After he’d cleared out a space in the barn for his car, he poked around in the shed for a shovel and hoe and started attacking the weeds growing near the house’s foundation. As he breathed in the smell of honeysuckle, he remembered exactly why he’d bought this place instead of the Southern California beach house he’d always imagined. Because being here felt right. He loved the old buildings, the way the hills sheltered the farm. He loved knowing this land had been part of something more lasting than a football game. But most of all, he loved the privacy. No crowded Southern California beach could give him that, and when he needed his ocean fix, he could always fly to the coast.

He barely knew what privacy felt like. First, growing up in boarding schools, then embarking on a college athletic career that had brought him instant recognition. After that, he’d turned pro. Finally, with those damned End Zone ads, even people who weren’t football fans recognized him. He stiffened as he heard the jingle of bracelets. Bitterness curdled his stomach. She was trying to ruin this like she’d tried to ruin everything else.

“I was planning to hire a landscape crew,” his mother said.

He jabbed the shovel into a clump of weeds. “I’ll deal with it when I’m ready.” He didn’t care how long she’d been sober. Every time he looked at her, he remembered tear-streaked makeup, slurred speech, and the weight of her arms dragging on his neck during her drunken, drugged-up pleas for his forgiveness.

“You’ve always been happiest outside.” She came closer. “I don’t know much about plants, but I think you’re trying to take out a peony bush.”

Considering the life she’d led, his mother should have looked like Keith Richards, but she didn’t. Her body was toned, her jawline a little too smooth to be entirely natural. Even her long hair offended him. She was fifty-two, for chrissake. Time to cut it off. As a teenager, he’d been forced into more than a few fights when one of his classmates gave a too detailed description of her ass or whatever other body part she’d chosen to show off on one of the rare days she condescended to visit him at school. With the toe of her shoe, she unearthed a flattened tin can. “I’m not dying.”

“Yeah, I figured that out last night.” And Blue was going to pay for her lie.

“Not even sick. There goes your big celebration.”

“Maybe next year.”

She didn’t flinch. “Blue has a big heart. She’s an interesting person. Different than I would have expected.”

She’d gone on a fishing expedition, but she wasn’t going to catch anything. “That’s why I asked her to marry me.”

“She has those big innocent eyes, but there’s something sexy about her, too.”