“Oh.”

“But you know, that wasn’t the important thing. The thing was... It felt like everything was dark until you. You were something else. Sunshine coming through the darkness. And all that was more important than wanting you. So I forgot about that quick. Especially... Especially when I found out that you didn’t just come out from behind a flower in the garden one day and decide to join the family. When I found out about your dad.”

“You have taken care of me,” Sammy said.

They never talked about that night. Ever. It was as unspoken between them, as well... All of this was. Except, this was spoken now.

They had touched each other.

Things had changed.

The truck continued to rumble, the calf between them occasionally making a plaintive bleat. It was a ludicrous time to have this conversation, which made it about as good a time as any.

“I wanted to kill him,” Ryder said.

“You almost did.”

“No less than he did to you, Sammy. I’ll never get over seeing those bruises on your face. Knowing he put them there. Dammit. I still wish I had killed him.”

“He’s dead now anyway, and we’ve had all this time. And if you’d killed him then you’d be in prison. And we wouldn’t be here.”

He shook his head. “No, we wouldn’t be.”

That felt loaded right about now. Because where exactly were they? She didn’t know.

They rode in silence after that, until they reached the barn. Bennett Dodge was already there, his mobile unit fully equipped to handle any sort of emergency.

“Hi,” Ryder said, getting out of the back of the truck and shaking the other man’s hand. “How are things?”

“All right. Kaylee’s got some wicked morning sickness but other than that...”

That was the first that Sammy had heard about the veterinarian’s wife being pregnant. His wife, who was the other veterinarian.

Bennett Dodge was one of the least scandalous people in the entire town of Gold Valley. But he had one of the more scandalous things from his past pop up to haunt him. Well, not haunt him, she supposed. But one day three years ago a fifteen-year-old son he hadn’t known he had had ended up on his doorstep. That was when things had changed between him and his coworker and friend Kaylee. Sammy wasn’t privy to all the details; all she knew was that they had been the best of friends, and then the next thing she knew she heard they were getting married. And now apparently having a baby.

“Congratulations,” she said.

“We were empty nesters for all of two minutes.”

He said it with a lot of humor. Bennett was only in his midthirties. She doubted he was ready to be an empty nester anyway.

Plus, he’d missed the first fifteen years of his first child’s life.

“I’ll never be an empty nester,” Ryder said, looking around. “I can’t get these people to leave.”

“It’s overrated anyway,” Bennett said. “Having been one for most my life.”