It was hard to believe that only a couple of weeks ago Gabe Dalton hadn’t occupied much of her mind one way or the other. Now he was large. Just like he’d felt in her house.

The world around her head seemed foreign for quite some time now.

Her own self felt foreign now.

But Jamie Dodge only knew how to do one thing. To keep moving forward.

And so she would. No matter what.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

GABE HADN’T BEEN to see Jacob in a while.

The asshole’s cabin was so difficult to get to that Gabe didn’t often bother with the twenty-minute drive straight up the side of a mountain. Or maybe that was an excuse. Maybe what he was really avoiding was dealing with Jacob’s dark moods.

Sometimes the idea of trying to draw Jacob out seemed like too much work. More and more while he was figuring out the direction to take the ranch. Figuring out his situation with Jamie.

But now he wanted to talk to his brother about this new ranch idea. He wanted his brothers on board with him before he went and spoke to Hank about it.

He put his truck in Park and killed the engine, walking up to the front of the modest cabin and knocking twice. He looked around at the barren landscape around the place. The rocky clearing he stood in that looked over the edge of a cliff face, the trees behind the cabin that shrouded the whole thing in shade. There was a maul and a log out front with split pieces of wood all around it. A stack of kindling up by the door.

Jacob was turning into a little bit of a hermit stereotype. Not that he didn’t see him; it was just that he typically only came down for family gatherings. He seemed to avoid spending alone time with him or Caleb. Or at least, with Gabe. For all he knew, Caleb and Jacob continued to have the same relationship they’d always had.

He doubted it, though.

The door jerked open, and there was Jacob.

“How long has it been since you shaved?” he asked his brother.

“I grew a beard,” Jacob said, touching his facial hair. “Shaving is kind of counter to that objective.”

“Sure,” he said. “Can I come in?”

“Why don’t we talk out here,” Jacob said, stepping out onto the porch. “Can’t beat the view, anyway.”

He gestured over to a couple of lawn chairs, one yellow and one red, set up and facing the view. Craggy, gray granite creating a jagged frame around the staggering layers of green beyond. The sharp edges of dark pine trees and the soft, feathered greens of the fields.

The silence was like a presence. Thickening the air and settling over Gabe’s skin.

He preferred a little noise. Horses snorting and beating their hooves on the dirt. This silence seemed to create a buzz in his ears.

“Have you ever actually had anyone over to sit in these?” he asked.