Page 81 of A Calder at Heart

Mason was serving a five-year sentence in the state penitentiary. No one, as far as Joseph knew, had visited him or written to him. It was as if he no longer existed. But the Hollister Ranch was his home, and unless he sold the place after his mother’s passing, he would be coming back to Blue Moon. By then, Joseph would be nearly grown.

The sound of an approaching automobile caught his attention. That would be Aunt Kristin coming home from a day at her office in town. Before they’d married last fall, Logan had cleared and graveled a new, direct road from the ranch so she could drive in all but the worst weather. The addition of home phone service made it possible for patients to contact her at the ranch. She’d also cut back on her days in town. Even so, finding time to be with her husband was a challenge.

The new addition to their house, which would be finished this summer, would include space to set up an office and surgery so that some patients could see her at home. It would also include quarters for a cook and housekeeper and a nursery which, she’d hinted, would be in use before long. “My mother managed to do it all,” she was fond of saying. “So can I.”

Now she drove into the yard and parked next to the house. The dogs came bounding off the porch to meet her. Seeing what was in the pasture, she flew out of the car and raced across the yard. “They’re really here! I can’t believe it!”

Celebrating with her, Logan caught her in his arms and swung her off her feet. Watching them kiss, Joseph found himself smiling. So many things had turned out badly last summer. It felt good to see a happy ending—and what he hoped was an even happier beginning.

BOOK GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• Why would Kristin choose to come home to Blue Moon when she could have worked at a big, modern hospital?

• Why do you think Spanish flu killed so many people? How would you compare it to the modern-day Covid pandemic?

• How does Logan’s idea of a good life compare to Webb’s and to Mason’s?

• How does Mason seem to feel toward Joseph?

• What changes Joseph’s attitude toward Mason and Blake?

• What do you think would have happened if Mason had married Gerda?

• Do you think Mason should have been punished for what happened to Gerda and to her father? Why or why not?

• What if you had to choose between a career and a family, as Kristin did? What would you do?

• Who is the strongest character in this story? The weakest?

• Do you think prison will change Mason’s character? Why or why not?

• Is Cully a good person? What is most important to him?

• If you were making a movie of this story, who would you cast in the major roles?

• Who is your favorite character in this story? Why?

Please read on for an excerpt fromQuicksandby Janet Dailey!

Determined to keep their legacy bull-rearing operation strong, the Champion sisters go head-to-head—and heart to heart—with some of the toughest men on the rodeo circuit—and walk away victorious in love . . .

Tess Champion knows better than to trust Brock Tolman, the rancher who once swindled her late father in a land deal. But with the Alamo Canyon Ranch in foreclosure, Tess is forced to accept Brock’s offer of a partnership. Brock claims he only wants to breed the Champion bloodline into his own herd. In exchange, he offers Tess one of his own young bulls. Soon enough, Quicksand is the rising star of the rodeo circuit, which only proves Tess is better at picking bulls than she is men. Because she’s way too tempted to surrender to her attraction to Brock, despite her certainty he’s only out to steal her family ranch . . .

It’s not until the tycoon’s private plane crashes in the wilderness, stranding him with Tess, that the truth of their relationship will come out. The Champion family’s future is on the line, but it’s Tess’s heart that will take the hit if she’s fallen for the wrong man . . .

CHAPTER ONE

Southern Arizona, March

AS THE SUN CLIMBED TOWARD MIDMORNING, A GOLDEN EAGLE ROSEfrom its perch atop a hundred-year-old saguaro. Its beating wings, wider than a man’s reach, lifted the bird skyward, where it soared and circled on the updrafts, its golden eyes scanning the desert for prey.

Brock Tolman shaded his eyes to follow the eagle’s flight. He felt a certain kinship with the great bird—both of them apex predators, both of them powerful. But the eagle’s power came from its wings. Brock’s came from his ambition.

As the eagle rose, its moving shadow passed over foothills painted with the bright gold of flowering brittlebush. Crimson-tipped spears of ocotillo and lemony clouds of blooming paloverde dotted the landscape with the colors of Sonoran spring.

In the weeks ahead, blossoming cactuses would blaze with hues of rusty yellow, pink, and magenta. Then white blooms would crown the giant saguaros that stood like guardians over the desert. Finally, the women of the Tohono O’odham who called the desert home would come with their long poles and harvest the seedy red fruit.

Brock had made enough money with his investments to live anywhere he wanted. But he had chosen this place, in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains outside Tucson, to build his private kingdom. The Tolman Ranch was a patchwork of pristine desert and fenced pastureland where genetically bred bucking bulls—close to 100 of them not counting the cows and calves, along with a herd of Angus beef steers—grazed on native grass watered by mountain springs. The ranch’s setting was beautiful, and Brock was not immune to beauty—whether admiring it, coveting it, or possessing it.

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