Raylen sat down beside her and loaded his plate with dumplings and then deftly, while his sister was talking to Grandma, forked the chicken from her plate and raked part of his dumplings over it.

“Hey, where’s my chicken?” she said when she looked down. “Raylen!”

“Don’t look at me. I was in the bathroom. Dewar probably stole it,” Raylen said.

Dewar threw up both palms defensively. “I’m innocent.”

Colleen narrowed her dark green eyes and looked from one brother to the other. “Raylen, you did it. You can’t hide nothing in your face. That’s why you’re a lousy poker player.”

Raylen grinned and shoved food into his mouth.

“He’s got the hots for our new neighbor and he’s hidin’ that pretty dang good,” Dewar said.

The grin vanished and he shot his brother a dirty look. “She’s a pretty woman, but you’d best be careful,” Grandma said. “She’s like a butterfly. They look so pretty flittin’ around out there among the roses, but if you catch one and put it in a jar, it’ll die.”

“She’ll get tired of plain livin’. She’s a…” Colleen said.

“A carnie,” Raylen finished for her. “Once a rancher, always a rancher. Maybe that don’t hold true for a carnie.”

Dewar put in his two cents. “I’ll bet you it does.”

“I’ll take that bet. Ten bucks says she stays,” Raylen said.

“Ten says she goes before Christmas.” Dewar stuck out his hand and they shook over the table.

“Twenty says she’s gone by December fifteenth,” Colleen said.

Raylen looked at Colleen. “You don’t think anyone can change?”

“Person is raised one way, chances are they’ll stay that way,” Colleen told him. “I won’t ever marry anyone but a rancher. It’s in my blood.”

“I’ll put twenty on it.” Raylen sipped his iced tea. “So you’re sayin’ if a man walked up on our porch, say, sellin’ Bibles, and you looked at him and fell in love in an instant like Rye did when he looked at Austin, that you wouldn’t be happy sellin’ Bibles with him?”

Colleen giggled, then laughed aloud, then grabbed her napkin to wipe the tears. “Me sellin’ Bibles? That ain’t never goin’ to happen, Brother. I’m marryin’ a cowboy when I get around to fallin’ in love. One who lives on a big ranch.”

“Good girl,” Maddie said.

“Never say never,” Raylen said. “Gets a person in trouble every time.”

Chapter 9

After work, Liz drove to the O’Donnell ranch and straight back to the barn. She just sat there behind the steering wheel staring at the barn and letting every scene from the night before play through her head. One of the doors was open about three feet, and she was pretty sure that Raylen was cleaning up after last night’s party. She had her hand on the truck’s door handle when her cell phone rang, and she jerked back as if she’d been burned. She answered it without even checking ID, figuring that Raylen was calling to give her a hard time about dragging her feet.