Hitting the last water station before heading back to the ranch, Adler instructed Sage to go through the testing process out loud, telling him what she was doing, what the value ranges were and so on. Basically, anything and everything he could think of to prolong the amount of time he had alone with the woman.

The delay tactic was about more than basking in her company, watching the sunlight run its fingers through her hair while listening to her soft voice. He was stalling because he hadn’t said any of the things that had rolled through his head during the long night after their kiss in his office and half the workday.

He still wasn’t sure what to say. He had to play it safe, not drive her away from the family. Yesterday had been a mistake, especially after the bad history they had going.

But seeing her first on the verge of tears and then actually crying had driven him over the edge. A primal need to protect her had pushed him too close. Everything escalated from there—touching her, stroking reassuringly at her arms, kissing the wet cheek and not pulling away before she turned her mouth to his and let him go deeper.

Adler was pretty sure the only reason she had put a stop to the kiss was because of her brother. Jake was a wedge between the two of them.

That was its own problem. Up until Adler found out about Sage, he had trusted Jake to do the right thing despite all the reticence to talk about his past. Heck, Adler didn’t even think the event that started Jake lying was because of something the man had done wrong. Jake was honest, meticulous. His boss crowed about what a good worker he was. And not once had Adler ever seen a hint of unhappiness in his sister.

A fresh lump of grief swelled his throat. Surrounded by four brothers and mostly male cousins, Dawn had always wanted a sister. Adler was sure she would have adored Sage. With Leah as a bridge, their bond would have been unbreakable.

“Did I get that right?” Sage asked, showing him the colored lines on the testing kit and what she had recorded on the clipboard.

Adler nodded. That was the last of it. Time to head to the truck and back to the ranch. Slowly, he returned the kit to the duffel.

“I was a bit of a bear earlier,” he said, closing the lid on the water station. “You could probably hear me through the walls or the air vent.”

He had been a bear even earlier than that, halfway through the orientation, but he hadn’t worked up enough nerve to address the issue.

“I always leave that kind of call for when I’m away from Leah’s little ears. Heck, I keep it from my mother and Dawn, too. I’m sorry you had to hear the shouting.”

Sage nodded, her tongue flicking out for a nervous lick at her lips.

“Thankfully that kind of call is rare. Most vendors around here won’t risk cheating our ranch. This was a man I thought I could trust.”

Her pale rose lips parted, his chest tightening at the sight of it.

“Oh, it was a vendor? I didn’t actually hear what you were saying.”

Something skittered across her face that made him think she had heard at least a little of his side of the conversation. He shrugged the doubt away and offered a short explanation.

“We’re redoing the plumbing in the bunkhouse. That’s kitchen and bath. Vendor tried to switch parts on us then lied about what the contract said, that’s why I had to come back to the office. Unfortunately, that was our lawyer listening to me yell. But half of it has to be dug up, refitted and all before the ground gets too hard. And now I’m wondering what else the man lied about. He just finished a heating station in the eastern fields six weeks behind schedule.”

She nodded in understanding, the relief on her face plain from how much time he’d already spent memorizing her expressions.

“I always take that away from the house,” Adler repeated before a long hesitation. Bellowing over the phone was the least of what he had to apologize for.

“I just haven’t been myself lately.”

“I understand,” Sage answered. “The loss of Dawn and Brody has touched everyone. There’s not a conversation I’ve had around Willow Gap where the other person hasn’t expressed how much they missed them.”

“True, but that wasn’t what I meant,” he confessed. “I’m saying I haven’t been myself since you showed up.”

There, his feelings were out. He just hoped it wasn’t too much, too soon.

Sage nodded, a gentle smile on her face. “My presence has been a shock to everyone.”

He laughed, the sound half strangled because of the thick knot in his throat that refused to be swallowed down.

“I’m still not talking plain enough,” he grinned. “I’m sorry for kissing you last night, you were clearly upset. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done wrong from the moment I met you.”

“Oh…”

He couldn’t read the meaning behind the single word, if it could be called a word, or the way she froze in place. He hurried along with what he wanted to say before he lost his nerve.

“I’m not sorry for knowing what it’s like to kiss you—to touch you.”

Her cheeks flamed red. Her mouth worked around something for a few seconds but she didn’t manage to say anything.

Adler soldiered on. The main thing was making sure Sage didn’t bolt.

“I am truly sorry,” he repeated. “I wanted to let you know I can work from the offices in the stables. Will doesn’t smell that bad most of the time.”

She attempted a false smile at his joke, but it was quickly buried under the weight of whatever she was feeling.

“I don’t want you leaving any part of the job…or the family because you’re uncomfortable being around me. I just want you to know that. You only have to point in whatever direction you want me to go and I will.”

The last thing he wanted—more tears—threatened to escape her watery gaze.

Reaching out, she placed her arm against his bicep.

“I don’t need you to work in the stables.”

The weight wound across his chest, constricting his breathing, finally eased.

“Leah would be heartbroken if she didn’t get to see her Addy. The whole drive in she was talking about you.”

Fresh sadness tugged at Sage’s mouth. “With Jake’s hours and travel time, she’s probably seen more of you since her birth than her own father.”

Adler wanted to tell her it didn’t have to be that way. Jake could have been closer from the beginning, could have been in the truck on both sides of the trip, could have had lunch on the back porch, could have taken the toddler to the water stations and more. The man had made his choice.

But the wedge between Adler and Sage was big enough without throwing Jake’s lies and reclusive habits into the mix. For now, he would settle for remaining just down the hall from this woman who had turned his head and heart upside down since her arrival.

