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CHAPTER ONE

GARRETT MCQUIRE leaned on the fresh timber and wire fence—erected properly within the surveyors’ stakes, he noted—and looked out over the newly created pasture that had Tanner Harris in such a lather. As elected sheriff of Colum County, Garrett felt an obligation to listen to the concerns of all the citizens, but Tanner had been a sneak and a whiner all his life, someone who thought the world owed him, and he wore on Garrett’s last nerve.

“When I saw you stop at the head of her road,” Tanner said, “I thought you were gonna talk to her. Why didn’t ya?”

Garrett took his time answering. Officially he was responding to Tanner’s complaint against his neighbor’s new fence. As sheriff, he didn’t need to get into the fact his son was applying for a job at Whistling Meadows. To Tanner, that alone might look as if Garrett were taking sides. He wasn’t. He hadn’t even met the other side. Samantha Weston. Although he’d seen her bicycling around town. Unless she broke the law—or messed with his son in any way—she was no concern of his. Maybe that’s how he should approach the issue with Tanner.

“I didn’t talk to her,” he replied at last, “because she’s done nothing wrong. Nothing I can see.”

“Not technically, maybe.” Tanner glowered at the offending railing. “But she’s gone against time-honored tradition. Sashaying into town from who-knows-where. Buyin’ up my family land. Cuttin’ off access…”

Garrett tuned the guy out. He and the rest of Applegate’s residents had heard this rant for weeks. In the barbershop. In the diner. At town meetings, even. And although the beef wasn’t new, it had nothing to do with time-honored tradition—as much as boundary disputes came close to ritual in Colum County. Tanner’s gripes all boiled down to the fact that his aging uncle Red had had the audacity to sell his sixty acres to an outsider rather than will it to his nephew. Three-quarters of Tanner’s collateral had always been his presumed inheritance.

As to the comment that Ms. Weston had sashayed into town, she hadn’t. She’d arrived and set up her business so quietly that, if it weren’t for the new fence enclosing the pasture part of her property and the signs around the county, advertising llama day treks, you wouldn’t think much had changed.

“…and the old man’s makin’ a fool of himself.” Tanner had wound himself even tighter, if that were possible. “Living with her. A woman half his age.”

“I don’t think you can call it ‘living with her.’ You’re ignoring the fact he sold her the land with the stipulation he can live out his days in the bunkhouse. Separate from the big house. On land he loves. Farmers don’t usually get such a secure retirement. In cutting himself a creative deal, your uncle was thinking of his future.”

“Well, he sure wasn’t thinking of the future of his only kin. Me. With three boys to raise.”

“No,” Garrett replied, struck anew by Tanner’s unrelenting self-centered attitude. “I dare say he wasn’t.”

Tanner grunted and seemed to be thinking along a different tack. “Between the national park and this fence, I’m blocked in. So where are me and my boys gonna ride our ATVs?”

“Rig yourself a trailer and haul your ATVs to the authorized county trails like most of the other folks around here. Your free-range days are over. Times are changing.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.” Tanner glowered at the top of the Whistling Meadows barn just visible above the far rise. “So, you’re not gonna talk to her?”

“As things stand, I have no reason to.” Garrett headed for his cruiser. “But I suggest you do. Neighbor to neighbor. Friendly-like.”

“When hell freezes over.” With a dismissive wave of his hand, Tanner headed across his littered yard toward his rundown house, which had been built too close to the boundary line as if in anticipation of the merging of the two properties.

Garrett got in his cruiser and glanced at his watch. Rory’s interview with the Weston woman should be over by now. He hoped his son got the job. As soon as he’d arrived for the summer, the twelve-year-old had found the ad in the paper and had made the call himself. The only thing he’d asked his father for was a ride this morning. And although Garrett was glad Rory was showing some initiative, he wished he knew more of what was going through his son’s mind these days. From the last visit to this, the preteen had closed down. Already reduced to seeing him on vacations, Garrett didn’t like feeling further shut out of his only child’s life. But if there was one thing he’d learned from experience with other people’s kids, it was that you didn’t find out much by pushing. Patience and observation were key— virtues easier executed in his job than in the role of parent.

PERCY TAGGING ALONG behind, Samantha walked Rory McQuire toward the five other llamas wading in the creek. The boy had said very little, but he’d made eye contact as he’d listened to her explain the duties of the part-time job. And he’d let Percy make the first moves. He seemed easier around the animal than he was with her.

“Have you had any experience with llamas?” she asked.

“No, but I’ve read about them and most other animals. I watch the Discovery Channel. Animal Planet. National Geographic. I want to be a vet.”

