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Quinn wrinkled her nose. “Well, let’s hope not.”

Fia smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Listen. It doesn’t matter if you think you know someone or not. You can’t always trust them. Just... I haven’t heard anything bad about him, but I want you to be careful.”

“Be careful, of what?”

“Just the same speech I gave you in college. Watch your drink and all of that.”

“He’s a neighbor.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. We don’t really know him.”

“I don’t think I’m in any danger from him. Though, he did not respond well to the binder.”

“I’m not sure that I would’ve responded well to the binder, either.” Fia moved forward and patted her on the arm. “In all seriousness, he’s been in the community long enough that if there was anything untoward about him, we would know. But I love you, and break a leg. Well, no. Don’t do that. That doesn’t really work when you’re talking ranch work. Because you actually might break a leg.”

“I will not, Fia. I know how to do farm chores.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. This is what I do. This is my area of study.”

“What kind of ranch work do we do?” Fia asked, sweetly.

“I know how to ride a horse. I know how to muck stalls. I know how to buck hay.”

“When have you bucked hay?”

“I have,” she insisted.

The look her sister gave her was so skeptical it nearly lit the fuse on Quinn’s explosive temper. But she didn’t indulge in that. Not anymore. “Like physically, you have done the work?” Fia asked.

Quinn took a heavy, calming breath. “Yes. I think. I mean, I remember being out when the hands were doing it a couple of years ago.”

“You’re tiny,” said Fia. “Very cute, but pocket-sized women are sort of impractical for heavy lifting. Believe me, it is also my burden to bear.” She smiled. “But we’re very good at getting things out of hard-to-reach places.”

“Well, I’ll let him know if he has anything that has fallen into a tight crevice, I can try my hand at it. Literally. And I’m leaving now.” She grabbed her thermos and headed out the door, getting into her car and making her way down the dirt road that led to the main highway.

Things were already bustling on the ranch. This was the time when ranchers got up to do things. That was another perk of being a Sullivan, she had to admit. Unless it was a bread-baking day, they didn’t keep quite the same early hours as the other families. They didn’t really have to. Because their primary focus wasn’t animals.

But there were already trucks on the roads, ranch hands moving between plots of land and getting a start to the day’s work. By the time she got out to the main highway, there was even more traffic. The day started early for almost everyone that lived in Pyrite Falls, even if they weren’t ranchers. Because they often had quite the commute to get to work.

It was a difficult life. But there was something kind of profound about it, because it was harder to make it here than not. It was a place you had to choose. You could fall into it, for certain. Inherit land. But it wouldn’t simply sustain itself. You had to make it sustainable.

There was something poetic about that, at least to her.

She was pondering that when she turned onto the road that would carry her to Levi’s house.

He had said that the house was farther up the road. But she had no real idea how far, or how she was supposed to gauge it.

She drove on, though, passing the little shanty he’d been chopping wood in front of both days when she had arrived.

Why hadn’t he told her it wasn’t the house?

He was sort of determined to mess with her. To prove that he was smarter than her.

Maybe that was it.

She thought about that for a moment. She wondered if it made him feel intimidated that she had gone to college.