Page 27 of Her Cowboy Reunion

No matter what you’ve been through, what rivers you’ve crossed or grass-crawling snakes you’ve avoided (especially the two-legged kind pretending to be family or friends) I want you to see Pine Ridge Ranch as a fresh start, a new beginning in a land wild and free and stunningly beautiful. A land a man can get lost in and a woman can call home.

I don’t know if you’ll love it. I want someone to love it, and if it’s family, that’s good. But if not, then Heath can buy you out because he’s the closest thing I’ve got to a son. He knows the sheep. He knows my heart.

Lizzie, I don’t know you or your sisters, but I know horses and Heath says you do, too. I started something I’m not going to finish. I hate that. A marine doesn’t start something and leave it go. We work, plan, strive and wrap up a mission. Every time. But not this time, and I’m leaving it to you to either make it work or sell it off. The good Lord has his own timing. My life is drawing down, but you and your sisters, your lives are just beginning, and if a share of Pine Ridge helps launch you gals, well, that’s a job well done.

Two tips: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Life sends plenty of big worries, the small ones don’t merit your time.

Second tip: Don’t waste time. Seasons come and go, and it’s a rhythm. You mess up the rhythm, you mess up the year.

I’m leaving the rest for Mack to handle, but I must add this: I don’t know you ladies. Never had a real chance to meet you or know you, and that’s a mistake I can never fix. But I can give you a piece of my dream. If it’s not what you thought, well, give it back, and that’s okay. But a smart woman gives things a chance and there’s something about horses and lambs and shepherds and the Good Book and all that goes with it. All I can ask is that you give it your best shot, and your forgiveness for not being the uncle I should have been all along.

Sean Michael Fitzgerald

Heath forced down the lump forming beneath his Adam’s apple, because Sean’s message hit home, even more since Lizzie appeared on the ranch.

“She is looking much better,” Harve noted as the twin lambs bleated from the adjoining stall. Hearing them, the ewe raised her head in concern. “I’ll keep an eye on her,” Harve continued. “You go back to finish up. Crisis averted.”

“Because of Liz.” Heath stood and crossed the pen to where Lizzie was standing. “You saved her life, and possibly the lives of those two babies. If we’d waited, we might have lost her.” He looked her in the eye. “Thank you.”

She didn’t look at him. She trained her attention on the ewe and spoke softly. “A sick mother should never be left alone. A little tender loving care goes a long way when needed.”

He nodded, but she tossed him a look as she moved away. A look of regret and disappointment. In him? It sure felt like it.

Then Corrie looped her arm through Liz’s like she’d done for as long as Heath remembered. “Mothers and young ones need tending, surely as the sun rises in the morning. Seeing to them has been one of the great joys of my life. And it’s good to see this extends to all God’s creatures, Lizzie-Beth.”

Heath watched them go from his spot in the stall.

“She’s kind of handy to have around, I’d say.”

He’d forgotten about Mack. He slapped a hand to the nape of his neck and frowned. “She’s got a way with horses and it’s no secret we needed some help with that.”

“Hmm.” Mack left it at that as he closed up his leather bag. “I’ll go over the details with Lizzie up at the house. Then I’ll come back and meet with the other sisters as they arrive.”

“Thanks, Mack.”

“No problem.”

Harve frowned at him once Mack had left. “You know I’ve got this and Wick’s up front.” He meant the foremost lambing shed.

Heath moved out of the stall as Harve stepped back in. “I’m going to have a look around. Just to see.”

Harve pressed his lips tight, gaze down.

There was nothing to see at the moment, and the reason he was avoiding the house was to avoid that look. The one he’d glimpsed in Lizzie’s gaze. Because maybe if he’d been a better man back then, things would be different now.

“Dad!” Zeke knew not to be loud around the sheep, but the excitement in his voice resounded through the mock whisper. “Look what happened. Come see!”

When Heath spotted a tiny white tooth in a sealed plastic bag, he hauled Zeke up into his arms and hugged him tight.

Second-guessing the past was stupid when his present was so vitally alive—and missing a first tooth. “That’s awesome, dude.”

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