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"That’s not a good idea"

"It’s the best idea I’ve had in a long tiive you everything you’ve ever wanted"

Chapter Five

Gehts on the way back to the Bar 9

Once they hit the sagebrush and wide-open spaces of Wyo this on you, Carter I was afraid if you kneas lookin’ for another fulltime foreman--"

"--that I’d bail on you? Come on, Gemma, you know me better than that I promised I’d be here all summer Despite the shitty opinion Cash has of the McKays, you knoays keep our word"

"That you do"

"What’s really goin’ on?"

She didn’t take her eyes off the gray ribbon of bumpy road "I wasn’t sure he’d say yes"

"So? It ain’t like he’s the only uys around here led her chin from Carter’s shrewd eyes so he couldn’t see her blush

"Hellfire and damnation He is the only one you wanted, ain’t he?"

She paused "Yup"

Carter sighed "I ain’t gonna ask why"

She probably couldn’t give hiood answer on that one even if he did ask

"Just so you knohat happens between the two of you after the barn door closes ain’t my business You don’t hafta worry ’bout me blabbin’ your private business to everyone or pokin’ "

Geoes both ways"

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, I won’t stay away from Macie just because her father wants me to"

Lord He was just as bull-headed as the rest of his fa he wasn’t finished

Carter druh "Remember last hen I was cleanin’ stalls like the devil possessedwith me?"

Gemma nodded

"It was her"

"Macie?"

"Yeah"

"How’s that possible? Didn’t you just onna sound dumb, but she’s been in e in my mind that’s only partially there Been drivin’her, sketching, working with clay When I saw her today?

Flesh and blood and real? At first I thought I’d gone completely ’round the bend"

Gemma couldn’t withhold a shiver "That’s some spooky serious shit, Carter"

"Don’t I know it Normally I don’t believe in that kinda karma and fate voodoo crap, but I ain’t about to chalk it up to coincidence neither Nor ahter just ’cause he thinks he can"

"Macie is an adult, but I don’t think that’s gonna matter to Cash," Gemma pointed out "He still is her father"

"That’s hard for me to believe Jesus How old was he when she was born? Like twelve?"

She smiled "Probably more like sixteen He rowing up"

"Probably because he was too busy growin’ up himself Where’s her mother?"

"Dead, from what I understand"

Carter whistled "Harsh Anyway, from what I remember Colby tellin’ onna cause problems with him while we’re workin’"

"I appreciate that"

"But I expect hiain "The only person with the power to tell onna get in the ured she’d have her hands full dealing with her situation with Cash She turned down the gravel road leading to the trailer on the outskirts of her property "I think it’s best if I show Cash the ropes for evening chores, don’t you?"

"I reckon"