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would have found us. Or Dad would have told us.” He brushed his sister’s long hair over her shoulder and put her head against his chest. “Enough has been stirred up already. I vote we move forward.”
    “Seconded,” Luke said. “I don’t really care to find someone who gave me up in the first place.”
    “That’s harsh,” Sierra said. “We don’t know the circumstances.”
    “Sorry,” Luke said, a touch of bitterness in his tone. “I just don’t care about anyone outside of this room.”
    They sat quietly in front of the fire, lost in their thoughts. It wasn’t going to be easy, Santana knew—but they’d get through it.
    Their father had left them a legacy, which included independence. Strength. And love.
    It was enough.
    • • •
    There were three weeks until Christmas, the days marching swiftly toward the holidays. Star Canyon was in a festive mood. Pets who came in to see Emma wore cheerful bandanas with candy canes or trees on them. But Emma hadn’t seen Santana again. She’d heard about him only through the Star Canyon grapevine.
    The grapevine had been humming.
    Mary Chapman handed her two bags of leftover scraps for Gus and Bean. “There’s no reason to let these go to waste. It’s just some bones and a few bits of leftover things that your new babies might like.”
    Emma smiled. “Thank you. They’ll appreciate it.”
    “There might be some extra in case you have any new strays come in,” Mary said.
    It happened often enough that Star Canyon stayed on the lookout for animals that had been dumped by uncaring owners. And what was in the bag wouldn’t be scraps so much as Mary’s weekly offering of chicken and other meats to try to lessen the burden on Emma’s clinic. “You have a generous heart, Mary Chapman.”
    “And you do a good deed by helping out unlucky pets. Now, how about you?”
    Emma glanced at the menu. “I’m starved. How about your cucumber sandwich and fruit plate?”
    Mary smiled, her eyes bright and cheerful as always. “I guess you’ve heard the Darks moved out of their house.”
    Emma stared at Mary, whose expression had, for once, turned quite serious. “I didn’t know.”
    “Apparently Sonny left everything to a brother nobody here ever knew about. The estate was settled last week, and now some out-of-towner owns it all.”
    Emma froze, stunned, her heart breaking for the Dark family. Mary’s worried eyes reflected her own inner sympathy. “I can’t believe it.”
    Mary sat down, straightening her blue shirtwaist dress with a sigh. “It’s tragic. And I’ve heard that Luke and Cisco might enlist. Maybe Romero, too. Obviously everything has changed for them.”
    “What about the fire department?”
    “We’ll be short-handed in Star Canyon, but that’s the way things go. They have to earn a living now. A small-town fire department can’t pay them what they’d need to have homes of their own. Of course, they weren’t paying anything for their living situation before.”
    “Why would Sonny do such a thing?” Emma asked.
    “Rumor has it he had made poor financial decisions and had no choice. He’d always focused his kids on community service and taking care of Star Canyon. But we’re a poor town, really. Artists like to live here because it’s inexpensive. Obviously, the Darks will have to find another way to survive.”
    “I don’t know what to say.”
    “No one does. No one had a clue Sonny was in trouble.”
    “What is Santana planning to do?” Emma’s heart practically stood still. The last thing she wanted to hear Mary say was that Santana would go back into the military—but it made sense that he would.
    “Santana found a house to lease. Captain Martin had a small place outside of town.” She got up to greet some customers, came back a moment later with two glasses of tea for them. “The Captain has a few rental properties, so he offered one to the Darks.”
    The captain of the fire department, Phil Martin, and his wife,