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Patience felt the tenuous grip she had on her temper slip as she stepped toward him. “No, she shouldn’t,” she said firmly. “Ari’s only fourteen, and I’m her mother. She is moving with me.”

Her father gave Kanon an ice-cold glare. “You’ve always been trouble,” he said and stalked toward the house.

Kanon’s eyebrows shot up and his jaw hardened, but he didn’t respond. He simply opened the door to his truck and climbed behind the wheel. “You going to follow me over?” he asked.

Patience’s heart was pounding like a jackhammer, and she was breathing as hard as if she’d just run five miles. She was the one who got to decide what was best for Ari—she and Jack—not her father. And then to be rude to her friend, who hadn’t done anything wrong…

“Patience?” Kanon prompted when she remained, fingernails curved into her palms, in the middle of the front lawn.

“It’s okay, Mama. I’m coming with you,” Ari said softly, and Patience closed her eyes for a second while fighting to overcome the impulse to go marching after her father and release all the pent-up frustration and resentment she’d held back for years.

“Mama?” Ari said.

Finally, she managed to offer her daughter a reassuring smile and turned to Kanon. “You have the address, right?”

He double-checked his phone before tossing it on the seat next to him. “Yep. You texted it to me earlier.”

“Good. We’ll see you there.” Drawing another bolstering breath, she put an arm around her daughter and gave her shoulders a comforting squeeze as they moved toward the 4Runner. “Everything’s going to be okay,” she murmured.

Ari gave her a sympathetic look. “I know, Mama. You’ve always been there for me.”

Even when she was barely more than a child herself, Patience thought. She’d tried to do right by her daughter from day one. At least she had that to be proud of.

Unable to swallow the lump that suddenly rose in her throat, Patience wiped away a tear that rolled down her cheek as the snow and frozen grass crunched beneath their boots and their breath misted in the cold air. “Thanks so much, honey,” she said.

* * *

Patience was such a cautious, conservative person. Even after that confrontation with her father, they were drinking a couple of sodas the Devlins had stocked the fridge with instead of the bottle of wine they’d also provided as a housewarming gift. Patience said she’d never really had much alcohol, not since the night she got pregnant and another time, on Jack’s birthday, when they celebrated in Reno and he’d insisted she try some of the free cocktails offered by the casino. Carl Lee had raised a daughter who was doing all she could to live the kind of life he would approve of, and it still wasn’t good enough for him. Kanon couldn’t believe it. If Patience couldn’t please her father, it was little wonder he’d never been able to please him. He was far more headstrong than she was, far more determined to do things his own way.

“So how do you feel?” he asked as he sat with her at the tiny kitchen table at her new place after Ari went to bed. Only two chairs went with the table, but he’d pulled over a stepladder Ari had used—she was the only one who could sit comfortably on it—when she’d had a toast with them using her own glass of soda before going to bed.

“I feel good,” Patience said, but he could tell that wasn’t exactly true. What’d happened with her father had cast a pall over everything.

“The hard part’s over,” he told her. “Won’t take you long to get settled.” They’d managed to get everything moved into her new place, but he hadn’t yet built the bookshelves they’d brought over, and she and Ari hadn’t yet unpacked, except for digging out what they needed to get through until tomorrow. At least Patience didn’t start at Jack’s trucking company until Monday. The weekend would give them time to get situated.

“Ari really liked Bubba,” she said, toying with the condensation on her glass. “That dog might save everything.”

“The Devlins are good people.” They’d come out to say hello, let Ari meet Bubba and offered to help unload. Patience had refused—said it wouldn’t take long—but they’d left her with a casserole that was in the fridge for tomorrow.

“They are,” she agreed. “They really helped make Ari feel welcome.”

“She’s going to be happy here. It’s off the main drag, so there’s more privacy, and a bigger yard. There’s the dog, as you said, and having just the two of you live together for her final years in Hard Luck will probably make for some special memories.”

She nodded. “Yeah. It’s going to be hard to let her go when the time comes, and that time is drawing nearer and nearer.”

He shook his glass to get a piece of ice into his mouth. “What’d Jack say when you called to accept the job?”

“He was shocked,” she replied with a laugh.

“But glad, I assume?”

“Very glad. He’s in a mess, already falling behind because Glenda refused to come to work after he asked for the divorce.”

“Speaking of Glenda… Have you heard from her?”

Finished with her soda, Patience pushed the glass away. “Nope. It’s been quiet since she ratted me out to my dad.”

Kanon had seen Glenda drive by the motel over and over again, which gave him the feeling it was purposeful and not just that she had errands in town that naturally took her by the motel. He guessed it would only be a matter of time before she stopped and approached him. “I have to admit, things have been a little more interesting around here than I’d expected when I came back to town.”