Page 2 of High Intensity

“Did you find everything okay?”

I pile the items I picked up on the counter.

“I think so.” I quickly check the list on my phone. “Yeah, that’s it.”

And thank God for that.

Even just being in the proximity of a shopping mall gives me fucking hives, so after wandering the aisles of the women’s clothing department in Target for the past half hour, I’m sweating like a pig. Good thing I only need to do this once, maybe twice, a year.

I wait for the woman to ring me up and pull out my credit card. Then I watch her pack up my purchases, and with a curt nod for her, grab the bags, and walk as fast as I can out to the parking lot.

My phone vibrates in my pocket as I’m getting into my truck.

“Yep.”

“Ama says you’re in Kalispell?” Dan asks.

Ama is both housekeeper and office manager at High Meadow. She’s also the most well-informed person at the ranch; she seems to know everything about everyone. So, I’m not surprised she was able to tell Dan my whereabouts, even though she didn’t get that information from me.

“Yep.”

“Good. I have a favor to ask.”

“What do you need?”

“Any chance you could swing by Home Depot on your way back? I just started a new project and need a few things.”

I chuckle. “A new project? Aren’t you still doing work on your house?”

Dan and Sloane moved into the new log home Dan built just before Thanksgiving, a little over two months ago. I thought he was still finishing up the inside.

“I am, but something else came up that has priority.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah…” I hear him chuckle. “Don’t tell Sloane, but I’m building a stable out back. I’m buying Aspen a pony for her birthday in April.”

Aspen is Sloane’s baby daughter. Dan is not the biological father, but you’d never know from the way he dotes on the kid. The fact he’s buying her a pony shouldn’t surprise me. Still, I stifle a bark of laughter.

“You realize she’s just turning one, right?”

“So? She’s already starting to pull herself up, and have you seen her crawl? She can cross the room in three seconds flat. Mark my words; she’ll be able to walk by her birthday, and getting her in the saddle is the next step.”

“If you say so. Happy to lend a hand on the new project, but in the meantime, shoot me a text with your wish list and I’ll swing by Home Depot on my way back.”

“Will do. I appreciate it.”

I’m still grinning when I take off my hat and walk into the lobby at Wellspring fifteen minutes later. I wave at Marcela, the receptionist, in passing. I’m halfway down the hall to my mother’s unit, when her voice calls me back.

“Lucas! Your mother isn’t there.”

Anyone calling me by that name is associated with my mother in one way or another. The rest of the world knows me by my last name.

I backtrack my steps and stop in front of her desk.

“She’s not? We were supposed to have lunch.”

The pretty woman smiles at me as she shakes her head.

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