by Mia Ross
“Josh,” Mike began, pointedly ignoring Drew, “when’s the last time you heard of Drew putting off one backbreaking job to take on another, even dirtier backbreaking job?”
“Well, now, let me see,” the youngest Kinley drawled, tapping his chin with a leather-gloved finger. When he was done stalling, he grinned at Drew. “I’m thinkin’ never. Then again, he didn’t meet Bekah till this week.”
“Very funny,” Drew grumbled. “Can we get to work now?”
Mike laughed at that. “Not just yet, Romeo. My wife pointed out something about Bekah after dinner last night, and I wanna run it past you.”
Lily had an uncanny set of instincts when it came to people, so Drew couldn’t resist hearing what his very intuitive sister-in-law had to say about Bekah. “Okay.”
“That girl out there,” he pointed in the general direction of the rescue center, “is running from something, and she needs a place to hide.” Crossing his arms, he pegged Drew with a stern, head-of-the-family kind of look. “How’m I doing so far?”
“I totally agree, which is why I had Harley do a quick check on her in the sheriff’s database. Nothing popped up.”
“That’s nuts,” Josh muttered with a dark look. “Anyone with eyes can see someone hit her not long ago. You mean to tell me she didn’t report it?”
“Some women never do,” Mike replied in a somber voice. “They’re afraid to make the guy even madder by getting the law involved.”
“Who could do that to a sweet woman like her?” Josh demanded.
“I don’t know,” Drew replied. “But he better pray that he never meets up with me.”
His brothers nodded in agreement, and he felt a rush of gratitude for their support. As Bekah had pointed out more than once, she was a stranger here in Oaks Crossing, and it would be easy for most folks to ignore what was right in front of their faces.
But not his family, Drew thought proudly. No matter how hard it might be for them, Kinleys always tried to do the right thing. In fact, he mused as he and Mike climbed into the hayloft, how hard something was usually told him that it was the right way to go. That was probably on a motivational plaque somewhere, but being a Kentucky farm boy, he’d learned it the way he learned most things.
The hard way.
Caught up in his mental wandering, he missed the bale that Josh tossed up to him, and it knocked him to the dusty floor near the edge of the hayloft. Glaring down at the wagon, he yelled, “Hey!”
“Sorry, man. You were lookin’ right at me, so I figured you were ready.”
They began to argue about what being “ready” to catch a seventy-pound bale of hay looked like, and Mike stepped in to restore some peace. “Drew, if you’re lost in space, take the rest of the day off and come back tomorrow. If you fall over the side and break your neck, Mom’ll kill me.”
“I’m fine,” Drew insisted stubbornly. “Josh caught me by surprise is all.”
That started another round of arguing, and finally Mike ended it. “Enough!”
Even though they were all grown up now, he and Josh never messed with their big brother when he yelled like that. It was his end-of-my-rope bellow, and he only hauled it out when he meant business. After a deep breath to cool a temper that could still be as bad as it had ever been, Mike ordered Josh to head back out to bale one more wagonload of hay and bring it in before dark.
When he was gone, Mike turned to Drew with a disgusted look. “You two have to figure out how to get along better. You’re driving me insane.”
“It’s his fault for being such a pain.”
“I’m gonna tell you what Dad used to tell me when I said that about you,” Mike shot back. “You’re older, and you should know better.”
“Aw, come on,” Drew whined. “I can’t help that I was born two years earlier than him.”
“If he was the older one, I’d be having this pointless conversation with him. Now, get down there and start tossing that hay up here before I send you out to dig ditches or something.”
“You’re all heart, big brother.” Grinning, Drew jumped from the loft down onto the top layer of hay. They’d been doing this kind of work most of their lives, and they quickly got into a rhythm that whittled down the wagonload and started filling in the blank spaces in the storage area above.
After they’d been at it for a while, they took a break for some water. Sitting on a bale down below, Drew looked up at his twice-married brother, who sat with his battered cowboy boots dangling over the loft’s edge. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
“How did you go from being divorced and ‘never gonna get married again’ to proposing to Lily?”
“Faith.”
The answer came without hesitation, and Drew cocked his head in disbelief. “In what?”
“Oh, not mine,” he amended with a chuckle. “Lily’s. She saw past all my nonsense to who I really am and somehow liked what she found. The rest is a mystery to me, but it seems to work.”
“So, you’re saying you have no idea what changed your mind.”
“Pretty much.” After a swig of water, he added, “But I have to say, if it could happen to a jaded guy like me, it could probably happen to anyone.”
Drew had to admit, he had a point there. He’d lived his entire life in Oaks Crossing, so he hadn’t been kicked around by the world the way Mike had. But even though he’d had plenty of girlfriends and one near-miss in the down-the-aisle department, none of them had stuck. He was still baffled about why that was, especially since he dated sweet, uncomplicated women who’d gone on to marry one friend or another of his over the years.
Was the problem with them, or him?
This was one of those times that he really missed talking with his father. Dad had a knack for taking any problem and distilling it down into its most basic elements so he could help Drew figure out what to do.
“Go ahead,” Mike nudged quietly. “Ask me.”
