Tessa looked back at them through her rearview mirror, the sweetness of her Georgia accent underpinned by steel. “If y’all start squabbling back there, I’m going to turn this vehicle around, and you won’t get to spend the day with the horses.”
Silence.
Sophie fought back a laugh. “Well done.”
The kids, like their parents, were best friends, but that didn’t keep them from bickering now and again.
Sophie saw the big wooden gate that marked the entrance to the Cimarron Ranch. “Here we are, kids.”
Jack, patriarch of the West clan, stood beside his pickup just inside the gate, waiting for them. He waved as Tessa turned off the highway and onto the dirt road that led to the ranch.
Tessa rolled down her window, a breeze catching her curly blond hair. “Hey, Jack!”
He bent down to look through the window. “I see you brought a load of surly cowpokes with you. Hi, there, kids. Are you ready to see some horses?”
“Yes!” the children squealed in near unison.
“All right, then. Let’s not dillydally here. Head on down to the house. I’ll lock the gate and follow you.”
“God, I love this place.” Sophie rolled down her window, let the fresh mountain air hit her in the face. “When we drive through that gate, it’s like the weight of the world is lifted from my shoulders.”
Tessa reached over, gave Sophie’s hand a squeeze. “I know what you mean.”
Tessa had been there for Sophie this past year and a half as only a true friend could be. She’d listened while Sophie had wept out her terror and grief in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the Palace Hotel. She’d watched the kids so Marc could come to Sophie’s therapy appointments. She’d brought meals and helped Sophie clean her house. Never once had she told Sophie to get over it the way other people had—as if a positive attitude could take away the horror and grief that had imprinted itself on her heart and mind the moment she’d heard that gunshot and believed Marc was dead.
Up here, surrounded by the warmth of hospitality and the beautiful scenery, the nightmare she’d lived through hardly seemed real or even possible.
The Cimarron sat in a high mountain valley in the shadow of white-capped peaks. In the fall, the mountainsides turned gold with the aspen. In winter, they were white with snow. Horses and cattle grazed in fields of grass and wildflowers.
The surroundings were breathtaking, and the ranch house matched it in every way. Made of stone and logs, it was a mix of Swiss chalet and western styles with a steep, multi-gabled roof, high cathedral windows, and a portico driveway accented by a colonnade of polished logs. Off to one side stood several large outbuildings, including horse barns, a bunkhouse, an enormous riding hall, and several corrals. The inside of the house was even more spectacular, like something from a magazine.
Jack’s son Nate had married Marc’s younger sister Megan, and the Wests had taken Megan’s family and friends to be their own. No one could match the West clan when it came to hospitality and kindness. They’d done all they could to support Sophie, too, especially Megan, who had faced her own battle with PTSD after being repeatedly raped while in juvenile prison as a teenager. She’d understood what Sophie was going through better than anyone.
They came to the rise that revealed the valley in all of its beauty, the windows of the ranch house gleaming in the sun below.
“There’s the house, kids. See it?”
Four heads craned to look out the windows.
“Home, sweet home.” Tessa parked, and she and Sophie helped the kids climb out.
Nate and Megan were waiting for them at the house, their kids beside them. Miss Emily, as her grandpa called her, was now a big girl of eight and a half. She bounced up and down in her pink cowgirl hat, while Jackson, who had turned two in May, stood quietly holding his mother’s hand, an adorable little white cowboy hat on his head.
Nate motioned Tessa to the side of the house, a big smile on his scarred face. He’d been burned over almost half of his body in an IED explosion while serving with a Marine Special Operations Team in Afghanistan. He and Megan, each scarred in their own way, had found peace and happiness together.
“Good to see you all.” Nate bent down, tugged on the brim of Chase’s hat. “Are you ready to do some riding, buddy?”
Chase nodded, looking up at Nate with adoration on his face.
Megan welcomed Tessa and Sophie with hugs. “I’m so glad you came. Emily has been stir-crazy waiting for you to get here.”
“I’m as excited as she is.” Sophie pressed a kiss to her sister-in-law’s cheek.
Jack pulled into the garage and stepped out, radio in hand, a frown on his face. “I just got a call. There’s a fire burning somewhere west of Scarlet. It’s pretty small now, but the weather is supposed to turn this afternoon.”
“Fire?” Was it anywhere close to Marc, Julian, and the others?
Jack must have seen the fear on Sophie’s face. “It’s too far away to be a danger to us here. Let’s have the men get every horse trailer we have hitched up in case there’s an evacuation. I’ll put in a call to Sheriff Pella and offer to transport livestock if need be.”