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Shane would do anything to protect his family. And that was that.

Chapter Two

Cora pulled her car into the carport next to her pretty little house on the corner of Hope and Aspen in the middle of Gracely. Lilly had picked it out a few years ago when she’d decided to move them away from Denver, and Stephen, to a place with legends about healing.

Maybe someday Cora would want to pick out a place herself, but Lilly had good taste, and it had been the perfect house for Cora and Micah to heal in, and then plant some roots in. It suited them, even after Lilly had gone and gotten married and moved up to the mountains with Brandon.

Cora sighed. Micah wasn’t happy, and she couldn’t figure out why. Last summer had been great, and this school year had gone well, Cora had thought. His grades had improved, he’d helped out at Mile High on the weekends, and she’d thought it had been giving him confidence.

But as the school year had ended, Micah had clammed up. Turned sullen again. He complained about going to Mile High. He complained about the basketball camp he’d all but begged her to sign him up for a few months ago.

Cora’s stomach twisted painfully at the thought of forcing him to tell her what was wrong. She’d failed him when he’d first come into this world, and, even with loads of family counseling and a little bit of therapy for herself, it was hard to get over that guilt. For the first seven years of his life, she’d let him see what no child should have to see, and then she’d spent two years in that wishy-washy space ofstay or leave, be alone or hurt, accept this warped love or have no love at all.

She squeezed her eyes shut. She was here now, and Micah was here now, and she would do right by him, even if she hadn’t in the past.

So, she had to push. No matter how much the coward inside of her didn’t want to.

She opened her eyes and stared at the house, then realized her neighbor and friend was standing on the porch next door staring thoughtfully at her. Thoughtfully, not like she was watching a woman who’d lost her mind and was sitting in her idling car in her driveway having a mental argument with herself.

Cora pulled the key out of the ignition and slid out of the car, forcing herself to smile brightly at Tori. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Tori crossed the narrow yard between their houses. “You okay?”

“Sure I am.” Because Cora had spent a little too much of her life the past few years brooding and wallowing, and she’d made a New Year’s resolution all those months ago. No more self-pity. No more guilt. New Cora. Newlife. She’d been doing a damn fine job.

“Wedding thing went good?”

Cora tensed at the careful way Tori was beating around the bush. Torineverbeat around the bush. “Yes, it did. Well, mostly.” She thought of Shane Tyler and hiswe’ll see about that.

It was kind of sweet, all in all. After his little speech about how he’d do anything for his mother, and about the age difference between Deb and Ben, Cora understood why Deb’s children were reticent to be supportive. It wasn’t because they were being babies about the whole thing. It was because they wanted to protect their mother.

But it washerjob to make sure Deb got the wedding she’d always dreamed of, and Cora would find a way to get through to the Tyler kids. She would.

But first, she had to deal with her own kid.

Tori shoved her hands in her pockets and rocked back on her heels. “Listen. . . .”

Bad news. Definitely bad news. “Whatever it is, just say it,” Cora said, bracing herself. She couldn’t stand Tori of all people being gentle with her.

“Will went to pick up Micah,” Tori said, referring to her fiancé, Will Evans. Who also happened to be Lilly’s brother-in-law. Things at Mile High Adventures were nothing if not a complicated weaving of relations and relationships.

And Will was picking up Cora’s son hours before basketball camp was supposed to be over. “Why? Was he hurt? Why didn’t anyone call me?”

“Micah texted Will. Said he’d ditched basketball camp and needed a ride. He claimed he’d called you and you hadn’t answered, but we didn’t quite buy it.”

Cora frantically pawed through her purse and grabbed her phone. She scrolled through everything. No, her son hadn’t called her. “Why would he do that? Why would he lie?”

“I don’t know. Will was going to try to get it out of him.”

Cora wanted to sink to the ground. She wanted to stomp her foot. She wanted to go upstairs and crawl in her bed and shut out the world. Instead, she smiled thinly at Tori. “I’m sorry Will had to go to the trouble of driving out to Benson.”

“You know he didn’t mind.”

“I know, but . . .” Cora heaved out a sigh. God, it was nice, this whole having a family and community thing. So many people to help her and her son out, so many people who loved them.

But it was also hard. She was used to only having Lilly to lean on, which meant only Lilly seeing her failures. Now she had more people to lean on, but also more people who saw when she screwed up.

Cora pushed that thought out of her head. Her therapist, Dr. Grove, was forever telling her motherhood was not a series of successes and failures. It was a complex mix of love and responsibility, and she shouldn’t blame herself when Micah had setbacks.