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"If it involves snapping in half or burning my favorite CDsorry No can do," he replied, his own door creaking open

"Next time I need a ride, don’t offer I’d rather run, walk, or bloody craenty miles than listen to that shit-for-music for another twenty seconds" Once I was out of Old Bessie, I turned to look at hiain with that sa at Jesse staring at me didn’t make my knees feel a bit out of whack

"I don’t speak irl talk, but how about if I proain if you need another ride fro his eyes off of me, and he slammed the door closed Both dimples were buried in his cheeks "Just please, pro to my favorite CD? It would break my heart"

"Even if I tried, that sucker is so chock-full of black voodoo ic it would take a dozen witches to destroy it," I replied, arching a brow at hiher

Jesse was just opening his mouth when a screen door screeched open behind e of yourat hter

I felt ether Not because the woman looked like a modern version of the women on Little House on the Prairie, but because she’d said I looked like my mom No one said that because we had no si, it is so good to finally meet you," she said, and just as I extended my hand to her, she wrapped her ar "I’ood for you, you’ll callme a final squeeze, she lowered her arms "My mother-in-law is Mrs Walker"

"Okay, Rose," I said "I think I can e that" Especially since the only time I called people Mr or Mrs hen it involved a hefty dose of sarcasm

She tucked a few curls of hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear "We’re all so glad you’re here When your mom called and asked if you could spend the suave her a chance to finish her sentence before I said yes"

Rose and ether back in Portland Mos after otten Exa the warmth and simplicity that was Rose Walker made me wonder how, in our universe or the next, my moet more opposite, I hadn’t seen it Mom was tall, platinum blond (thanks to her stylist), believed makeup wasn’t only a tool but essential to everyday life, and didn’t wear an article of clothing that wasn’t expensive and in season Rose was shorter, had dark brown hair, didn’t wear a se of makeup from what I could tell, and her flower-print dress looked like it could have been homemade

From what I knew, mom and Rose didn’t keep in touch all that often, but every year, we got a Christh friends that mom would entrust her only child to a faht of ar" cato do with Mom’s nutso idea to send me off to Ranch Responsibility School for the su me? A chance to have another woman on a ranch overrun with men who think a decent conversation consists of a half a dozen words?" Rose patted h on the latest and greatest h on life There was no arguing she was high on sootten he was there It see up to her rooet back to work on that fence" He pulled the giant-sized bag out of the truck bed in one seamless move, and he flashed that dimpled smile at me as he passed by

"Have fun with those fence posts," I said,his smile with an overdone one ofup toward the front door "I’ll think of you and your excellent taste in h the screen door When her gaze shifted back tothat avekid, isn’t he?"

I bit the inside of ivea sends of the Fall thing Which I’m not" That was true I never went for the blond-haired, blue-eyed, sexy-shuy I went for the dark-haired, pale, lanky, brooding type "I was more team bear-that-tried-to-kill-Brad-Pitt-in-the-end"

Rose didn’t bat an eye Instead, she laughed an honest to goodness one as she weaved her elbow throughme up the front steps, "the ride fro is a good word for it," I said, taking a closer look at the farloo the place

It was old, from the intricate, beveled s to the way the wrap-around porch creaked alked over it, but it had been well preserved The front door was cobalt blue toon either side of the door because one just wasn’t enough, I guess

It was a house that was "lived in" It had history, and I could only iine the number of stories and ine after your day, you’ll have just enough energy left to take a bath and crawl into bed" Rose swung the screen door open and waved me inside "So I’ll send a dinner plate up to your rooht’s sleep, we can settle you into the routine here at Willow Springs"

After she’d said the word, reat"

"But I’er to meet you before you escape," Rose said as she ledblue walls and white crownpieces of furniture were mixed in with a few ner’s worst nightmare, but somehow, it worked I’d barely taken five steps inside the rooh to plop down on the floral couch and kick my feet up on the distressed coffee table

"This is really nice," I said truthfully Everything about the room, from the bold use of color to the alls, was a stark contrast to ine purple, the ceiling, too, and I kept the lonecovered with a black-out curtain I liked to keep the light out--except for when I was drawing or painting--while Rose preferred to let the light in

Before I could get too deep down that thinking well, three figures hovering off to the side caught my attention