Page 18 of Rocky Mountain Home

She pointed toward the base of the hill where the sunlight was turning the lake surface into a shimmering mirror in the midst of a green setting. “Silver Stone ranch. Boundary to the west is behind us, up against the wilderness area. You can see the south border parallel to the highway, but the north is out of our sight. That’s Big Sky Lake, and the smaller one is Little Sky.” She pointed farther north. “We’re lucky to have two water sources and the river running through the ranch. You can’t see it from here, but if you keep walking this path you end up at Heart Falls, the source of the river.”

“The town’s named after it?”

“Yeah. This bench where we’re sitting and the waterfall don’t belong to the ranch anymore. About an acre got donated to the municipality so everyone could enjoy it.” She glanced over at him. “My dad, Joseph Hayes, who was known as Silver, and his best friend Walter Stone bought the ranch together—thus the Silver Stone ranch.”

Interesting. “I love hearing where names come from. I mean, sometimes it’s obvious, but that’s one with a lot of character.”

“Jaxi mentioned she lived on the Six Pack ranch. Big drinkers?”

“Ha, not really. Six boys, two generations in a row.”

“Damn.”

“Means there’s a bunch of Coleman around. Four of the original six settled in the area, so we’ve got Six Pack, Angel, Whiskey Creek—that one’s simple enough to explain—and Moonshine.”

“You’ll have to tell any child-appropriate stories to Sasha. She loves to know that kind of stuff. Have to be careful, though. She’ll talk your ear off if you let her.”

“Sasha seems like the type to want to tell a lot of stories.” Jesse paused. “Because she talks for Emma as well as herself?”

Dare turned toward him, pulling her feet up on the bench. “There’s a million things to say to you. So much history, and yet I can’t find a place to start. It’s not like a simple ‘what I did on my summer vacation’ essay.”

Jesse chuckled. “Don’t start on the school memories. I already feel a little as if there’s going to be a flash test sometime in the next half hour. Let’s start simple. How old are you?”

“Twenty-six.”

“Me too.”

Dare’s lips twisted. “Gee, we have so much in common. We should get married.”

Jesse laughed. “Smartass. We do have a lot in common. Sounds as if you’ve got a lot of brothers.

She made a face. “I do, and I don’t. It’s complicated and it’s not something I enjoy talking about, so I should probably just get it out of the way before things get too awkward.”

“Snapshot is fine,” Jesse insisted. “We’ll have plenty of time to get to know details later.”

Dare nodded. “So—my parents and their best friends bought the ranch.”

“Joe and Walter?”

“Best friends, like I said, and they did everything together. Got married around the same time, moved to Alberta, bought the ranch, started having kids. Only ten years ago there was an accident, and all four of them and my little sister died.”

Oh my God. “Jesus, I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks. It was hell, as you can expect, but Caleb was twenty-four and old enough to take over the ranch and be guardian to us all. I’m not legally their sister, but in all the ways that count, I am. Make sense?”

She’d said it clearly, and pretty much straight-up unemotional, but he was floored. “You told me in February you were holding a wake.”

“Yup. Ten-year anniversary of the accident.”

Jesse couldn’t stand it any longer. He slid closer to her and lifted her into his lap. She seemed almost not to notice because she didn’t protest. Just sat there, frigid and cold.

He curled an arm around her and pressed her close to his chest. “I’m sorry that they’re gone.”

“Me too.”

They sat in silence, Jesse rubbing her back as he considered how much pain that must have been for a sixteen-year-old to face. Just sharing the story had turned her brittle, her body stiff and nearly frozen, and minutes passed before she took a deep enough breath to supply her body with what had to be much-needed oxygen.

She softened slightly, leaning into him and resting her head on his shoulder. Her eyes were dry, but so, so sad, and something inside him snapped.