Mountain Heiress. Cassie Miles

two houses was filled with ruts. The rain had stopped but the tires splashed through puddles as they drove. “Has Charlotte talked to you about her future plans?”

      “Nope.”

      “Rhoda said her parents were out of the picture. I’m guessing the girl doesn’t have a place to live. Do you think she’d be willing to stay with me for a while?”

      “Do you want her to stay?”

      “Of course, I do.” Gabby hadn’t expected to find anyone at the Roost, but she was glad to have bumped into a possible cohort, even Crazy Girl. “For one thing, I need all the help I can get.”

      “That’s for damn sure,” he muttered.

      “For another, I don’t want to kick Charlotte out before she’s ready to go. I appreciate what she did for Michelle.” If Gabby had been closer to her great-aunt, she might have known when her health was failing. “I nursed my other great-aunt Rene in the last years of her life, and I know that caring for the elderly isn’t easy, even when they’re cool like Michelle. I wish I’d been here.”

      The first time she heard of Michelle’s death was a phone call from her lawyer, Jason Fox. He’d faxed a copy of the will and Michelle’s last wishes to be cremated and have her ashes spread. Gabby really hadn’t known her great-aunt well enough to grieve, but she’d felt empty, like a part of her was gone. It hadn’t seemed like there was anything left for her to do.

      Zach cleared his throat. “Rhoda asked Charlotte if she wanted to stay with us, but she refused.”

      “Because of the treasure hunters.”

      “She and Michelle were real close,” he said. “It’s going to be hard for her to let go.”

      Empathy and understanding from Zach? That was a surprise. “Does Charlotte have other friends? Somebody her own age?”

      “She likes working with the horses.”

      “Like you.”

      She knew almost nothing about him but suspected there were interesting stories about how the former rodeo star became the owner of a successful horse ranch. Now wasn’t the time to push for details, but she was curious.

      When they pulled up in front of the house, she saw that Charlotte had been busy in her absence. She’d moved the suitcases and boxes from the back of Gabby’s car to the front porch of the house, and she’d gotten dressed. In her jeans and puffy vest with her long hair tied back and a navy blue Denver Broncos baseball cap on her head, she looked like a teenager—a teenage boy. When it came to clothing, Charlotte was definitely the “before” version—sorely in need of a makeover.

      She tromped through the mud to Gabby’s side of the truck and yanked the door open. “I’m sorry.”

      Gabby noticed the red splotch on the side of her face where she’d hit her with the pepper spray. “I’m sorry, too.”

      When she climbed down from the cab of the truck, Gabby couldn’t help but notice Charlotte’s discomfort. The thin girl shifted her weight back and forth. Her eyes were downcast. Her arms folded around her middle, and her shoulders hunched as though she was expecting to be beaten. This behavior wasn’t the way to make friends. Gabby’s second lesson—after she showed Charlotte the wonders of moisturizing—would be on how to meet people without curling into a ball of nervousness.

      “Come here.” Gabby pulled her close and gave her a hug. “I truly, deeply appreciate everything you did for my great-aunt.”

      “You got it backward,” Charlotte said. “Michelle took me in and gave me a place to live.”

      “And you cared for her. All I know from the lawyer was that she died from heart failure. Was she in the hospital?”

      “Only once.”

      Charlotte tried to pull away, but Gabby held her. “Can you tell me about it? What did the doctors say?”

      “They put in a stent.” Her voice was a little shaky. “They found other medical problems. With her lungs and her liver. The doctors said she didn’t have long to live. They wanted her to stay at the hospital and rest, but...” Her voice trailed off into silence.

      “I didn’t know my aunt well,” Gabby said, “but I know she made her own choices and lived her life the way she wanted. I expect she chose the way she wanted to die.”

      “At home.” A sob trembled through Charlotte’s narrow shoulders. “As soon as she could walk, she got out of that hospital bed and hired a nurse to come back to the Roost with us and take care of her medication.”

      “You did everything you could to help.”

      “It wasn’t enough.”

      Charlotte collapsed against her. Though her body was wrenched with powerful emotion, she didn’t make a sound. Her silent tears touched Gabby’s heart. This poor girl had no support system whatsoever. There had been times in Gabby’s life when she’d felt alone and bereft of family, but her experience was nothing compared to Charlotte’s abject loneliness.

      Gently, Gabby stroked her back. The girl was so thin that her ribs stuck out. She felt as delicate as a baby bird. Looking past Charlotte’s shoulder, Gabby saw Zach watching them from the porch. His expression was oddly gentle, and he almost seemed to be smiling.

      “It’s okay,” Gabby murmured. “We’re going to take care of each other. Do you think you can stay here with me?”

      “Yes,” Charlotte said quickly. She broke away from the hug, sniffled and looked Gabby in the eye. “I’m really glad I didn’t shoot you.”

      It went without saying that Gabby was also happy about that outcome. “We need to talk about that gun.”

      With her sleeve, Charlotte wiped the moisture from her cheeks in a gesture that couldn’t have been less feminine. “I need the rifle. There are these guys who are trying to break into the house. Treasure hunters.”

      “But I’m here now,” Gabby said. “Nobody will try to break in with both of us here.”

      “What if they do?”

      “We call the police.”

      “It’ll take them at least a half hour to get here.”

      She hadn’t thought of the timing. Living at the end of a rutted road without street signs was different than being in Brooklyn. “I don’t like guns.”

      “Because you don’t know how to use them,” Zach said. “If you’re going to live here, you need to learn how to defend yourself and your property.”

      “Zach can show you,” Charlotte said. “He’s a really good teacher. Maybe tomorrow you can have a lesson.”

      “Great,” she muttered. “Until then, can we at least put the gun away somewhere? Leaving it on the stair landing seems dangerous.”

      “Yes, it does.” Zach gave Charlotte a puzzled look. “Have you got an explanation?”

      “I couldn’t sleep, and I was going upstairs and then back downstairs. If I was all the way down in the kitchen, my rifle wasn’t going to do me much good if it was up in my bedroom closet. So I left it in the middle.”

      “You know better,” he said. “You don’t leave a loaded weapon out where anybody could pick it up and use it.”

      She scowled. “I know.”

      “Gabby could have stumbled over the rifle and caused an accident.”

      “I get it.” Charlotte rolled her eyes. “It’s lucky that both Gabby and me are going to be staying here. If you put the two of us together, you have one smart person.”

      Before Gabby could object to being labeled as Tweedle-Dee to Charlotte’s Tweedle-Dum, she heard a confirming woof. On the porch, sitting beside