Sarah moved first to the refrigerator to see if there was any type of energy drink in it, though she had her doubts there would be. She’d need to head to town and buy some at some point, maybe when they got her car. She would have done it the night before, but she’d just wanted to get here. She found nothing but bottled water and food.

  Leaning against the counter on the island, she stared at the coffee pot that was still on and the no doubt sludge in the bottom of it. She had no other choice. She cleaned it all out, found the filters and coffee grounds and set it to run a new pot. Sarah stared out the window as she waited for the coffee to brew so she could take the first sip. It wasn’t going to be good, but it would do in a pinch.

  The house felt empty. If there was anything Sarah knew, it was what it felt like to be alone. She spent most of her free time alone, really any time she could get. She was an introvert to the core, and she needed that time to recharge. Eli was nowhere in sight, even though her truck was still parked out front.

  When the coffee was finished, Sarah took a mug and poured herself a cup with a heavy dose of milk and sugar in it. She took two sips before she went back to her room and found the boots that she’d thrown against the wall the night before. She dragged them on, pulled on her light jacket and her beanie over her mess of hair from sleeping with it wet.

  With her coffee in hand, she went back downstairs and out the front door. She breathed in the fresh scent of clean air, the bite of cold drawing into her lungs and nearly making her cough. It was far colder outside than she had thought it would be. Wrapping her hands more tightly around the mug, Sarah settled on the porch swing, which was covered with a light dose of frost. She ignored it as she stared out at the fields in front of her.

  The area was gorgeous, just like Eli had told her it would be. The sun was already high in the sky, and she was surprised there was still frost on the ground with it being so late, so she figured the storm clouds mustn’t have left until midday. The hills rolled in every direction she could see. Forested trees stood starkly in contrast to the plains on one side of the house. Sarah had no idea if it was north or south or what. Jagged cliffs and rocks—the ground seemed to jut into the sky and block the world from view.

  The house was nestled against them, but the fields were in front of her. Wooden fences with barbed wire stretched between, getting so small she lost sight of them. Another sip of coffee settled in the front of her head, and she knew the caffeine was working in her system to wake her up and make her function properly. She finished her cup before she dragged herself inside for a second one.

  Sarah made a second trip outside to check out the rest of the grounds. As she stepped off the deck, she knew she wasn’t in Texas anymore. She felt like she was in a mix of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, and she supposed she was close in both regards, situated somewhere between where one ended and the other began.

  With her breath nearly gone from the beauty, Sarah walked around the corner of the house and was stunned again. She could still see for miles. Miles and miles, so many she now knew why this region was considered big sky country.

  “Wow.”

  She finished her coffee as she walked around the house, spying a freshly painted red barn off to the side and down a hill with an old truck or two parked outside and a couple of tractors. She had no idea what the tractors were for, but they didn’t look like normal ones at all, and one of the trucks had something odd on the back.

  Turning, Sarah went back to the house and got herself a third cup of coffee. She’d no doubt need to start a second pot soon enough to keep herself going. As soon as her third coffee cup was filled and thoroughly sipped, she turned toward the fireplace in the den.

  There was no flame flickering in it, and she wasn’t sure how to turn it on, so Sarah avoided it as she dragged out the bench for the piano. The legs scraped against the floor, and she cringed. She wanted to be quiet, which she realized was stupid if she was going to play. She set the coffee mug on the top of the piano before she stood up and opened the bench to see if there was any music in it.

  Sarah had songs memorized, and she could play just about anything by ear, but a classical piece here and there did her heart well. There were a few books of music in the seat, and Sarah pulled out one of them and set it on the piano. She put her hands on the keyboard, the keys cold under her fingertips.

  It didn’t take long for the music to flow from her. She played through random songs in the book before she gave up and just went with whatever came into her head. Some of it was melodies she had learned and loved as a kid, and some were from the classics. She lost herself in the music, letting it be the distraction she needed so much.

