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If she wanted money, she could sell them. He
didn’t like that thought one bit.
    Dancer snorted at him, like he was asking where Ben had
gone.
    “Sorry, buddy.” Sorry Ben’s not here. He faced
forward, and though he wanted to turn and look at the stallion, he couldn’t.
    Shaking his head, he left. How had he gotten so spooked
about the whole thing? The horse couldn’t blame him. No one did. So why did he
feel so guilty about Ben?
    Outside again, he headed for his house, but he spotted Missy
walking on the road, bundled up in her red coat and a scarf. Guess the cougar
comment hadn’t scared her enough to keep her inside after dark.
    “Want company?” he called out because she looked lonely. How
could she not be when she’d left her life to come out here? It looked like she
shrugged, so he jogged over. “What are you doing out here by yourself? It’s
late.”
    “It’s seven in the evening.” She rubbed her nose in the
cold.
    “And cold.”
    “You’re out here, too.” She blew out a breath. If she hadn’t
run earlier, he might have asked her to go into town for a movie or dinner.
    “Did you eat dinner yet?” Where had that come from? That was
worse than inviting her into town. One look at her expression in the yard light
confirmed that she was not going anywhere alone with him. He spared them both.
“Guess not. Are you heading back?”
    She nodded and he continued walking beside her.
    “So you didn’t grow up in a city?” He remembered her
expensive suit, the glitter on her ears and fingers, and the perfume that made
him want to lean in closer to sniff.
    With a laugh, she asked, “You don’t believe me?”
    “Tell me about it.” The fancy clothes and jewelry were gone,
but she still smelled like that perfume. It was a light smell that seemed to
evade him. He got whiffs of it here and there.
    “Not much to tell, really. My dad owned cattle, but we
didn’t live on a ranch.”
    He could tell her mind was going off somewhere.
    “Did you want to?” Could that be what she was sad about? He
knew so little about her.
    “No, not at all. I wanted to go somewhere bigger and better.
So I went off to the closest city at the first chance I got.”
    Maybe that’s where things went wrong. He was sure something
had somewhere along the line, but he didn’t know how to ask her about it.
    She looked at the ground like she was ignoring him, but she
started talking. “I think that’s why our father left his money to Ben.”
    “Whoa, because you didn’t want to live on a cattle ranch?”
he asked, hearing the hurt in her voice. A picture of her came to mind, when
she came to his house the first time, and looked so hurt and lost.
    “Ben chose a more traditional lifestyle, and our father was
proud of his Nez Perce heritage.” She shook her head as if she wanted to end
the conversation. But she added, “I didn’t mean to insult that, I just wanted
excitement. I was raised as an only child, and it was quiet. All the time.”
    Hearing this made him want to reach out to her, but again,
his instincts told him she’d freeze up on him if he did. “Most young people
do.” And she did look young, maybe twenty-five. Her age didn’t agree with the
hurt he saw in her eyes sometimes.
    “That’s why I didn’t come here sooner . . . to see Ben.” She
rubbed her nose again to warm it up, but she still didn’t look at him. “Our
father left everything to Ben. I didn’t even know about him until Dad died so I
didn’t want to know him at first.”
    They reached her house and she turned to say goodbye.
    “Missy, I got the wrong impression of you.” He didn’t like
saying he was wrong, but he figured that came pretty darn close.
    “Thanks, I think.” She tried for a laugh and turned. He
didn’t want this to end and grabbed for something to keep her talking.
    “What about your job? What happened there?”
    She glanced back while keeping her hand on the door handle.
“Listen, I appreciate your interest, or