Drew hesitated, then decided there was no harm in posing the question. “I’m really not all that picky. Why can’t I find what I’m looking for?”
“Who says you haven’t?”
Mike gave him a knowing look, and Drew groaned. “You can’t be serious. I just met Bekah.”
“What makes you think I was talking about Bekah?” When Drew glared at him, he grinned. “I could’ve been referring to any of the girls you’ve known, but you went right to her. What you have to ask yourself is, why?”
With that, Mike climbed to his feet, effectively declaring their philosophy lesson over. While they finished this load and Josh towed in the last one of the day, Drew had very little time to think about anything else.
To his mind, he was better off that way.
When they were finished, he realized his truck was still parked at his house.
“Stay with us tonight,” Mike suggested. “Mom won’t mind.”
Ordinarily, Drew would prefer to be in his own bed, but he was too tired to argue. “Okay, thanks.” He’d just finished speaking when his cell phone kicked out a classic-rock ringtone that made him grin. “It’s Nolan Parks. I haven’t talked to him in ages. Wonder what’s up.”
“Tell him hey from us,” Josh said as he strolled out to his pickup and Mike headed inside.
“Will do.” Drew clicked his phone on and said, “I haven’t heard from you since you moved to Denver. How’re things going?” In reply, he got an earful of excited chatter that reminded him of his niece. “Whoa, man, slow down. You sound like a Smurf.”
Nolan took a breath and asked, “Did you check your email yet?”
“I’m still at the farm, so no. Why?”
“Just do it. I’ll wait.”
Must be important, Drew thought, putting the phone on speaker while he accessed his mailbox. When he opened the message his old budd
y was so jazzed about, he skimmed it with growing enthusiasm. “You want me to be a partner in your ecotourism business?”
“Yeah. Silver Creek Wilderness Adventures is growing like crazy, and I’ve got more clients than I can handle on my own. So I thought of you. Check out the photos I sent you.”
Only half listening to Nolan’s running commentary, Drew clicked through a dozen pictures, each more stunning than the last. The final one was a sunset shot from the top of a small mountain, with nothing in sight but trees and an outcrop dusted with snow. Having grown up surrounded by some of Kentucky’s finest scenery, he was used to rolling hills and wide-open spaces. But the sprawling wilderness he was seeing now took his breath away.
“That’s incredible,” he said with humble appreciation for God’s high-altitude handiwork. “Where is it?”
“In my backyard,” Nolan replied proudly. “My cabin’s about a quarter mile to the west of what you’re looking at. It’s got two bedrooms, both with a view just like this.”
“How much land do you own?” Drew asked while he continued surfing through the pictures.
“Fifty acres, give or take, depending on how high the river’s running,” he clarified with a chuckle. “I take folks hiking, canoeing, kayaking, wilderness camping, whatever they want to try while they’re here. I’m thinking about adding horseback-riding tours in the spring, so naturally I thought of you.”
“You’re sure you don’t want Mike for that?”
“Not a chance.” Nolan snorted. “That control freak and I would kill each other in a week.”
The question had been moot, anyway, since Mike wasn’t about to uproot his family and move across the country. While they continued discussing Nolan’s fast-growing company, Drew was flattered to be considered for something more than what he often described as infantry work. He’d be a full partner in the business, and while the sum Nolan named as his buy-in wasn’t small, Drew had the money he would need tucked away in the bank, waiting for something important to come along.
This could be it, he thought, his enthusiasm for the idea escalating while they talked. He’d always wanted to do something like this, and not only would he be co-owner and trail boss, he’d finally get his chance to break free from his tiny hometown and experience something beyond the county line. He was beginning to understand Kelly’s motivation for leaving him behind and heading for the West Coast. Nice as Oaks Crossing was, it didn’t have much in the way of opportunities for expanding your horizons.
Then reality came crashing in, and his excitement dimmed. His family relied on his various skills around the farm, and much as he’d love to strike out on his own, it was more complicated than that. Dad and Granddad had put everything they had into making Gallimore Stables a success, and these days he, Mike and Josh were doing the same. It took all of them, from sunup to sundown, to keep the farm above water, and right now there was no way they could manage to pay the going rate for outside help.
Maybe next year, Drew mused, then quickly dashed his own hopes. The economy wouldn’t be any better then, and there wouldn’t be any fewer horses or acres to care for. Not to mention, every building they owned would be another year older, on the brink of another round of do-or-die maintenance they couldn’t afford to hire out.
While his mind grappled with the options, his gut was telling him that if he didn’t make a move now, he never would. This decision was the biggest he’d ever faced, and while instinct was telling him to go for it, loyalty to his family made him hesitate. “I really appreciate the offer, but this would be a huge step for me. Can you give me some time to think it over?”
Silence crackled on the line, and he thought he might have lost the connection. Then Nolan came back on with a drawn-out, “Sure, I guess. I gotta admit, with the way you’ve always talked about seeing the world someday, I thought you’d snap this up and book yourself on the red-eye to Denver tonight. Is everything okay there?”
That was a loaded question, and Drew artfully sidestepped it. “Just a few things to work through.”
