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Zoe imagined the truck, the horses of her childhood dreams, maybe even a boat...and gave a hearty laugh.
Which died in her throat when she got her first look at the house.
“Damn,” Delia said eloquently.
Maddie, in between the two of them, hugged their arms closer to her. She remained silent, though Zoe had no trouble detecting the anxiety running through her.
She understood the feeling as she flickered her light over the ranch house. It was old and falling apart at the seams.
“Not good,” Delia said in a huge understatement. “Not good at all. Let’s go back.”
Zoe knew that was the city girl talking. But the truth was, they had nothing to go back to. They’d packed up their meager belongings, which would be delivered in the next few days, and given up their apartment and jobs.
And this...decrepit old place, for all it was worth, was theirs. All theirs. At the thought, a burst of territorial pride overcame Zoe. She hadn’t had much in her life to feel territorial about, so she enjoyed the feeling. Nothing was going to get in the way of that, not even if the house blew over on the next wind. “We’ll be okay.” She’d make sure of it. “Come on.”
Together they walked toward the house, which was nothing more than a large shadow looming over them. The wooden porch creaked warningly, making Zoe wonder just how safe it was. The front door, crooked on its hinges, looked as though a light kick could knock it in. She fumbled through her pockets for the keys she’d been given.
Her flashlight wavered and went out.
Maddie’s breath caught, the only audible sound in the ensuing blackness.
Before Zoe could so much as form the swearwords coming to her brain, two headlights gleamed, wavering up and down in the rough road as they came closer and closer. A moment later she could hear the sound of a truck, and her heart lodged in her throat.
They were three women out in the middle of nowhere, sitting ducks, and here she stood, frozen in the oncoming headlights like a deer.
The truck stopped directly next to their rental car, and blinded by the glaring twin lights, Zoe threw a hand up in front of her face.
The driver left the headlights on—to torment them? Zoe wondered frantically—as he stepped out.
The crunching of the stranger’s booted feet on the gravel of the driveway propelled Zoe into action. “Down,” she whispered, pulling her sisters out of the path of the bright lights. They ducked low, tumbling into one another as they shifted to the side of the patio, only to find themselves cornered by the wooden railing.
“Hey,” a deep male voice called out. “Who’s there?”
“Don’t move,” Zoe instructed, holding on to her sisters’ hands tightly. “Don’t even breathe. Maybe he’ll leave.”
“He saw us,” Maddie whispered frantically, her voice wavering, making Zoe hug her closer. “I know he did.”
“Maybe it’s just a neighbor?” Delia suggested hopefully.
Maybe, but Zoe didn’t plan on taking any chances. Not with her sisters. She weighted the meaty flashlight in one hand, considering it a weapon now.
“Can’t believe you didn’t check your batteries,” Delia hissed. “You always check them. You’re anal-retentive about that stuff.”
Zoe considered testing her weapon on her sister’s pretty head, but changed her mind when the stranger called out again, much closer this time.
“Hello?”
For some reason, the husky, grainy voice tickled Zoe’s tummy, and she clutched Maddie and Delia in a vise grip.
“I know you’re here, I saw your headlights from my house.”
When no one answered, the man’s wide shoulders rose and fell sharply with a sigh, as if he were annoyed. “Cade sent me out to check on your arrival. I’m your neighbor, Ty Jackson.”
Delia shot Zoe a triumphant glare, pulled her hands free, adjusted her still-perfect hair and stood, only to fall back down to the patio when Zoe yanked hard on her arm.
“Are you crazy?” Zoe demanded in a harsh whisper. “You can’t just blindly trust him.”
“But he knows Cade—”
“Honest to God, Delia, I have not a clue as to how you managed to survive in Los Angeles.” Furious, Zoe clenched both sisters now with fisted hands. Fear did that to her, kicked up her temper.
Fear and regret, for if anything happened to either Delia or Maddie, it would be her fault because it had been she who had insisted they go on this crazy adventure. Crazy, stupid adventure.
The man stepped up onto the patio, looking larger than life with the yellow lights of his truck highlighting him from behind. He stood on the rickety old porch, his easy, loose-limbed stance revealing a tall, rangy body with legs and arms that seemed to stretch forever.
None of the women budged, or even breathed, but he turned unerringly toward them, allowing the light to fall over him.
“See?” He lifted his hands, apparently to show he meant no harm, but his irritation was unmistakable. In one of his hands was a heavy-duty flashlight, which he left off. “Just your friendly neighbor, not the boogeyman.”
Zoe recognized his name, knew that he was the caretaker of this property, and due to the terms of Constance’s will, he was to remain manager for one year. Still...her fingers dug into her sisters’ arms, silently daring them to move.
