Emily spent the next morning at the office trying to sort out the mess with the Tompkins couple. Levi was right about one thing. This was her fault.

He was wrong, however, on every other account. If he hadn’t been so livid, the idea of her taking revenge against him for an incident that had happened fourteen years would have been laughable. But today, she was not laughing about anything.

Headache, throat tight, chest about to crack open, Emily hurt all over. She’d even considered staying home from work with her head buried in the pillow. Instead, she’d forced herself to get up and spend extra time in prayer. Though God hadn’t sent any direct answers, He’d calmed her soul.

The trouble was, the moment she’d gotten to work, peace fled, and one problem after another moved in. A court case she’d worked on for months was canceled. A noncustodial dad had bolted with his toddler, and she’d sent out an Amber Alert. Then an irate parent stormed the office demanding her children back, even though the woman had left them alone for three days. The oldest was seven.

She rubbed the throbbing spot between her eyes. As if all those issues weren’t enough, a foster parent had called asking that the children in her care be removed.

And then there were the Tompkinses.

“I’d given up on finding anyone except Levi,” she told her boss when he came into her cubicle with a fresh stack of file folders. Her case load grew heavier by the second.

“The Tompkins couple didn’t make contact with you before this?”

“No. In fact, I’d forgotten about them. We spoke months ago, and only briefly. They claimed to have no knowledge of a Scott Donley or any relatives in Oklahoma, so I eliminated them and moved on.”

“Then what’s the deal? Why are they in Calypso now?”

“Good question. Denise spoke to them on the phone yesterday when I was out of the office, but she told them the situation was already resolved.”

“Then how did they find their way to the Donley Ranch?”

“GPS? Google?” She tossed her hands up and moaned. “I don’t know. Calypso is a small town. They could have asked anywhere and gotten directions.”

“Don’t let it get to you, Emily. Stuff happens, and these things usually work themselves out. No judge is going to give them custody if the uncle is a fit parent.”

“He is, and I’m confident the judge will agree. It’s just that the situation has caused a lot of grief for Mr. Donley.” And for her.

“Probably for the Tompkinses, too. They’ve come a considerable distance.”

She hadn’t even considered the couple’s feelings. “I have a meeting scheduled with them.”

“Good. Explain the situation and assure them the baby is being well cared for. Apologize for their inconvenience, see if Levi will let them visit the baby in his presence, and try to convince them to drop their suit.”

She pulled a wry face. “You give me all the easy assignments.”

With a grin, he tapped his knuckles on her desk and started out of the cubicle but immediately turned back. “One other thing to add to your easy list. Got a call from Calypso School on Daisy Beech again. Take a drive out there after you see the Tompkinses and talk to the dad. She’s only been in school one day this week.”

“Oh, boy.” A confrontation with Arlo Beech would just about cap her rotten day. “We’re going to have to turn him over to the DA if this isn’t resolved soon.”

“Tell him that. A fine sometimes wakes people up.”

“News like that should go over well.”

Tim left, and Emily gathered her things to meet with Mr. and Mrs. Tompkins. Her relationship with Levi was over, but she could right this wrong and leave him and Mason in peace.

The headache pounded harder as she drove the distance to Calypso and to the meeting with Mason’s long-lost relatives. From what she could determine, they were distant relatives, cousins of Levi’s mother. No one knew where Marilyn Donley was or if she was even still alive. But no one blamed the woman for disappearing either, though everyone wondered why she’d left her sons with Slim Donley. The man was that awful.

She shuddered to remember the mean-spirited rancher who’d made Scott and Levi miserable as boys. The man who’d trapped her in the barn. She’d avoided him most of the time, but that day had been different. She’d thought Slim and Scott were out of town for a cow sale. She’d thought Levi would be alone.

She’d been wrong.

Emily turned up the radio to drown out the memories. She’d forgiven and moved on. A revisit to that ugly moment when Levi stepped inside that stall, his face ashen and horrified, served no good purpose.

They’d been teenagers, unable to handle that kind of fright and humiliation, unable to discuss what had happened so they could put it behind them.

The incident had scarred Levi, and because of his reaction, had changed the trajectory of their entire lives. Even now, so many years later, Levi was trapped in his father’s meanness.

She’d thought he was healing. She’d believed Scott’s death would open his eyes. She’d trusted that love would bring them back together.

She’d been wrong about that too. Maybe the time had come to give up on Levi Donley and let him go.

Heart heavy, head throbbing, she pulled into the lot of Calypso’s only hotel and parked.

Regardless of her personal feelings, she had a job to do. Rosanna and Doug Tompkins had no chance of gaining custody of Mason, and they needed to know. They also deserved to know that Levi was a good parent, a perfect match for Mason, and that he loved the little boy with everything he had.