“How old are you?”

He patted his pocket. “I have my work permit.” A work permit meant he was young. Standing on the bank of the stream, he watched Percy join his packmates. “Besides, does it matter? I’m strong.”

“No, I guess it doesn’t matter. I was just curious.” She didn’t like people snooping, either, and turned the conversation in a different direction. “Thinking how long I might expect your services before you head off to vet school.”

He suddenly seemed uncomfortable, so she switched the subject away from him and onto her operation. “My herd’s small right now because I’m just starting out. Besides, day treks with six llamas and a dozen or so paying customers are all I can handle by myself.” And for the time being, at least, she needed to remain alone.

“Why aren’t you out on the trail today?” he asked.

“Monday’s our day off,” she replied. “Not that the boys need it. But if I don’t take a break, work around the house and the property piles up. That’s where you’d come in.”

“Did you ever think of breeding? Seems like it would bring in more money than trekking.”

She didn’t care about the money. In fact, a small, obscure operation was just what the doctor had ordered. She’d experienced the personal pitfalls of a big enterprise. But she wondered why a kid who looked like he was in middle school cared about business.

“What made you think of the moneymaking aspect?”

“My mom’s in banking,” he replied with a shrug. “I can’t avoid the subject.”

“To answer your question,” she said, strangely at ease talking to this kid as if he were much older, “I think I’ll stick to trekking. Adding females to a herd leads to a whole other set of challenges. They’re not particularly willing pack animals, and they can be moody.”

Rory seemed to be taking mental notes. “How come you advertised for stable help,” he asked at last, “when you said the llamas rarely go into the barn?”

“Force of habit. I grew up with horses. Even though the llamas stay for the most part in the pasture, the barn’s full of tack and trekking equipment, and you’d be helping keep that in order.”

Led by Percy, the five other animals had begun to drift over to the creek bank where the humans stood. Curiosity. Cats had nothing on llamas. Rory stood still. Not nervous, but waiting. Exuding a calm energy that, too, belied his years.

The three other kids who’d come seeking the job had been either too talkative or too boisterous in their movements or too touchy-feely. Llamas, like people, didn’t wish to feel assaulted and, as cuddly as they appeared, didn’t particularly like being snuggled or petted. They, more than she, had decided to pass on those first candidates.

She pointed to each llama in turn. “That’s Percy. You already met him. He’s what’s called a paint. Then there’s Mephisto, the bay. And Fred, the piebald. Mr. Jinx is an Appaloosa. The white one’s Ace. And finally Humvee, the black and tan.”

“Their coats are so different they’re easy to tell apart.”

“You’ll learn you can recognize them as easily by personality.”

Percy chose that moment to lean close and snuffle Rory on the neck. His muzzle, dripping with mountain creek water, must have been cold, but the kid stood his ground, merely chuckling. “What’s he doing?”

“He’s saying, ‘You’re hired.’”

“For real?”

“For real. Percy’s chairman of my interview committee. Can you start today?”

“I’ll have to ask my dad when he comes back.”

“Of course.” She hadn’t paid attention to how Rory had managed to get to her farm. He’d simply shown up in her barn at the agreed-upon time as she’d been cleaning tack.

“He shouldn’t mind if you could, maybe, give me a ride home when I’m done.”

She tried to hide the reflexive wince. “Sorry. I don’t drive.”

Rory shot her a disbelieving look, but she was spared an explanation by the staccato double toot of a car horn. Partway down the hill, a cruiser had pulled up in front of the barn. The driver’s door opened, and the sheriff got out.

“That’s my dad,” Rory said, heading downhill. “I’ll tell him you want me to start now. I can walk home. I’ve walked farther. Other days I can ride my bike.”

She didn’t really want to meet the sheriff—she didn’t need her second chance at life beginning with a connection to law enforcement—but, as an employer, she should say hello to this kid’s father. So she set her shoulders and marched down the hill.

The boy and the man approached each other as if they weren’t entirely at ease. After exchanging a few words, which Samantha couldn’t hear, Rory came back up to her, dejection written on his features.

He looked at the ground as he spoke. “I can start today, but…I didn’t tell you everything. Maybe you won’t want me for the job.”

“Try me.”

He looked back at his father, who remained by the cruiser. “I’m only here for the summer. In September I go back with my mom. To Charlotte. Unless….”

“Unless?”

“Let’s just say I can only promise you two months. The ad didn’t say it was a summer job.”

Percy felt comfortable with this kid. And so did she. Besides, two months to a person who was learning to live one day at a time seemed like forever. “Two months will be fine.”

