Mike, whose father had been a farrier, had supplemented the restaurant earnings by shoeing horses, and he’d often taken his young daughter along as a “helper.” She’d learned to ride eventually, though, unlike her school friends Cord Hollister, J.P. McCall and Eli Garrett, she’d never been a confident rider.

In fact, when she was nine years old and riding near the main ranch house on the Hollister place with J.P. and Cord, her horse had spooked while they were crossing the creek from which the town had taken its name, and she would have drowned for sure if Cord and J.P. hadn’t fished her out of the water and hauled her to the opposite bank.

All these memories and insights came to Brynne as a single concept, rather than anything linear.

Her parents were coming home early.

And while they hadn’t said as much, they surely knew she was dating Eli.

As it was, Brynne felt as though all her private business had been plastered on a billboard for all to see. Mike and Alice—especially Alice—might think things between her and Eli were more serious than they were.

They tried hard to curb their enthusiasm, Brynne’s parents, but there was no denying that they were eager to see her safely settled.

Any day now, Alice might start showing Brynne pictures of wedding dresses and spectacular cakes, just as she had when Brynne moved in with Clay. She’d insist that the ceremony be held in the church she and Mike had attended since they’d come to live in Painted Pony Creek, and tour venues, far and wide, for the reception.

She’d want to measure Brynne’s closest friends—Shallie Hollister, Sara Worth and Brynne’s college roommate, Andrea—for bridesmaids’ dresses, which, of course, she would design and sew herself.

For Brynne, who would have readily admitted that she didn’t have an impulsive bone in her body, the whole experience would make her feel much as she had when she’d fallen off that horse and into the creek all those years ago—swept along by a current too powerful to fight.

“Why not stay in Arizona a little longer? Till it warms up here, I mean?” she heard herself ask.

“Because we miss you,” Mike boomed.

“And we’ve been everywhere else we want to go,” added Alice.

I don’t believe you, Brynne wanted to say, but didn’t quite dare. You want to see for yourselves what’s happening between Eli and me and steamroll us into getting married and giving you grandchildren.

“I’ve missed you, too,” was what she did say. That, of course, was quite true; when her parents weren’t trying to marry her off to the first viable candidate, they were wonderful.