Didn't even have a dog, for G.o.d's sake, since Jasper had moved in with Slade.

For whatever reason, Boone didn't point out the holes in Hutch's own story, but that didn't mean he'd let him off the conversational hook, either.

Fair was fair and Hutch had been the one to set this particular ball rolling.

"That's quite a hubbub Brylee's friends are stirring up on the web," Boone said.

Hutch swallowed a sigh-and a couple more gulps of beer. "I am," he replied gravely, "a casualty of the digital age."

Boone laughed outright at that. "And innocent as the driven snow on top of it all," he added, before swilling more beer. As Slade had done when he held the office, Boone rarely wore a uniform-he dressed like any other Montana rancher, in jeans, boots and shirts cut Western-style. Now he unfastened the top two b.u.t.tons of his shirt and breathed in as if he'd been smothering until then. "You and me," he said, "we're destined to be crusty old bachelors, it seems."

Kendra filled Hutch's mind just then. He saw her in the kitchen at his place, starting supper. He saw Madison, too, and even the dog, Daisy, hurrying out of the house to greet him when he got out of his truck or climbed down off his horse.

"I guess there are worse fates," Hutch allowed, but his throat felt tight all of a sudden and a little on the raw side.

"Like what?" Boone asked, gruffly companionable, still reflective. He was probably remembering happier days and hurting over the contrast between then and now.

"Being married to the wrong woman," Hutch said with grim certainty.

Boone sighed, finished his beer and stared solemnly at the can. "I wouldn't know about that," he answered, and though his voice didn't actually break, there was a crack in it. He'd been hitched to the right woman, was what he meant.

Finished with his own beer, Hutch stood up. He had work to do at home and besides, the emptiness would be there waiting, no matter how long he delayed his return, so he might as well get it over with. "We're a pair to draw to," he said, tossing the can into a wheelbarrow overflowing with them in roughly the place where Corrie used to set flowers in big pots.

Boone stood, too. Tried for a grin and fell short.

"You signed up for the bull-riding again this year?" he asked, referring to the upcoming rodeo. The Fourth fell on a Sat.u.r.day this year, a convenient thing for most folks if not for Boone, who would surely have to bring a few former deputies out of retirement to make sure Parable County remained peaceable.

"Course I am," Hutch retorted, feeling a mite touchy again. "Walker Parrish promised me the worst bull that ever drew breath."

"I'll just bet he did," Boone said with another chuckle, throwing his own beer can in the general direction of the wheelbarrow and missing by a couple of feet. "When it's your turn to ride, I reckon a few of the spectators will be rooting for the bull."

Hutch started toward his truck. Twilight was gathering at the edges of the land, pulling inward like the top of a drawstring bag, and his horses would be wondering when he planned on showing up with their hay and grain rations. "No different than any other year," he said. "Somebody's always on the bull's side."

"You might want to think about that," Boone answered, and d.a.m.n if he didn't sound serious as a heart attack. Him, with his sons farmed out to kinfolk, however loving, and the weeds taking over, threatening to swallow up the trailer itself.

Hutch stopped in his tracks. "Think about what?" he demanded.

"Life. People. How time gets away from a man and, before he knows it, he's sitting in some nursing home without a tooth in his head or a hope in his heart that anybody's going to trouble themselves to visit."

"d.a.m.ned if you aren't dumber than the average post," Hutch said, moving again, jerking open the door of his truck and climbing inside.

"At least I know my limitations," Boone said affably.

"Thanks for the beer," Hutch replied ungraciously, and slammed the truck's door.

He drove away at a slower pace than he would have liked, though. Boone had already written him up for speeding once and he wasn't above doing it again.

By the time he got back to Whisper Creek, he'd simmered down quite a bit, though what Boone had said about the pair of them being cowards still stuck in him like barbed wire.

A familiar station wagon, three years older than dirt, was parked next to the house when he pulled in.

Opal, he realized, had arrived early.

He muttered something under his breath, got out of the pickup and went directly into the barn, where he spent the better part of an hour attending to horses.

It was almost dark by the time he'd finished, and the lights were on in the kitchen, spilling a golden glow of welcome into the yard.

