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Jack grinned "I'd be happy to" And he did

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The next week passed in a rosy-colored blur Jack spent the days working hard, shearing sheep, and the nights ca the house, caring for Caleb, and playing with the girls It didn't bother herthe day; her ti a sheep ranch to er

After the dishes were cleaned and put away and Katie was done with her reading lessons, the night stretched out forever, dark and lonely and filled with subtle noises She lay in her bed, thinking of Jack, drea for Jack

He heard Ji to him, but the words sounded a million miles away

Jack rested his elbows on the canoe's thick rihtly back, careful not to rock the boat The hot spring sun beat down on his face and war a sheen of sweat to his brow His hair hung heavily along the sides of his face

He closed his eyes, reveling in the war home to his wife Finally, afterself-consciously at other people's tables, he'd be home Home

The word conjured a dozen welco slowly fro her daddy a cautious, heartfelt s chickens, Lissa in the bath, Lissa in their bed

Lissa

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He sighed, listening to the water slapping against the canoe He couldn't reood, this full of hope For the first tiain, and daood

"Jack? Jack?"

Jack came out of the pleasant daydrea?"

Ji paddle out of the water and laid it across the canoe in front of hirinned at Jack "I said, it's your turn"

Jack reached across the bundles of yellowed fleece that represented htening, he plunged the paddle in the water andJireen hump of land in the distance, the island called Vancouver, where they'd sell their goods for winter supplies