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to get to know you, and if I know my brother, even young Aiden knows how to be gentle with animals. Trustme, you don’t want to hook up with me. I never stay in one place too long and it’s no life for a dog.”
    Rafe had stopped for a moment to speak to his foreman, but he caught up with Jake as his brother opened the door of his truck.
    “So how long
are
you sticking around Lonesome Way this time?” Rafe asked drily.
    “Not too long, bro. I’m taking off for the Bighorn Bull Rodeo in Wyoming two days after I sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Zoey.”
    Though it was tempting, he decided against telling Rafe yet about the plan he intended to set into motion. It had been rattling around in his brain for a while, but things had really begun clicking into place when he got involved in the antibullying crusade. Then he learned about Brady quitting his job and suddenly—now that he was back in Lonesome Way—there was a picture in his head of how this all might come together.
    It was the right time. And the right place. He’d get it started, and after he took off, he could get updates from the road. With the right builder in charge—and Jake knew just who that builder ought to be—all he’d have to do was give his okays via phone or email and foot the bill.
    “Wait until you see Zoey.” Rafe’s words interrupted his thoughts. “She’s a hoot. She might be the spitting image of Mia—only tiny—including all that blond hair, but trust me, she’s got a will of iron, just like Travis. That’s one fearless, plucky little girl, and you won’t believe how she idolizes Grady.”
    Grady was Travis’s adopted stepson from his first marriage. A brilliant kid, all of thirteen, and last year he’d won first prize in the countywide science fair.
    “I’ve seen her picture. Looks like an angel. But if she’s anything like Travis, heaven help him and Mia,” Jake said with a grin.
    The smile stayed on his lips as he thought about his niece. Mia had been emailing him photos since the day Zoey was born. He had them all saved on his phone, along with picsof Grady, and the ones Sophie had sent of Aiden and Ivy.
Ivy
. His teenaged niece was morphing way too fast into a knockout young woman. It scared the hell out of him. And his sister emailed him pictures practically twice a day of her beautiful four-year-old, Molly, who’d snagged his heart the moment he set eyes on her—which happened to be the day after Sophie and Rafe got married, when Lissie barely made it to the hospital in time for the delivery.
    He was crazy about all of his nieces and nephews. Which was probably why every time he talked to Lissie, she kept pestering him, telling him he’d make a great dad and since he was now thirty-four he needed to seriously think about settling down. First she wanted him to snag himself a wife, then get started on a passel of kids. Lissie insisted he didn’t know what he was missing.
    But Jake saw things differently. Marriage, kids, a normal life, that wasn’t for him. His life suited him; it was exactly the way it should be. He had freedom with all that riding and competing, every week a different crowd, a different town. And best of all, no one depended on him. He’d failed once at the most important commitment he’d ever made. He’d decided after Melanie died that he wasn’t going to make any more promises to anyone—especially a woman—that he might not be able to keep.
    So he planned to go right on winning championships until he was too old to saddle a horse. He relished being in a position to raise awareness and funds for the charities and causes he supported.
    Rafe and Travis kept razzing him, telling him he’d feel differently if he met the right woman. They didn’t have a clue why he intended to ride right away even if he did meet her. They didn’t get it. He wasn’t cut out for long-term relationships or marriage or promises that needed to be kept. He’d known the truth about himself since he was twenty or so,