Chapter 673

She’d been pulling wicked long hours during the spring and the beginning of the summer without a break. After long days in the Jeep, she’d go and sit with her father in the nursing home; feeding him dinner, making one-sided small talk, and assuring herself of the excellent care by the staff. She’d cut back on both, but it didn’t help. Now, with Jared coming home with such an extravagant gift for her…. Well, she hoped everything was on the up and up. Deep down, though, she knew better. But what could she do?

While driving up the winding path to the house, she let her mind wander back through memories of her childhood. She and her brother had played their own special tag game of roadrunner and coyote in the desert landscape surrounding the house. At twilight, while watching the sun set on many an evening, she’d often tell her dad that when she grew up, she was going to ride people around showing them the beauty of the land. She’d promised to live in that very home with her husband, five