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“They’re both lovely,” she exclaimed as, at Ry’s nod, she reached out to pat the little horse. “I love buckskins. Is he Two because he’s the second buckskin?”

“No, because he looks exactly like his great-grandsire, Buckshot. So he’s Buckshot Two.”

She smiled at that. “This is starting to make sense. How old is he?”

“He was born last June, so he’s coming up on seven months. He’s being gradually weaned now, in fact this’ll probably be his last night stalled with her.”

“Is that sad, or exciting?”

“Probably both, but you’d have to ask them,” he said.

“I don’t think I speak equine well enough. Sadly.”

“Your family didn’t have horses around, huh?”

“No.”There was no family, period. Not like yours.“Do you think…could I take a shot of them? It’s just so sweet.”

“I…sure. If you can do it without a flash.”

“No problem,” she assured him.

And it was a relief to dive into her bag, choose the lens she wanted and adjust the settings on the DSLR she mainly used. This was her turf, the place she felt at home, and was confident about what she was doing. And only when she relaxed into the familiar procedure, did she start to breathe normally again. And only then did she realize she hadn’t been, really, since the moment he’d flashed that grin at her.

*

“So how didit go?”

Ry knew he should have skedaddled back to his place before Mom had arrived, but he’d come over to raid the cookie jar when Ariel had announced—via Chance, amazingly enough, which was reason enough to celebrate—that it was full of her custom macadamia nut chocolate chip specials.

“Okay,” he said neutrally. “This was sort of a…groundwork day. The real stuff starts tomorrow.”

His oldest brother, Keller, walked in as Mom asked, “So they’ll be back early?”

He grimaced. “By the reporter’s standards.”

“Did you let them into the inner sanctum yet?” Keller, a couple of cookies of his own in his hand, asked.

“No.” He gave his mother a sideways glance. “I didn’t allow any photos in here, either.”

His mother studied him for a moment. “I’m surprised. I would have thought you would have, if it would avoid the other.”

“Sacrifice the family home to save my studio? Thanks, Mom,” he said sourly.

“You are a bit…manic about your privacy over there,” Keller said, his tone mild.

“Genius burns and all that,” his mother said, so cheerfully he knew it was intentional.

“Me?” he said in almost pure mocking indignation. “Chance lives as far away as he can and still be on the ranch, and you’re picking on me?”

“That’s because we don’t have to worry about Chance anymore.”

There was no mistaking the utter relief in her voice and expression, and Ry felt a blast of both love and admiration for this gutsy woman who had held them all together after the worst had happened. If there had been one unerring constant in their lives, no matter what chaos arrived, it was their mother’s love.

He threw his arms around the woman who barely came up to his shoulder. “Love you, Mom,” he said softly.

And when he looked up again, he saw his big brother smiling at him. He felt the urge to do the same thing to this man who had stepped into impossible-to-fill boots, but he knew Keller would just roll his eyes and tell him to do something constructive. Although maybe not, anymore. He’d lightened up so much since Sydney—and Lucas—had come into his life.

“Hey, good, you’re here.” Cody strode into the room, his two-in-one laptop in his hand. He carried that like most people carried a phone, because he said there were things he sometimes needed to do that required more power and a full keyboard. The keyboard that was now folded back out of the way so it was essentially functioning as a large tablet.