“Slow down, Dad. This morning you said you wanted to quit your job, now you want to move to the country? Are you sure you’re ­feeling all right? And what do we know about running a ranch? Or looking after horses?”

“Right now, not a lot, but I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t learn. It would be a leap of faith, but we’d do our best and make a go of it, together, you and me.”

Amy stared out the windshield, her eyes flickering with confusion, but also a glimmer of excitement. “I’ll admit, on the one hand, it does sound kinda tempting . . .”

“And on the other?”

“And on the other, it all sounds sudden and drastic.”

“Too drastic?”

“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”

Kevin fell silent, stared out the window, then laughed and shook his head. “Actually, forget it,” he said, turning the engine back on. “Let’s just go home. It’s probably a terrible idea. I’m sorry, I’m not sure what got into me.”

“No, wait . . .”

“No, honestly, it’s ridiculous. It wouldn’t be sensible, not after everything’s that happened.”

Amy reached over, twisted the key, and switched off the engine. She then reached into her pocket and pulled out her mother’s pendant, which she turned over in her hands for a moment, brushing her fingers over its luminous moonstone. For reasons that weren’t entirely clear, she found herself warming to the idea.

“Dad, maybe this wouldn’t be the craziest thing in the world.”

“Really?” He spun around in his seat, startled. “You don’t think I’ve lost my mind?”

“I did at first, but now that I think about it, it actually seems to make sense.”

“You think so?”

“Strangely enough, yeah, I do.”

“But you do realize what it would mean? With a move like this—everything would change.”

Amy looked down at her pendant again and caught the sunlight reflecting off the silver, almost as though it was winking back at her. “I know, but maybe we have no choice.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t explain it, but something about this feels right. I mean, what if we were meant to come here today? What if this is something we were meant to do?

Kevin leaned back in his seat, quietly smiling at his daughter. “Do you know something? You sound just like your mother. That’s exactly what she would’ve said. Everything happened for a reason, according to her.”

“And what do you think she would say if she were here? What would she tell us to do?”

“That’s easy,” Kevin said, who didn’t need to consider that question for long. “I know exactly what she’d tell us to do.”

Amy smiled back at him. “Me too.”