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of
    town had once been a blacksmith’s forge. That left Joey as the only owner still occupying one of the six guest rooms on the second floor of the
    saloon.
    Bobby Joe said, “I wish you’d have come to me first, son. I may not know much about ranching, but I know about business.”
    “Believe me, Dad, I’m gonna have plenty of questions about running a business before long. And there’s no one else I’d want to
    ask.”
    His father nodded, but still seemed less than excited for his middle son.
    Then Jason broke the tension by saying, “I haven’t seen you this animated about anything since you came here from Texas, Rob. And I’ll
    tell you what, anything that shakes you out of that morose state you’ve been in this past year and a half is something I’m for.”
    He nodded, then said, “It’s like the dark shell I’ve been wearing just cracked and fell away.”
    “That’s what it seems like, looking at you,” Joey said. “But I’m not sure it was the ranch that cracked you.”
    He sent Joey a “shut-the-hell-up” look, then got back on topic. “I’m gonna head out there in the morning. Got a few calls to make
    today. Get the electric turned on, stuff like that. But I knew there’d be talk around town, and I wanted to tell you first.” He glanced his
    dad’s way. “We’re gonna need to hire more help at the saloon, Dad. I’ll try to keep up until we can find someone, but—”
    “There are enough of us to pitch in ’til we find a new hand,” Maya said. “Shoot, I can sling drinks with a twin on each hip when the
    chips are down.”
    He didn’t doubt it one bit, although her twins were too big to need carrying on her hips anymore. “Thanks, Maya.”
    Vidalia snapped her fingers. “There were
two
Kellogg girls. Twins. Kiley and….another K name. Kelly?”
    “Kendra,” Rob said, but his heart had contracted at the rest of her revelation. “She died recently, Kiley said. She didn’t tell me
    they were twins.”
    All the suspicion left Vidalia’s eyes, and she lowered them and whispered, “Oh, that poor child.” She reached across the table and closed
    her hand over Rob’s. “Then you’re right to help her. That is what you’re doing. Don’t try to say different. You McIntyre boys
    have your father’s big, soft heart. You just be careful Robby. The way I remember it, the Kelloggs were… ” She stopped there, searched
    for the word, and finally settled on, “…troubled.”
    He didn’t like the sounds of that, but he wasn’t going to ask for more. A year and a half ago, before coming to Big Falls to be with his father
    when they’d all thought the man was dying, Rob had made a conscious decision to be completely honest with everyone in his life and to involve himself
    only with people who could return that honesty. To him that meant not prying or snooping or gossiping to find out about Kiley Kellogg. The honest way was
    to simply ask her.
    Kara said, “You know that place is gonna need a good scrubbing before you can move in.” She wiggled her eyebrows and looked around the table at
    her sisters.
    Edie picked up on her message. “And furniture. And dishes. And towels and bedding,” she added.
    “And pizza and beer,” Selene put in, elbowing Joey and grinning as he nodded in wholehearted agreement with her.
    Vidalia nodded. “Fortunately, we’ve done this sort of thing before. No point waiting for morning, either. I have a friend at the power company
    and she’ll switch you on like that,” she said with a snap of her fingers.  “So we can get started tonight. We’ll meet you out
    there around seven, Robby. Don’t you worry. You’ll be right at home in no time.”
    “I um—wasn’t worried.”

 
    Chapter Four
----
     
    The big boulder was right where it had always been on the bank of the Cimarron River. She was sitting on top of the rock where she’d been for hours.
    She and Kendra used to jump off into the river. There was a nice deep spot, perfect for