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"No, I’ot to his feet

"Thank you, Justine, for letting us know," Charlotte said With a polite nod, Ben took her arested as they left the bank She still felt there must be soive up on Ben’s son the same way he had, which was exactly what she wanted to avoid To Charlotte, it was iood relationships with Ben’s children

When they got hoe to follow him left Charlotte’s stomach in knots She kne bad he felt and wished she could alleviate his disappointnized that he needed to be alone

As she walked into the kitchen, the answering e button and heard David Rhodes, speaking clearly and distinctly "Dad, give e had finished, Ben entered the kitchen

"Did you hear?" she asked

Ben nodded

"Will you phone him?"

Her husband shook his head adamantly "There’s no point I already knohat he wants"

So did Charlotte Surely David had phoned to apologize He wouldn’t be foolish enough to ask for another loan This situationfor his son as it had been for Ben

The phone rang and Ben glared at it accusingly

"Shall I answer it?" Charlotte asked

"No," Ben snapped "It’s David" Then, as if realizing how harshly he’d spoken, he gathered Charlotte into his ar that I haven’t heard a hundred times before He’s sorry--and I believe he is--but it never makes any difference"

"Oh, Ben" Charlotte understood; she really did It was al about her son, Will David had been careless with money, Will with people’s affections Women’s affections Charlotte knew the kind of nore his faults A mother did that She wasn’t sure what else to do, even now that his e had failed She didn’t feel it was her place to interfere between a man and his wife Yet Charlotte knew that not only had her son been unfaithful, he’d taken advantage of Grace, a wohter Yes, she acknowledged that Grace had played a role in this, too, but she blamed her son far more than she did Grace

No one had told her what had gone on between theured out that it was Will hom Grace had been involved over the Internet Her married son had led that lovely wo, and to her detrie was in shaia, the woman who’d stood by him all these years No, Charlotte understood far better than Ben realized what a disappointment one’s children could sometimes be

Seventeen

Since Easter, alo, Linnette had barely spoken to Cal He’d joined her and her family, sat with them, talked with them and then as casually as could be announced that he was leaving for Wyooose--correction, wild horse--chase

He didn’t seem to have noticed how upset she was In fact, at the time, Linnette had been too unnerved to do iven a great deal of thought to the situation It’d taken her this long to work up the courage to confront Cal and let his If he was serious about their relationship, the same way she was, then the least he could do was discuss this with her

She’d been working long hours at the clinic to cover for colleagues on vacation She’d left twomachine, and he hadn’t answered either one Of course, he was busy, but so was she Yes, she knew that several of thea couple of yearlings But what about her work commitments? Anyway, even if she wasn’t very fa she res She didn’t understand his and Cal’s sudden interest in an entirely different breed of horse Her only option was to talk to Cal, face to face She’d explain her position and beg hi drive out to Olalla, she smiled as she recalled how her sister, Gloria, had teased her, calling it Oo-la-la once she’d seen Cal Linnette had talked to her about this situation, and Gloria had agreed with her decision, cautioning her to stay calm, stay focused That had offended Linnette just a little, since she saw herself as calo-ahead

Linnette hadn’t given Cal any advance warning The idea of driving to Wyo so ith his speech therapy, troubled her She didn’t want to give him an opportunity to come up with rationalizations and trumped-up reasons, either

The least Cal could’ve done was present his plan to her, so they could talk it over before he s at all, and that hurt She’d finally realized why this whole idea of his bothered her as much as it did Ultimately it came down to the fact that she’d played no part in it

When she arrived at the ranch, she didn’t immediately see Cal Various horses ht She wasn’t sure exactly how many Cliff owned now--several dozen as far as she could tell On previous visits Linnette had learned the naht, and the brown-and-white yearling cavorting around the pasture closest to the fence was Funny Face And there was Sheba, of course, the o

When she’d parked and left her car, Cliff was e , vital presence She thought he looked better than he ever had, and being a romantic, Linnette felt sure the difference was due to his e

"Hi, Linnette," Cliff said as he ca dark-brown horse who sto her nervous She saw that the ani by"

"He doesn’t know" She turned toward the corral and saw Cal standing there, a rope in his hands The aninized his intentions and whirled to avoid him