Vera was tall and thin, flat chested, and had an explosion of corkscrew ringlets of light brown hair.
As best she could, she kept her hair pulled back and tightly tied down. Her face was pleasant but not cutesy pretty. Even as a child she’d looked like an adult. Her truly spectacular feature was her legs: long, lean, shapely. Vera in a swimsuit was a sight to behold.
Kelly was the prettiest girl in the county. Big blue eyes, naturally blond hair, a perfect figure eight of a body, and she was inches shorter than her sister. She was so pretty that she surprised everyone by being smart.
Their personalities differed as much as their bodies. Vera was acerbic; Kelly was sweet. When someone annoyed Vera, she told them so. Kelly was the diplomat. Vera wanted to save the world; Kelly wanted to save all the animals in Mason. For her, Kansas City was too big and as far away as she wanted to go.
They were so opposite that they never collided. They were a perfect match.
For minutes they were silent, looking out from the front of the old house. There was a gravel drive shaded by fifty-year-old oak trees. Every sunny spot was filled with flowers, lovingly tended by Nella.
There had been a running joke in their family. Nella took care of the plants, Kelly looked after the animals, Mac took care of the farm. “What about me?” an eight-year-old Vera had asked.
“Honey,” her dad said, “you take care of the world.” Vera had smiled at that. Even then she’d been fascinated by the whole planet.
“You’re going to miss us,” Kelly said softly.
“Of course I will, but I’ll write constantly. Adam and I will send photos and tell you everything. We’ll—”
“You’re sure nothing has changed between you two? Sometimes when high school sweethearts lose touch, they grow apart. He’s been in Africa for years and you’ve been here, and...” Kelly trailed off.
Vera could hear that Kelly was near tears. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wish I could change what’s inside me. I wish I could find a career or a man, something, that made me...satisfied. Fulfilled me. I’ve always envied you. Since you were born, you’ve known what you wanted to do.” She looked at her sister. “I’m a volcano about to explode. I have to go or I’ll erupt.”
“I know,” Kelly whispered. “We all see it. Mom has done all she can to keep you from spewing up fire but nothing has worked.”
The way Kelly said it was serious, but the image made Vera laugh. “Hasn’t she just! What was that boy’s name? The one she sent to pick me up?”
“Kevin. He was a nice guy. She was just trying to tempt you into staying.”
“To get me away from Adam since he’d left the country. By the way, where was Pauly today?” Vera wanted to get the conversation and the weight of guilt off her. “I haven’t seen him in days.”
“He’s around.”
“Uh-oh. Is there trouble in paradise?”
“Of course not. I see him at the clinic every day.”
Kelly and Paul had been together since elementary school. His stepfather, Dr. Carl, was the local vet and to Kelly that meant Pauly was the crown prince. She’d spent much of her life in the veterinary clinic with the doc. She’d helped deliver her first calf when she was eleven.
As for Pauly, he adored her. He was willing to follow wherever Kelly led. They were inseparable. “So where’s your engagement ring?” Vera asked. “You’re twenty-four. Time to get married and have babies.”
Kelly smiled. Vera was mimicking their mother. “School costs too much for such frivolous things. Maybe later.”
Vera nodded. It had never been said aloud, but the plan was that after she left, Kelly and Paul would marry and live on the Exton farm with Nella. Kelly would work with Dr. Carl and eventually take over his clinic.
“Maybe you should—” Vera began, but halted at the sound of a horse. Thundering down the road, barely visible through the trees, was a black stallion. Vera knew who was riding it.
At the far end of the long drive, Adam drew the big horse to a halt and sat there for a moment, his eyes on Vera.
Adam was tall, lean, broad shouldered and muscled from a life of sports and digging wells and hauling rocks in Africa. Wearing jeans and a denim shirt, broad-brimmed hat down low over his eyes, he was something from the cover of a novel.
As Vera stood up, she felt her whole body vibrating.
Behind her, Kelly snorted. “Really! Does he have to make everything into a drama? He’d better not run Xander or I’ll—”
Adam did just what Kelly said he shouldn’t. The horse, retired from a racetrack, needed only a nudge to take off fast. Gravel and dirt spewed.
Vera’s heart leaped to her throat, pounding in anticipation.
Kelly ran down the porch steps and stood to the side of the path Adam was taking. He and the horse stopped less than a foot from the porch railing.
Kelly ran forward. “If you hurt his mouth I’ll murder you!” she shouted.
Adam’s eyes never left Vera’s as he tossed the reins to Kelly. “He’s fine, kiddo. Give him a bath. My truck is here.” He held out his hand to Vera. She took it and the two of them walked down the drive to where his pickup was parked.
Adam held the door to his truck open as Vera got in, then went to the other side and got behind the wheel. In the distance, Kelly was still yelling that he was a pompous ass and if Xander was harmed she would report Adam to the ASPCA.
“Your baby sister hasn’t changed,” Adam said as he started the truck. “Was that a lizard on the porch?”
“Yes. And a bird and three dogs.”
He glanced at her so hotly that even her ears turned red.
“Miss me?” he asked.
“Madly,” she said.
Smiling, they rode in silence. She knew exactly where they were going. Burke Hatten’s widowed mother had refused to leave the ranch that she and her husband had built. No amount of enticements of travel or city life interested her. But she’d been a quiet woman and she’d needed to get away from her bigger-than-life son and her two energetic grandsons. Burke had built her a cabin about a mile from their main house.
One room and a bath was all she wanted. The windows looked out over the fields with their grazing cattle. After her death, Burke had locked the door and no one used the cabin. Until, as teenagers, Adam and Vera had claimed the place as their own. They’d cleared it of mice and spiders, repaired the leaky roof and used it whenever they could escape their families. If Burke Hatten knew where the teenagers were spending their afternoons, he never let on.
Adam parked to the side of the house. It was a plain little place, with a porch along the front.