It Had to Be Him(71)

Josh was supposed to be staying detached, dammit. Maybe helping at the ranch, with all the memories, hadn’t been the best idea. He might have to rethink that and find another venue to help.

But Eric was a good kid who needed a break. And for the first time in his life, Josh was in a position to help. “So Eric just needs a place for a couple of months?” Meg could probably use some cheap manual labor at her lodge. Or maybe Eric could help out in Zeke’s shop.

When Eric screamed, “No, stop!” Josh whirled around.

Haley had followed a puppy under the fence and into the horse corral. His heart lurched as he took off at a full run.

Josh laid a hand on the fence and swung his feet over. As his boots hit the dirt, Eric scooped up a crying Haley and then the pup, hauling them both out of harm’s way. Eric handed Haley to Josh. “I’m sorry I scared her. I didn’t want her to get hurt.”

Josh took Haley and held her close, not sure who was more scared—her or him. “Thanks, Eric.”

The kid smiled. “My little sister always did dumb stuff like that too. You gotta watch them all the time.” When Eric’s smile slowly faded and sadness flashed in his eyes—missing his little sister, no doubt—Josh was a goner.

He was going to take the kid and the damn dogs Eric loved too. It was just for a few months. There’d be plenty of room at the lodge for all of them. And they’d find homes for the other dogs.

Meg was going to kill him.



Meg sat next to Casey on the couch at Pam’s house. With girls’ night in full swing, Meg reached for her phone again, but still no word from Josh. They should have been back an hour ago.

Casey whispered, “They probably just stopped for dinner. Here.” Casey stuck a glass of wine into Meg’s hand. “Drink up. I’m gonna get some more nachos.”

“Bring me some too, please.” Pam always threw a fun party, but Meg just wasn’t feeling it. Especially after Sarah had told her that Amber had tried to convince Sarah’s husband, an electrician, not to work at the lodge.

Hopefully Beau would be able to convince the subs to ignore Amber too, or Meg might be in trouble. She had more pre-booking money now and couldn’t afford to open late. Her stomach ached thinking about what would happen if she couldn’t finish in time and had to return money already spent.

Pam sat down beside her on the couch. “So what’s up with you and Amber? She said if you were coming to the party tonight she wasn’t. When I told her that was stupid, she said she was too busy anyway. Some PowerPoint thing she had to get done for Founder’s Day tomorrow.”

Meg usually told Pam everything, but had decided not to tell anyone about her and Amber being sisters—yet. Not because her father asked her not to, but because she didn’t need any more complications at the moment. “I’m sure she’s just being her usual drama-queen self.”

“Yeah, probably. So how’s it going with you and Josh?”

Casey returned with three bowls of nachos. After she handed them out, she said, “Yeah, Meg. Spill.”

“Wait. We want to hear too.” Meg smiled as Sarah, the married love of Ryan’s life; the new dentist, Tara; and Aunt Gloria gathered around.

“The sex is fantastic. But that wasn’t ever our problem. When we first met, Josh was super attentive and sweet. But as time went on he changed. He became such a workaholic it was hard to get him to put away his phone or laptop long enough to watch a half-hour television show with me. But now he’s back to the way he was before. He asks about my day and we talk about his, we take turns making dinner, he takes Haley for little outings every day, never checks e-mail while we eat, and actually pays attention when I tell him something. I used to have to send him e-mails if I wanted him to remember things we had planned. It’s pretty much great between us now.”

Casey took a deep drink from her glass. “There’s an unspoken ‘but’ in there. What is it?”

Her sister knew her too well. “Besides being concerned he might slip back into workaholic mode, I’m worried that after having that high-powered job he’s going to get bored with small-town life and leave us again. I mean, seriously? No matter how much he tells me he’s happy getting his hands dirty for a change, how can a guy who used to work practically nonstop and made a gazillion dollars doing it be happy working on copters and engines with Zeke?”

Meg took a quick nacho break. They were just too good to ignore. “I’m pretty much committed to staying here now, no matter how badly Amber wants to run me out of town. So I’m afraid to take that final leap and dive in all the way. It hurt too much when he left the last time.”