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Will glanced at his watch “Daet out of this blasted suit and get back to work on the bunkhouse”
Jasper’s ripin’, Will Tyler Look around you The rain’s fallin’, the grass is growin’, the barn’s got a new roof, and your brother’s gettin’ hitched to a fine woman For Pete’s sake, relax and enjoy the day!”
Will exhaled and shifted his legs True, he had plenty to be happy about The fire had spared the house and the duplex, and only da barn The machine sheds and their contents had been saved, as well as the four bungalows for the reening fast, both here and up on the caprock Soon there’d be plenty of feed for horses and cattle Meanwhile, Sky had opened up his untouched acreage to the Ri
And Beau would be staying—that alone was enough to celebrate He and Natalie would live in one of the bungalows until their new house on the ranch was finished Natalie would work part ti her house and clinic
There was another house going up, this one on Sky’s land Proud as always, he’d insisted on putting off his wedding to Lauren until he could offer her a suitable home For now she’d found a srow her accounting business But the tere already spending ether
“Did Abner ever figure out what happened to start that fire?” Jasper asked,conversation
“Not Abner,” Will said “As you knoe all figured that the fire came from that burned SUV down by the east property line But when the deputies found a body in it, the FBI got involved We didn’t hear anything for a while, but Beau made some calls They’d traced the rented vehicle to a hit man for the Dallas mob, and the DNA was a ht fire in the first place”
“What about Sky’s cousin, that woot burnt up in the fire, too It’d serve her right!”
“The FBI didn’t find any sign of her or her motorcycle A clerk at a truck stop in Wichita Falls re her description—hard to forget, with that scar But she’s in the wind—until she gets caught, which is bound to happen sooner or later”
Jasper spat off the porch “Never mind We all knoas behind this mess”
“We do” Will thought of Stella, like a blackspider with a network of webs, too crafty and too dangerous to get caught “Her day will come, Jasper And when it does, Blanco County will be a better place”
“Hope I live to see it” Jasper peered through the rain at the new dark blue truck that had turned the corner onto the long, graveled lane “Well, I’ll be dalanced at Will “Sky and Lauren ht handsoive each other—” The old uessin’ there’ll be another wedding before long, maybe sooner than we think”
“And I’ there’ll soon be more little Tyler cousins to run around the ranch” Will let the words hang, fully aware of what he’d just said
Jasper’s jaw dropped He stared at Will “How long have you known?”
“I’ve suspected all along—those blue eyes, the little mannerisms, the way ot shot and we had to give hiative? Sky knows, doesn’t he?”