Hometown Hearts. Jillian Hart

wasn’t as dour as he wanted everyone to think as he turned those dazzling eyes on her.

       “Thanks for clearing the road.” He held his hand up to shade his eyes. “You may have saved my car from serious damage.”

       “No problem. I noticed just a little spittle, nothing to worry about.” She backed away, long locks bouncing. “If this ever happens again, and in this part of the country it probably will, don’t let them near your car. They can be quite enthusiastic.”

       “I noticed.”

       “Get out and lead them off the road. It helps if you have something for them to eat. Oh, and call the sheriff. Ford Sherman knows how to deal with them. He was a city boy and he learned. I imagine you can be taught, too.”

       “Me, taught? That is one rumor never proven to be true,” he quipped, surprised by the flutter of lightheartedness behind his sternum.

       “I have faith in you, Adam.” She climbed into her dark green truck and the tinted windshield hid all but the faintest silhouette of her behind the wheel, lovely and brilliant and amazing.

       Not that he thought so on a personal level. It was merely an observation.

       “Dad! We’re waiting,” Jenny called out the window. “It’s getting hot sitting here.”

       “Yeah, Dad,” Julianna chimed in. “Aunt Cady said we were going on a horse ride. She promised they wouldn’t leave without us. It’s gonna be a real trail ride!”

       The green pickup passed in the oncoming lane with a toot of the horn and a wave of one slender hand. He couldn’t move or respond as he watched Cheyenne’s truck go by, engine rumbling, equipment in the bed rattling, the trailer hitch glinting as it caught on a ray of sun.

       He was in shadow. Life had become incredibly serious and the wounds from living had cut deep. He felt darker as Cheyenne’s pickup pulled into the lane ahead of him and rolled farther away. Over the past few years, he’d been consumed with the demands of running a household, raising his kids and meeting the challenges of his career. He hadn’t stopped to think about the man he had become.

       He didn’t like who he was turning out to be. He’d lost hope, he’d lost touch with his soul, he’d forgotten what living was for.

       Sunshine tumbled merrily across brilliant green pastures dotted with daisies. The cows across the road chorused a string of pleading moos in one last-ditch effort for attention. Life was big and his spirit had become so small. He wasn’t quite sure when that had happened.

      How did I get off track, Lord?

       Sorry for it, he folded his six-foot-plus frame behind the wheel, closed the door and followed the ribbon of winding country road, fearing the answers he would get to that question.

      Chapter Four

      “Cheyenne! Cheyenne!” Julianna bolted from the sedan the moment the car rolled to a stop. She hopped and skipped like a purple butterfly across the gravel. “Are you gonna go on the trail ride, too?”

       “That’s the word.” The girl looked so excited, that if she kept hopping like that she might rocket off the earth and take off into orbit. “Dad and Scotty promised they would have the horses saddled and ready to go by the time I stepped foot back on the ranch. And guess what? Both of my feet are on Granger land.”

       “So, what horse do I get to ride? Do you know?” Julianna bopped around, hopping backward, to keep an eye on her older sister and her father who were following at a normal pace.

       “It’s a surprise.” She could not forget the shadows she’d seen in the man, although they were hard to see now in the full light of the sun as he gave Jenny a tight smile and clicked his remote to lock his car.

       “Who are you expecting to steal your car?” she called out, unable to resist. “One of the cows?”

       “Actually, you look a little shifty.” He slid dark glasses onto his nose, hiding the humor threatening to sparkle in his eyes.

       She laughed. The doctor was definitely not as dour as he seemed. “Yes, the time I spent out of state at vet school was a ruse to hide my notorious stint as a car thief.”

       “You may have everyone in this town fooled, but not me.” He almost smiled again, that handsome half hook in the corners of his mouth.

       Handsome? Was she really using that word again? She needed to stop thinking about him like that. Honestly. It wasn’t as if she were in the market for a boyfriend. She rolled her eyes and accompanied Julianna around the bend in the walkway. The backyard came into sight, shaded by the big maple where her family waited, sprawled out in chairs and chaises, taking it easy for a change.

       “There she is. About time, too.” Dad launched off a patio chair on the shady grass. “We’ve been waiting on you, girl.”

       “And on us, too!” Julianna hoppity-hopped to Cady and gave her an enthusiastic hug. “Guess what? Jenny changed her clothes eight times and there was a whole herd of—”

       “Cows!” Jenny interrupted as she marched into sight a few steps ahead of her father. “Julianna, you promised I could tell.”

       “Oops. Sorry. I forgot.”

       The sisters were too cute. Cheyenne headed up the porch step. “I so relate to you, Jenny. I had a little sister not so different from Julianna.”

       “I was a cutie-patootie, wasn’t I?” Addy bounced off the picnic table where she’d been sitting. Dimples framed her grin as she turned her attention to Julianna. “Adorable, sweet as pie, a real keeper. That was me.”

       “Not me.” Julianna wiggled away from Cady’s hug and grabbed her dad’s hand. “I’m nothing but trouble.”

       “That’s what you are, little girl.” Adam tugged a bouncy brown pigtail, his affection showing through the stony cast to his features. “Trouble. I’m thinking of packing you up and taking you to the post office.”

       “Will you mail me to Hawaii?”

       “That’s not far away enough. I was thinking Antarctica.”

       “I think there are penguins there. That would be okay.” She tilted her head to glimmer up at her father and there was no mistaking the depths of the child’s adoration.

       Cheyenne swallowed hard, remembering looking up at her dad just like that when the man had been so impossibly tall, a giant to her little-girl self, her true anchor in the world. He still was.

       “Are you ready to roll, missy?” Her father’s hand settled on her shoulder, a light but comforting weight that made her feel cozy and safe. That was her dad, always taking care of his kids, even if they were all grown-up. He leaned in with concern. “You aren’t going to stay here in case a call comes in, are you?”

       “No, I’m taking my cell with me. I can’t miss a Granger family trail ride.” She dropped her bag beside the bench and stole her Stetson off a wall peg.

       “The family is a mite bigger than last year.” Dad sounded pleased with that. “Hey, Hattie! What are you still doing in the kitchen?”

       “Just packing up a bag of treats for the trail.” Cheerful and sixtyish, Mrs. Gunderson zipped the Baggie she’d just filled with snickerdoodles and stuffed it into the saddlebag lying on the kitchen island. “I don’t want anyone getting hungry. I put in a few treats for the little tykes. Now, if you just want to take this with you, Frank, I’ll get the thermoses to Cheyenne.”

       “You are coming with us, right, Mrs. G.?” Cheyenne did her duty and snatched the two silver thermoses from the counter.

       “Lass, I don’t belong on the back of a horse. No, my place is right here on solid ground.” A smile wreathed her apple-dumpling face and twinkled in her gray eyes. “I’ve got a few things to do in the kitchen and then I’ll be happy