“Maybe the right guy turned out to be the wrong one.” Bliss eyed the cattle lumbering in the fields of the lower hills and tried not to let her thoughts turn toward Mason again. “Mom and Dad’s marriage wasn’t exactly picture perfect, but then you know that. Mom always wanted me to date—and I quote—‘a strong, moral man with social standing, not some riffraff or rough-and-tumble cowboy like I did.’”

“Oh.”

Bliss plucked a piece of dry grass from a clump near the fence post. “According to my mother, no one was good enough for me and I really wasn’t interested.”

“Because of Mason,” Katie guessed shrewdly.

“What?”

“Hey, I’ve lived here all my life, heard the gossip, and it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. You got involved with Mason and John gave him the old heave-ho about the time of your riding accident up on the ridge. Your dad blamed Mason for what happened.” She glanced at Bliss, then continued. “Terri was pregnant, Mason married her, and you’ve never given your heart to another man, right?” Her green eyes were dark with unasked questions and Bliss found it increasingly impossible not to like Katie Kinkaid.

Pride inched Bliss’s chin up a notch or two. She wanted to argue, but thought better of it. Wasn’t Katie reaching out, talking to her, being the sister she’d never had? “Something like that,” she admitted. There was more, a lot more, but some things were private and couldn’t be shared, especially with a stranger who just happened to have turned out to be a half-sister.

“Well, good.”

“Good?” Bliss couldn’t believe her ears. For years, Margaret had paraded eligible suitors in front of her face, begging her to find someone to share her life with and get over whatever it was that had been eating at her—especially if it had to do with a certain cowboy John had told her about.

“Yeah. Good.” Katie tossed her hair away from her face. “Now you and Mason can get together. He’s divorced, you’ve never married and the rest can become, as they say, history.”

“I think that’s a little premature.”

“Ten years is a long time.”

Bliss bristled. “Listen, if anyone needs a man, it’s you.” Katie’s small jaw became granite. “Believe me, Bliss, no one ever needs a man, but sometimes it’s nice to have one around. I’m doing just fine on my own.”

“So am I.”