“I guess so. But he loves it.”

“Lord, don’t I know? But his health is the main thing, my big worry. He can’t expect to put in fifteen- or even ten-hour days around here.”

“No . . .” Bliss agreed, wondering where the conversation was leading.

“He’s just got to sell.” She took another nervous puff.

Bliss laughed. “I thought you knew him better than that.”

“He just needs to be convinced.” Brynnie licked her lips. “I guess that’s my job. Uh-oh, now who’s riling him up?” she asked as John’s voice filtered through the screen door.

“Dammit!” The receiver crashed into its cradle and the door was flung open so hard it banged against the house. “What the hell’s going on?” John demanded.

“Now, honey,” Brynnie said as she squashed her cigarette in the grass with the sole of her sandal.

“I can’t believe you went behind my back,” he charged.

“Oh, Lordy.”

“So it’s true!”

“John, just listen,” Brynnie placated.

“To what?” Bliss was missing something—something important.

“I got off the phone with my attorney and he’s been checking some things out with the county—the deeds and titles and records.” Her father’s expression was thunderous and he looked more like the hard-driven man she’d known as a girl. “It seems that my fiancée here has been doing some business that I didn’t know anything about.”

“I can explain,” Brynnie said.

“You sold my ranch to Lafferty.”

“My half,” she said, standing and lifting a reddish eyebrow that dared him to argue the point “And I’d do it again. Like that!” She snapped her fingers.

“Wait a minute,” Bliss interjected. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s simple. I deeded over part of the ranch to Brynnie for her and Katie—security if anything happened to me—and now I find out that she sold her parcel to Lafferty.”

Bliss didn’t move.

“John, now, don’t get upset,” Brynnie suggested.

“I’m already upset. Way past it, in fact. I think it’s time you told me what the hell’s goin’ on.” His face was a mask of raw anger, his lips tight over his teeth.

“I—I had to do something. While you were in Seattle, in a hospital bed because of your heart, I had a lot of time to think,” Brynnie began, her fingers nervously scratching her throat. “Oh, Lord, I need another cigarette.”

“Just finish.” John scowled darkly, as if he were already reading his fiancée’s mind.

“All right, I will. The truth of the matter is that I’ve spent too many years waiting for you as it is and I don’t want to lose you. That heart attack scared me and I thought, well, I knew that you’d come back here and work yourself to death, so I . . . I knew that Mason was moving back here to be closer to his daughter. He’d always been interested in the place, so I called him up and sold my part of the ranch to him.”

“Just like that,” he challenged.

“Just like that.” Brynnie didn’t back down.