Mia leaned forward, her seatbelt cutting into her shoulder, to get a better look at Riley’s hometown, the place that would hopefully come to feel like home someday soon, in a way Seattle never had.
The town emerged from between two ridges like something out of a postcard.A main street lined with brick storefronts, American flags hanging from old-fashioned lamp posts, a white church steeple poking up in the distance.And behind it all, those impossibly tall mountains standing guard like they’d been doing for millennia.
“Population eight thousand,” Riley continued, her voice taking on the cadence of a tour guide, “give or take.Everyone knows everyone.The coffee at Maggie’s Diner is terrible but the pie is worth the trip.Porter’s Hardware is the only place to buy anything, so don’t even think about driving to Bozeman for supplies.And my parents…“ She grinned.“My parents are going to love you.All of you.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”Riley shrugged easily and turned onto what appeared to be the main drag, a street called, predictably, Main Street.“My mom’s been baking for three days straight.I think she’s stress cooking about meeting all of you.Last count, she’d made two apple pies, a chocolate cake, three dozen cookies, and something involving rhubarb that she won’t explain.I’m not sure the woman’s slept.”
“Stress baking,” Mia murmured.“I understand that impulse.”
“I know you do.That’s why she’s going to love you.Kindred spirits.”Riley slowed as they passed a hardware store with hand-painted window signs.“She invited everyone for dinner Sunday.Fair warning, she’s going to try to feed you until you physically cannot move.And then she’s going to send you home with leftovers.I actually tested her gravy in the vet clinic’s lab for sedatives one year.The stuff knocks you out better than anything I’ve ever prescribed my animal patients.”
Mia’s chest tightened unexpectedly.Her own mother, Gloria, had remarried seven years ago and moved to Phoenix with her new husband, Frank.They talked on the phone every other Sunday, and Gloria was thrilled about Mia’s plan to start an animal rescue, but phone calls weren’t the same as having someone bake pies because they were nervous about meeting you or making their knock-you-out-good-gravy because they wanted you to feel welcome.
Stop it, she told herself firmly.You’re here for the animals.Not to find a replacement family.Not to find...anything else.
They drove through the center of town past Porter’s Hardware with its handwritten sale signs, past a bookshop with a faded striped awning that looked like it hadn’t been updated since 1985, past a veterinary clinic with a fresh sign that read “Haven Valley Animal Care” and, underneath in smaller letters, “Dr.Riley Patterson, DVM.”
Mia pointed.“When did that go up?”
“Last week.My dad installed it.”Riley’s cheeks went slightly pink.“He was...very enthusiastic.Mom says he almost fell off the ladder twice putting the sign up because he insisted on bragging to people walking by that I’m his daughter and I’ll be joining as a partner at his veterinary practice.”
“He sounds like a character.”
“That’s one word for him.”But Riley was smiling, the kind of smile that came from genuine affection, and Mia felt that tightness in her chest and throat again, and shoved down the memories of her own father, like she always did.
They passed a small community center, a post office, and what appeared to be a bar called “The Rusty Spur” with a sign so faded Mia first thought it was called “The Rusty Spa”.
Before long, the buildings thinned out and gave way to rolling grassland dotted with cattle and horses.The road curved gently, following the contour of the land, and Mia found herself mesmerized by the sheer openness of it all.No traffic, no buildings blocking the sky, just grass and mountains and the occasional animal lifting its head placidly to watch them pass.
“The property’s about ten minutes from here,” Riley said.“Fifteen acres, like I told you.The barn needs work, but the bones are good.My dad and brother helped inspect it before we made the offer.Dad says the structure is solid.It just needs cosmetic updates and some repairs to the roof.”
“And the kennels?”
“We’ll have to build those from scratch.The materials are lined up, and—“ Riley paused, a complicated expression crossing her face.“And my brother’s going to help with the construction.”
“Ah yes, the mystery brother.”Mia had heard Riley mention him exactly twice in the three years they’d been friends in Seattle.Once when she’d had too much wine at Jazz’s birthday party, and once when she’d gotten a phone call that made her go pale and excuse herself for an hour.“Garrett, right?”
“That’s him.”Riley’s grip tightened on the steering wheel, just slightly.“He’s...complicated.But he’s good at building things.He needs a project right now, and he’s charging us the friends and family rates.”
Mia built a picture of him the way she’d built pictures of a thousand clients before meeting them, out of the few facts available and a great deal of professional guesswork.She filed it under a familiar heading: complicated brother who needs a project.
There would be brooding, probably.A certain amount of wounded mystery.Men described this way tended to arrive trailing a dark and interesting past like a good coat, and tended to know it, occasionally even wield it as a romantic weapon.
Before Mia could ask anything else, the truck crested a small hill.Riley pulled off onto a dirt road that wound between wooden fence posts weathered silver by sun and time.
At the end of the road sat a barn.
It was larger than Mia had imagined, red paint faded to the color of old brick, white trim peeling in places, a hayloft door hanging slightly crooked.Beyond it, a two-story house with a wraparound porch sat waiting, its windows reflecting the afternoon light like watchful eyes.
And beyond that…
Mia’s breath caught.
The mountains rose directly behind the property, so close she felt like she could reach out and touch them.The afternoon sun had turned their peaks golden, and ribbons of snow traced the highest ridges like brush strokes on a canvas.A hawk circled lazily in the space between earth and sky, riding thermals that Mia couldn’t see but could almost feel, shivers rippling over her skin in the warm, early summer evening.
“Told you,” Riley said quietly.“The view.”
