“He did not,” Amanda informed her. “I got me a new computer. You’ll have to come up and play with it.”
“I'd be--good God, what’s this?”
Both Amanda and Jake spun around at the unholy glee in Lee’s voice. Amanda was terrified that the girl had decided to search under the couch. Instead, Lee reached over to the coffee table and picked up the sweater Jake had worn last night.
“The sweater,” she breathed in awe, holding it out before her like the lost family jewels.
Amanda wasn’t exactly sure what to say. Jake looked thunderous.
“Lee—” he threatened.
Amanda couldn’t help but grin. “Now I know why you do that so well.”
Lee was looking between the two of them as if she’d just been privileged to a vision. “Tell me it was you, Amanda. Tell me you got Jake to actuallywearit.”
Jake tried another verse of the same song. “Lee—”
“We bought it for him, you know,” Lee told Amanda, her eyes still wide, the corner of her mouth crooking. “For his birthday two years ago. There’s only so much you can get a man who spends his big evening out every week down at Stilwell’s or the volunteer fire department playing poker. But we never really expected him towearit.’’
“Why not?” Amanda demanded. “It’s beautiful.”
“Of course it is. Gen spent damn near a hundred dollars on the damn thing. But we knew better than to think that would make a difference. We had a bet going, you know. Gen swore we’d have to bury him in it just to see if it fit.”
“That’s enough,” Jake snapped, not nearly as upset as he sounded. “You know, there are always flights back to that big city you like so much.”
Lee turned astonished eyes on her brother. “Leave?” she demanded. “And possibly miss the chance to be here and actually witness you doing something really cataclysmic, like giving one of your horses away?”
It couldn’t have been better timed. The back door slammed open and Clovis strode in. “Boss? That you? I see that Sweet William’s back in his stall. Does that mean Amanda’s down from the cabin?”
That did it. Lee dissolved into peals of laughter. Jake deserted them for his room, and Amanda stood there, trying to figure out how she was going to retrieve her dress without anybody knowing.
It didn’t take long for the entire ranch to reverberate with the effects of Lee’s return. Betty actually sniffled a few times. Maria sang while she cooked, and José invoked several saints while he saddled Lee’s mate. And Willy, who was so sweet and quiet, blushed furiously when Lee gave him a big kiss hello.
Of course, Amanda felt the effect most of all. Lee chattered nonstop through breakfast, shared the latest news from school while Amanda got ready to leave, and then demanded to join her for the ride to the cabin.
The two of them headed off without so much as a farewell from Jake, who was already closeted back in the breeding shed with Clovis and Grayboy. Something, Lee assured her, that she had to see while she was here. Something, Amanda knew, that she wasn’t quite ready for. Not with Jake standing alongside her.
The morning was soft and alive, birds skipping over the fields, insects returning to life, the colors of a thousand different new wildflowers littering the grass. The stream sang to them and the breeze warmed them. And at the periphery, always, the mountains guarded them.
“God, I missed it,” Lee breathed, resettling herself in her saddle as the horses walked up the meadow.
“I can understand,” Amanda allowed. She never had gotten to her dress. For the ride back, she wore the same jeans and blouse she’d worn down. The bag in which she’d kept her dress hung empty from her saddle.
Lee looked over at her. “You like it here?”
Amanda didn’t bother to disguise her smile. “I love it here.”
Lee allowed herself a very satisfied smile.
“Don’t look so smug. You’re the smart brat, I’m the teacher, remember?”
“How was Brett Clark? Was he really everything people say?”
Amanda laughed. “He was the first person I’ve ever seen actually look at his reflection in a plate.”
Lee giggled. “I guess this means you won’t be moving in with him any time soon.”
“I sincerely doubt that he’d be interested in homey aphorisms and weather forecasting.”