As she well knew, Levi kept a lot of love locked up inside him. He’d only begun to let it out.

An hour and a half later, she left the hotel and headed toward Daisy’s home. The fact that she had to drive past Levi’s ranch to get there was not lost on her. As she sailed past, she couldn’t help but glance toward his house. His truck was in the driveway, but she didn’t spot Levi or the dog.

Foolish, but she’d wanted a glimpse.

He wouldn’t want to see her, though, even to learn how the Tompkins’s meeting had gone. She’d have to talk to him at some point but not today when her feelings were so terribly raw.

Next to the mailbox at the end of the driveway, stuck in the midst of Jessica’s purple irises, a new sign had been erected. A real estate sign. For Sale.

Sorrow gripped her, squeezed her breath. Reality was here. Levi was really going to leave her again.

It was with her head muddled that she knocked on Arlo Beech’s door and listened for the footsteps. Daisy should be here if she wasn’t at school. When no one came, she walked around the corner to the back of the house and shielded her eyes toward the barn and the cow lots.

“What do you want?”

The voice came from behind. She whirled around. Arlo Beech came toward her from behind a shed, his ever-present rifle swinging at his side.

When he recognized her, he stopped. His eyes narrowed in a hardened face. “I told you not to come here again.”

The tone threatened. He cocked a hip in an intentionally belligerent stance.

The man was never happy to see her, but today, antagonism radiated from him in waves. His glare pierced her, a glassy-eyed, bloodshot glare, and his stance was unsteady. Had he been drinking?

Not good. But she’d faced belligerent, inebriated people before. Unfortunately.

Do the job and get out of here fast.

“Is Daisy home?”

“Around here somewhere. She’s busy. Got work to do.”

“I’d like to speak to her please. She missed school every day but once this week.”

“So?” As though the idea of school was repugnant, he curled his lip. “She’s learning all she needs right here.”

“I’m afraid the law disagrees with you, sir.” They’d had this discussion before. Beech knew the rules. He simply didn’t want to comply. “Daisy needs to be back in school tomorrow and remain there consistently or her case will be turned over to the DA.”

Scowling, Beech took one step in her direction.

“You threatening me?” Words slurred, he wobbled as he hefted the rifle waist high.

Emily retreated a step. The hair tingled the back of her neck.

“No, sir. I’m only stating facts.” She kept her voice calm, though her insides shook. The man looked menacing. The rifle even more so. And he was definitely drunk.

Emily raised a palm as if to stop his advance and spoke softly, tone appeasing. “Please put the gun down, Mr. Beech. I mean no harm.”

“No? You’re coming around here all the time, stirring up my daughter, making her lazy. That’s harm to me.” He turned his head to the side and spat. “No busy-body social worker is going to tell me how to raise my own kid. Now git while you can.”

Where was Daisy? Was she okay? Was she safe?

“I need to speak to Daisy before I leave.”

The man hackled. He lurched forward. “You accusing me of something?”

Emily’s blood pressure shot to the sky. She breathed a silent prayer.

“I need to see her.” And make sure she’s all right. She searched for a reason, any reason, to talk to the child. Before she found one, Beech took another, threatening step.

She backed away. The headache she’d fought all day blurred her thoughts.

“Like I said, you better leave.” He raised the gun higher, holding the sight to his eye. “Git. Now!”

Emily’s mouth went dry as cotton. She froze like a jackrabbit in the crosshairs.

If he didn’t put that rifle down, something terrible might happen. “Please lower the gun. I’m only trying to help Daisy and keep you from receiving a fine or jail time.”

“Jail? For raising my kid as I see fit?” He released a string of obscenities. His finger moved to the trigger.

Fight or flight kicked in. Emily was no match for an enraged man and a rifle. But Beech was between her and her vehicle. She moved to go around him. He blocked the way, shoved her back, and aimed the rifle straight for her chest.

---

Levi thumped a cardboard box on a chair and began the painful task of clearing out Scott’s dresser. Socks, T-shirts, a pair of boxers that made him laugh. Jessica must have gotten them for her husband. He put the items in the box and opened the next drawer.

At the bottom was a picture of the two brothers, him and Scott, standing next to an old red pick-up truck. Levi remembered that day like it happened yesterday. Scott was laughing. He’d always been laughing.

The old man had been in the hospital. A kidney stone. And the two Donley brothers were revved up and ready to hit the big town of Calypso with their girlfriends.

Emily had taken the picture.

He set the photo on top of the dresser. Mason would want that someday. In fact, he’d box up all the photos he could find to take with him. The same for a few of Scott’s other things. His belt buckle. His rifle. His saddle and spurs. Maybe his hat too.

Tears clogged the back of his throat. Getting rid of Scott’s belongings was harder than he’d expected.