“Okay, but I need an answer soon. Out here, this is the best time of year to buy horses, ’cause folks don’t wanna stable them over the winter. You ever ride a snowmobile?”
“In Kentucky?” he scoffed. “Not hardly.”
“We’ll change that real fast. Call me at this number as soon as you make a decision. We’ve got a lot of details to iron out.”
“You’re talking like I’ve already signed on.”
“Positive thinking, buddy,” Nolan replied with a chuckle. “It’s gotten me this far, and I’m sticking with it until it quits working.”
They said goodbye, and Drew hung up, staring at his phone screen until it went black. Tempted beyond reason by Nolan’s unexpected offer, he gazed up into a dark sky dotted with stars. From the barn behind him, he heard a quiet nicker and the shuffling of hooves as a couple of horses moved around in their stalls. Crickets and frogs chimed in with their routine nighttime chorus, accented by the yip of a coyote off in the distance.
Familiar and comfortable, those sounds represented the life he’d always known. Did he want to hang on to them? he wondered as he trudged up the back-porch steps. Or did he want to open himself up to the possibility of something else?
The choice was simple enough: stay or go. But he recognized that he was too exhausted to make such an important decision tonight. He was impulsive by nature, so the delay didn’t sit well with him, and he prayed that putting it off wouldn’t turn out to be a worse mistake than jumping in too quickly.
Chapter Four
The next day, it was still dark when Bekah walked up the lane that led to the Kinley farmhouse. There were a few muted lights on inside, so she moved quietly toward the kitchen door, which was unlocked just like Drew had told her it always was. Bekah couldn’t recall ever living in a place where people didn’t use locks, dead bolts and alarms to keep their homes safe. Quiet little Oaks Crossing was about as far from those rough city blocks as she could possibly get.
When she stepped inside, she tiptoed through the huge kitchen and back hallway to the bathroom Maggie had generously offered to let her use. When she came out, she stopped abruptly when she noticed what was seated at the breakfast bar. Or rather, who she saw there, slurping cereal from a bowl while pawing through an actual printed newspaper.
Seeing her in the dim light, Drew grinned and saluted her with his spoon. “Morning.”
“Good morning.” Clutching her backpack tighter for some reason, she recovered enough of her wits to register that he was wearing the same jeans and T-shirt he’d been in when she last saw him yesterday. “Did you sleep here?”
“Yeah,” he replied with a yawn. “By the time we got done with everything, it was almost ten, so I crashed on the couch. How was your night?”
“I haven’t slept this well in weeks,” she answered truthfully. “It’s so peaceful here, I dropped right off and didn’t move till that old alarm clock woke me.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Sometimes settling in to a new place can be rough.”
He had no idea, she thought bitterly. Catching herself headed down the same path that had led her to no end of trouble, she shook off the gloomy mood with determination. Those days were behind her, and she’d been granted an opportunity to leave them a distant memory. Somehow, she’d find a way to make things different for herself.
Because quite honestly, she didn’t have a choice.
Then she heard herself ask, “Would you like some eggs?”
“Don’t tell me you cook, too,” he teased, giving her that charmingly crooked grin that had put her at ease during their difficult first meeting.
“I’m not exactly a gourmet, but I can crack open an egg and make it edible.” Setting her bag on the floor, she opened a fridge whose contents rivaled some small markets she’d shopped in. She glanced ov
er her shoulder and said, “Your mother’s got everything in here. What would you say to a Western omelet?”
“Howdy?”
This grin had a mischievous quality, and she laughed. “Very funny. I meant, would you like one?”
“Sure, but only if you show me how to make one. That way, I won’t be totally helpless in the kitchen anymore.”
She had a hard time envisioning this tall, capable man being helpless anywhere he might find himself, but the idea of them cooking together appealed to her for some reason. Even if it was only a simple breakfast. “Okay, but I’m in charge, so you have to listen.”
Where had that come from? she wondered, shocked by the teasing note she heard in her voice. Out of lifelong habit, she was normally a very serious person. The only explanation she could think of for the lapse was that Drew’s lighthearted nature was contagious.
“Yes, ma’am,” he promised, though the smirk he was wearing made her wonder if he meant it. She’d find out soon enough, she decided while she handed ingredients to him.
His comedy routine continued, as each time she picked something up, he narrated what it was and what she did with it. Not only was it entertaining, his running commentary helped make her feel more at ease in his mother’s kitchen. By the time they’d settled down to eat, Bekah realized she couldn’t have asked for a better start to her day than sharing breakfast with Drew Kinley.
“Water should be better at your place today,” he told her after swallowing a mouthful of omelet. “If not, let me know, and I’ll call a buddy of mine who’s a plumber and owes me a favor.”
“Meaning he won’t charge me for the repairs?” Drew nodded, and she smiled. “I really appreciate you doing that.”
“No problem. It’s the least I can do to repay you for the breakfast. Usually, I wolf down a couple of bagels or muffins on my way here.”
“Because you’re late?”
That made him chuckle. “Pretty much. Mike and Josh don’t have a problem getting themselves in gear so early, but I’ve never been much of a morning person.”