Rose pulled her phone from her back pocket and hastily typed a text message to her brother, Andy, both to ask when he was coming and to give him the heads up on this mysterious new interloper, but deleted it unsent at the last second. Call it intuition. Andy was whip-smart, but he was also confrontational; girls had always drooled over him, and his natural confidence had spun that adoration into something dangerously close to pomposity. He said the first thing that popped into his mind, which, if you weren’t feeding his ego, was often curt and cutting. Being without a father for many years hadn’t helped the two of them growing up, but it had affected them in fundamentally different ways, Rose reckoned. She was a loner, whereas Andy craved attention. She loved her mom unconditionally, while Andy loved to be indulged by her.

It had set brother and sister at odds more times than Rose cared to remember, but there was always that unspoken, almost ironic alliance they shared, that seemingly nothing could break, not even when they came to fights (fights which Rose had invariably won, having taken self-defense and karate classes since she was seven). It swayed her now. She knew Andy so well, could almost predict what he’d say and do when he found out some stranger had their mom’s ear at this late stage of her illness. The inevitable quarrel might even finish their mother off. No, it was better to keep her brother away until she could get a handle on what this Bellamy character was up to.

“Where to next?” he asked, brushing the dirt and breadcrumbs off his hands. “I saw some kids riding horses along a path, over that way.” He pointed to the forest paths. “Are there horses for hire anywhere close by? I haven’t ridden since…I can’t remember when. But it used to be…” Bellamy averted his gaze away from Rose, “one of my favorite things.”

“Spoken like a true Texan.” Rose watched for a reaction. He simply nodded, seemed lost in thought.

“Well, I wasn’t planning anything so strenuous,” replied Blythe, “but if you two want to go riding, there’s no way I’m passing up the chance. Let’s saddle up!”

“Mom? I didn’t know you rode.” Rose said, leery of this idea.

“Of course I can ride. It’s just been a while, same as Bellamy.”

“But…do you think it’s wise?”

“You show me a wise man and I’ll show you someone who never did anything worth a damn.”

“Mom!” Rose couldn’t help but laugh—seeing Blythe in this kind of form was the last thing she’d expected, and it was a glorious thing to behold. Almost out of time, she was turning back the clock. “What’s gotten into you?”