Her heart clutched.Marry Neil.Despite all the heart-healing herbs she’d used for the past seven years, she still couldn’t love a man like she had Ben McAllister. Yet. But she was determined to someday.
Neil knew it. He’d accepted it and had become her best friend, seeing her through the steep learning curve of arriving in a country and culture completely foreign to her and feeling alone. Oh, how she wished she could love him like he deserved, but her heart was still like a broken clock that simply couldn’t tell time the same way.
She’d moved on as best she could. Sarah had left a hole in her. So had Ben. God, maybe she was becoming philosophical with the big 3-0 coming up this year.
“Like I said, it’s a wonderful offer, but you know I can’t do that.”
She really shouldn’t complain. Life had worked out better than she’d thought all those years ago when she left for Scotland and lost Ben. She loved being an herbalist. That she got to work alongside her best friend was an even better benefit of staying in a country she had come to love like a second home.Life was good.Like she’d hoped it would be.
Maybe this new investor’s offer would finally be the cure to reigniting her whole heart. The whole hood-and-secret-location stuff was making it pound awfully fast in her chest.
Perhaps a new adventure was just what the doctor—or the herbalist—ordered.
CHAPTER TWO
His son was goingto drive him crazy.
Ben had been edgy since they’d left for Denver, a late birthday present to celebrate Cooper’s sixth birthday after finishing kindergarten. It was the same feeling he got when a pregnant horse was in trouble or a wolf came onto their land looking to mess with his cattle. Nothing had happened so far, but he was being extra cautious on the roads. Even Will seemed jumpy, but car trips did that to him after his accident.
Ben shot Will a glance, but his brother turned in the seat before he could read him. “Cooper, your dad is driving here, and it would really help if you and Tank could sit still.”
Cooper curled his arm around the white ball of fur sitting in the middle seat, the view in Ben’s rear mirror almost making him smile. “He’s got a tummy ache, Uncle Will.”
“Of course he does,” Ben drawled—right as the puppy proved it.
A trumpet-like sound erupted from the back. Cooper started giggling as the dog jumped up and started sniffing the spot. The smell of straight sewage filled the car, making the adults groan.
“Roll your windows down, for Pete’s sake,” Reba calledout in herobey me or dievoice of his childhood. “I swear, every Great Pyrenees the Triple M has had was a stinker. Especially when they get spooked. Clear a room, they can.”
“Not their fault,” Will reasoned, flashing his dimples back at the woman who raised them after their mother left. “They’re just naturally gassy dogs because of their size.”
The early June day was a bit crisp but pleasant when he had his window down, and Ben was glad for the sunshine after the winter months. He waved a hand in his face to disperse the smell. You’d think he’d be used to it with all the cattle and horses he was around. “We should have left him at home.”
“He had to come!” Cooper cried, bouncing in his seat. “He’s still a puppy. Dad, he needs to be with me.”
“Cooper, what’s our special word for the day?” Ben called back to his son, the game he’d created during a blizzard and no school for four days straight, when he was going out of his ever-loving mind.
“Calm,”Cooper muttered, chin down. “I’m trying, Papa.”
He heaved out a sigh and eased back as a truck passed them on the highway. “I know you are. Sorry I’m grumpy. Let’s blame it on your uncle Will for making your papa listen to Tony Robbins on what was supposed to be a fun trip home from Denver.”
“Didn’t we have fun celebrating our favorite buckaroo?” Will nudged him in the shoulder. “Besides, your dad knows why we’re not listening to country music the whole way. We McAllister men have big hearts, and we need a new plan for how to live with them.”
Ben tucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, staying silent.Big heart?More like stupid heart, loving the wrong woman.
God, why was he thinking about Hannah so much lately? Right, because the whole town was talking about her. She’dbecome a hero saving a little girl, and now the country she’d left him for had expelled her.
Was she coming home?
Was that why he was so jumpy?
“Like I always say, big hearts, big brand,” Reba commented from the back seat. “Except I thought Tony Robbins was going on about letting go and taking charge, in that order. Now that’s certainly something the McAllister men could use some more of. Usually they go off half-cocked before they’ve thought things through.”
“Reba, darling, we’ve been charting a new course,” Will called back, not mentioning his near-death accident over a year and a half ago as the cause of all this change. “Cooper, do you remember the quote I taught you the other day?”
His son bounced in his seat. “You mean when we did our Dude Dos for the week?”
“Yeah,” Will bandied back, flashing the same dimples as Ben’s son. “Lay it on me.”
