“I’m not judging. Just telling you what could be happening.” Once outside the town limits, Katie lead-footed it, leaving Bittersweet in a trail of dust. She fiddled with the dial on the radio, came up with an oldies station that was playing “Ruby Tuesday” by the Rolling Stones, and while Mick Jagger sang through the speakers, she drove like a maniac past the fields and hills that led back to the ranch. Exhaust spewed from the tailpipe and the wind streamed through Bliss’s hair, but she barely noticed.

Her mind was on Mason’s doe-eyed daughter, and she felt a twinge of remorse that she’d ever been jealous of the sad girl.

“You know,” Katie said, oblivious to the turn of Bliss’s thoughts. “Tiffany’s got her own set of problems, what with J.D. Santini and all.”

“Her . . . brother-in-law, right?”

“One and the same. Kind of a cross between James Dean and the Marquis de Sade, if you ask me.”

“That bad?”

“Well, not really, I suppose. Good-looking, sexy, with an attitude that won’t quit. He’s not cruel, I don’t think, but he’s certainly a thorn in Tiffany’s side. Ever since her husband, who was quite a bit older, died, he’s been calling giving Tiffany advice on how to raise the two kids.”

“I’ll bet she likes that,” Bliss replied with only a trace of derision.

“Not a whole lot, no.”

“I don’t think she’ll be coming to the wedding,” Bliss said.

“Uh-oh.” Katie eased up on the throttle when she spied a sheriff ’s cruiser speeding in the opposite direction. She checked the rearview mirror to make sure the deputy hadn’t decided to make a quick U-turn and tail her. “Oh, she’ll come, all right. I know she appears kind of stuffy and reserved when you first meet her, but trust me, she’ll warm up to you, and if nothing else, curiosity will entice her to the ceremony.”

“I don’t know.” Bliss wasn’t convinced. She wasn’t even sure about Katie’s feelings. “Tiffany seemed to resent me.”

“Of course she does, but she’ll get over it. I already told you I think she’s gonna like you, but give it a little time, will ya? Remember, Bliss, you’re the one kid our father claimed. You grew up privileged, while Tiffany and I had to scrape by. Now, it never really bothered me because I didn’t know that John was my father until a little while ago and we had a big happy, if poor, family, but Tiff, she’s lived with a real downer of a mother who lied to her, and it sounds like now that she knows the truth, her mom’s made no big deal that she’s still bitter about it. Never married. Wouldn’t take a dime of support from John.”