She bounced her left foot up and down on the floor of the car as her nerves kicked into overdrive. She was lost. She knew she was. It wasn’t going to matter if she spent the next hour driving or the next twenty-four, she was never going to find Indigo, and the entire trip was a disaster and a mistake.

  She drove another thirty minutes before she turned down a road she hoped was the right one, but she couldn’t be sure. She didn’t see a town or anything, and the directions on Indigo’s website had said she’d have to drive through a town before getting to the right street, but she’d been driving forever already and must have passed it without knowing. There was nothing out in this part of the country anyway.

  Rain came down in buckets, the windshield wipers furiously flinging back and forth just trying to keep up as the water poured. The lightning was so close that every time it smacked against the ground, Sarah jolted with a scare. Her nerves were done.

  She moved slowly because the wet dirt road was a struggle to drive through. The back of her car fishtailed so many times she lost count. Breathing became harder as she inched forward through the mud. The ground was soaked, no doubt. Flashes of lightning were the only thing giving her vision into what lay ahead, and she finally saw lights on a house. She was so close. Relief flooded through her. There was Indigo. She could do this, only a little bit farther.

  Chapter 3

  It wasn’t until an hour after the expected arrival time of her guest that Eli started to get a little worried. The storm had come in, fully unexpected and out of nowhere, and it was a doozy. She really wasn’t looking forward to doing her nighttime calving checks in the middle of that.

  Eli stared out the front bay window of her house turned B&B and let out a long sigh. She hoped her guest wasn’t a no-show—that would not make her day any better. It’d already been a rough start losing one of her calves and finishing with the toilet project that seemed to come from the depths of hell just to annoy her.

  She’d finally managed to finish it up, with Bill’s expert-level help. She knew he’d be calling her dad to tell him all about it in their regular Friday chat. Eli groaned. There was no doing anything in her hometown without her parents finding out about it. She’d learned that the hard way when she was a teenager and had gone drinking—multiple times, because she never was a quick learner.

  Lightning struck again, close enough to shake the house. Her guest was now two hours later than expected. She was either seriously lost, which was the most likely scenario, or she was abandoning ship and not coming.

  Taking a chance, Eli stole into her office hidden in the back corner of the house. It was her hideaway from everything. Anytime her guests got to be too much, or she needed a moment of calm, she went there, locked the door, and closed her eyes to the outside world. Tonight, however, was different, and she was on a mission.

  She turned on her computer, hoping the lightning didn’t hit close enough to kill it, and searched through her files until she found her guest’s name and contact number. Lifting the landline phone she kept in her office for times like these, she dialed. She hoped the number she was calling was a cellphone, but she also hoped Sarah was in a part of her drive that had actual cellphone coverage, because that was about as rare as could be up in their neck of the woods.

  When it went straight to voicemail, Eli grimaced and cursed inwardly. She wrote down the number on a scrap piece of paper so she could try again in twenty minutes, hoping Sarah had moved into a service area. Turning off her computer, Eli went to the living area to stare out the large window.

  She’d brought what animals she needed to into the barn, but any babies born that night would have to stick it out unless they needed serious medical attention or were abandoned. It happened. Sometimes her cows didn’t want to be mama cows and had nothing to do with their young after they were born.

  Eli rubbed the edge of her thumb over her lower lip and let out a hiss of breath. No matter what happened, it was going to be a long night. Hell, it was a long few months of calving, where she thrived on coffee, coffee, and more coffee.

  She called the number one more time, and again it went straight to voicemail. Eli didn’t wait much longer. She left a message with her cell phone number and jumped in her truck. She would do her midnight rounds before she headed out to look for her guest. They usually took three turns too soon because it looked so similar to her own turnoff, so she’d check there. But first, her cows.

  The old farm truck rattled over the uneven the ground, but she drove slowly and shone her lights through her fields. It took about an hour to drive through them and get back to the house.