Stepping inside, he nodded a howdy to Opal, refusing to give her the satisfaction of demanding to know what the h.e.l.l she was doing in his house. For one thing, he already knew-she was frying up chicken, country-style, and it smelled like three levels of heaven.

"Wash up before you eat," Opal ordered, tightening her ap.r.o.n strings and eyeing him through the big lenses of her gla.s.ses.

"I generally do," Hutch said mildly, running water at the sink and picking up the bar of harsh orange soap he kept handy.

"Look at those boots," Opal scolded with that strange, gruff tenderness she reserved for people in need of her guidance and correction. "Bet the soles are caked with manure."

Hutch sighed. He'd sc.r.a.ped them clean outside, on the porch, as he'd been taught to do around the time he started wearing boots.

"With you over here," he quipped, "who's going to nag Slade Barlow?"

"Shea's mama got in early," Opal replied, spearing pieces of chicken onto a platter with a meat fork. "So I figured I might as well get started setting things to rights around here."

Hutch dried his hands on a towel and grinned at her. "You're off to a good start with supper," he conceded.

She chuckled. "I made mashed potatoes and gravy, too, and boiled up some green beans with bacon and onion to boot. Sit yourself down, Hutch Carmody, and eat the first balanced meal you've probably had in a month of Sundays."

He waited until all the food was on the table and Opal was seated before taking a chair, wryly amused to recall that this was just the scenario he'd imagined for himself earlier.

Only the woman was different.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE MANSION ON Rodeo Road seemed strangely hollow the next morning when Kendra stepped through the front door, even though most of the original furniture remained and there were painters and other workers in various rooms throughout.

Standing in the enormous entryway, she tipped her head back and looked up at the exquisite ceiling, waited for a pang of regret-some kind of sadness was to be expected, she supposed, given that she'd spent part of her life here. She'd wanted so much to live in this house, long before she'd met and married Jeffrey Chamberlain, and after her marriage a number of dreams had lived-and died-right here in these rooms.

Somewhat surprisingly, what Kendra actually felt was a swell of relief, a healthy sense of letting go, of moving on, even of becoming some more complete and authentic version of herself.

There was comfort in that, even exhilaration.

When she'd first set foot in the place, as an awestruck little girl recently dumped on the porch of a rundown double-wide on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, Joslyn had been the one who lived here, along with her mom, Dana, and stepfather, Elliott, and, of course, Opal.

To Kendra the place had seemed like a castle, especially at Christmas, with Joslyn as resident princess.

During her childhood and her teens, the mere scope of that house had amazed Kendra-there were rooms not just for sleeping or eating or bathing, like in most homes, but ones set aside just for plants to grow in, or for playing cards and watching TV, or for reading books and doing homework or simply for sitting. Her grandmother's trailer had closets, of course, but here there were dressing rooms, too, with gla.s.s cubicles for shoes and handbags, and what seemed like a million bathrooms. There had even been a nook-several times larger than the living room in the double-wide-set aside for wrapping gifts, tying them up with elaborate bows, decorating them with small ornaments or glittery artificial flowers.

To a child who was handed money and told to buy her own birthday and Christmas presents, the mere concept of such finery had been magical.

Alas Kendra had been quick enough to realize, once she became the mistress of this monstrosity of a place, that it was never the structure itself, or any of its fancy trappings, that she'd wanted.

Instead it was the family, the sense of fitting in and belonging somewhere, of being a valued part of something larger.

Seen from the outside, Joslyn's life had certainly seemed happy in those early days, even enchanted, although a shattering scandal would eventually erupt, leaving everything in ruins.

Before her stepfather's financial fall from grace, when he'd ripped off friends and strangers alike, Joslyn had had it all-and while some people had been jealous of her and thought of her as spoiled and self-centered, Kendra had seen a different side of Joslyn. She'd shown empathy for Kendra's very different situation, but never pity, and she'd been willing to share her toys and her skates and, later on, her beautiful clothes.

