It seemed only yesterday that her daughter had been small enough to rock to sleep in her arms. And yet she wouldn’t go back for anything. Jenny was going to make her proud one day. She was bright, spirited and intrepid. With Harlan as a father, she could be anything she chose to be.

Lone Wolf would have been satisfied with how far his descendants had come and how far they would continue to go, she thought. Perhaps she had fulfilled her promise to him, after all.

“Isn’t it time yet?” Jenny asked. “What’s taking so long?”

“Blame me,” Harlan said from the doorway to the church, taking them both by surprise.

“Harlan,” Janet protested. “You shouldn’t be back here. It’s bad luck.”

“You and I have one last detail to settle before you walk down the aisle,” he said, pulling a thick packet of papers from his pocket and handing them to her.

Janet regarded him warily. “What’s this?”

“It’s one of those prenuptial things you seem to like so much. I ripped up yours,” he said, handing her the shreds of paper as proof. “I set out a few terms of my own.”

Janet allowed the remains of her prenuptial agreement to filter through her fingers, then took Harlan’s papers with a hand that trembled. She wasn’t sure what last-minute fears might have driven him to clarify the status of things between them in writing.

“Read it,” Harlan insisted, putting an arm around Jenny’s shoulders and giving her a squeeze as Janet began to scan the familiar legal language.

She’d read no more than a clause or two before her gaze shot up to meet his. “This isn’t a prenuptial agreement at all. It’s a will.”

“I knew a fine lawyer like you would see that right off,” he taunted.

“You’re putting Jenny into your will as one of the heirs to White Pines?” she whispered, incredulous.

“She’ll be my daughter,” he said firmly. “She’s entitled to her share, not just as my daughter, but as a descendant of Lone Wolf’s.”

Tears welled up in Janet’s eyes. “The land should belong to your sons. They were raised on it.”

“‘Just putting what’s right in writing’,” he insisted, quoting her. “If things had gone differently a hundred years ago, maybe you’d have been raised on this land. Maybe Jenny would have been born here. I just see that paper as bringing things full circle.”

“She’ll probably put a shopping mall on it,” Janet threatened.

Harlan winced, but stood firm. “That’ll be her choice,” he said, gazing fondly at Jenny, who was staring at the two of them in stunned silence. “Thanks to you, she has a good head on her shoulders and good, decent values. She’ll make us both proud.”