Page 32

Mollie goes very still. My chest tightens at the emotion that flickers across her face.

I remind myself that she’s here for the money. Said so herself.

But what would Garrett say if he saw her right now? Can’t help but feel he’d be happy his daughter finally stepped footon the ranch, even if she is wearing sparkly purple boots for an afternoon ride.

He’d be proud as hell to see her riding Maria.

I think of all the pictures Garrett saved of Mollie on horseback, which makes me feel a stab of guilt. He wouldn’t be happy, knowing I was trying to chase her off. But it’s the right move, isn’t it? He loved the ranch, same as he loved me and my brothers. He wouldn’t want to see our hard work undone.

How they share the same genes, I don’t know.

I half expect Mollie to throw up her hands and quit on us before she even gets in the saddle.

Or maybe that’s just what Ihopewill happen.

Instead, she’s taking Maria’s velvety nose in her hand and stroking the white star on her head. “Hi, Maria. I’m Mollie. I get the feeling you took good care of my dad, yeah?”

Maria, being the sweetheart she is, nuzzles Mollie’s hand, tucking her head into Mollie’s chest.

“Aw, hey, I like you too. Please don’t throw me off. And if you wouldn’t mind being patient with me, that’d be great. I’m a beginner. Well, I rode when I was younger, but it’s been, like, a million and a half years since I got on a horse, and I’m a little nervous.” Maria whinnies, and Mollie bites her lip. “Okay, a lot nervous.”

Sawyer and I meet eyes again. He arches a brow.

Garrett loved talking to Maria this way. My brothers and I would joke that the horse was our long-lost sister. Mama was so desperate for a girl, she ended up with five boys trying for one.

“Thank God for Patsy,” Garrett would joke. “Sometimes, I think she’s the only thing standing between y’all and the gates of hell. Or the penitentiary.”

Taking a sharp breath through my nose, I turn and stalk toward my horse—a colt I named Kix—and climb into the saddle. My left leg throbs from a run-in with one of ourlonghorns this morning. Back aches because I’m old and I didn’t sleep great last night.

Glancing at Mollie, I wonder if she’s losing any sleep over her daddy passing. Looks rested enough. Then again, she didn’t see it happen.

She didn’t miss the signs the way I did. Garrett complaining about shooting pains in his arm that week. How he’d kept a hand on his chest that morning, clearly hurting. He blamed it on heartburn, saying he’d overindulged in Patsy’s ribs and jalapeño cornbread the night before.

She wasn’t here to see him collapse inside a working pen, calves streaming around his lifeless body like he was a boulder parting a river.

My shoulders slump beneath the weight of my exhaustion. Glancing behind me, I watch Sawyer and Wyatt help Mollie onto the horse. It takes three attempts and severaloh sweet Jesuses to get her into the saddle.

“You got this.” Wyatt slips her feet into the stirrups. “We all gotta start somewhere.”

He gives her a quick lesson in riding. Shows her how to steer the horse, how to get Maria to go, to stop, to pick up pace.

Mollie gasps when Maria shuffles to the side. “And how far away is the nearest hospital?”

“Eh”—Sawyer hands her the reins—“you’ll be fine.”

“That far, then?”

“Well—”

I gather my own reins in my hand. Check that my rifle is secured with the other. “John B will get you right as rain should you need medical attention.”

Mollie scrunches her brow. “Isn’t he a veterinarian?”

“We’re all animals at the end of the day. Let’s go.”

Wyatt gives me a look.Be patient. Go easy on her.

Thing is, I got no patience when it comes to saving my family from ruin.