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T iffany had absolutely no reason to head back out there to the rescue center, but she just couldn’t stop herself.

She realized that this was more than she had expected, and she had no idea what was going on inside her head.

Still, the fact remained. She was worried about Timber.

She needed to go just for her own peace of mind and to confirm everything was okay.

As she finally pulled up in front of the main house, she stopped and stared because they had made some serious progress.

She hopped out and walked over to the deck.

When Timber came over, she offered him a bright smile and an apology. “I know. I know. It’s not my place, and I shouldn’t be here.”

He frowned at her and shrugged. “You’re welcome to be here.”

She frowned at him intently. “Really?” she asked, with a wry look. “I seem to be pushing myself into your world all the time now.”

He gave her half a laugh. “If I didn’t want you in my world, I would have pushed you right back out.”

For some reason that made her feel a lot better, and she laughed. “Good to know. I brought you some fruit from one of my trees.”

“Fruit from one of your trees? What, are you a farmer too?”

She shrugged. “I have quite a few fruit trees on my place—apples and pears, although it’s a bit early for them. I also have vegetables in the garden. I’m a bit of an animal and a plant person.”

“That’s good to hear,” he replied, “because I’m not very good at growing anything.”

She laughed. “I don’t know about that. You’re doing a heck of a job growing this place.”

“Oh, now that’s a different story,” he stated. “I can build anything. It just takes time.”

“If you can build even a fraction of this,” she noted enviously, “it’s way more than I can do. That’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but it’s not as if we, as women, are actively encouraged in the trades.”

He shrugged. “I think you have to get over that and just do whatever you want to do.”

“You’re right there,” she agreed, as she walked toward the front door. “You’ve already got the roof up.”

He pointed toward the barn and added, “That’s where we’re working right now.”

“Can I see?”

“Sure,” he said, and he led the way over to the barn.

Yep, the very large structure was just as rundown as the last time she had been here.

At least the original part in front. These guys had doubled the size of the shelter, putting up new supports and building a new back half, now with a brand-new roof over the whole thing.

It had already been big to begin with. She whistled. “Now, this is a barn.”

“That’s what I’m hoping for,” he said, with a bright smile. “I needed a full-size barn, a working-ranch barn, since you never know just what I’ll end up with for animals in here.”

She laughed. “I think you’re planning on filling it pretty quickly,” she murmured.

“Hopefully we can also move out some of the animals, if they can be rehabbed and rehomed.”

She nodded. Entering the barn, she saw the donkey. Timber called him Danny, and he was paying close attention to an older man. He was rubbing his ears, and the two of them were basically hitting foreheads. She stopped and stared, then she laughed. “That’s somebody who clearly likes animals.”

Timber introduced her. “This is Dwight.”

She looked at him in surprise and asked, “I know you, don’t I? From Kat’s place?”

He nodded. “Yep, I’m pleased to see you again.”

She smiled at his old world charm and looked over at the other man, who smiled at her.

“Hey, Doc, I’m Toby.”

“Nice to meet you, Toby.”

The two men immediately got back to work, though she wasn’t sure whether that was out of politeness or they were just anxious to get back to work. She shook her head as she looked around. “It’s pretty amazing.”

“Good,” Timber declared. “That’s how we want it.”

She laughed. “I can’t imagine how you guys got so much done already and so fast.”

“Sometimes you just have to buckle down and get the job done. Of course it helps a lot to have two extra pairs of hands,” Timber added. “Good timing too for Dwight and Toby to show up, as I needed this barn repaired pretty quickly, just in case the weather changed.”

She pointed to the men and said, “You did mention you had two guys here but hadn’t realized they were like living here.”

He raised his eyebrows at her. “I blame you for that.”

Astonished, she turned and stared. “What? How is that?”

“You told Kat. Kat told Badger. Badger was out here very quickly. The next thing I knew, he dropped off these two guys, and they’ve been with me now for several days. Next week Badger’s sending a larger crew, but I have to get the supplies in first.”

Just then they heard a truck rumbling out front, and he nodded.

“That’s got to be the supplies I’m expecting.”

“Am I in the way?” she asked anxiously, as she turned to look at where she’d parked.

He shook his head. “No, you’re just fine there. A lot of the materials will get dropped right here by the barn, so we can continue building. Then we’ll work on fencing some pastures, digging holes for fence posts and related things. When the crew comes next week, we’ll be that much further ahead.”

