chapter
one
“So you broke up with Farrah?”
Darren bristled at his oldest brother’s question. He’d only told his twin, Logan, about the break up, and he should’ve planned better for Sam’s visit to Island Park.
“She broke up with me,” Darren said to the dregs of his cereal bowl. Steps sounded behind them, and he hoped when Sam’s wife entered, the conversation would be over.
“She broke up with him,” Sam said upon Bonnie’s arrival.
Darren sucked in a breath and nearly threw his cornflakes at his brother. “Can we not make it a national event?”
“When did that happen?” Bonnie asked, totally ignoring his question. “I thought you guys were happy.”
“Apparently only one of us.” Darren slid her a glance but couldn’t truly meet her eyes. He’d been existing in this painful without-Farrah state for sixty-four days now.
Sixty-four days since she’d ended their eight-month relationship. Sixty-four days since he’d spoken to her. He’d seen her at church, of course, which was almost enough to convince him to study the gospel at home.
Most of the time, he made it through his morning chores before he remembered he wouldn’t be texting the beautiful blonde through his lunch hour.
Rambo, his brother’s dog that got left behind when Logan moved to California seven months ago, whined as if he could sense Darren’s discomfort. He would never tell his brother, but he’d been letting Rambo into the farmhouse—and onto his bed—at night. The outdoor Australian shepherd loved having his belly rubbed at bedtime, and Darren liked the companionship.
No, he didn’t live alone. But Ben lived in town with Rae now, and Sam had moved all the way to Wyoming with Bonnie, and Logan and Layla had gotten married a few months ago and gone across the country to California.
Darren hadn’t gone anywhere. Hadn’t done much more than saddle horses, and feed horses, and talk to horses.
Shouldn’t have tried to get Farrah to do the same, he thought. If he hadn’t pushed so hard about her riding in the Island Park Independence Day parade, maybe she wouldn’t have called things off between them.
“…you’re coming, right, Darren?”
He looked up at Sam’s question, having completely missed the conversation for the past several minutes. “We’re doing what?” he asked, not even trying to hide his lack of attention.
“The cemetery,” Sam said, giving him an older brother look as he buttered toast and slid it to Bonnie.
She smiled, but her eyes didn’t crinkle around the edges, didn’t hold the same level of happiness as usual. Darren didn’t blame her. She had traveled a thousand miles while six months pregnant. Afraid to fly in her condition, she’d insisted Sam drive them in his pickup truck, and the trip had taken three days.
And they’d come to visit her son’s grave. So all in all, the trip couldn’t exactly be called a vacation.
“Yeah,” Darren said. “I’m coming to the cemetery.”
The other two cowboys who’d replaced Logan and Sam came thundering upstairs. Cody and Wade were also brothers, also unmarried, and also not in a relationship. Darren didn’t need tofeel so isolated, but as the only unattached Buttars brother, he did.
“Morning,” Sam said, stepping out of the way so the Caswell brothers could get breakfast.
“Hey,” Cody said, grabbing his coffee mug from the dish drainer.
“We’re clearing out,” Darren said as he stood and danced around his brother to get his dishes into the sink. He followed Bonnie and Sam out to the truck though the cemetery was only about a mile from the farm.
The hay fields that sat between the farm and the cemetery weren’t exactly easy to navigate, so Sam went out to the main road and turned north, going back toward town. They drove in silence, and Darren kept his eyes out his window trying to find something about the landscape in Vermont to dislike. He couldn’t.
He loved it here; didn’t want to leave the way Sam had. Didn’t want to start a different career the way Logan had. He loved being a horseman, though the pull of owning his own farm or ranch or boarding stable was appealing. He had enough money from his inheritance to get a decent start, but he didn’t want to leave Vermont or Island Park.
So he hadn’t even looked—at least until Farrah broke up with him. Then he had seriously considered relocating to a farm of his own. Nothing had caught his eye yet.
Sam parked near Jeffrey’s grave, and they all piled out of the truck. Darren hung back, giving Sam and Bonnie their private moment. Bonnie really, who had been married previously, had a child, and then had to bury him after a terrible accident at the park.
Sam kept his arm around Bonnie’s shoulders almost protectively, and Darren’s heart squeezed at their intimate contact, the easy way they loved each other. Sure, he knew ithadn’t always been easy, but everything about them seemed so perfect.
