Although a few people around town thought Eli had used his influence as sheriff to keep his errant nephew out of jail, the truth was, he hadn’t.

Sara, the kind of mother every kid should be lucky enough to have, had gotten her son into therapy right away, and kept him there. He’d been grounded for months, banned from playing his beloved video games, lost the use of his tablet entirely, and allowed to use his phone only when absolutely necessary.

Now, his grades were up, he was talking about college again, and his therapist whom he was still seeing, said he was back on track.

While he wasn’t about to bend the law for his nephew’s sake—or anyone else’s—Eli would do everything he could to keep the kid from turning to the dark side, for Sara more than for Eric.

Eli loved his sister; she and the kids were the only real relatives he had left, since his and Sara’s parents had died in an accident nearly a decade back.

Sara and Eli had been typical siblings before the tragedy, young adults, busy with their own lives, going their own ways, but they’d grown close afterward. Sara, being a single mother on a tight budget, had started worrying about Eli then, fretting over his tendency to throw himself into his job—he’d been a deputy then, and a junior one at that—forgetting to eat right, get enough sleep, etc.

She’d driven him a little crazy, actually, but, in terms of family, she and the kids had been all he had.

He’d grown to love, appreciate, and admire his sister, and he hoped the feeling was mutual.

Sara was beautiful, with a fine mind, bookish and artistic, sensitive and shy.

Eli, on the other hand, was more outgoing, and while he’d certainly missed his mom and dad, he hadn’t taken the loss quite as hard as Sara had. She was two years older than he was, and something of a homebody, even as a child.

Growing up, Eli had spent practically every spare moment with Cord and J.P., fishing and hunting, bucking hay bales, digging post holes, riding horses, herding cattle. Thanks to the Hollisters, Cord’s grandparents, and J.P.’s happily married folks and older sisters, he’d been almost as much a part of those families as he was of his own.

Being who she was, Sara had longed for a home and family of her own. After a year of college, she’d hitched herself to Zach Worth, a crap stain of a human being, and Eric and Hayley had come along quickly. Too quickly for Zach; he’d bailed when the kids were toddlers, gotten himself a Mexican divorce and has never been seen or heard from again.