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Eli had two brothers, and once upon a time he thought he and Tess would follow in his parents’ footsteps—three little horseback-riding rug rats running around the property, the guesthouse always filled with guests. Now it was just him. He’d gotten used to the solitude, to not having to worry about anyone other than his patients and himself and occasionally his younger brothers, especially when they sprung new horses on him without warning.
Eli stared at the mess of pillows and shook his head. Then he picked one up and held it to his chest, wearing it like armor. He waited for the tilt of the head or the Poor Eli frown. But Beth hopped up onto the counter, one bare foot dangling next to her cast.
“You hate those pillows,” she said, brows raised.
The laugh rose from his gut and escaped his lips before he registered what happened.
“How did you know?” he asked, incredulous.
Beth nodded toward the pillow he was holding. “You all but sneered at that poor stuffed piece of fabric. What did it ever do to you other than offer comfort and, no doubt, sincere design aesthetic?”
Eli laughed again. “I didn’t sneer. I don’t sneer.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Fine. It wasn’t a sneer, but it was this look of, like…what’s the word I’m looking for?”
Resignation, he thought, just as Beth added, “Oh! Resignation. Like, ‘You know what, pillow? We’re both here, so we might as well make the best of it.’” She gave him a self-satisfied grin.
Well, shit. You might be even more intuitive than Lucy.
“Who’s Lucy?” Beth asked.
Eli’s eyes grew wide. “I said that out loud?”
She nodded. “Are you okay?”
Yes. No. What was happening? He felt fine, only…off. Like something in the air had shifted. Maybe a cold front was on its way in and the change in barometric pressure was messing with his head. Or maybe it had just been so long since he’d held a conversation that lasted more than ninety seconds that he’d forgotten the difference between inner monologue and actual spoken words.
“You were talking about someone named Lucy?” she prodded again.
“You mean this nosy girl?”
Eli stood, glancing over Beth’s shoulder to where the screen door slammed back against the frame, and a slightly older version of Beth entered…following the matriarch of the Murphy property, Lucy.
Delaney scrambled after the hen, her blond ponytail swishing wildly behind her as she struggled to catch what she must have thought would be a calm little hen.
“Ouch!” Beth yelped before she had a chance to greet her sister. She jerked her bare foot up to the counter and gasped when she saw a speck of blood on her ankle. “That, that, that, that happy meal waiting to happen just bit me!” She rubbed her ankle, lips pursed in a pout.
Delaney picked the bird up and held it under her arm like a football. “Don’t you listen to her, Luce,” she cooed. “Bethy’s not quite at one with ranch life just yet.” She kissed her sister on the cheek and then rolled her eyes as Beth tended to her wound.
Okay, so maybe it was more than a speck of blood if Eli could see it from several feet away.
“How’d she get out of the coop?” Eli asked, only mild accusation in his tone as he rounded the counter and headed for the sink. He grabbed the first aid kit from the cabinet above. “Also, it’s not a ranch,” he reminded his friend.
“Why do you automatically blame me?” Delaney teased. Looked like she picked up on the accusation. “And you have a barn that houses not one but two horses, Eli. If it looks like a horse ranch and acts like a horse ranch…”
Eli pivoted and exited the kitchen area, pausing briefly to give Delaney’s elbow a nudge with his own.
“I also have a chicken coop with all the chickens locked safely inside when I left this morning and when I returned after doing you a favor. If it looks like you had something to do with the escape and Lucy acts like she’s trying to evade the person responsible…” He raised his brows, and Delaney responded with an exasperated eye roll.
“Um, hello?” Beth interrupted. “Anyone remember the one who almost got pecked to death?”
Eli cleared his throat, and Delaney sighed.
“I saw her through the fence, and she looked lonely,” Delaney admitted. “Thought she and Bethy would have this amazing meet-cute, and Beth would fall in love with her and not be sad about her injury anymore and want to stay in Meadow Valley forever.” Delaney turned toward her sister and batted her lashes as she offered Beth a nervous smile.
Beth lifted her hand from her ankle to reveal a small but more significant cut than Eli had thought.
Delaney winced, and Eli slipped between the two women, setting the small plastic box on the counter next to Beth. “Can I see it?” he asked, nodding toward the palm that covered the wound again.
