Page 39

His half brother nodded. “I get that.”

They took a sharp curve in the road, and Dallas laughed. Then he pointed across the pretty little valley that was Cowboy Point to the lighthouse that stood on the opposing ridge.

“That lighthouse looks pretty from this angle,” he said.

“It’s pretty all right,” Finn agreed. “Despite the fact that there’s nothing remotely resembling an ocean out here.”

Dallas laughed again. “I think folks have come around on the lighthouse,” he said, still looking out through his open window. “They complained a lot when I first started getting the light up and running again. Now they complain when I turn it off.”

“Still on track to open that bed-and-breakfast?” Finn asked.

He thought Dallas sighed, or maybe it was another laugh. “I’ve always been on track,” he said. “It’s only if you talk to Tennessee that you might get the impression that there’s nothing but Don Quixote up at the top of that hill, swinging at windmills all day and night.”

“There’s not a damn thing wrong with swinging at a windmill or two,” Finn said, staunchly. “Sometimes that’s the only thing to do.”

“Agreed,” Dallas said. He settled back in the passenger seat as they kept bumping up the road, getting higher and higher from the valley floor. “And since we’re brothers, I thought I’d check in and see how your sudden marriage is going.”

Finn slid a look his way. “What makes you think it’s sudden?”

“Fair enough.” Dallas smiled, but kept his eyes on the scenery. “You know what folks say about marrying in haste. And I don’t necessarily put a lot of stock into what folks say about anything, because they usually say it to me and I always think they’re wrong, but I’ve been there myself. It didn’t end well. I’m hoping you’re smarter than I was.”

Finn laughed. “There’s no way I can answer that, is there?”

Dallas nodded as if that was his intention. “I’ve always liked Kitty.”

“Same,” Finn drawled.

“I remember when they first moved to town. No one could believe that three sisters who’d just happened upon the place wanted to move out here to the back of beyond and open a restaurant. Obviously, everyone agreed that they’d be gone before a full winter had its way with them. But here they are.”

Finn wasn’t sure where Dallas was going with this, but he settled in and let it roll on anyway. “I’m a pretty big fan of the Bennett sisters. They’re impressive. And excellent housemates. I wouldn’t bet against them, is what I’m saying.”

“The thing about Kitty specifically,” Dallas said, and he was sounding more and more amiable, which Finn took to mean that he was getting closer and closer to the actual point, “is that she does have a habit of getting a wild idea in her head and making sure it happens, no matter what. There’s no getting out of that line of fire once she’s made up her mind. But I’m sure you know that.”

Finn let that sit for a moment, and decided he liked it. He liked that Dallas had his back. Wasn’t that what family was supposed to be about? Wasn’t that why they’d decided that the Lisle and Patrick factions should spend some time getting to know each other?

This was part and parcel of declaring that it didn’t matter what their father had done to all of them. They were going to make themselves into the kind of family he’d hate.

Finn had to think this was a step in the right direction.

“I appreciate you looking out for me,” he told him. “I really do. I won’t tell you not to do it, because I know it doesn’t work. But I’m good. I would even say I’m happy.”

Dallas nodded, and didn’t say another word.

Eventually they bumped their way to the end of this particular dirt road, which meant that they were rolling onto a cleared little bit of land. It was overgrown, but someone long ago had clearly carved a plot out of the trees here. Now there were fields filled with weeds and mountain grasses, a neglected farmhouse, and a beat-up barn to one side.

But what Finn saw were the possibilities.

He pulled the truck up in front of the old farmhouse, making deep grooves in the field as they drove over the tangle of overgrowth. Both he and Dallas got out and then they both stood there, in the middle of a sweet Montana afternoon.

And Finn felt like he might have somersaulted through some kind of portal, or something. It was like he was having a vision when he typically wasn’t the kind of man who saw things that weren’t there.

But if he squinted, just a little, he could see this. The farmhouse looking cheerful instead of derelict. The fields cultivated, growing things up here in all the sweet, high mountain air.

Not just any things. Not crops in the usual sense of the term. The more he looked around, the more he could see his way to growing Kitty the kinds of ingredients she was always muttering about in her kitchen. She liked to find things at the local Farm & Craft Market and make them into spontaneous specials. But there were always things she wished she had that she couldn’t find. Sometimes she muttered about them in her sleep.

Finn looked around and wondered if he could grow them right here. If not in these fields, then possibly in a greenhouse that would be easy enough to build between the farmhouse and the barn.

He didn’t have to squint to see the life that he could make here. For her.