Just this morning she would have said she could never sit through an entire meal across the table from Adam Kirk, yet here she was. And she couldn’t have sworn to whether it was this or the aftereffects of the crash that was making her feel so stiff. She could have talked easily if it had just been Hayley and Quinn, but with Adam sitting across from her, and studiously avoiding her eyes, she found she had little to say.

Which wasn’t missed much, apparently, because Quinn kept the conversation going with questions about Adam’s life on the east side of the state.

“I’ve not been there much,” Quinn said. “To Spokane, and the university once.”

“Wazoo?” Adam asked, using the nickname for Washington State. “I went there.”

Quinn nodded. “So, tell me about life there.”

“On the Palouse? It’s...very different from here.”

“What are your favorite things?” Hayley asked.

Adam looked at the couple, as if gauging if their interest was genuine. She could have told him it was; Quinn had told her once that understanding people was intrinsic to their work.

“Saddling up on a frosty morning, a good horse beneath you as you head out. Just the look of the hills, the way they roll on into eternity. Watching the moon rise over them, where it seems like it’s so huge and close you could touch it. The peaceful quiet. And the sounds, like the roar of Palouse Falls.”

Amanda stared at him. That had been...almost poetic. And there was no doubting the sincerity, the pure love in his voice.

I’m just a cowboy from the Palouse, nothing special.

His words, spoken to her on that long-ago day when she’d first met him, echoed in her head now.

“I’ve been to Palouse Falls,” Hayley said. “It’s so amazing how they just sort of appear, kind of out of nowhere, amid all that flat.”

Adam nodded. “Glacial,” he said. “Carved out of basalt.”

“How far do they drop?”

“Couple hundred feet, give or take.”

“Never seen them. Obviously an oversight I need to correct,” Quinn said. “I’ve never—”

He stopped as his cell rang. He excused himself and got up.

“He’s always threatening to turn the thing off at dinner,” Hayley said, “but Foxworth doing what it does, you just never know when someone might really need us.”

“I...never realized exactly what it was you did. It’s pretty amazing,” Adam said. Since she agreed with him—now there’s a shock—Amanda said nothing.

“Quinn, and Charlie, would say it’s necessary, as long as there are those who don’t play fair,” Hayley said. “Or who use their position or manipulate rules to their own ends.”

“Charlie?” Adam asked.

“Foxworth’s cofounder and the financial genius who keeps it all going,” Hayley explained. “And Quinn’s sister. The most intimidating human being I’ve ever met.”