“Fences would be good.” She turned and asked, “How is the doe?”

“Last I saw her, she was doing just fine.”

“And when was that?”

“Couple nights ago,” he shared, “in the middle of the night, oddly enough. Something disturbed us, and we got up. I found her, lying down with the little one not too far from here. While I was checking on them, a big old bear trotted on through.”

She looked over at him and smiled. “Yeah, you’re just far enough out that you’ll get all kinds of wildlife.”

“And that’s fine by me,” he said, waving his hand. “I don’t intend to chase away a bear just because I moved into the neighborhood. That’s not my style.”

She laughed as his tone of voice adopted a drawl. “How’s Andy?”

“Now that I don’t know.” Timber frowned, as he looked over in the direction of Andy’s place. “I’m hoping he’s okay, but our last meeting wasn’t exactly the easiest.”

She nodded. “I’m a little worried about him.”

“Have you heard from him?”

“No, not recently, and I know people are saying that he’s really struggling, but I don’t know exactly why.” When he hesitated, she added, “I gather you do.”

“Maybe,” he grumbled, with a frown. “He asked me not to press charges against Brian, but I wasn’t too interested in letting the kid off the hook.”

“Of course not. Brian hurt two animals, that we know of,” she declared in outrage.

“More than that, he was also causing all kinds of chaos on my property, not to mention shooting at my house.”

“That’s right. He can’t just get away with no consequences.”

“The problem is that everybody has let him get away with anything he’s done for a very long time,” Timber pointed out, “which is why I couldn’t let that happen again.”

“So, what did you end up doing?” she asked, frowning at him. “I hope something happens this time, or Brian will never stop.”

Timber looked over at her. “Oh, I did something all right, and you may not like what I suggested either.”

“I won’t know if you don’t tell me,” she replied, with a smile. “What did you suggest?”

He hesitated, then shrugged. “I think Brian needs to go into the military because he has zero respect for anybody and anything. I believe it’s the best chance he has at changing his life.”

She stared at him in shock, which quickly turned to delight. “Oh my, that is perfect.”

He frowned at her. “For some reason I thought you would be against it.”

“No, I’m not against it at all,” she stated. “Brian needs to learn some respect. He needs to grow up and to see the true cost of hurting animals or people, because it’s such a small step from one to the other.”

He nodded. “It absolutely is. Anyway, I haven’t heard back from Andy over it, but that was one of my conditions. The kid goes into the military, and Andy’s sells me the rest of the land I want.”

“You didn’t ask for it for free?” she teased.

“I’ll pretend you didn’t just ask me that, but no,” he clarified. “That wouldn’t be right. I won’t force him, but I do want the opportunity to buy it, if he’s willing to sell.”

“I think that’s fair,” she said. “I don’t know that Brian would agree with your stipulation, but, since he’s already cooked his own goose in this mess, the military seems way better than jail.”

“It was interesting because Richard was here at the time, and he agreed with me.”

She stared at him. “He did?”

He nodded. “We both have military backgrounds, and I was pretty happy to hear him back me up on that suggestion.”

“I’m not sure that’s something I would have expected out of him, but Brian’s a pain in his butt too.”

“More than that, with no consequences, Brian will just get worse,” Timber declared. “As you mentioned, it’s a slippery slope from hurting animals to hurting people, and the last thing we want is for Brian to turn into a wife beater or something worse.”

She winced. “Yeah, especially since one of those potential wives is my former receptionist, remember? The one who quit on me.”

“She hasn’t come back?”

“Gosh no. She’s young, and apparently I insulted somebody she cares about.”

Timber snorted. “When you’re young, you may have ideals and yet not the best judgment.”

“Been there…”

“But then life hits you, and all of a sudden you realize you need a job, and you don’t care how much your ideals come into play. It’s more about getting a paycheck and putting food on the table, particularly if it’s not just you that you need to put food on the table for.”

She nodded. “I don’t think Kelly has that type of relationship with him, but I really don’t know.”

Timber sighed. “If not right now, it will be with somebody sometime, and that’s not what we want to happen either.”

“No, sure it isn’t,” she murmured.

“It was good to see you, but I do need to get back to work.”

“Right, go ahead.” She gave him a wave of her hand, already feeling as if she’d overstayed her welcome.