Butter roamed in, sniffed the box and returned to the nursery where Mason was napping.

The baby needed to wake up soon, or he wouldn’t sleep tonight. They had a nice routine going, he and the baby and the dog. Work in the mornings with Mason strapped to his chest or in the stroller. A break for lunch. More work in the afternoons and often until dark. Mason was an easy baby, happy unless he was hungry, sleepy, or wet, which made working the ranch a whole lot easier. Today, Levi had knocked off early to pack. The dressers should have been cleaned out before now, but Levi was dragging his feet, and he knew it. Never before had he minded leaving things behind and unsettled, but he did this time. He felt unsettled. Lonely. Empty.

Emily hadn’t done anything wrong. He’d known that as soon as he’d calmed down. She hadn’t intentionally sabotaged him. She’d been genuinely shocked.

He should call her, go see her, apologize.

Nah, dumb move. He and Mason were due in Texas. No use reopening old wounds. Better to move on and let her forget him.

Why was leaving so much harder than before?

Because you’re wrong and old enough to know it this time.

Aunt Ruby’s Holy Spirit again, nudging.

“I want to do right by her, God. Everything’s so messed up.” He folded a pair of pajama bottoms and put them in the box.

Jessica’s dresser was yet to come, a task Emily had planned to do. A labor of love, she’d called it. He couldn’t refuse her the right to sort through Jessica’s belongings and keep whatever she wanted. It was only fair. But not now. Not when he was afraid seeing her would confuse him even more. Maybe he’d send a message for her to go through the closets and drawers after he and Mason were gone.

He cleared Scott’s dresser, sorting as he went. Things he wanted to keep. Things for Mason. Things for the church clothes closet.

Every item pierced his heart. Besides Mason, these were all that was left of his brother. The idea of Scott being reduced to a stack of cardboard boxes made him want to weep.

Time for a break.

He bolted from the bedroom and rushed down the stairs as fast as he could without waking the baby.

He headed for the kitchen and gulped a glass of water. The liquid clogged his esophagus, painful and big as a fist.

He stepped out on the back porch, closed his eyes and breathed long and deep. Everything about this move felt wrong.

A loud pop jerked him around. What was that? A gunshot?

He peered out into the pasture. The sound seemed to have come from the direction of Beech’s place. Was the hateful neighbor target-shooting with that rifle of his?

Levi continued to stare in that direction, troubled. The man was plain mean. Levi wouldn’t put it past Beech to shoot Butter or one of the Donley cows or horses if it strayed onto his property.

Butter was safe upstairs. But what about his horses? Freckles grazed around the barn with Goldie, but the other four were nowhere to be seen.

He heard the pop again and started for the barn and Freckles. The horse saw him coming and trotted to the fence. Levi opened the gate, intending to saddle up and ride when his brain clicked in. Mason was in the house. No way he’d take the baby along if some nut was shooting a rifle. Did he dare leave him in the crib? And if he did, would that be fodder for the Tompkinses to claim custody?

Before he could work things out in his brain, a blond head appeared on the horizon. Daisy raced toward him. As she drew nearer, she screamed his name.

Fear prickled the skin on his arms.

She screamed his name again.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Levi tossed a leg over Freckles’s bare back and rode out to meet her.

Daisy was white as cotton and shaking like a leaf. She leaned forward, hands to knees, breathless.

He slid from the saddle to the ground next to her. “What’s happened?”

“Miss Emily.” She pointed back behind her. “Hurry.”

His adrenaline jacked. “Where?”

“The field.” The child started to sob. “She’s hurt.”

That’s all Levi needed to hear. “Stay with Mason.”

Fear pumped through his veins more powerful than hot lava as he leaned over Freckles’s mane and let the cutting horse have his head. They crossed the forty acres in Derby time.

As they approached the fence, he saw Emily. Ten years of his life disappeared in one glance. She lay on the ground, still, quiet. He didn’t know if she was dead or alive.

He also didn’t know where Beech was, nor did he care. Emily was hurt. She needed him.

Sliding to the thick pasture grass, he fell down beside her. Blood stained her dress above the knee.

“Emily.” He touched her face.

She didn’t open her eyes.

“Baby, where are you hurt? Talk to me. Oh, God, please save her.”

Emily didn’t move.

Frantic, he slapped his pocket for his cell phone and called 9-1-1, directing them to the Donley Ranch. They’d never find her down in this field, but she couldn’t ride either.

Carefully, calling her name, promising to take care of her, babbling his crazy mixed-up love, Levi slid her skirt a few inches above her knee. Her leg was a mess and bleeding badly. Profusely. He had no idea if she was hit anywhere else, and he was afraid to look.

Quickly, Levi removed his shirt and tied it around her thigh. Then, as gently as possible, he picked her up and ran toward his house.