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“What the hell are you two doing?” came their older brother’s unmistakably cranky voice from behind them, since even finding true love and getting a dog apparently didn’t improve his disposition any. Matilda was a saint. “Is there a bear out there?”

Cat was the one who shifted slightly, then pointed her finger out toward the street and the figure still standing there. Dallas wanted to react, or say something, but he felt as if he was outside himself, somehow. As if maybe he needed his big brother to tell him he was hallucinating and the spell would be broken, and he would go back to his perfectly miserable existence that he’d at least gotten used to over the years and—

“Holy shit,” Tennessee muttered, scowling out at Ruthie.

And the three of them stood like that for what seemed to Dallas like an eternity.

Cat filled Tennessee in on the not recognizing Dallas part, which made Tennessee swear so fluently that Dallas could hear Ace bark about it from the next room, where Ace liked to stand guard. Over what, Dallas wasn’t sure.

“What are you going to do?” Tennessee asked.

“If we’re talking about actual amnesia,” Cat replied before Dallas could figure out how to answer that, “then there are probably certain protocols that it would make sense to—”

“I don’t know what we’re talking about here,” Dallas said, curtly. “I don’t know anything about her life. I don’t know what happened to her. I don’t know why she came all the way to Cowboy Point if she doesn’t know who I am.” As he said that, however, he remembered what she’d said about a postcard. “Though actually, I do have a clue about how she magically decided to come here just in time for the Lighthouse Inn’s opening.”

Tennessee and Cat looked at each other, then at Dallas. “Mom,” they both said at the same time.

Dallas nodded. “She got a postcard.”

The three of them shared a Jenny-shaped sigh, a mix of resignation and affection. That Jenny was perhaps unduly involved in their romantic lives, clearly because of the Patrick Lisle disaster they’d all been shaped by, was something they had all come to…well, maybe not accept. But it was a fact of life all the same. And their mother meant well, which was more than their father had ever done.

“Oh,” Cat said faintly then. “It looks like she’s coming this way.”

Tennessee scowled out the window. Dallas certainly wasn’t scowling, mostly because he wasn’t sure that he could really work his way up into any particular reaction when he still didn’t know how to react about any of this.

Cat clapped her hands. “Both of you,” she said then, like she was the boss of them. “Go somewhere else. Remember, she should know me too.”

Tennessee muttered something else beneath his breath, and stalked off, back into the diner again. Ace barked his usual greeting. Dallas simply faded back behind the counter and into the back room.

And he stayed there, sitting on the chair just on the other side of the door where he could pretty much hear everything.

He heard his sister sit on her chair. He heard the bells jingle on the store’s front door.

And even if he hadn’t known who was walking inside, he could hear the way Cat caught her breath, as if seeing Ruthie up close was even more intense than she’d expected.

He could definitely relate to that.

Dallas thought about that summer that he and Ruthie had come here. They’d been married then. He’d been newly out of the service and it wasn’t settling well… to put it mildly. Still, he’d showed Ruthie all around his hometown. He’d taken her down to the Tetons, and they’d done some hiking in Yellowstone. He’d showed her Bozeman and Big Sky and then his favorite, Livingston. They’d spent some time in pretty Marietta too.

They’d had their adventures, but they’d spent a good ten days right here in Cowboy Point, and Cat was right. No one who’d been here was going to not recognize it because it was winter. It wasn’t like seasons camouflaged the identity of places, not even in Montana.

His trouble was that he couldn’t think of any reason someone might lose their memories that wasn’t traumatic, and he hated thinking about anything bad happening to his—

Not your anything, he reminded himself harshly. You lost that privilege.

“Good morning,” he heard Cat sing out, the way she always did, and then there was a pause. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine what was happening outside of his sight. If he concentrated, he could hear Ruthie’s feet on the floor of the General Store. He could track her just from the sound of those boots of hers as she walked because they scuffed some as she went. And he could hear it, plain as day, as she made her way to the counter.

“Hi,” Cat said, and Dallas could only imagine how his sister must have been looking at Ruthie. He’d bet it was a lot like he had last night.

“I’m hoping you can help me,” Ruthie said, in that bright, friendly way of hers. “I was wondering if there was some kind of map of Cowboy Point? I’d love to see it. I feel like I’m missing things because of the snow, if that makes sense.”

“Well.” Dallas could hear hesitation in his sister’s voice. Or perhaps the same bafflement that he’d felt. Cat cleared her throat. “The truth is, some features of our little valley are best enjoyed in summer. There are a lot of seasonal businesses, for example, that don’t stick around once it gets cold. But there are still a few stalwarts that stick it out through the winter months. I can draw you a map if you want.”

“That’s very kind.” Ruthie laughed. “I wouldn’t want to put you out.”

There was a small silence. Dallas couldn’t entirely be sure what was happening, but then Ruthie laughed again.

“Can I ask you a question?” She sounded almost uncertain.