  There was still no sign of Sarah. Eli had left a note on the door just in case, like she always did when she was out and guests were supposed to arrive. Max, the old springer who hung out on her porch day in and day out, still laid calmly on the wooden planks, barely moving as the thunder raged.

  That told Eli the storm wasn’t as bad as it looked. Max was always good for a weather forecast. Eli spun through her living area and into the kitchen. She grabbed a cold bottle of water and switched out her keys.

  Slipping into the newer truck she reserved for going to town, she shoved it into gear and headed for the main road. It wasn’t the highway—that was another three miles down—but the main road was where most of her guests got lost on their attempt to get to Indigo.

  She took a sharp left, having memorized everything about the road to her house. She knew where to veer to the north when the rains swept up like this and when to gun it in the winter with the ice and the snow. Today, she gunned it and veered to the north. She had no patience for anything—if Sarah was in trouble, Eli wanted to make sure she was okay.

  One of the most interesting parts about owning and running Indigo was the people who would come stay. She enjoyed getting to know them for the short time they visited with her. She was a natural born extrovert who loved chatting with new faces, but she was stuck in a town with faces she saw every day, and while she longed for the newness, she certainly enjoyed the mundane and routine more than adventures to big cities.

  Sarah had been nearly a last-minute booking, made only a few weeks before. Winter was her off-season, so she’d been surprised to see the two-week booking, but whoever it was must have needed the vacation. Sarah reserved just for herself, which was also rare for Eli to see. Mostly it was newlywed couples or couples in desperate need of a break from the norm. Most were from within a few hours away, but occasionally she’d get people from farther out.

  Eli had worked hard to build up her reputation in the last two years, and she knew word was finally getting around about her. She rubbed her hand against her forehead as she pulled up to the intersection at the main road. No one was there. No lights shining in the pitch black, nothing to indicate anyone who was lost.

  Eli turned onto the next dirt road and moved toward the highway. She would go there and then to town if she had to, but she didn’t want to be gone too long. At least her house phone would forward to her cell if Sarah called, asking for directions or to tell her she wasn’t coming—which wouldn’t surprise Eli. She’d had her fair share of cancellations for this and that.

  It took her twenty minutes to get to the highway, and the thunder and lightning storm wasn’t letting up. Her windshield wipers flew back and forth and barely kept up with the rain as it pounded around her. At least the fields would get a good soaking to help with the crops. She had taken a risk and planted some winter wheat this year to test out if she wanted to farm as well as ranch. Her father had called it a joke, but she was determined to prove him wrong.

  Bill, however, defended her in one of their calls. When she’d found out about that from her mom, she was beyond happy. Bill had been over more and more, checking in on things and helping in ways he hadn’t ever done before. It was nice to see him and to have the silent support he offered. She was pretty sure it was also because he was missing his daughter, but hey, she’d take what she could get.

  When she reached the highway, there were only a few cars here and there. She stopped and pulled up to the main paved road, waiting and watching. Every vehicle that passed she either recognized or looked like they knew where they were going. With a sigh, Eli pulled out onto the asphalt and turned toward town. She hadn’t wanted to make the drive that day, but it looked like it was going to happen one way or another.

  Sarah’s heart hadn’t stopped pounding in near an hour. If anything, she could count this as her exercise for the week. Laughing at her stupid joke, she drove toward the lights on the house that she hoped was Indigo. She could barely see them in the dark, but she knew they were there.

  The back wheels of her car slid in the mud, and she had to hope she didn’t go off the edge of the road, but there was nothing to tell her where to go and where not to. No lines, no railing. Nothing.

  She was farther down the road than she had expected, and it took her twice the amount of time to get there because she was driving at a snail’s pace. She turned into the driveway, glad to see there was an open gate with wooden poles over each side. She’d been told they would be there, which meant she must be in the right place.

