She could remember it like it was yesterday. Looking up into those stern, brown eyes.

Who are you?

Would you believe I’m the sugar fairy?

And she held up a sugar cube. Reflexively, he held out his hand, and she had dropped it into his palm. You took my treat, she said. Now you can’t be mad at me.

And somehow after that, she had found a way to make sure she was never away from there—away from him—for very long.

At first he had been grumpy about it. And very unfriendly. But he had let her follow him around while he was doing ranch chores. And after a while, she just couldn’t remember what it was like to go a day without walking around Hope Springs Ranch in Ryder Daniels’s boot steps.

The idea of changing that, of ending it... It made her whole chest ache.

But Sammy wanted more for herself.

And she only had two real thoughts on how to do that.

“I think I’m going to leave,” she said, determinedly looking down the street.

There was a truck stopped at the four-way that headed out of town, two girls hanging out the windows, catcalling the cowboys walking down the street. One of them stopped to do spontaneous push-ups and the girls started howling.

“Okay,” Ryder said, his tone neutral.

“No, not like I do sometimes. Like...really leave.”

“What?” The question was sharp. She could feel him looking at her, but she didn’t look back.

“Not like...forever. But...for longer than I do sometimes. I think I need to strike out on my own a little bit more.”

“What brought this on?” She could hear the frown in his voice. Laced through with stern disapproval.

She shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal and not something that had been nagging at her for ages now. “Pansy. Pansy making her own way. Her own place. Her own family.”

Ryder looked like he wanted to say about ten different things at once, which was strange, considering he never looked like he had more than one thing to say at a time, if that. He said nothing.

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “Because... I’m happy. But I’m not whole. I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I need to do to have the kind of life I want. I’m not a kid anymore. And it’s all hitting me really suddenly. I’ve always thought of Hope Springs as Neverland, Ryder, but I have to grow up.”

“Is anyone stopping you from growing up?”

“I’m stagnant.”

“You’re not,” he said, his eyes far too sharp and focused. Far too insightful.

“It’s my mom,” she said finally. “She came to the workshop today and...she’s just...stuck, Ryder. She’s committed to her bad choices. I thought my dad held her back but it was her. So what if I’m the only thing holding me back, too?”

“Holding you back from what? Sammy, you’re building a successful jewelry business. You’re a one-woman manufacturing machine.”