Being stuck close to home after heart surgery meant his dad had an unnerving habit of appearing from nowhere, asking questions about Evan’s work, and why was he back home when there was still plenty to do. Although Evan had some sympathy with his dad’s plight of being confined, the endless questioning was already starting to grate on him. As the youngest son, he’d always had plenty of cover to do his own thing, but with Ben and Kaiden no longer working full-time on the ranch, he was way more visible than he liked.
He stopped and stared out of the window that faced the rolling foothills and the long dancing lines of the white paddock fencing. Was this it? Would he be staring at this view when he was ninety while Adam’s kids ran the place and laughed behind their backs at their old uncle Evan who’d never been anywhere or done anything in his life?
His cell buzzed and he took it out of his pocket.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, it’s Danny.”
Evan straightened up. “Hey.”
There was a long pause before Danny sighed. “I guess you’re still mad at me.”
“Why would you think that?” Evan shut off the faucet and took the filled jug over to the coffee maker. “You don’t owe me a thing.”
“I had to move fast, and Silver offered to help, and—”
Evan cut him off. “Hey, I’m in the middle of something right now. Can you call Dad if this is urgent?”
“Evan, it’s lunchtime. I know you.” There was a hint of amusement in Danny’s voice. “You’re either in the kitchen getting something to eat, or out on the ranch having a chicken salad sandwich. That’s why I called, because I knew exactly where you’d be.”
“Maybe I’m not,” Evan insisted.
“Bro . . .”
“Gotta go.” Evan cut off the call and returned his cell phone to the back pocket of his jeans.
Sure, Danny would probably be complaining to Faith about how juvenile he was being, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t ready to talk to his brother yet and that was the end of it.
The smell of coffee wafted over from the machine and Evan opened the refrigerator to find the fixings for his favorite sandwich. He stared at the mayo, chicken, tomato, and lettuce he’d automatically selected. Was he really that predictable? And, even if he was—so what? Just because all his siblings were marrying movie stars, hotshot lawyers, or making out big-time in the IT stock market didn’t mean he had to.
There was nothing wrong with being like Adam, finding a local girl to settle down with, and running the family ranch. Evan went into the pantry to fetch the bread. Except Adam would own the ranch and Evan wouldn’t.
“Jeez . . .” Evan spoke into the quiet stillness. “Maybe you’d better take Josie Martinez up on her offer and finish writing that list, loser.”
* * *
Josie sat opposite Ines at the kitchen table and listened to her chat about her neighbors, the valley, and all kinds of delicious gossip to bring Josie up to speed with what was going down in her brother’s new home. It seemed a world away from San Francisco and Boston where she spent the majority of her days, scurrying between appointments in the narrow-shadowed streets between skyscrapers.
Burnout—that’s what her doctors had called it—which was a kind way of saying she wasn’t up to the job. Not that anyone had made her feel bad for taking time off. In fact, they’d insisted on it. Had she been messing up so badly by that point that they’d all been relieved to see the back of her?
“Josie?”
She blinked and looked across at Ines’s concerned face. “I’m sorry, I missed that.”
Ines reached over and took her hand. “It’s my fault. Rio said you needed to rest, and here I am chatting away without a care in the world.” Ines hesitated. “If there is anything you’d like to talk to me about, I’m more than willing to listen.”
Josie automatically touched the small scar on her cheek, hearing the sounds of breaking glass and the pounding of her heart, as she attempted to make herself as small as possible imprinted on her brain like a photograph. The flashbacks came at the most inconvenient moments and she couldn’t seem to stop them.
“I’m just glad to be here.” She smiled at Ines. “Although, I guess it is going to take me a while to slow down to country time.”
“I bet.” Ines squeezed her fingers and then withdrew her hand. “Have you finished eating? At least we have a working dishwasher to put our dirty dishes in now.”
“After two experts worked on it.” Josie joked as she rose to take her plate over to the sink.
“Evan Miller is a very nice young man. He’s always willing to help out and he never makes me feel bad about asking.”
“I don’t know much about him,” Josie said casually. “He’s the youngest, right?”
“Of the five boys. Daisy is a couple of years younger than him.” Ines carefully rinsed the plates and Josie stacked them in the dishwasher.
“Daisy, the tech millionaire?”
“Yes, she’s done very well for herself.” Ines smiled. “Jeff Miller doesn’t usually have a complimentary word to say about his children, but he’s very proud of her.”
“So, Evan’s got a lot to live up to,” Josie said thoughtfully.
“I don’t think it bothers him. He’s too busy living a carefree life at home.”
Josie considered that as they finished clearing the table. Evan hadn’t seemed very happy with his life when she’d talked to him earlier. She was already half regretting her offer to help him out. What if she just made things worse and he ended up alienated from his family?
She checked the time on the kitchen clock. She’d go for a long ride to get her head together. The idea of writing her own list of stupid things to do hovered tantalizingly in her mind.... Maybe it was time for her to get a little funky in her thinking. When she got back, she’d decide whether she was going to meet Evan at the bar in town or leave him well alone. The last thing she wanted to do was mess up someone else’s life.
* * *
Evan checked his cell phone and realized he hadn’t given Josie his number to contact him in case she decided not to come. There were several messages and texts from various members of his family, but he was definitely ignoring those. He settled himself onto the barstool and took another sip of his beer. She’d probably decided he wasn’t worth her time and he couldn’t blame her.
Midweek, the bar wasn’t full, as most of the ranchers and cowboys were busy with the harvest or rounding up cattle, and only came in on the weekends. There were a few tourists scattered around and the occasional lucky person who lived in town and could walk to the bar. Evan’s mother had recently bought an apartment in the converted old movie theater across the way and had given them all a key.
The smell of fried onions and garlic wafted in from the dining end of the establishment where Bella Williams and her staff offered good old-fashioned diner food and plenty of it. Evan’s stomach growled, and Nancy who was working behind the bar grinned at him.
“Hungry?”
“You could say that.” Evan drank more beer. He’d ducked out of the house just before Adam had announced a family Zoom call to congratulate Danny and Faith.