  Sarah relaxed. She was finally at the house. Her nerves—already completely frayed—pulled together slightly, enough that she hoped she’d make sense when she showed up. She pulled up along the front of the long porch. The house was gorgeous, it was white and old, and stood out from the dark because of the lights shining on it.

  Narrowing her eyes as she reached forward to turn her car off, Sarah groaned. It wasn’t the right house. This house looked nothing like the one in the pictures on the website she had stared at for hours. Her anxiety picked up again. She was completely lost, and she wasn’t ever going to find where she needed to be, and she was going to end up sleeping the entire night in her car before she gave up and just took a plane home.

  Clenching and unclenching her fists, Sarah shook her head. No. She would go up to the door, pray someone was home without a shotgun in hand, and ask if they knew where Indigo was. She just had to get the courage up to walk to the house and knock on the door and not think she would die in the process. That was it. Nothing else.

  With the car turned off, she wrapped her fingers around the door handle and shoved it open. Her heart skittered as she jumped from the vehicle and raced toward the covered porch. By the time she got to it, she was already drenched from head to her shoulders. Shaking off the excess water she could, which Sarah knew was useless, she marched toward the front door of the house. She looked way more confident than she was.

  Sarah searched for a doorbell, but she didn’t find one. Instead, she formed a fist and knocked hard, hoping she was heard over the raging storm outside. There were lights on in the windows, so she at least knew someone was up. When the door opened, a middle-aged man with a blue plaid shirt, a belly that would rival a nine-month pregnant woman, and a shotgun in his hand stood before her.

  “Sorry,” Sarah said, her voice trembling. “I’m a little lost, and I was hoping you could help.”

  “It’s two in the morning,” he replied.

  “I know. My flight was delayed, and then the storm.” She pointed over her shoulder at it. “And then my phone died. It’s just…it’s been a mess. But I’m just trying to find my way to Indigo B&B.”

  “There isn’t a place around here called that.”

  “What?” Sarah’s eyes widened, and she turned to look out into the night. From the brightly lit porch, she couldn’t see anything except the barely-there reflection of the light off her white car.

  “Who is it, Dwaine?” A woman with a robe wrapped around her, long gray hair braided, and sleep in her eyes walked up next to him. Sarah was about to speak when she was interrupted. “Come in! Get out of the rain, sweetie.”

  Sarah’s lips parted. She wasn’t sure she wanted to walk into a stranger’s house with no one knowing where the hell she was, but did she really have an option? With every hair on her neck standing straight, she stepped between Dwaine and the doorframe. He had barely moved enough to let her in.

  “You said you were looking for Indigo B&B?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Sarah suddenly remembered all those manners she’d been taught growing up in the south.

  Dwaine stood staunchly by the door as the woman led Sarah into the kitchen and sat her at the table. Sarah gnawed on her lip, her stomach twisting more than she thought it could, and she was pretty sure if it didn’t ease up soon, she was going to lose the last of the pretzels she’d had on the plane.

  “My name is Ginger. That’s my husband, Dwaine. He was just going out to check on the calves.” Ginger gave Dwaine a pointed look, and he hesitated before he turned to put his gun down and grabbed his jacket.

  “Calves?”

  “It’s calving season, sweetie. You’re not from around here, are you?”

  “Dallas,” Sarah answered, not sure why she was answering. “I’m Sarah. Do you know where I’m supposed to be going?”

  “I think that’s Elijah’s new place, isn’t it, Dwaine?”

  “Who knows what that girl’s doing.”

  “Girl?” Sarah asked, lost to the conversation.

  “Elijah Wilson, sweetie.” Ginger patted Sarah’s hand gently. “Do you want some tea? Goodness, you’re drenched to the bone.”

  “It’s raining pretty hard, ma’am.” For some reason, the tension in her stomach eased. Normally it would have been the opposite, but something about Ginger’s demeanor calmed her in ways she hadn’t felt since she’d met Kara. Jesus, she was going to have call Kara and tell her all of this as soon as her phone was charged enough to turn on. She’d laugh her ass off.