  Chapter 6

  Music floated through her mind, and Eli turned onto her belly in bed. She brushed a hand against her cheek and then her eyes before she turned onto her back again. She had to blink through multiple layers of sleep before she was able to see clearly. Eli reached over and grabbed her phone to check the time. Her alarm was set to go off in the next ten minutes, which was a blessing and curse. She really could have used more sleep.

  The music she’d thought she’d been dreaming continued to echo through her ears, and it wasn’t until Eli stood in the center of her bedroom still in her underwear and socks that she realized it was coming from the den upstairs. Smiling to herself, she pulled on a clean shirt, snapping the buttons as she went.

  In her bathroom, she ran the toothbrush through her mouth and then redid the two braids down each side of her head. It was enough to make her feel decently girly but also kept it out of the way when she was wrangling cattle and machinery. The last thing she needed was to get her hair caught in something when she was the only one around.

  Flicking the braids behind her back, she splashed cold water onto her face to try and wake herself up a bit more. She’d need some coffee before she grabbed her water and headed out to the pasture for her afternoon check of the cattle. In her white socks that pulled up to mid-calf, Eli walked through the carpeted basement and up the stairs to the main floor of the house.

  The music got louder as she got closer to the den. Even she could tell the piano was slightly out of tune. The last time she’d had someone there to mess with it had been summer when her older sister had come through for the week—insisting on taking up two of the rooms in the house so Eli hadn’t been able to rent them out to guests and it cost her money, but that was an argument for another day, one she’d had several times.

  Eli got to the top step and smiled. Sarah had to be playing. She was the only other person in the house, and Eli knew it wasn’t a recording. She rounded the corner, walked through the kitchen, and moved toward the den but stopped. There was a barely-there pot of coffee, enough for maybe three-quarters of a cup. Seizing the opportunity, Eli pulled down a mug and dumped the rest of the coffee into it before turning the machine off. She’d clean it out later.

  With the sweet elixir in her fingertips, she moved toward the den and the music. Sarah played, her eyes closed as her hands and fingers moved back and forth on the keys, hitting them in what seemed to Eli to be random timing and places. She knew the notes, of course. She’d been taught them at one point when her mother had insisted she take lessons from Mrs. Parris in town, but that had only lasted a couple years before they had both thrown in the towel.

  Eli slid into the den and sat on one of the oversized chairs. Sarah hadn’t noticed her yet, and she wasn’t about to interrupt whatever was going on. She missed the days when her sister would play and practice for hours after school. Their mother had been a gifted pianist as well, but neither of them could compare to this.

  Her coffee was close to finished when Sarah stopped playing abruptly and turned to Eli with a hand over her heart. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean...I’m sorry.”

  “What on earth for?” Eli said, cocking her head to the side and grinning. “For playing the piano?”

  “I didn’t know anyone was here.”

  Eli chuckled. “I’ve been in and out all night and finally caught a few hours of sleep. Did you sleep well?”

  Sarah nodded and closed the lid on the piano.

  Nodding her head at the instrument, Eli raised an eyebrow. “Don’t stop if you don’t want to. It’s here for a reason, and I can’t play for anything, much to my mother’s disappointment and two years of lessons.”

  “Not at all?”

  “Chopsticks, and maybe Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

  “Seriously?” Sarah’s eyes were wide with surprise.

  Eli shrugged. “Music is not my talent, much as everyone wanted it to be. But please, play. It’s not played often enough.”

  “I can tell.”

  Tensed muscles greeted Eli unexpectedly. The tone of Sarah’s voice didn’t tell her if she was upset or annoyed, but either way, that comment had been unexpected. She’d thought she’d been making progress with not being as short in response to anything Sarah did, but perhaps she was wrong or perhaps Sarah just expected her to be a jerk the entire time she was there.

  “Well, I have to go back out and check on my cattle.”

  “You do that a lot.”

