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“He’s come a long way since he was a kid. So have Logan and Dylan. All of them went to college, with more hindrance than help from Jake, and made their mark in professional rodeo, too. Logan has a law degree, as a matter of fact.”
    Lily widened her eyes at her father. “Since when are you such a fan of the Creeds?” she asked, careful to keep her tone light. Tess was so bright that she might pick up on the slightest nuance.
    â€œSince one of them saved my life,” Hal said quietly. “And, anyway, I admire gumption. They’ve got it in spades, all three of them.”
    â€œIs he married?” Tess asked, just a mite too cagily for Lily’s comfort. “Does he have a little girl?”
    Lily nearly choked on a forkful of spaghetti casserole.
    â€œFar as I know,” Hal said, looking at Lily instead of Tess, “he’s single. No children.”
    â€œDo you think he’d like a little girl?” Tess persisted, with such a note of hope in her voice that Lily’s eyes filled with sudden, scalding tears. “One like me?”
    â€œHoney—” Lily began, but words failed her.
    Hal reached over to pat his granddaughter’s hand, his smile fond and full of tender understanding. “I think any man would be proud to have you for a daughter, cupcake.”
    â€œDon’t,” Lily whispered.
    And just then, the wall phone rang.
    Lily rushed to answer it, partly because she needed the distraction, and partly because she didn’t want Hal rushing off to take care of somebody’s sick cow and compromising his fragile health.
    â€œHello?” she chimed.
    â€œLily? This is Tyler.”
    The floor went soft beneath Lily’s feet, just the way it had when she was a teenager, and just the sound of Tyler Creed’s voice had the power to melt her knees.
    â€œEr—hello—” Lily fumbled.
    â€œI want to see you,” Tyler said. I want to see you. Just like that.
    As if he hadn’t sold her out to sleep with a tattooed waitress. As if he hadn’t shattered her most cherished dreams, and fostered a cold distance at the center of her marriage that she and Burke had never been able to overcome.
    Damn him, he had his nerve. Because he wanted to see her, he expected it to happen. It probably hadn’t even occurred to him, in his arrogance, that she might refuse.
    â€œLily?” he prompted, when she was silent too long.
    Her face burned, her stomach did flip-flops and she turned her back on Hal and Tess, in a fruitless attempt to hide what she was feeling.
    â€œLily?” Tyler repeated. “Will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?”
    â€œOkay,” Lily said, though she’d meant to say no instead.
    When it came to Tyler Creed, she had no backbone at all.

CHAPTER THREE
    I F T YLER HAD HAD to explain what made him call Lily and ask her out, he’d have been hard put to find the words. She’d been on his mind ever since they’d run into each other on the road, after his truck broke down, but there was more to it than that—a lot more.
    Maybe it was being alone at the cabin, with just Kit Carson for company—although, in truth, solitude had always been one of his favorite things in life. He was a loner for sure—more so than either of his brothers, and that was saying something.
    Maybe it was knowing only too well what it was like to be a kid like Davie McCullough—a player in a game of psychological dodgeball, always “it.” Never knowing which direction to jump, but always and forever ready to sidestep some missile.
    And maybe it was the brief time he’d spent with Dylan that day, reminding him that having brothers could be a good thing.
    For some people.
    People who weren’t Creeds, that is.
    In any case, he’d called Lily, without even stopping to think that she might be involved with some luckybastard. She’d agreed to go out to dinner with him, though,