  Ginger got up and poured Sarah a glass of iced tea, and when Sarah took a sip, she had to work hard not to grimace. It literally looked like dirty water, and it tasted like it, too. She set the cup on the table, hoping she didn’t have to drink the entire thing before they told her where she was going.

  Dwaine stepped outside and came back in suddenly. “You drove here in that?”

  “Yes?” Sarah asked.

  “Surprised you made it past the creek.”

  “The what?”

  “If it wasn’t filled up when you drove here, I’m sure it’s filled up now.”

  “You’ll need a truck to get out, sweetie.” Once again, Ginger’s hand was on hers.

  “Oh.”

  Ginger gave her a small smile. “I’ll call Elijah and see if she can come out here and round you up, all right?”

  “Sure.”

  Sarah felt helpless. Never in her life had she been the one to need rescuing—at least, she hoped she wasn’t. She hated being such a damsel in distress and had worked for years to avoid any image of that at all. As Ginger moved toward the phone nailed to the wall, Sarah gave herself a moment to look around the room.

  The kitchen was quaint and small. Dwaine had finally left the house, and she was alone with Ginger, which put her way more at ease. As Ginger talked into the phone, Sarah gnawed on her lip and reached for the tea. Better to drink dirty water than to gnaw so much on her lip that it was raw by dawn.

  She was halfway through the glass when Ginger sat down with her, a smile on her lips that Sarah couldn’t read. Reading people was not her strong suit, which was also a reason she pretty much stuck to home and what she knew when she could and why she kept the people around her very close.

  “Elijah said she’ll be right over. She was already in town looking for you, I guess.”

  “How far is town from here?”

  “Ten minutes. We’re south. Her place is about twenty minutes northwest of town.”

  “Oh, so I’m really not where I thought I was.”

  Ginger chuckled and shook her head. “No, sweetie. Sorry to say you’re not. You’re lucky it’s calving season, otherwise we wouldn’t have been awake.”

  “Lucky for me,” Sarah muttered as she twisted the glass between her fingers. She could only hope she wouldn’t have to wait too much longer for the elusive Elijah to show up. The tension that had eased from her belly didn’t build back up, but it also knew wasn’t easing any further. She’d just have to wait and see how the next two weeks went. She could always leave.

  The call from the Hargraves had been a surprise, but Eli was glad she’d answered when it came in. She had been worried for a moment that something had happened to Dwaine and she’d have to help Mrs. Hargrave with the farm. She’d helped them out before when he’d been in the hospital for surgery once or twice, and while she didn’t mind doing it short term, she didn’t want to do it permanently.

  Eli drove as fast as she felt was safe through the rain and down to the turnoff. The Hargraves lived ten minutes south of town, which was far beyond where she thought anyone would get lost. Their road only had their house on it, which meant it was easy to find in the pitch black.

  The storm overhead was passing when she turned onto their dirt road. The rain eased up so it was a gentle fall, and as she turned east, she could see the lightning off in the distance rather than right on top of them. She’d have to be sure to check on all her cattle, but at least it was a rainstorm instead of a snowstorm, although the temperatures outside were near freezing. If it dropped much lower, they’d be dealing with ice in the morning.

  She hit the creek bed that ran through their property and gunned her truck through it. The water splashed up then disappeared into the pitch-black night. Exhaustion settled in on her shoulders, and she closed her eyes briefly, wishing she was in her bed and sleeping. Rather, she was going to grab her newest guest and take her to the house before immediately setting back out to check on her cows again. Calving season was a bitch.

  Pulling up to the house, Eli parked next to what she assumed was the rental car. It was a small white thing, and she knew instantly she was going to be driving the two of them home and returning for the rental later. No way was it going to make it to Indigo. Eli put her truck in neutral and left it running as she dashed up to the front door of the house.