“You mean it?”

“Sure. But years from now I might ask you for a vet discount. Who knows?”

His only answer was a heart-melting grin.

“Come on. Introduce me to your father.”

She told herself she had no reason to be nervous. Her business permits were in order. She hadn’t sat behind the wheel of a car since her license had been revoked. She regularly attended her court-ordered AA meetings. Although her name change hadn’t been sanctioned by the judge, she was Samantha Weston only in Colum County. For personal reasons. All her business transactions bore the corporation name she’d established three months ago. A holdover reflex from her former life. Perhaps this bit of hedging meant she hadn’t really disowned her past. She was glad Percy wasn’t around to give her that soul-searching llama look.

“Garrett McQuire. Rory’s dad.” The sheriff held out his hand. He was tall and fit. Muscles were evident beneath a well-pressed uniform. Not much else showed, though. His facial features were well concealed beneath a Stetson and behind aviator sunglasses. Stereotypical, sure. But arresting.

“Samantha Weston.” She tried not to be tentative in her handshake. “I run this place.”

“She says I can work the summer.” Rory still looked pleased, but a note of defensiveness had crept into his voice. Did the sheriff run his family the way he ran his department? “Maybe I could fill in other vacations, too, if Mom knows I’d be making money.”

“You’ll have to work that out with your mother, son. And Ms. Weston, of course.”

Samantha didn’t want to get into the middle of a custody mess. “Let’s see how the next few days work out,” she said. “You may change your mind. The work I need done isn’t particularly glamorous.”

“But the llamas are cool, Dad. You gotta meet ’em.”

“Another time, okay? Now I’m due at the courthouse. I’ll be late tonight, too. Geneva will have your supper ready for you. She can stay if you want to play cards or video games.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Rory mumbled.

“I know you don’t. But you might want company.” He turned to Samantha. All business. “Good to meet you. And welcome to Applegate.”

Rory seemed relieved when it was just the two of them again. “What should I do first?”

“Let’s go meet Mr. Harris. He used to own this land, and now lives in the bunkhouse. Although he doesn’t work anymore, he still supervises.”

Rory grinned. “Gotcha. Kinda like Geneva. She doesn’t babysit. She supervises.”

Red Harris, crafting fishing lures, was sitting in a rocking chair on the bunkhouse porch as they climbed the steep and rocky hill. “This here the new help?”

“You don’t miss much,” Samantha replied. “Mr. Harris, this is Rory McQuire.”

Rory stuck out his hand.

The old man took it and hung on. “Now’s a good time to get something straight.” He looked directly at Samantha. “I’m not Mr. Harris. I’m Red. And since you, missy, are young enough to be my granddaughter, and you, kid, could be my great-grandson, I sure would appreciate it if we all stuck to first names. Red, Sam and Rory okay with you two?”

Both Samantha and Rory, a little taken aback, nodded as Red shook Rory’s hand forcefully. “You any good makin’ lures?”

“Mr. Harris…Red.” Samantha felt the need for a preemptive strike. “I hired Rory to do cleanup around the property. Maybe minor repairs. To help with the tack and equipment—”

“Just kiddin’,” Red cut in with a wink to Rory. “If I had help with my lures, I’d get done twice as fast. Then what excuse would I have to sit on the porch and see how a city slicker runs a hardscrabble farm?” He chortled, and Samantha wondered at his assessment of her. She hadn’t mentioned to him where she’d come from. “Let me tell you, kid,” he continued, “weird doin’ ashe’s doin’a helluva lot better than my good-for-nothin’ nephew woulda, had he got his greedy mitts on the property.”

As Samantha resisted the point-of-pride urge to tell Red she’d grown up feeling far more comfortable in her father’s stables and pastures than at her mother’s posh parties, her BlackBerry vibrated. The caller ID told her it was her mom.

“I have to take this,” she said to Rory. “You can start by clearing the tree branches from the paddock.” The tumultuous winds of a thunderstorm last night had strewn her property with debris. “I’ll be with you in a minute.”

As she walked away, she heard Red say to Rory, “I might have to come up with a new name for her. She really isn’t a Sam. Not at all. More like a Duchess…”

“Mother,” she said quietly into the phone.

“Darling, how are you?” Her mother’s concern was, and always had been, genuine.

“I’m wonderful.” It was becoming the truth.

“Then, perhaps, your father and I could visit—”

“Please, we all agreed with Dr. Kumar. I need a total change. A year off.”

“From us as well?” Her mother’s voice held hurt.

“From everything.”

“You know, dear, we’re not the enemy.”

