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“And this is why I needed some time. Because now you know I’m here, so here you are with your opinions. The town will be there with their welcome banners. And I just needed...”

Silence and pie.

“I’m not your enemy.”

“I know you’re not. I love you, kid. I’m here to be with you and Mom. Even though it’s hard. But be patient with me, okay?” He needed to be here. Without connections, all he had was that abyss. He couldn’t face it.

“Okay.”

“I’m officially here from tomorrow. Promise. I will go into town, and I will stand underneath the banner. Swear it.”

“Okay.”

“We’ll talk in the morning.”

“All right.”

He hung up with her, and got online, started looking at some different hiking supplies and other outdoor equipment.

He wasn’t here to try and compete with the ranchers. In the sense that he wasn’t going to get cattle, or sheep, or try to grow produce. He would probably have some animals for his own use, but what he’d decided he was going to do was put some tiny homes on the property, and offer ranch days. Complete with trail rides and other activities. The McClouds had a therapy portion of their ranch, but it wasn’t recreational. There was nothing in the immediate area like this, and he had a feeling he could make a profit at it. His dad had tried to compete with Four Corners for years. As far as Gideon was concerned, that was a losing proposition. They were too big to fail. And he had no interest in getting up in their business.

He had a plan. And he had some time to float him until he could get that plan into action.

Leading hikes and horse rides sounded like an ideal thing for him. He did great outdoors. He had infinite survival skills from his time in the military. And keeping his endurance up was good for him. Yeah, he had his injuries, but a trick hip wasn’t going to stop him from hiking up a mountain. It might keep him from being able to do everything that needed doing out in the desert, but not simple tourist hikes. And anyway, the real issue wasn’t in his body. It was his brain.

Hell of a thing.

He’d never been focused on mental kinds of things. He was physical.

Not that the blast had impacted his IQ, but he’d never fully appreciated all the things your brain was in charge of. Which sounded dumb. Itwasdumb. He had taken it for granted, until those shock waves had rattled his brain around in his head like ten car accidents, and years in the NFL getting tackled, giving him concussion after concussion all in one moment.

It had taken time for the medical teams he’d seen to realize that his issues were more severe than they’d first thought. That his injuries were more extensive. More internal.

Finding out what the problem was had been a relief, in part. But it hadn’t fixed it. His mood swings had been unbearable. Unpredictable.

He frowned, remembering. Yelling at Cassidy. He’dyelledat her. He’d never been like that before.

He pushed the guilt down, and got up from his computer, realizing he was hungry. And right then, there was a knock on the door.

He frowned. If it was Lydia, he would be glad to see her. If it was his mother...he’d be glad to see her, too, but he would be unprepared. Still, it was reasonable to suspect that it might be one of them.

He crossed the small kitchen and opened the door. And there was Rory.

“Hi. I brought you dinner.” She was smiling in that determined way she’d done earlier and he couldn’t figure out how to return it.

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said.

“I wanted to.”

He stared at her. “My sister send you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“You didn’t deny it.”

“I did have lunch with your sister today.”

“It all becomes clear. She called me, and she was furious because she didn’t know that I was back in town.”