Texas Forever. Janet Dailey

in jeans and sneakers, was tall, with a lean runner’s build, light brown hair, and finely drawn features. Only when he smiled did Rose catch a glimpse of the young boy she remembered.

      “Rose! I can’t believe it.” He opened his arms and twirled her off her feet as if she were a little girl, then set her down. “I was hoping you’d be here.”

      “There was no way I wouldn’t have come,” Rose said. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

      “And Erin!” He caught her as she flung herself into his arms, then eased her away so he could look at her. “My stars, girl, where did the time go? You’re a grown woman!”

      “I’ve missed you,” Erin said. “All of you.”

      A pretty, dark-haired woman, visibly pregnant, was helping a child out of the backseat. “Rose, this is my wife, Natalie, and our daughter, April,” Beau said. “Natalie, I’ve told you about the lady who saved my life, and Will’s, when we got kidnapped by the drug cartel. Here she is, in person.”

      “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rose.” Natalie gave Rose her hand. “I’ve heard so much about you. I wish we had more time to get acquainted, but our flight is leaving early Sunday morning.”

      “Why so soon?” Rose asked, although she suspected the reason. It was as she’d been made to understand—Beau and Will were barely on speaking terms.

      “We’ve both got work commitments,” Beau said. “The DEA could only spare me for a couple of days, and Natalie has her veterinary practice.”

      “But you’ll miss the burial,” Erin said. “We’ll be taking Jasper’s body to his old home in the Hill Country. If we leave Saturday, after the funeral, it’ll be dark when we get there, so we’ll need to take him the next morning—that’ll be Sunday.”

      “I wish I’d known that,” Beau said. “But it’s too late to change our plans now. We’ve already booked our flight.”

      “Well then,” Rose said, putting on a cheerful smile. “We’ll just have to make the most of the time we have, won’t we?”

      Will had come out on the porch. He waited there, unsmiling, as Beau and his family climbed the steps, followed by Rose and by Erin with one of the suitcases. Tension, as heavy as water, seemed to thicken the air as the two brothers stood face to face. Then Will held out his hand and spoke.

      “We’ve come together to mourn an old friend. Let’s not dishonor his memory with our differences.”

      “Agreed.” Beau accepted the handshake.

      “I figured you’d be hungry,” Will said. “We’ll be eating in an hour. That’ll give you time to rest and freshen up. Erin, will you show our guests to their rooms?”

      Our guests? Will’s words struck Rose as odd. How could Beau be called a guest when he’d grown up in this house?

      Rose was tired of second-guessing. When Beau and his family had gone to their rooms, and Erin hadn’t returned, she walked into the den, where Will was pouring himself a shot of Jack Daniel’s. “Can I get you a glass, Rose? It’s good stuff. Takes the edge off whatever’s troubling you.”

      She shook her head. “I’ve found it doesn’t help much,” she said, “especially since what’s troubling me is you.”

      He emptied the shot glass and poured another, his silence inviting her to explain.

      “The most vivid memory I have of you and Beau,” she said, “is the two of you running away from those drug dealers, to your dad. I see your hand, hanging on to your little brother’s, so tightly, as if nothing in the world could make you let go.”

      “That was a long time ago,” Will said.

      “Erin told me that you’d bought out Beau’s share of the ranch,” Rose said. “But what happened between the two of you, Will? I need to understand.”

      Will exhaled. “I guess I owe you that much. But you won’t be surprised.” He took another sip of whiskey. “Beau never really wanted to take responsibility for his share of the ranch. Oh, he’d come home on and off. He’d make a show of trying to work the ranch with me. But being number two never set well with him. He likes that fancy government job, and the DC lifestyle. I think his wife likes it, too, especially things like having their little girl in that snooty private school.”

      Will put the glass down on the bar and walked to the window, gazing out at a dust devil whirling across the yard. “Whole damned ranch is blowing away,” he muttered.

      “So how long ago did Beau leave?” Rose asked.

      “Three years. We had a blowup that ended everything. He announced that he had an offer to take his old job back at a higher level and salary. I told him it wasn’t fair for him to own half the ranch while I did all the work to run it. He pretty much told me that I could take the ranch and go to hell. He wanted nothing more to do with it, or me.

      “As things got even nastier, it became clear that the only way to settle things was for me to get a loan and buy out his share. I didn’t want to do it, Rose. I knew it would be a hardship, and that it would put the ranch at risk. But Beau wouldn’t back down. When he signed over the deed and I handed him that big check, I told him I wouldn’t care if I never saw him again. And I didn’t see him—until today.”

      “I take it you called him about Jasper.”

      Will nodded. “It was hard. I almost asked Erin to do it. But I figured that would be the coward’s way out. And I knew he loved Jasper. We all did.”

      “At least the ranch is all yours,” Rose said.

      “Only if I can hang on to it. When I took out that mortgage, the ranch was in good shape. We’d had plenty of rain, plenty of graze, and beef prices were up. Even then it wasn’t easy to come up with the payments on the loan. But now . . .” Will’s shoulders sagged. “We haven’t had a decent rain in a year. The whole damn county is blowing away. And with everybody selling off their cattle early, the prices are down.”

      Will stared out the window for the space of a long breath. “The way things are going, I won’t have enough cash to pay the bank this fall.”

      “Beau’s got money. Can’t he help you out?” Rose asked.

      Will shook his head. “The money he got for the ranch is tied up in his house and in the clinic he built for his wife’s practice. Even if I thought he might help, I’d rather cut off my arm than ask him. That would mean reneging on the deal we made, something I’ve never done in my life.”

      “What about Erin? Does she know?”

      “Not yet,” Will said. “I’m still waiting for the right time to tell her. She needs to be prepared, but it’ll break her heart. Chances are, unless some miracle happens, we’re going to lose the Rimrock.”

      * * *

      Jasper had never been a churchgoing man. But with a crowd expected and no way to hold a funeral outdoors in the dust and heat, the local community church was the only option.

      Erin, in the blue dress she’d bought for her high school graduation, sat in the front pew between Will and Beau. She could sense the cold resentment flowing between the brothers, making her feel like some sort of safety barricade, placed there to protect them from sniping at each other.

      Her mother’s funeral was painfully fresh in her mind, as it would surely be in Will’s. Erin remembered the service in the same church, the spring bluebonnets on her mother’s casket. She remembered sitting exactly where she was sitting now, clasping her father’s hand until her knuckles ached. Beau and his family had been in Europe at the time, so they hadn’t been here. In Will’s book, Beau’s absence had been just one more strike against his brother.

      Beau’s wife and daughter filled out the pew on his right. April, a sweet, sunny six-year-old, looked like a miniature of