Ty stood and watched her as she gazed out at the ocean beyond the railing of the deck. He remembered the first time he’d laid eyes on her almost six years ago. She’d been standing behind the counter of his aunt’s coffee shop, all that pale blonde hair piled in a mess on top of her head. Her cornflower-blue eyes—eyes he knew as well as his own now—sparkled when she smiled at customers, and he’d felt it immediately. As if a bolt of lightning had struck him, he’d wanted that girl. He’d wanted that sparkle and glow to be for him.

And for a brief time, it was.

But now, as he quietly watched her, none of the sparkle was there anymore. None of the vibrancy that had been so magnetic when they’d known each other earlier. No, Jodi was different. He could see it in the set of her shoulders, the way she held her arms so tight against her body. Then she turned and looked at him, and it was in her eyes. It was breath stealing, the sorrow he saw there, but he steeled himself against it. Closed himself off and let a layer of armor wind around his heart and his body. Because no matter how sad she might be, she was here to upend his life, to try to take the single most important thing he had, and even if it made her sad for the rest of her life, he wasn’t about to give her what she wanted.

Katie wasn’t negotiable.

“You came,” she said, giving him a small smile as she turned more fully, the thin embroidered cotton dress she wore blowing around her thighs in the breeze.

Her hair was still that same shade of platinum it had always been—so rare for an adult to be that blonde naturally, but Jodi looked like the fae out of some Nordic fairy tale, all fair skin, white-blonde hair, and pale blue eyes. She was tall at five ten, he was taller at six two, and she was strong—long legs, wide shoulders, narrow hips—but buxom as well, a Viking warrior princess.

He gave himself a little shake, remembering that if she wasn’t exactly the enemy now, she sure as hell wasn’t his friend.

“Surely you didn’t expect me to find out you were in town and just ignore it?” he answered, walking to where she stood at the railing on the deck of Lynn’s coffee shop, which was closed for the day.

She watched him, her lips trembling just a touch, showing she was as uncomfortable with this as he was.

“No, I guess not.” She looked back out at the water.

“Jodi?” he asked quietly after a few moments. “What are you doing here? I thought we settled this last year.”

She sighed, then turned to him. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

He shrugged, glancing away from her because, dammit, those eyes. Those eyes without the sparkle nearly broke him in two, and he couldn’t afford to be weak. Not now. Not with her.

“How about at the beginning?”

She shook her head. “That’s not the part that matters. All that matters is the end. The day I woke up and realized that nothing in my life was ever going to be right again as long as I didn’t have her.”

He stiffened. Fuck. He’d known it was coming, but damn, it cut through him like a hot knife through butter.

“No.”

“Just hear me out—”

“No.”

“Ty—”

He whipped toward her, getting so far in her face, her could see her pupils dilate, feel her warm breath on his skin, hear the little gasp she made as she startled at his advance.

“You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to give her up and then change your mind. Leave her with me for almost five years to diaper and feed and teach and love, to raise every single day, and then decide you want her back.”

“It’s not like that. If you’ll let me—”

“I. Said. No!” he bellowed.

Then they both stopped, staring at one another, and as tears welled up in her eyes, the fury drained out of him, leaving him so incredibly tired. And heartsick. Sad that he couldn’t give Katie everything she deserved. Angry that this woman had taken so much from his daughter, and yet he still had…feelings of some sort for her.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice much quieter now. “I didn’t mean to yell. But the answer is no. She has a family that loves her, a home that’s safe and secure, friends, a community. You’re not allowed to disrupt that. We had an agreement. I’m sorry if it’s been hard on you, but you made your choice, and you can’t go back.”

He looked her in the eye. “Katie has everything she needs.” It was a lie, he knew it, but he wasn’t about to admit it to Jodi, so he turned and started back toward his truck parked in front of the café. Long strides ate up the deck as his heart burned in his chest.

“She doesn’t have me.” Jodi’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was crystal clear, and in spite of what he’d just done and said, she wasn’t angry, simply determined.

“Like I said,” he retorted without turning around. “She has everything she needs.”

* * *

“Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bunk,” Dirk chided Ty as they worked side by side carrying bales of hay into the family barn.

Ty grunted, lifting a bale off the back of the truck and swinging it into an empty stall, where he dropped it unceremoniously.

“Just tired. I stayed up too late working on the health certificates for the batch going to auction next week.” Ty’s family owned one of California’s largest cattle ranches, and they were in the process of going organic. It was work he loved, normally, and the organic component had been his brainchild, but today he couldn’t seem to gather the energy to give a damn.

Dirk spat a stream of tobacco juice into one of several cans nailed to posts and fencing around the barn. Ty’s older brother, Cade, had developed the system to keep the old man from spitting all over the floors of the barns and chicken houses. Dirk had been with Big Sur ranch since before Ty and his brothers were born. There was no telling him what to do, so you had to figure out creative ways to manage him.

“I thought it might have something to do with the blonde you were with on the café deck yesterday afternoon.”

Ty shot a glance at Dirk, his lips tightening into a grimace. “You weren’t supposed to see that. No one was.”

“How long has she been back?”

“She texted me two days ago.”

“That the first time you’ve heard from her since she left?”

Ty had never told anyone that she’d been back once before. Nearly eight months ago, when she’d shown up at the town’s annual Boots and Brews event. He’d managed to send her away that time, but now she was back, and seemed more determined than ever.

“No,” he admitted. “It’s not the first time she’s contacted me. There was one other.”

“And she wants to see Katie?” Dirk asked softly, his old eyes cloudy with concern. He

loved Ty’s daughter as much as anyone, serving the role of grandfather to her since Ty’s own parents had died shortly before he met Jodi. Dirk lived on the ranch, so he’d watched her every day of Katie’s life.

“She can want.” Ty grunted, lifting another bale. “It’s not going to happen.”

Dirk nodded, his expression somber.

They worked in silence for a few minutes until the tension finally got to Ty. “What? Just spit it out along with the tobacco. You obviously have an opinion, so let’s hear it.”

Dirk paused in his work, spit more juice—onto the ground next to the truck this time—and chewed on his cheek for a moment. “A child needs a mother.”

“She has a mother,” Ty snarled, anger swirling in his chest. “Aunt Lynn’s been taking care of her since the day she was born. She moved into the house to do it. And now she has Nina too. Someone younger who can do the fancy hairstyles and talk to her about boys when she’s older. The kid has more family looking after her than most kids with two parents will ever get. She’s fine.”

“She is. And you’ve done a great job. But Nina and Cade will have their own kids, and while Lynn’s a healthy woman, she’s not getting any younger.” He paused. “And neither am I.”

Ty took a breath, tried to calm the pounding of his heart, the sick feeling that churned in his gut. “I know you mean well, and you always want the best for her, but there is no way in hell I’m going to let the woman who walked away from her back into her life. Katie may have the occasional question now, but imagine the upset if she’s rejected at this age. How she’d feel if she got to know Jodi and then had that taken away.” He shook his head. “No. It’s too big a risk. I won’t disrupt her life like that.”

Dirk held up his hands. “I get it. And you’re her daddy. You need to do what you think is best, but if Jodi’s back and she really wants to see her, you might not get the choice.”

And that was what terrified Ty more than anything. The idea of Jodi lawyering up and getting the courts involved. He had legal documents giving him full custody of Katie. Cade had made sure Ty’s bases were all covered when Katie was born, but Jodi was her mother. Her name was right there alongside his on the birth certificate. And even in the twenty-first century, courts were heavily biased toward mothers.

“Yeah, I know,” he answered sadly. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Let’s hope,” Dirk answered.