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She blew out a sigh. “Even then. What…? How? I live in Napa. Ashton has school. It’s not as though we could just up and move here, or Tanner could come down there.”

Cash leaned his head to the side and studied her critically.

“What?” she asked when she couldn’t take the suspense any longer.

“What were your plans when you had the job interview?”

She didn’t even question how he knew about that. “Obviously, I thought that we’d move here. But I was being too optimistic about that.”

“How so?”

She made a face. “My dad lives around here. I was hoping that he might be able to help with Ashton if we moved here. But that didn’t work out.”

“It still could.”

She gave that some thought. She’d exchanged a few texts with her dad since she went home. He seemed genuinely sorry that he hadn’t shown up to meet her at Chico. He claimed to have a genuine reason why. It’d be easy to believe him, if he hadn’t refused to share the reason. He’d apologized for coming between her and Tanner the way he had, too. But …

“It’s complicated.”

“I don’t think it’s as complicated as you believe. Zeke’s a good guy. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that he’s still sober. And he won’t tell you why he didn’t show when he was supposed to meet you because he doesn’t want to worry you.”

Everly felt like she was scrambling to catch up. “You know him well, then?”

Cash smiled. “Yeah, honey, I do. We served together. For what it’s worth, I can relate to how you feel. He let me down a time or two, but I still love him and refuse to give up on him.”

Everly had to blink away the tears that pricked behind her eyes. “You honestly believe that he’s sober?”

“I’d stake my life on it. Do you plan to see him while you’re here?”

She chewed on her bottom lip. “I hadn’t thought about it. It’s not like we even planned to be here ourselves.” She glanced over at Ashton; he was listening intently as Tanner explained something to him. “I know Ashton would love to, but…”

Cash nodded. “I guess you just need to decide how brave you want to be, don’t you?”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Seems to me that there’s a whole new life on offer here for you, if you’re brave enough to take it.”

She huffed out a frustrated sigh. “If it were just a matter of being brave, that’d be easy. What scares me is messing up – getting it wrong. Not even for myself, but for Ashton. If I take a chance with Tanner, I run the risk of breaking my son’s heart. Same thing with my dad.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I just have one question for you.”

“What’s that?”

“Would you rather teach the little guy to live a small, safe life, or to risk getting hurt by reaching for the stars?”

She made a face at him. “I don’t think anyone ever aspired to living a small, safe life, did they?”

Cash chuckled. “Maybe not aspired, no. But when you look around, how many people are doing exactly that because they refused to take the risk of getting hurt?”

Everly smiled at him. “Thanks, Cash.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders again. “It’s my pleasure. That’s what big brothers are for.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tanner swung Ashton up onto his shoulders to give him a piggyback to the barn. The kid had talked nonstop about the horses since his riding lesson yesterday. Tanner felt ridiculously proud of him. He was a natural in the saddle, and a good student. He listened carefully to every instruction and followed it as best he could. Tanner’s only concern was whether Ashton was more concerned with learning to ride or with pleasing him.

“Do you think Mom will be able to find her way down here?”