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his plans and how they’d spoken of them. She knew something of young love and hoped his quest would end better than hers.
    Brushing dark auburn hair away from his forehead, she placed a kiss on his brow, praying his journey would be successful. She’d wished this for him. Strong, hardworking, and honest, Colin had matured into a strong leader, a young man others respected.
    Drawing the covers under his chin, she walked toward the door, taking one more look at a boy who’d become a man, knowing he’d be gone when she returned in the morning.
    “Good luck and Godspeed, Colin MacLaren,” she whispered, silently closing the door behind her.

    “Colin, take your brothers to the southern pasture and bring the cows closer.” Angus looked at the sky, watching the clouds shift into a formation foretelling a coming storm.
    “I’ll need more than the three of us, Da.” Colin slid the gloves he’d been wearing to repair a broken corral fence into a back pocket and followed his father’s gaze. “I don’t see any thunderheads.”
    “They’ll be coming, trust me. Find Quinn, Brodie, Blaine, and Sean. If they’re not enough, come back and get me and your uncles. We’ll show you how it’s done.” Grinning, he returned to his own chores, knowing there’d be no chance the boys would ask for their help.
    Colin found the others and rode south. The Circle M Ranch had grown over the past five years, adding more acreage as they prospered. Angus and his family lived in the main ranch house, which included a dining room large enough to hold thirty people. At the current rate, they’d outgrow the room in a short time. Three other homes stood within four hundred yards of the main house, each with several bedrooms, a large kitchen, and small barns. Two larger barns sat across from the main house, each with two corrals for breaking and training horses.
    The group rode in silence toward the pasture where the small herd grazed. It had been two weeks since his birthday and Colin had yet to announce his decision to leave. Even so, all his thoughts were on finding Sarah and bringing her home.
    “What are your plans?” Quinn asked, riding up next to him.
    “I leave in a week, after we get the herds moved.”
    “Are you certain where she is?” Through contact with travelers coming south from Oregon, and friends who traveled north, he knew Colin had done his best to track her. He knew Dougal MacGregor planned to settle in the Willamette Valley, which covered a large area on the western side of Oregon.
    “Nae. Somewhere in the Willamette Valley. I should’ve left years ago.” Colin shifted in the saddle. Since turning twenty, he’d had this argument with himself several times. However, Sarah would’ve only been nineteen at the time, and he remembered Dougal’s decision not to let her leave until she turned twenty-one. So he’d hesitated, wanting to show some respect to the man he loathed, and needing to build the ranch into something she’d be proud of. It had now been five years, a long time to dream of one woman and a shared future. Perhaps she’d fallen in love with someone else, married, maybe even had children. He shook his head, pushing the thought aside, not letting himself second-guess his journey.
    “I’m going with you.”
    “What?” Quinn’s comment took Colin by surprise.
    “I’ve made up my mind. You won’t make the journey alone, not when I’m able to go. Da will understand. Heather rides as well as any man, and Bram is as large and strong as anyone,” Quinn said, referring to his twenty-year-old sister and eighteen-year-old brother.
    Colin chuckled, thinking of Heather, stunningly beautiful and willowy, and a fireball if he’d ever seen one. “Who’ll protect her from all the suitors if you leave?” He didn’t look at Quinn, knowing he’d break into laughter if he did.
    “Hell, I’ll probably have to pay someone to court her, although Ma would box my ears if she heard me say that.”
    Spotting