The Cowboy's Homecoming. Carolyne Aarsen

down at her camera again, she was annoyed to feel a prickle of tears. It had been nine years since her father’s accident. Surely seeing Lee shouldn’t bring all this up again. She blamed her wavering emotions on embarrassment. On the fatigue that had dogged her for the past four years, travelling around the world doing pieces on resorts for the travel magazine she worked for. It was a dream job and had paid her enough to set a bunch of money aside. But a weariness and a soul-deep dissatisfaction she couldn’t explain seemed to vex her every time she booked another airplane ticket. Every time she checked into a motel.

      So she took a month off and, when she still felt the same, asked for an extension. It had taken a lot of wrangling with her editor, but Abby wanted to come home. She hadn’t been back in Saddlebank for years. Still, she should have timed her visit better, she realized, and returned after the Bannister anniversary and wedding.

      “I knew he was coming back,” Abby said finally. “I thought I could avoid him but it seems God has an ironic sense of humor.”

      “I wouldn’t call seeing that rat fink unexpectedly funny,” Louisa scoffed.

      “You might have if you had seen the array of my various falls in front of him. I would have gotten at least an 8.6 for artistic impression.”

      “And a ten for pain and suffering.”

      “It’s not that bad,” Abby said, glancing down at the large bandage Lee had put on her cut.

      “Well, that will certainly put a wrinkle in your hiking plans.”

      Abby had hoped to head up into the high country and take some photos while she was here. Lately she’d been doing some freelance work, selling some of the pictures she took between jobs. She hoped to supplement her income doing her own work and slowly wean herself from the travel pieces she had been doing. “I’ll manage.”

      Louisa was quiet a moment, then turned to her, eyebrows lifted. “So, was it hard to see Lee again?”

      “Wasn’t easy. The guy has taken up too much space in my brain in the past few years.” Abby thought she had erased the shadow he cast on her life. But one look at him and all the tangled emotions twisted her inside out again. “Truth is, I just hate how much influence he’s had in my life,” she continued. “I feel like I’ve invested way too much energy in this nonrelationship. And I hope Mom doesn’t want to talk about it like she does each time I call her.”

      “That’s probably part of your problem, as well,” Louisa said. “She keeps rehashing the same old stuff. Every time I speak with her, it’s also all she can talk about. She needs to get past it too.”

      “It was a hard time for her. Watching Dad suffer and then become this completely different person, then their divorce...” Abby eased out a sigh and shook her head. “It changed our lives.”

      “I know. I’m not going to lie—seeing Lee was a shock to me too. I’m still ticked at him for what he did to you at the prom. Taking you out on a bet from those louses he hung around with.”

      “That was even longer ago,” Abby said with a snicker.

      “Maybe, but I think that was almost as hard for you as the accident.” Louisa grew pensive, staring at the road ahead, her fingers tapping the steering wheel.

      Abby was about to reply to that when she heard the muffled trill of her cell phone. She grabbed her backpack, recognizing the ring tone she had assigned to her editor. What could Maddie possibly want now?

      “Let it ring,” Louisa snorted. “You’re on holiday.”

      But Abby had never been able to let a phone ring; the insistent tone always created an urgency she couldn’t ignore. Besides, she was fully aware of how much she owed her editor right now. Abby had turned down two assignments so that she could extend her vacation.

      “Hey, Maddie. What can I do for you?” she said, setting her camera aside.

      “You in Montana? Close to home like you said you’d be?”

      “Yeah. I’m coming up to Saddlebank in a couple of minutes.”

      “Awesome. So listen up...I need your help. Badly. I need you to do me a favor.”

      A knot settled in the pit of her stomach. It was never simply a favor with Maddie. On the contrary, it was always a huge, huge favor.

      “Burt Templeton was supposed to do that Montana piece, but he’s stuck in Bangkok,” Maddie was saying. “Got some kind of weird tropical virus. He’s getting transferred to a hospital in Portland tomorrow, but he’s officially out of commission for another couple of weeks.” She huffed out a breath. “Which leaves me royally stuck. It’s not far from your hometown, and won’t take a lot of time. Four days, maybe five or six max. It’s a puff piece, Abby. Pictures. Some interviews. Please help me out?”

      Abby was already shaking her head no. She was fairly sure she knew which piece Maddie was talking about.

      “I hate to do this, but I’m desperate,” Maddie insisted. “So I’m calling in my favor...” And there it was. The favor her editor kept threatening to use when Abby had asked for all this time off. Abby knew she owed Maddie a lot, especially the past few months. When Abby first started, she hadn’t been completely straight up with Maddie, letting the editor think she knew more about feature writing than she did, but thankfully Maddie saw her potential. She’d been a patient and encouraging editor, pushing Abby to see situations differently. To think outside the box. To go beyond clichés, not only in her writing but her photography, as well. And during the past half year, as Abby felt the burnout of the work, she’d also extended a number of deadlines for Abby.

      “Is it that piece on the Bannister ranch?” she asked hesitantly.

      “Yeah, it is. The one you turned down.”

      And for a good reason, Abby thought, her heart dropping like a stone.

      “Sorry, Maddie. I couldn’t do it then...and I can’t do it now.”

      “You can’t back out on me, missy. You know you owe me.” Maddie built on her advantage. “I wouldn’t play this card if I didn’t have a reason, and right now I’m stuck.”

      “And there’s no one else?” Abby asked, clinging to her last shred of hope.

      “No. And I’m asking you because you know Montana. You’ll see things no one else would notice. You’ll have a unique take on the story.”

      And wasn’t that the truth?

      Abby pressed a finger to her temple as the too-familiar ache began making itself known. She wanted to say no. Wanted to protest that she couldn’t do this, but she had already said yes. And she owed her editor.

      “Okay. Send me the particulars, and I’ll see what I can come up with.”

      “Great. Consider it done. Email me an outline ASAP and we’ll take it from there.”

      Abby ended the call, trying to calm her pounding heart.

      “You look like someone just punched you in the stomach,” Louisa said as she slowed to make the turn into town. “You get fired?”

      “No. I just got a job.”

      “That’s good, I guess. Though you are technically on holiday.” She glanced over at her. “So, what’s the piece?”

      “It’s on Refuge Ranch’s hundred and fiftieth anniversary.”

      “You can’t be serious!” Louisa’s exclamation of dismay eerily echoed Abby’s own feelings. “Say no. You’ve got to say no.”

      Abby squeezed her now-trembling hands between her knees to steady them. “I can’t. I owe my editor more than I can ever repay. Besides, it’s just a job.”

      “It’s more than that and you know it. What will your mother think?”

      “That I shouldn’t do this.”