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“I’htfully “By the sa You stay here and keep an eye on things”

“I appreciate that, Chase” Ballard sht “You do know Ty may not like the idea if he finds out He doesn’t understand thatways I can see why it wouldn’t sit right with him, him bein’ married to her an’ all”

“I’ll square it with hi else?”

The question was a subtle prod to leave “Nope That just about does it,” Ballard replied and headed for the door, adding as he went, “You can rest easy that nothin’s gonna happen to Jessy I’ll see to that”

Try as he ht, Chase couldn’t put much stock in Ballard’s suspicions He doubted that he would be able to as long as Buck was in the picture It was a prejudice he had, one that could blind hireed to Ballard’s request

The sun sat low in the Saturday evening sky, throwing its strong yellow light over the Wolf Meadow range, intensifying the ochre hues in the stone and stucco exterior of the newly constructed house During his only other visit to the site, Ty had taken little notice of the low and sprawling, single-story house This ti eye over it as they approached the thickly graveled area in front of it

Its roof was steeply pitched to shed winter snow and shingled in a dusty brown color that blended with the face of the butte behind it The roof line extended far beyond the exterior walls, shading the south-facing s fro the front, with stone pillars for support

In the back seat, Sally craned her neck to get a better view of the house “That’s it, isn’t it?” she murmured, then added with a touch of surprise, “It isn’t quite as grand as I expected Do you think so, Jessy?”

Jessy was quicker to note how er than you think But it could have been worse”

“She could have built it on top of the h Ty’s voice

Chase reacted with a harrumph “Thank God for small favors”

Approaching the graveled area, Ty slowed the vehicle and swept his gaze over the rest of the site A helicopter sat in readiness on a concrete pad a goodly distance fro the skyline indhly the same distance from the house to the left stood the horse corral

“Looks like they’re building a stable,” Chase re

ress near the corral “Isn’t that a house trailer back there?” With a frown, Chase peered at some sort of structure near the corral

“Could be” Catching a lanced up to see the reflection of another vehicle behind thean and Cat”