When she saw Shallie and Cord, both on horseback and trotting in her direction, she stopped, shut down YouTube and turned off her computer while they were still some distance away. As they approached, she moved toward them and said as blithely as she could, “Hi, I was just catching up on email and Facebook. And now I’m going for a walk.”

She had no intention of giving them a chance to find out what she was doing. When she did let them know, whether she did, would depend on how things went, who turned out to be her father and, more important, how he reacted.

They left with a friendly wave.

“Whew. That was close.” Yeah, she’d really become an accomplished liar—but wasn’t sure if she was doing this for her own protection or theirs. Keeping up such a big lie, such a complex one, had become a burden.

For the briefest of moments, she was tempted to call them back, to tell the truth, here and now.

SATURDAY EVENING, FEELING pleased with the day’s results—both his session with Shallie and his work with Mitch—Cord sat on the porch holding a bag of chips and a beer, sipping slowly. The dogs flopped hopefully at his feet.

Tina and Mitch showed up, and Cord offered them a drink; they both accepted. Handing Mitch the chip bag, he went inside to get him a beer. Tina joined him. “Don’t worry, I’ll pour my own wine,” she said. “Had dinner yet?”

Cord shook his head, and she shook hers, making a disapproving sound with her tongue. “That’s what I figured. I’ll put together a few snacks for us, okay?”

“Thanks! I did feed the dogs, though.”

“Well, you’ve got your priorities straight.”

Cord grinned in unfeigned agreement and joined Mitch on the porch again. They discussed today’s progress and their plans to hire local workers to harvest hay in a month or so. “How are your girls doing?” Cord asked. “Anything new with Susan?”

At twenty-nine, Susan was the youngest and single; she headed up the town’s small library. “She’s all excited about starting a weekly blog. She’s calling it Painted Ponies and Favorite Books.”

“Nothing new with Caroline and family,” he went on. Caroline, the oldest, and her husband, Peter Carson, had a ten-year-old girl, Ashley, and an infant son named Mitchell, so she was, for now, a stay-at-home mom while he ran an accounting business. “Peter’s just thankful tax season’s well over.”