“I know that. But my old habits are. I need time to forge new ones. Healthy ones.”

“In secret?”

“Not secret. Seclusion.”

“But why?”

“Because I’m vulnerable right now. And you know Dad. A steamroller in a tux.” She smiled at the thought of the man she loved with an only child’s devotion. “If I saw him, I’d be persuaded right back into the rat race.”

“May I remind you Ashley International Hotels is a five-star rat race?”

“You know what I mean.”

“And…now that we’ve broached the subject… will you be attending the opening of the Singapore Ashley? You worked so hard to get it up and running.”

Samantha didn’t quite know how to answer. Although she and her father had worked side by side on the project, although she knew it was his way of introducing her to the world as his heir in the luxury hotel corporation he’d grown from a small chain of economy lodges, she wouldn’t be in Singapore for this event. Her heart wasn’t in it. For her father’s sake, she wished it were. But no matter that she had been immersed in the business from an early age and that her father implicitly believed in her—she wasn’t a hotelier. Because she’d almost self-destructed trying to be someone she wasn’t, she needed to find out who she might be.

“I did my job,” she replied cautiously, “so that others could take over. And they will. Beautifully. With you and Dad there it will be a gala opening.”

“Of course it will, but we’ll miss you, darling. We do miss you. We only want you to be happy.”

“Thank you. I’m working on it.”

“Justin wants to know if he can call you.”

“No.” Justin Steele was her ex-almost-fiancé. She’d come to think of him as the fox in the henhouse. “When he proposed, I was very clear we had no future together.”

“Oh, darling, that was the stress talking.”

No. Of all the things she’d done to please others, turning down Justin had been the first genuine action she’d taken for herself. She wouldn’t debate her mother on the issue.

After a long silence, her mother tried a different approach. “Can you give me a tiny hint as to where you are?”

“Mother!” As much as she missed her parents, Samantha needed this time. Alone. She didn’t need her mother’s well- intentioned meddling. And she certainly didn’t need the intrusion of the paparazzi that had followed her arrest and court date. “I’m counting on you to honor Dr. Kumar’s advice, and to make sure Dad doesn’t send Max out on the trail.” Max was the personal detective her father kept on retainer.

“You flatter me. I have very little real control over your father. As you say, a steamroller in a tux.”

“I’m not trying to hide from you, Mother. Every day I feel stronger and stronger. But before I come home, I want to make certain I’m strong enough to avoid a repeat of—”

“An unfortunate incident. There’s no need to bring it up.”

“But part of my recovery is accepting responsibility.”

“Darling, you had a drink or two during a social occasion. We all do. No matter what the judge thought, you are not a drunk.”

“An alcoholic. A recovering alcoholic. And, over time, it was more than a couple drinks. In fact, so many drinks at that particular luncheon I don’t even remember the school zone—”

“No!” The single syllable pierced the distance between mother and daughter. “You paid your debt. Can we, please, not relive it all?” her mother pleaded.

“Agreed. I’d like to focus on the present. And right now the sky is blue, the sun is shining and I’m breathing the most wonderful fresh air.”

“Sea air? The Hamptons, perhaps? That lovely spa on the far end—?”

“Mother, you’re incorrigible.”

“Well, Dr. Kumar may have prescribed a year’s rest, but you’re not going to keep the location secret for the whole time, are you?”

“No. I just need to settle in.” It had been three months since her rather secret—to keep the newshounds away—release from rehab. At first she hadn’t wanted her parents to know her new location because she was afraid of being drawn back into her old life. Now, she was head over heels in love with the simplicity and beauty of Applegate, tucked away in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. Now, she was afraid if her parents showed up in town, they’d love it, too. So much so that her father would buy it and turn it all into a five-star resort.

LATER THAT NIGHT, Garrett returned home, glad that today on the job had been routine. It wasn’t always so. When he’d become sheriff five years ago, he’d inherited a mess. Colum County was changing rapidly. Developers were buying up mountain tracts and turning once nearly communal land into gated vacation communities and upscale commuter subdivisions, shutting long-term residents out and making their taxes stratospherically high. That was a minor intrusion compared to the influx of big-city problems. Drugs especially. Recreational drugs had replaced moonshine. The county remained a bucolic paradise on the surface, but underneath simmered some very real issues.

Sheriff Easley, his predecessor, had run things as his daddy and granddaddy had done before him—by a slow and convoluted good-ol’-boy system that didn’t want to recognize change. The small department had been low-tech, ill-equipped and badly trained. Not to mention susceptible to the lure of small-town graft. A real embarrassment. Elected on a reform platform, Garrett had been vigilant in turning things around and confronting the county’s problems head-on. Which meant he appreciated a routine day. A relatively quiet day. Like today.