  Eli shrugged. “It’s calving season, so yes, I check on them frequently. I also don’t have any hired help right now, so that leaves it up to me.”

  “Why not?”

  “Why not what?” Eli said, exasperation leaving her lips even though she didn’t want it to. She wasn’t about to apologize for it or rein it in either. Something about Sarah pulled out her annoyance in ways she hadn’t expected, though she did suspect it wasn’t Sarah she was annoyed with but rather her own dang self.

  Sarah didn’t move from the piano bench. She stared with wide eyes at Eli, and Eli suspected she had hurt her somehow. Eli really should apologize, but she was too tired to think of the words.

  “Why don’t you have anyone hired to help?”

  “First, hiring people costs money and takes out of my profit. Second, finding good help, help that shows up, is not as easy as you think. The pay is low, the work is hard, the days are long. I’ll hire seasonally around harvest to get my wheat and milo in, but I prefer to take care of my cattle myself.”

  Sarah put her hands up in the air like she was under arrest. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  Sighing, Eli rubbed the bridge of her nose and set her coffee on the end table next to her. “No, I’m sorry. I’m short with you. I’m tired, that’s all.”

  Standing up, she bent down and grabbed her coffee. When she stood back up, Sarah stood within inches of her, and Eli’s breath caught in her throat, her heart moving its way up and making it impossible for her to speak.

  “When do you think we’ll be able to get my car?”

  “Tomorrow afternoon is when Mrs. Hargrave will have time. She called early this morning.”

  “Oh.” Disappointment flittered over Sarah’s face, and Eli had to resist the urge to reach out and grab her fingers. If there had been one thing she’d made clear to herself, Sarah was off-limits. There should be no touching, no helping, no flirting, nothing.

  “Was there something you left in it?”

  “My phone. I wanted to tell my friend I got here safe.”

  “Oh!” Eli nodded. “Did you have a computer? You could email her. Or my cellphone.”

  Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know her number.”

  “Want to use my computer, then?”

  “If I could.” Sarah gave her a sweet smile, her chin knocking up an inch. “I don’t want her thinking I fell off the end of the world or something.”

  Chuckling, Eli shook her head slowly. “Well, you are close to the end of the world here.”

  “But it’s beautiful, just like you said it was.” Sarah’s eyes locked on Eli’s, and her stomach flopped as she felt drawn into Sarah.

  Sarah reached out, a hand on Eli’s forearm. “Where’s the computer?”

  “Uh...my office.” Eli cleared her throat. “I’ll show you before I leave.”

  Eli didn’t wait another second to break the physical contact and move down the hall toward her tiny office in the back of the house. She opened the door and led Sarah inside. The desktop was littered with papers, and suddenly she was very aware of how messy it was. She tried to keep it neat and clean, but it was the one place in the house she felt she could let up on cleanliness—well, that and her own space in the basement.

  “It’s right here.”

  “Thanks.” Sarah sat down in the rolling chair as Eli leaned over the desk and turned the desktop on and typed in her password.

  “Do whatever you need.”

  “Shouldn’t take me too long.”

  “All right. Well, I’ll be back in a few hours. You’re free to have whatever you find in the kitchen, but you’re on your own for dinner unless you’ll eat what the hunters get.”

  “Dinner?”

  “Yeah.” Eli gave her a quick smile as she reached the door to her office. “It’s a bed-and-breakfast, we don’t make you lunch or dinner unless there is a special request, in which case, I typically hire out, because those are not my forte. Hunters don’t complain much so long as it’s hot and filling.”

  “Ah.”

  Eli left her office and made her way to the den, grabbing her mug as she moved to the kitchen. She washed out the coffee pot, filter, and her mug, and then saw the note she’d left for Sarah earlier. With a quick check, she saw the untouched omelet still in the oven. Pulling it out, she dumped it in her compost bucket out the back door before washing the dishes, a slight annoyance in each move she made.