More importantly, Joslyn had shared her mom and Opal and the little c.o.c.ker spaniel, s.p.u.n.ky. Elliott Rossiter, the stepfather, had come and gone, funny and affable and generous, but always busy doing something important.

Stealing, as it turned out.

As an adult, Kendra had hoped to fulfill at least a part of her own dream with Jeffrey-the formation of a family-and in a roundabout way, she'd succeeded, because she had Madison now.

"h.e.l.lo?" The voice startled Kendra out of her musings, even though she'd known she wasn't alone, having seen the painters' and cleaning service's vans in the driveway.

Charlie Duke, who ran Duke's Painting and Construction, stepped into view, clad in splotched overalls and wiping his hands on a shop rag. He grinned, showing the wide gap between his front teeth.

"Mornin', Ms. Shepherd," he said. "Here to see how the place is comin' along, are you?"

Kendra smiled. "Something like that," she replied. She'd known Charlie and his wife, Tina, for years and in the post office or the grocery store or over at the b.u.t.ter Biscuit Cafe, either one of them would have addressed her simply as "Kendra," but the Dukes were old-fashioned people. When Charlie was on the job, all exchanges were formal, and Kendra was "Ms. Shepherd."

"We've about finished up in the main parlor," Charlie told her, with quiet pride, leading the way along the corridor. He wore paper booties over his work boots, and his T-shirt had a hole in the right shoulder, only partially covered by one of his overall straps.

Kendra followed, like someone taking a tour of some grand residence in an unfamiliar country.

It was almost as though she'd never been inside the place before, which was crazy of course, but such was her mood-reflective, calmly detached.

The parlor had been her office, as well as the main reception area for Shepherd Real Estate, and what furniture she hadn't moved over to the storefront was still in place, though covered by huge canvas tarps. The walls, formerly a soft shade of dusty rose, were now eggsh.e.l.l, neutral colors allegedly being the way to go when a house was on the market, in the hope of appealing to a broader spectrum of potential buyers.

Kendra did a quick walk-through-no small undertaking in a house the size of the average high school gymnasium-greeted Charlie's two sons, who were busy painting the kitchen a very pale yellow, and various members of the cleaning team, perched stoutly on high ladders, polishing window gla.s.s, and then went back to her car, where Daisy waited patiently in the pa.s.senger seat. They'd dropped Madison off at preschool first thing, the two of them, and the next stop was Kendra's office.

Upon arriving there, she took Daisy for a quick turn around the parking lot and then they both entered through the back way.

While Daisy explored the s.p.a.ce-she'd been there before but, in her canine brain, there was always the exciting possibility that something had changed since the last visit-sniffing at silk plants and file cabinets and windowsills, Kendra booted up her computer, unlocked the front door and turned the Closed sign around to read Open.

She was in the tiny, closed-off kitchenette/storage room, starting a pot of coffee brewing, when she heard someone come in from the street. Daisy's low, almost inquisitive growl made her hurry back to the main part of the office.

The man standing just inside the door was strikingly handsome, wearing the regulation jeans, boots, Western-cut shirt and hat, as most men in Parable did.

He removed the hat, acknowledging Kendra with a cordial nod, and grinned down at Daisy, who by then must have decided he didn't represent a threat after all. Far from growling at him, she was nuzzling the hand he lowered for her to inspect.

It was a moment or two before Kendra placed the man-not a stranger, but not a resident of Parable proper, either. Of course, some new people could have moved into town while she was traveling, somehow managing to escape her notice, but that didn't seem very likely. After all, it was her business to know what was going on in the community, who was moving in and who was moving out, and she'd kept pretty close tabs on such local doings, through Joslyn, even while she was away.

The visitor smiled and recognition finally clicked. His name was Walker Parrish, and he was a wealthy rancher with a place over near Three Trees. Besides raising prize beef, he bred bulls and broncos for rodeos, as well.

And he was brother of the almost-bride, Brylee Parrish, Hutch's latest casualty-of-the-heart.

Surely, Kendra thought, a little desperately, he didn't think she'd been a factor in the wedding-day breakup? Everyone knew she'd been involved with Hutch at one time, but that had been over for years.

