Page 59 of The Prodigal Brother Returns

“When are you leaving?” Jonas walked her to the front door.

She thought Nathan had fallen asleep, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught him watching them. She lowered her voice. She didn’t need advice from either of the brothers. Fortunately, it didn’t look like Jonas had any to offer. “Tomorrow, about noon. After Rena gets here and I introduce her to Nathan.”

“Okay. I’ll tell Nathan what’s going on. Travel safe.”

“But—” Before she could tell Jonas she preferred to keep her personal life quiet, he’d closed the door behind her.

She shrugged, thinking she should go back in and ask him not to share her plans with his brothers, or at least Blake, anyway. Imagining Blake’s frown and then blank expression when he found out she would be living in Strawberry Ridge when her time on the Triple L was complete, she decided to let it go and went to pack her bag.

Why should Blake care where she lived? He would go back to Arizona and his life there. They would likely only run into one another in passing when he came to visit his brothers.

She’d survived a humiliating divorce. She could survive falling in love with a man who didn’t love her back.

Chapter Seventeen

Monday morning, BlakewroteThe Endon hisTimmy, the Superhero Comes Homebook. He leaned back from his laptop with a sigh. That left revisions, which, strangely enough, was his favorite part of writing.

He could hear Timmy stirring, so after sending his agent a copy of the draft, he closed his laptop and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

Today was the day he planned to turn his dad’s restored truck over to his brothers. If that didn’t do the trick to make his amends with Jonas and Nathan, then Blake didn’t know what would. What was worse was that here he was trying to repair his relationship with his brothers and he couldn’t get Nathan’s girl off his mind.

He and Timmy ate the French toast Blake had fixed while his boy had dressed for the day. When they finished cleaning up after themselves, he asked. “Are you ready?”

Timmy nodded, excitement lighting up his eyes. Coming to the ranch had been so good for the boy.

Blake grabbed the bag of ribbon he’d bought the day before and off they went. The truck was already clean, inside and out. All they had to do was add the final touch and then park the vehicle by the porch.

He’d been out early to let the horses go into the pasture. They could clean out the stalls after he turned the truck over to his brothers. He looked around for Andee and Reece on their way through the barn. It was so surprising how much he’d gotten used to the twins being underfoot when he was taking care of the horses.

He didn’t see them on the way to the shed. He frowned. That wasn’t right. They were usually in the barn right behind him. What else didn’t feel right was not seeing Malorie the last two days. Yes, he’d been doing his best to keep his distance, but that didn’t mean he never wanted to see the woman again. Maybe she had the twins giving the guesthouse a good cleaning that morning.

He attached a big bow to the passenger-side windshield wiper. Timmy strapped himself in. Blake started the engine.

Parking in front of the house, he texted his brothers. “Come out to the porch.”

It wasn’t until he looked in the rearview mirror that he noticed an unfamiliar red sedan parked next to Malorie’s Bronco. He hadn’t heard the car come down the driveway.

Jonas and Nathan stepped out of the house. Still trying to figure out why there was a new vehicle in the drive, Blake waited for them on the lower step.

“What’s this?” Nathan, leaning on his crutches, asked and not in his usual cranky tone.

Curiosity about the sedan forgotten, Blake was instantly suspicious at his brother’s calm question. But it was Timmy who climbed the stairs to stand between his uncles and who took the question literally. “It’s Grandpa’s truck. It’s for amends.”

“Amends?” Nathan questioned.

Timmy stood taller. Blake couldn’t stop the kid, and anyway, what did it matter? It was time he laid his cards on the table. The truck was a major step. There would be no more hiding.

“It means fixing a mistake.” Timmy enlightened his uncles. “Right, Dad?”

Blake looked at Nathan, then Jonas. “That’s exactly right.”

They all turned to look at the truck. It looked better than the night he had wrapped it around the tree out in the far pasture.

“It looks good,” Nathan said, surprising Blake.

“Excuse me, please,” a soft voice said behind them.

Blake backed to the side, pulling Timmy with him, and let an older woman pass. She looked to be in her fifties, maybe. Gray hair. Shorter than Malorie.

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