  Why had she even bothered to make Sarah breakfast if she wasn’t going to eat it? Pursing her lips, she turned off the water and dried her hands on the towel wrapped around the handle to the fridge. She headed out the back door, shoving her feet in her work boots after checking for critters, and then stomped around when they were too freaking cold to be wearing. The cold front that had followed the storm was just as unexpected, and it was supposed to last through the rest of the week. She hoped briefly that Sarah had packed for colder weather, but then she shook the thought. That was Sarah’s business, not hers.

  Eli stepped off the deck and glanced at the house. Sarah stood at the window in her office with her arms by her sides, staring right at Eli. A shiver ran down her spine as she stopped short at the edge of the trail leading down the hill to the barn and her work truck. They stared at each other for what felt like minutes. Eventually, Eli made the first move and headed to the barn. She had to get to work.

  Sarah watched Eli walk down to the barn. She disappeared briefly while she was still too close to the hill but reappeared as soon as she was near the barn itself. Sarah hadn’t noticed the trail when she’d been on the deck before, but it must have been how Eli walked to and from the barn every day. It hadn’t even occurred to her to wonder how to get to the barn from the house.

  Eli hopped into a truck that looked like it was a hundred years old, backed out from the driveway, and went down the road. Sarah had to force herself to move away from the window. She’d emailed Kara and expected a response whenever Kara got around to it. Their conversations were often intermittent, so it wasn’t uncommon to wait days for responses, but that was how their friendship worked.

  With a sigh, Sarah moved out of the office after shutting the computer down and went up to her room, skirting around the piano. Eli had scared the living daylights out of her when she’d been sitting there listening. She’d been about to switch to a new song she’d been working on for months to see if it sounded better with some slight modifications to it, and she’d glanced back and saw Eli sitting there, like she owned the place. Well, she did own it.

  Grunting, Sarah hid away in her room and shut the door. She had no idea what to do with herself. She wasn’t used to the quiet, to being so disconnected from the world. Even when she was alone at home, she wasn’t alone. Someone was always only a text message or a phone call or a tweet away. But with no phone, and only dial up Internet, she wasn’t about to spend much time waiting for her social media to get pulled up or for emails to come in.

  Flinging herself onto the bed, Sarah knew she had to waste a few hours until Eli came back for some entertainment, because if she was left to her own devices, it could get bad. She should have brought a book, or two or three. Wondering briefly if Eli had any around the house, Sarah left the safety of her room and rummaged around the den and living room. She found two bookshelves filled with novels—some classics, some newer ones, mostly romances, but a few mysteries.

  She flipped through some of them and grabbed one she decided wouldn’t be too horrible, though reading was not typically her thing. She was not the greatest reader in the world, and it took her forever to get through a book, so she often just read the CliffsNotes version of it if she could, to make it seem like she had read the book itself. When she got back to her room, she propped up the pillows behind her back and opened the book.

  Sarah must have fallen asleep because the sun was setting in the sky, casting a pink and orange hue through her room. Brushing her hair out of her face, Sarah moved to the window to see if Eli was back from whatever she did out in the fields. She was kind of curious what she did out there, but she wasn’t brave enough to ask if she could go out with her, and she wasn’t sure she was courageous enough to find out in general.

  She’d read the reviews on Indigo and had seen that Eli had willingly taken people out to teach them about ranching and even on something called trail rides. Sarah wasn’t quite sure what those were exactly, but it intrigued her nonetheless. She’d never been on a horse before, though, which scared her more than she was willing to admit to anyone.

  Her growling stomach told her she needed to eat something and that she had failed to scrounge up food since she’d been in the airport in Denver. With bare feet, she walked through the hall and down the stairs to the kitchen. The fridge was full of food, and it was overwhelming. If part of the deal was no dinner, she’d have to cook for herself, in which case, she might as well cook for Eli as well, assuming she was coming home in time to eat.