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If only she could talk to someone about how she felt Her sisters were the obvious choice, but she was afraid of what they would say Would they listen patiently and shake their heads and say, “Grow up, Vivi He’s a good man”

Should that be enough for her? Was she wrong to want passion? To dreained love to be turbulent and volatile, an emotion that would sweep her up and break her to pieces and reshape her into someone she couldn’t otherwise have become

Was she a fool to believe in all that?

It felt as if so bad, like a to In the past few days, she’d snapped at Lisa, lost a client, and gained five pounds She couldn’t help herself, couldn’t control her e for Vivi Ann to call her with the big news that she was engaged

She wanted to believe that Vivi Ann would laugh at him, blow off his ridiculous proposal God knew her baby sister wasn’t ready to settle down, but Luke Connelly was a hell of a catch in this town, and Vivi Ann always got the best of everything

By Tuesday afternoon, she was a wreck This envy of hers was expanding, taking up too ht about everything Vivi Ann had stolen from her, she couldn’t breathe

Just when she thought her life couldn’t get any worse, Lisa came on the intercom and said, “Hey, Winona Your dad is on line one”

Dad?

She tried to remember the last time he’d called her at work and couldn’t “Thanks, Lisa” She picked up the phone and answered

“That idiot Travis is gone,” he said halfway through her greeting “He left without sayin’ a damn word and the cabin looks like a bomb went off in there”

“Isn’t that Vivi Ann’s proble”

“Don’t get smart with me Didn’t you say you’d hire us someone?”

“I’ on it I’ve interviewed—”

“Interviewed? What are we, Boeing? All we need is someone who knows horses and ain’t afraid of hard work”

“No, you need all that and someone who’ll promise to stay for the summer That’s not easy to find” She’d learned that the hard way Summer was rodeo season and all the -term employment They were out of work, most of them, but cowboys were romantic in their way, seduced by the lifestyle, and they just had to follow the circuit They all thought they’d hit it big at the next city