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Finn had indeed responded to his text with, Absolutely, I’ll be there. And Ace? Can I talk to your brother-in-law about his place? See, I’ve been looking for a small operation to buy, and they’re hard to find.

Once again, it felt like the Lord had trained His heavenly light right onto Ace. Straight into his mind. He grinned at the text and tapped out, Sure, of course. You might change your mind when you see it.

Tell me what time to be there, and I’ll be there.

Ace did some quick calculations, based on what time it was right now, and then he typed out, 10. We’ll be there about 10.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Finn once again had to drive almost all the way to town before he could make a right turn and head west to the small, one-man operation that sat just south of Three Rivers Ranch. To his knowledge, it didn’t have a name, and Kevin Bentley had been running it for as long as Finn could remember.

Sure enough, he passed under no sign and saw only a fence with numbers on it to indicate that he’d arrived at the right place. He turned right again, now moving north onto the ranch. He’d taken a few minutes to look it up online, but it wasn’t listed for sale, and he hadn’t been able to find out much about it.

So he’d taken a few more minutes to text his daddy about it. That was how he’d found out this ranch sat just under two hundred acres. And that it bordered Three Rivers Ranch on the far southwest border. And that it could be perfect for Finn.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” he told himself as he lumbered along the dirt road. He’d wanted to call Edith, but she and Alex had gone back to their regular schedule of working their own piece of land. He’d been settling for seeing her in the evenings for an hour or so before she started writing, or taking her for a quick dinner, or laughing and chatting with her as they fed the horses in the evenings.

Alex had started dating Nicki Johnston, so he wasn’t home as much in the evenings these days, and Finn didn’t like throwing wrenches in Edith’s schedule. It wasn’t her favorite thing, though she could recalibrate pretty quickly if she had to.

Today, though, Finn knew she had lunch plans with Christie, and then she’d be out at Courage Reins this afternoon to work with Reagan. “Besides,” he muttered as the road went on and on, planted fields of alfalfa on both sides. “You’re not here for a ranch tour. You’re here to work.”

Ace Glover needed help with this place, and Finn wasn’t going to let him down. If he could talk to Kevin about possibly buying it, great. Icing on the cake, with a cherry on top of that.

Finally, trees entered his view, and the way they curved told Finn a river ran through the ranch. He smiled to himself, because there was something cheery about this place. He went through the tree line, and sure enough, he had to go over a bridge to do that.

Immediately, he found a cute little log cabin sitting there among the fields, a red barn, and the emerald green grass. Fine, now that the summer had baked into August, the grass was a little yellower and a little crispier than it would’ve been in the spring.

“This place is great,” he said. He liked how it couldn’t be seen from far away. How the trees and river created a private little alcove here. How he could see himself making the drive from Three Rivers to this spot of land when he wanted his momma’s cooking, or to see his siblings, or to go horseback riding.

Four trucks had parked in front of the house, which didn’t have a garage that he could see, and Finn eased his in next to the black one on the end. His suddenly felt like a miniature truck next to the big behemoth, and he wasn’t surprised to see Holly Ann Glover come jogging out of the house and over to the truck.

Finn dropped out of his and said, “Howdy, Miss Holly Ann.”

“Oh, Finn.” She jumped back, her hand flying up to her chest. “I didn’t see you there.”

“Just got here,” he said. “Looks like you guys did end up bringing a crew.”

She opened the driver’s door of the black truck and climbed inside. She grabbed something and slid right back out. “Zona recruited one of her brother-in-laws,” she said. “Dawson’s here.”

“Oh, sure,” Finn said, looking up to the cabin. He loved the yellowish-reddish wood of it, and the big wide steps that led up to the porch that spanned the whole width of the house. Edith sure would like that. “I know Dawson. We were in the same grade. Graduated the same year.”

Holly Ann smiled at him and held up her phone. “You comin’ in? I’ll have lunch in a couple of hours, and Kevin’s going to go over the things that need the most work.”

“Yeah, I’m coming in.” Finn followed her up the steps at a slower pace, but she held the front door for him to go in ahead of her. Blonde wood decorated the walls and ceiling, the railing on the staircase that went up and the one that went down.

It wasn’t fully a cabin, as carpet covered the floor in the living room and regular tile spread throughout the kitchen. Finn saw it down the hall too, and he caught a glimpse of dark brown leather couches and cheery drapes in blue and yellow before someone said, “Hey, Finn, you made it.”

He focused on the people then, all of them standing in the kitchen or along the cusp of it. “Ace.” He grinned and shook the older cowboy’s hand. “Good to see you again.”

“I mean, this ain’t no picnic,” Ace joked, and they both laughed. “But my wife did bring a lot of food.”

“Everyone has to earn it,” Holly Ann called throughout the house. “With a few hours of good, hard work.”

A couple of her kids groaned, with the oldest rolling his eyes. Kevin sat at the table in the eat-in kitchen, his wife next to him. He wore a look of resignation while Bethany Ann looked half hopeful and half scared.

“Dawson,” Finn said, and he clapped hands with the man and shook. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“No kidding,” Dawson said with a grin. “You got roped into helping today too?”