomorrow. Don’t you want to be there when he gets home?”

She smiled and shook her head. “I kind of do, but I don’t want to set myself up to be the little woman who’s there waiting at the door when he gets back. That’s not my style and he wouldn’t expect it.”

Her dad nodded. “Okay, but don’t push your independence just to make a point, will you? The two of you are going to become a team, and that means considering each other in all things.”

“I know.” She smiled. “Maybe I should get going.”

“I think so. You can come tomorrow, if you want, but if you need to get ready for your trip, you do that.”

“I’ll be here, don’t worry about that. I did want to ask you something, though. When we talked about Chance being from Summer Lake, you said you knew the place. How? It seems to be the kind of small town I wouldn’t have thought you’d even heard of.”

“In the normal course of things, I’m sure I never would have heard of it, but a friend of your mom’s moved there a long time ago.” He nodded, seeming lost in his memories for a moment. “Anne, she was your mom’s best friend in college. She was a very talented painter. She met another painter and the two of them did what few artists manage and became successful commercially. They lived in Denver for a little while, but when they were expecting their first child they moved to Summer Lake. They wanted their child to grow up in a small town. We visited them a couple of times. It was a quaint little place, the town itself wasn’t anything special, but it had a feel to it.” He nodded. “It was a good place. Anne wanted me to move there after your mom died. She thought it would do you good to grow up in a place like that. Maybe she was right. Maybe I should have.” He shrugged. “Who knows what it’s like now. I lost touch with her and Graham years ago. It hurt too much to talk to them.”

Hope nodded. Somehow it helped her to know that he’d closed himself off from her mom’s friends—that she hadn’t been the only one he’d rejected in his grief.

“I could look them up for you, if you want? Find out if they’re still there. If they are I can give you their information and you can choose when you’re there if you want to contact them or not.”

Hope thought about it. Judging by the way she’d felt when she met Monique, perhaps it would be good to meet her mom’s friend, but then that wasn’t the point of the visit.

“I’ll see what I can dig up, they may not even be there anymore. Their son was doing well for himself in New York; they may have moved closer to him.”

“Thanks.”

He touched her hand. “I don’t know any more than you do if it’s something that will help you. I just want to make it a possibility for you if you want to.”

She got up and went to wrap her arms around his neck. “Thanks, Dad. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Hopey.”