When they didn’t come forward, the man crouched low on the protesting wood planks, as if he instinctively understood how overwhelmingly male he seemed. His unbuttoned plaid shirt spread wide over a white T-shirt that revealed an expanse of well-muscled chest and shoulders. His faded jeans encased powerful legs that strained taut in his hunkered position. The light fell over his face, casting his dark, chiseled features in bold relief.
“Come on,” he said. “It’s late. Let’s do this.” He blinked into the darkness, his glittering eyes somehow landing directly on Zoe. “Maddie and Delia, right? And... Zophina?”
Delia snorted, and Zoe, masked in the dark patio, pinched her.
“Look, would I know your names if I wasn’t telling the truth?” he asked, exasperation clear.
Good point, Zoe supposed, but she didn’t move.
His head dropped between his shoulders for a moment, his frustration tangible. Then he tried again. “You know that I’ve been working part of this land with mine, leasing it from Constance for years. And you know who Constance was...your grandmother, or one of yours, anyway.”
In the dark, the women looked at one another. Certainly he had to be who he said, for what stranger could know all this?
“Quite the mystery, isn’t it?” He shook his head, then glanced over at them as if to make sure he had their attention.
He’d never had anything but.
At their lack of motion, he looked around him at the land. “Constance tried like crazy to find her granddaughter over the years. It’s hard to believe she didn’t live long enough to see it through.”
Would a bad guy really show such insight? Zoe didn’t know and refused to take a chance. But his voice mesmerized her as he continued to speak into the dark night.
“She didn’t even know her granddaughter’s name, only the month and year of birth and approximate last sighting of her son’s girlfriend.”
Los Angeles.
Emotions tumbled through Zoe, and she knew it was no less for her sisters, for each of them wanted to know more about Constance, more about where they had possibly come from. Delia nudged her, and even in the darkness, Zoe had no trouble deciphering Delia’s glare.
Trust him.
She wasn’t ready yet.
“You still there?” He craned his neck as he shifted, trying to see into the shadows where they huddled ridiculously together. “Well, what else can I tell you... Okay, from what I understand, you were all left in a group home at approximately the same time and age. Took poor Constance more than twenty years to get that much information, but she never gave up.”
The silence seemed to drown out the night noise, except for the ever-present rush of water. The crickets stopped. Even the owl went quiet. And there on the porch, surrounded by the only two people in the world who had ever cared about her, Zoe squeezed their hands tight and closed her eyes.
Each of them had been a deserted three-year-old. The remembering hurt, when that hurt should have long ago been healed. But now they knew that one of them had had someone searching for her, desperately.
That hurt, too, for Zoe could only imagine how different life would have been for the girl who might have been found by a loving, frantic grandmother.
They had no idea which of them it was—Maddie, Zoe or Delia—but it didn’t matter now. They were sisters of the heart and soul, and they’d stick together until the end.
The ranch belonged to all of them, and together they’d learn more about their grandmother.
“I’m guessing you’re hoping I’ll talk myself out and disappear.” Slowly, Ty Jackson shook his head. “No can do, ladies. Cade told me your plane had been delayed, and he was worried about you getting up here at night, which by the way was a stupid thing to do, drive up here in the dark.”
Delia and Maddie shot a look at Zoe, who bristled. It was one thing to be stupid, but it was entirely another thing to have it pointed out to her by a stranger. She had her sisters to do that.
“Cade wanted me to call him back.” He shifted impatiently. “Can we get on with it now? It’s late, and frankly, ladies, I’m tired of listening to myself talk.”
Zoe could feel her sisters’ resistance melt away, but she held on to hers with all her might. Despite his obvious caring for Constance, he was big, he was a man, and he was barely managing to control his irritation at being bothered so late at night.
Trust was a big issue for Zoe, it had been for as long as she could remember. Alone in this world except for Maddie and Delia, she had managed to eke out a calm, quiet existence. And if her life was a little, well...empty, if she’d never learned to really have faith in another human being since the day her mother had dumped her at age three, failing to come back for her as promised, she could live with that.
Bottom line—Zoe rarely believed in another, especially a far-too-good-looking cowboy with a voice that could melt the Arctic.
In the beam of light, he quirked a dark, challenging brow and continued to speak in that rough-timbered voice, the one Zoe imagined could convince a less-hardened woman to give him the moon.
“You plan on sleeping there on the porch, that’s just fine with me,” he said with a shrug of those impressive shoulders. “But I wouldn’t be neighborly if I didn’t try to warn you...that wood there’s littered with rats. Big, fat, hungry ones.”
With a muffled shriek, Delia launched herself toward the light, brushing and swiping at her legs, for if there was one thing that could shatter Delia’s calm, it was a rodent.
