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“I suppose you do” He lowered his head and pushed the eain, then sit down and finish your coffee”

This time he sipped at the whiskey while she settled onto the stool beside his been at the ranch?”

“Fine” Chase studied the golden-brown liquor, then lifted it to take another s Ty on the plane to Texas”

“I’ve heard he’s doing well”

“He’d do better staying at holass, the bones shohite through his skin “I can’t one so sh tiht we had There was the time when the small ranches on the north cut the fences and drifted their cattle onto our grazeand the hassle I had getting title to those ten thousand acres of federal land sitting almost s or sohed heavily

“It ork out,” Sally murmured

“Will it?” His glance ran over her face, his lip corners lifting with gri selfish”

“No two people see eye to eye on everything You are bound to have soree about”

Chase released a heavy breath “That disagreeazed into her serene eyes “You’re a woh to her”

“Is that why you caret and a little hurt in her look “I’ advice, Chase”

His mouth went thin “I didn’t uess I just needed to talk to so was in the darkness of his eyes when he looked at her—“I thought of you”

There was a mute shake of her copper-red hair as her throat worked convulsively before she could finally get the words out “I think you’d better go home, Chase”

“Yeah” He grie from his second drink

Through the course of that fall and winter, he found several more reasons to make the drive to Blue Moon Each time, he stopped in at Sally’s—just to pass the tiain of his proble himself that Sally was just an old friend

The ancient gravestones stood in silent order, tall blades of grass sprouting around their bases There was a stillness in the old ce their branches over the chipped and weathered stones