He found Geneva in the kitchen, scrubbing a scorched pan. The smell of burnt popcorn filled the air. “How’s it going?” he asked his housekeeper.

“It’s going, all right,” Geneva muttered as she lifted the pan and made as if to throw it out the window over the sink. “That boy uses my best pot to make popcorn. Puts in the oil then walks away to check on a video game. Smelling something not right, I come back here to find flames shooting out. My best,” she repeated dourly. “Nearly ruined.”

“I’ll speak to him.”

As Garrett turned toward Rory’s room, Geneva caught his arm. “Don’t.” Her voice immediately changed from irritated to concerned. “He’s been wrestling with something heavy. Been on that skinny little phone of his most of the evening with his mama. Won’t tell me what’s got him so riled.” She returned to her scrubbing. “So don’t mention this stupid old pot.”

“I won’t.” He headed for a chat with his son.

In the three years since he and his ex-wife, Noelle, had divorced, Rory had spent every vacation with Garrett. It was part of the custody settlement. Garrett always looked forward to the return to day-to-day parenting, and Rory seemed to enjoy his time in the mountains, but the initial transition was always hard. This time especially so. At twelve, almost thirteen, Rory, with one foot in childhood and the other in adulthood, had stopped communicating with his father. It made Garrett worry his son might be getting ready to tell him he was too big for life in a small town and wanted to live full-time in Charlotte.

He knocked on Rory’s bedroom door.

“Yeah.”

Taking that monosyllable for permission to enter, Garrett pushed the door open. Rory was at his computer, intent on a game Garrett had seen his deputies playing. He didn’t think it was appropriate for a twelve-year-old, but he needed to pick his battles. Right now he wanted to find out what was bugging his son.

“How did work go?” he asked. Up at Whistling Meadows Rory had seemed almost happy.

“Okay.” His boy continued to play.

Garrett sat on the edge of the bed, facing Rory. “I’d like to talk.”

Reluctantly Rory shut off the game, but he didn’t face his father. Didn’t speak.

“Geneva says you seemed upset.”

Rory scowled as if fighting back tears, as if struggling to put the boy behind him.

“Son, I can help—”

“No you can’t!” Rory twisted away. “Mom’s made up her mind.”

“About what?” Foreboding stabbed him. Despite their cool but cordial relationship so far, Noelle didn’t reveal much about Rory’s and her life in Charlotte, only her rise in the banking world. That was something she never tired of telling him, her proof, perhaps, that she’d been right and he’d been wrong about the limitations of Applegate. Now, what was going on? Was she thinking of remarrying? Or—the awful possibility hit him—was she tired of fitting Rory’s trips to Applegate into her increasingly hectic schedule? Was she planning to seek sole custody? With her continued climb up the corporate ladder, she had the contacts and the financial wherewithal.

“What has your mother decided?” he repeated.

Rory whirled on the computer stool to face Garrett. Tears glistened in his eyes. He looked five, not twelve. “Mom wants to send me to boarding school after eighth grade.”

Damn. This was out of left field. “Why?” His kid was bright and conscientious. Perhaps, at times, too conscientious. Too buttoned down. If Noelle had a fault, it was that she tried to make Rory a little pinstriped banker. “You’re doing great right where you are.”

“Mom says Harpswell Prep can help me get into an Ivy League college. But I wanna be a vet, and there are good vet schools that don’t look at whether you went to some snooty high school or not.”

Garrett felt the anger rise. Not at the notion of a prep school, but at the idea that Noelle had failed to consult him on a big decision in his son’s life. And what a decision. She had to know it pushed his buttons. He hadn’t spent his youth in foster care just so his son, with two loving parents, could get farmed out to boarding school.

“I’ll talk to your mom,” he said, rising.

“You can’t talk to her now. She’s on a plane to London. Besides, we need a plan, and I’ve been working on one.”

Surprised, Garrett turned to his son. “What plan?”

“I want to live with you. Full-time. I don’t want to go back to Charlotte. Mom’s always traveling, anyway. We could switch the schedule. I could see her on vacations.”

“Have you mentioned this to your mother?”

Rory shook his head.

Garrett could see the fireworks now. Noelle would think this was his idea. Would think he was using Rory to question her parenting skills, to circumvent the judge’s orders. While she’d use all her considerable money and influence to make Garrett pay, Rory would be the one to suffer in the end.

Garrett couldn’t let that happen.