Maddie’s mouth opened in a silent scream as she followed Delia in such a rush she nearly fell headlong into their “neighbor,” who easily caught and uprighted her.
Both women continued to shiver and squeak, placing themselves behind the man, who slowly rose to his feet, a grin firmly in place.
Amid feet stomping and panting, huffy screams, Delia twirled in a circle, mindless, until the man reached out and touched her arm.
“Safe,” he claimed, not bothering to hide his amusement. “Don’t worry, I think you two managed to scare them all away.”
Delia stopped screaming, and Maddie just gaped in surprise. Zoe knew why, for though it took Delia forever to get riled, it took just as long to calm her back down. No one, and most certainly not a man, had ever been so effective in quieting her.
In the startling silence, the man who caused it winked at Maddie, who brought a hand up to her mouth.
Still hidden by the darkness, Zoe stood quickly, for she knew Maddie’s unease around strangers, especially men, but she stiffened in shock when she realized Maddie was holding back a smile.
In less than ten seconds, the man had completely tamed her sisters. Unbelievable.
“You okay now?” Ty Jackson asked.
Delia smoothed down her clothes and shot him an apologetic smile. “Yes, sorry, but rats just get to me.”
“Understandable.”
“Now, if you tell me you have batteries in that truck of yours,” Delia said, her smile warming, “you’ll really be my hero, Mr. Jackson.”
“Ty.” Any irritation at having been disturbed so late had apparently vanished, replaced by the pleasant surprise of a man who suddenly finds himself in the company of two beautiful women. He held out his hand. “And you are...?”
Delia offered him a perfectly manicured hand in return, the one she’d spent an annoying amount of time this morning doing herself, nearly making them late for the airport. “Delia Scanlon. And this is my sister, Maddie O’Brien.”
He took each of their hands in turn as though they were at a tea party, not standing hundreds of miles away from nowhere on a battered, neglected ranch. From her perch in the corner, Zoe rolled her eyes.
“It’s a pleasure,” Ty said to Delia. “And I always carry spare batteries.” He looked pleased with himself, as though he’d invented the dam things himself.
Zoe remained in place, thoroughly disgusted now. How could her sisters just cave like this? What had happened to their natural reserve of anyone and everyone?
They’d stuck together through thick and thin, mostly thin, but in all that time, Zoe had never, not once, seen either of them let down their natural distrust so fast.
Of course, none of them had ever been charmed by such a master, either.
Fine. If she was the only one with a thought left in her head, so be it. She’d keep them safe.
“I thought there were three of you,” Ty said, squinting a bit as he searched through the darkness, easily focusing to meet Zoe’s gaze again. “What happened to Zophina?”
“Zoe,” Zoe snapped, stepping into the light, having no idea why she was letting him get under her skin like this. He was just a stranger. “The name is Zoe.”
“Well, hello there. Zoe.” That damn grin flashed again, the one that made her somehow want to smack him and melt at the same time. He tucked his thumbs into his front pockets in a stance of confidence...not to mention how his hands pretty much outlined the vee of his jeans in a way that showed off his...big build. “Can we go inside now?”
“I’m sure we’ll be just fine alone,” she replied coolly.
“I’m sure you will.” He didn’t so much as blink, but Zoe could have sworn he was laughing at her. “Maybe you’d like me to check it out first.”
“For more rats?” she inquired sweetly.
He didn’t look in the least bit ashamed of himself. “You never know.”
Before Zoe could suggest that there was a two-legged rat standing right in front of her, Delia firmly stepped between the two, her flattering, social smile in place. “You’ll have to excuse Zoe, Ty. She’s tired, and a tired Zoe is a grumpy one.”
Zoe turned away, piqued for no particular reason. It was her own fault, she reminded herself. They’d come here at her insistence, at her excitement at completely starting over.
Not that Delia and Maddie hadn’t wanted to come, they had, but they just hadn’t been quite as sold on the idea as she. Yet they’d given up their lives, anyway, for her. A pressure built in Zoe’s chest, a familiar one. The pressure of their love, which she was eternally grateful for. But deep down, somewhere in a place she didn’t like to go too often, were the same old doubts.
She didn’t deserve all they gave to her, not when she didn‘t—couldn’t—give it back. She had long ago locked up her heart from hurt.
As if she sensed her unease, Maddie slipped an arm around Zoe’s waist, giving her a quick squeeze. She reached for Delia’s hand, uniting them without a word. As always, at the caring, kind, accepting touch, Zoe immediately softened; she couldn’t help It.
“Ready, ladies?” When they nodded, Ty took the keys from Zoe, and before she could analyze why the slight brushing of his work-roughened fingers against hers made her stomach tighten, he’d unlocked the front door. “This will have to be fixed,” he said, easily maneuvering open the rickety screen.