“So everything’s good?” he asked.

She replied with a nod that seemed too eager. He would accept it for the time being.

Extending his hand in the direction of the truck, he smiled, the expression easy to conjure up in her presence.

“Your carriage awaits, Miss Ballard.”

*

Walking into the great room with Sage, Adler found his mother sitting in her rocker. Across from her on the couch, Leah napped.

Before his mother could stand up and approach, Adler knew something was terribly wrong. The expression she wore wasn’t quite like the one she had on after the police called with news of the accident that ultimately took his father and sister’s life, but it wasn’t far off.

Even Sage picked up on the fact something new was amiss.

Lindy walked toward them, gait stiff and her hands folded behind her back. She kept her gaze on Sage, not him, and he had a sudden sick feeling that something had happened to Jake. When she actually opened her mouth and spoke, his mother’s first words had him convinced something really had happened to the man.

“I’m so sorry, Sage…”

“Mama—” He stopped short as she pulled her hands from behind her back and shoved a notebook in his direction, the leather cover a deep purple wrapped around lilac colored sheets.

“Leah,” she started with a whisper, “brought it to me to fix. She tried to sneak a page out.”

He didn’t understand. Why was she telling Sage she was sorry but handing the notebook to him.

“I’ll stay with her,” she said with a nod over her shoulder at the sleeping toddler. “But this is something you and Adler should discuss.”

He glanced at Sage. Minus the ash, she looked like the people wandering the streets of downtown New York after the towers collapsed. She was in shock, feet frozen to the ground, eyes rapidly blinking. He could see the pulse fluttering wildly in the shallow depression where her collarbone rose up to greet her graceful neck.

Once again, this time with absolute dread, he extended his hand as a gesture for her to go ahead of him.

Whatever his mother had seen in the notebook, Sage didn’t kick up a fuss. She walked numbly into her office and folded like an accordion into her chair. He sank down onto the love seat and skimmed past the first few pages of what looked like code and a few math computations until he saw what had so distressed his mother.

Give Jake a reason for denying I exist…accomplish before Leah gets any more attached…Pretend to be drunk…Rabid hate speech…Run off with advance…Should I tell him I’m doing this so...

With each word read, his muscles pulled tighter and tighter. He could feel his mouth all but disappear. All the tension burned along the surface of his skin.

He wanted to demand an explanation from the woman sitting across from him, but she had turned to stone. And he knew Sage would explain nothing, offer no excuse. He would have to talk to Jake, not her, and shake the truth out of the man at long last.

“Addy!”

He jerked at Leah’s joyful welcome. She didn’t seem to notice, but then she saw the notebook in his hand and her little face collapsed on itself.

“I broke it.” She walked over to Sage, a study in heartfelt apology, and tugged at the dazed woman’s sleeve. “Sorry…I sorry.”

Sage woke from her stupor to put her arms around Leah’s shoulders.

Adler carefully removed the pages in which Sage Ballard had brainstormed walking out of his family’s life forever. Next, he removed what was left of the perforated sheet Leah had tried to pull out plus two more sheets.

“It’s not broken, baby girl,” he said, offering the notebook and two clean sheets to her. “It just looked that way.”

She hurried over, squealed her delight and rushed back to Sage, offering her the notebook.

“Not broken!”

Sage nodded. Adler could see she was doing her best not to cry. Leah patted her cheek, repeating the news more softly.

“Not broken, Sage.”

“I know, Honey Bee.”

His mother came rushing up the hall, out of breath by the time she reached the office’s threshold.

“I turned my back for just a second…did Leah hear…”

She trailed off, her gaze traveling over the woman and child before turning to Adler for explanation.

“I was just showing Leah how the pad isn’t broken.”

Getting up from the sofa, he folded the incriminating pages and stuffed them in his back pocket, Sage watching him the entire time, still looking like her world had just blown up.

Probably because it had.

“I’m heading off to Chandler’s,” he said, naming Jake’s boss. “Leah stays here until Jake comes to collect her.”

He rolled his lips at his harsh tone, but there was no way he was going to take back what he had just said. The notes Sage had written down were completely irrational. Who the heck plotted something like that, stacking more lies on top of the ones already told, dragging their reputation through the mud until it was in complete tatters?

He shook his head, nailed his mother with a stern gaze. “I mean it. She goes home with Jake or she stays here.”

Lindy nodded, her mouth pulled into a tight frown. Approaching Leah, she got down on one knee.

“Love, Aunt Sage is tired from going to all the water stations. Why don’t we watch a movie while she rests.”

Leah looked to Sage. Still holding back tears, she stroked the child’s cheek.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” Sage lied. “I won’t be so tired when your movie is done.”

“Not mad?” Leah whispered.

Leaning forward, the first tear falling and disappearing in the strands of Leah’s hair, Sage kissed the child on the forehead then nudged her toward Lindy.

Adler watched his niece and mother go down the hall, Leah taking a hesitant look behind her before turning the corner out of sight. When he looked back at Sage, she had pulled the key ring to the car from her bag and placed it on the desk.

“Keep it,” he growled. “You’re brother and I are going to have a talk, one that’s long overdue. Then I’ll decide what I’m going to do about you.”

Turning her over his knee sounded about right. But he had no idea how many swats it would take to land some sense inside the woman’s head. Sense and a little self-preservation.

Of course, he was only assuming she had been set on climbing up on the cross and martyring herself for Jake. Maybe losing Leah and leaving Willow Gap meant nothing to Sage after all.

Before the question had a chance to come rushing past his lips, he made a sharp turn out of the room and headed for Frank Chandler’s ranch, reaching it in record time.