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“Things can change,” Tris said gently. “You never know.”

It was later, after Jeremy had gone to bed, that she asked, “I gather you would rather not go with us tomorrow?”

“It’s more, she would rather I didn’t.”

Tris lifted a brow. “You really believe that?”

“That she doesn’t like me? Yeah, I do.”

“Or is it your profession she doesn’t like?”

“Right now, that’s all it takes,” he said, his tone a bit sour.

“Hmm. It’s not like you showed up in boots and a cowboy hat.”

He let out a short, sharp laugh at that. “As if I’d dare, here in real cowboy country.”

“But that’s the point. Youknowthat would be a mistake. Unlike some, who do just that and then wonder why Texans roll their eyes.”

Jackson studied his sister for a long, silent moment before saying, “You truly are a Texan now, aren’t you?”

“David was, and he taught me. I like to think I learned well.”

“You did.” He hesitated, then added, “And he was a good teacher.”

“The best,” she said. “I work hard to be half as good as he was in my classroom.”

“I don’t need to see you in your classroom to know that you are. I just watch you with Jeremy.” He sighed deeply. “I’m sorryI wasn’t there for you the way I should have been when he died. The way you were for me.”

“You had a newborn to worry about. And after Leah’s rough delivery, she needed a lot of help. I understood.”

“But once she’d recovered, I should have—”

She held up a hand to stop him. “By then you had another newborn to deal with, a newborn TV show. The chance of a lifetime, bro. A career-maker.”

The smile she gave him was one hundred percent pure love and understanding. It struck him then, the connection he hadn’t yet made. His loving sister’s gentle kindness with Jeremy, and he himself, from the day Leah had been killed until now, had been a revelation to him. And the way Nicole Baylor had been with Jeremy took it a step further, the concept that when people are hurting, you help, even if they aren’t your family.

And for Jeremy’s sake, he would let her help, no matter what she thought of him.

*

Nic focused herattention on the boy on the pony, not just because this was only his second time riding the little pinto, but because it helped her ignore the fact that she’d been almost sorry when Jeremy had turned up with only his aunt today.

She’d been walking Pie on a lead around the perimeter of the corral for about fifteen minutes now, and both pony and rider were doing well. He quickly got the idea of reining gently, coordinating hands and heels, and moving with the animal.

“You ride like you’ve ridden before,” she said to him.

“I have. Dad let me, and Uncle T helped teach me.”

“Uncle T?”

“His name’s really Tucker, and he’s not really my uncle, not like Aunt Tris is my aunt, but he’s Dad’s best friend. And his stuntman.”

That startled her, that someone of Jackson’s stature in the business would have a mere stuntman as his best friend.

“So he’s the one that makes your dad look so good on horseback?” She made sure her tone was light and teasing, since she didn’t want the boy to take offense on his father’s behalf.

The boy half shrugged in the same manner she’d seen that father do. “Dad can do most of it, but then Uncle T wouldn’t have a job. So he tells them he can’t.”