Still, what other business could Parrish have with her? He already owned a major chunk of the county, so he probably wasn't looking to acquire property, and since his place had been in his family for several generations, she couldn't imagine him selling out, either.

She finally gathered enough presence of mind to smile back at him and ask, "What can I help you with today, Mr. Parrish?"

"Well," he said with a grin that c.o.c.ked up at one side, "you could start by calling me by my given name, Walker."

Daisy, by that time, had dropped to her belly in what looked like a dog-swoon, her long nose resting atop Walker's right boot, as though to pin him in place so she could stare up at him forever in uninterrupted adoration.

"All right," Kendra said. "Walker it is, then." As a somewhat fl.u.s.tered afterthought, she added, "I'm Kendra."

Again, the grin flashed. "Yes," he said. "I know who you are." He cleared his throat. "I came by to ask you about the house on Rodeo Road. I understand you're getting ready to sell it."

Kendra nodded, surprised and hoping it didn't show. Maybe she'd been wrong earlier, deciding that Walker hadn't come to buy or sell real estate. "Yes," she said, at last summoning up her manners and offering him one of the chairs reserved for customers while she moved behind her desk and sat down. "What would you like to know?"

Daisy sighed and lifted her head when Walker moved away, then wandered off to curl up in a corner of the office for a snooze.

Once Kendra was seated, Walker took a seat, too, letting his hat rest, crown to the cushion, on the chair nearest his. There was an attractive crease in his brown hair where the hatband had been, and it struck her, once again, how handsome he was-and how, oddly, his good looks didn't move her at all.

She reviewed what she knew about him-which was almost nothing. She didn't think he had a wife or even a girlfriend, but since the impression was mainly intuitive, she couldn't be sure.

Wishful thinking? Perhaps. If he was single, the question was, why? Why was a man like Walker Parrish still running around loose? Evidently the good ones weren't already taken.

"I guess I'd be interested in the price, to start," Walker replied with a slight twinkle in his eyes. Had he guessed what she was thinking in regard to his marital status? The idea mortified her instantly.

Her tone was normal when she recited the astronomical numbers.

Walker didn't flinch. "Reasonable," he said.

The curiosity was just too much for Kendra. "You're thinking of moving to Parable?" she asked.

He chuckled at that, shook his head. "No," he said. "I'm here on behalf of a friend of mine. She's-in show business, divorced, and she has a couple of kids she'd like to raise in a small town. Wants a big place because she plans to set up her own recording studio, and between the band and the road crew and her household and office staff, she needs a lot of elbow room."

Kendra couldn't help being intrigued-and a little wary. It wasn't uncommon for famous people to buy land around Parable, build houses even bigger than her own and landing strips for their private jets, and proceed to set up "sanctuaries" for exotic animals that didn't mix all that well with the cattle, horses, sheep and chickens ordinary mortals tended to raise, among other visibly n.o.ble and charitable efforts. Generally these out-of-towners were friendly enough, and the locals were willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but in time the newcomers always seemed to stir up trouble over water rights or bounties on wolves and coyotes or some such, alienate all their neighbors, and then simply move on to the next place, the next adventure.

It was as though their lives were movies and Parable was just another set, instead of a real place populated by real people.

"Anybody I might have heard of?" Kendra asked carefully.

Something in Walker's heretofore open face closed up just slightly. "You'd know her name," he replied. "She's asked me not to mention it right away, that's all. In case the whole thing comes to nothing."

Kendra nodded; she'd had plenty of practice with this sort of thing. Most celebrities were private nearly to the point of paranoia, and not without reason. Besides the paparazzi, they had to worry about stalkers and kidnappers and worse. Safety-or the illusion of it-lay in secrecy, and safety was usually what made places like Parable and Three Trees attractive to them.

"Fair enough," she said easily. "There are always a few upscale properties available in the county...." She could think of two that had been standing empty for a while; one had an Olympic-size indoor pool, and the other boasted a home theater with a rotating screen and plush seats for almost a hundred. The asking prices were in the mid-to-high seven-figure range, not surprisingly, but it didn't sound as though that would strain Walker's mysterious friend's budget.