“She wouldn’t get up from her nap, so J.D. stayed with her.” Tiffany rolled her palms to the air and winked at her nephew, as if they shared some private joke. “So, I guess it’s just you and Stephen.”

“Too bad,” Stephen said sarcastically. He didn’t seem inclined to hide the fact that he was sick to his back teeth of a sister who was little more than a toddler. “She’s a pain.”

“She is not. You’re lucky to have her.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Stephen,” Tiffany warned, about to say more when her eyes met Luke’s. “You’d think that with all the years that separate them, they’d get along.”

Josh grinned from ear to ear, eager, Luke supposed, to hang out with his older cousin. He opened the door and Stephen bolted through, followed by his mother, who took over the duties of keeping the screen door from shutting by using her body as a wedge. The boys were already up the stairs. Tiffany smiled at Luke. “Why don’t you come in and keep me company while I wait? I’m sure Katie won’t mind. That way you can tell me what’s happening with the ranch you’re fixing up.”

“You know about that?”

“Katie happened to mention that you were going to open it up to the public and take in guests sometime next spring.”

“That’s the plan,” Luke allowed as the boys, eating red licorice, ran through the kitchen again, grabbed a couple of skateboards that had been propped on the porch and took off toward the front of the house.

“Hey, wait. Where’re you going?” Tiffany asked.

“Just to the store.” Josh was already around the corner.

“Be careful and come right back!” Tiffany yelled, then, when Stephen threw her a look that silently told her he wasn’t a baby anymore, she turned back to Luke. “Moms are really just pains in the neck for teenage boys.”

“Is that right?” He wouldn’t know, of course, since he hadn’t been raised by his own mother, but there was no reason to confide in her. “He’ll grow out of it.”

“I hope.” She sighed and he saw a glimmer of the worry she’d carried with her as a single mother, a grieving widow. He decided it was a good thing that she’d linked up with J.D. She glanced around the kitchen. “It’s starting to come together, isn’t it?” Shaking her head, she admitted, “I never thought I’d move out of here. Never planned to remarry.” A tiny smile played at the corners of her mouth. “I guess that just goes to show you that you never know what’s around the next corner.”

“Nope.”

“So—” she motioned to a chair “—just for the record, I think a working dude ranch is a great idea. Why don’t you tell me all the details?”