Wearing a Mona Lisa smile.

  She’d be the best mother ever, too.

  He just wasn’t going to be the father.

  “No,” he told her.

  And hung up.

  * * *

  Lily wasn’t at the ranch when Asa returned. His phone call, the obvious horror that had prompted the call, had driven her to the phone. Asking her sisters to meet her at Harv’s BBQ for lunch. They’d ordered and eaten—Lily picking at her food more than eating it—before Haley asked, “Are you going to tell us about it or not?”

  At which point Lily shrugged. The whole triplet thing, knowing each other so well—she’d have thought there’d be none of that with the three of them. Other than their womb time, and the first ten months of their lives, they hadn’t known each other until adulthood. She’d lived almost twice the number of years without them as she had with them.

  And still, as Haley and Tabitha remained silent, just sitting there watching her, she admitted, “Asa and I slept together.”

  Both woman hissed in excited breaths.

  “No, no,” Lily told them. “He says it can’t happen again. That it’ll ruin our friendship.”

  She didn’t tell them what Esme had told her about their growing up. About her fear that her brother would never let himself fall into romantic love or marry for real. But it had been on her mind a good part of the night as she’d lain awake in bed.

  “The thing is,” she said slowly, “I don’t know how I’m going to survive when the marriage ends. I’m afraid my heart is going to be too crushed...”

  “That’s the most drama I’ve ever heard out of you,” Haley said. The words might have been off, in the moment, if they hadn’t been offered softly. With obvious compassion.

  “You’ll survive as you always have, Lil,” Tabitha said then, with equal caring evident in her tone. “You’re the strongest one of us. You’re like a rock compared to me...”

  “You survived the loss of the love of your life, while pregnant, giving birth to twins, and now are raising them all alone,” she told her sister. “I’d hardly think living alone in an apartment and working at a café as giving me any real strength.”

  “How many foster homes were you in?”

  “Eight.” What did that have to do with anything?

  “Eight times you entered a residence, looking for home. For family. Eight times you were forced out again. And here you are, loving with your whole heart. That’s strength.” Tabitha’s eyes were steady and unwavering as she said the words.

  “He clearly cares a great deal about you, Lil,” Haley said then. “Maybe it won’t progress any further than friendship for him. But maybe it will. Do you want to cut off the possibility before you have the chance to find out?”

  She didn’t. Of course she didn’t. And she thought of something else, too. Haley finding her and Tabitha. She’d had no idea what she’d find. What kind of reception she might receive. Her sister had been facing possible rejection, anger, indifference. And still, when she’d turned eighteen and had found out that she had triplet sisters, she’d gone full force to find Lily and Tabitha. And then to write to them, asking them to meet.

  Because that’s what love did. It put itself out there, made itself available.

  It didn’t run and hide for fear of being hurt.

  And neither did she. Just as Tabitha had said. She stayed in a home for as long as it would have her, hoping that she was becoming family.

  The thought was firmly on Lily’s mind as she pulled onto the ranch half an hour later on that Monday. She’d thought about refusing to have sex with Asa if the chance ever came up again. About stopping it if it started.

  And knew she wasn’t going to do that, either.

  If love was going to have any chance to grow, she had to let it live freely.

  And if it ended up killing parts of her spirit, irreparably damaging her heart, she’d find a way to live with that, too.

  All of which didn’t stop fear from striking her as she parked in the house’s garage, climbed into her four-wheeler and headed toward the office. What if Asa really did start to resent her? Like he feared would happen. To the point that he didn’t want her to work on the ranch?

  And what if a tornado hit them and wiped them all out? The thought sprang to mind.

  Along with a well of sadness for what wasn’t.

  For her of all people, who’d never had a home like her sisters both had, to be the first of them to get married—and have it be fake...sometimes fate was a little cruel.

  She texted Asa to let him know she was back and was just heading inside, when she got a text back asking her to come down to the petting zoo.

  They’d talked about getting in a couple more animals. A llama, for one. With all of the families already booked for the summer, they were going to be bringing in enough money to hire a full-time caretaker for the zoo animals as well.

  And once word got around about the rodeo activities, the dedicated wedding lodge, and other improvements and updates, they’d likely end up booking out completely months in advance. Asa knew his stuff. He had already put out feelers with his contacts who would send people his way.

  And that was without the Fortune family in town spreading the word. Which was already happening.

  They would need more staff. But for now, he must have had some day visitors descend on the petting zoo, for him to need her help.

  Expecting to see several cars in the visitors’ lot as she passed, Lily was surprised to see only two, belonging to the guys who’d come in early to go fishing. Kids were in school. Maybe a school bus had descended that she hadn’t known about?

  Things were relatively quiet, as a Monday in March would be.

  Peaceful. Though she was looking forward to the craziness of summer in a way she never had before. To spend all day, every day with families vacationing on the ranch...she couldn’t wait.

  Pulling up to the petting zoo, Lily frowned. No one was there. The animals weren’t even out. Just one of the horses.

  Why did Asa need her help? Was one of the animals sick? Or more than one? They were all stalled separately, lambs with lambs, ponies with ponies, rabbits and ducks and...

  She jumped off the four-wheeler and went inside the barn that housed the animals. And stopped when she saw Asa standing at the gate leading into the outdoor “zoo” area. Facing the barn door. As though he’d been waiting for her. Major stood beside him.

  Oh, God. Please don’t let anything be wrong with his horse. Major was Asa’s immediate family. The one creature who had his whole heart.

  “What’s up?” she asked him, approaching slowly.

  He didn’t say anything for a long minute. “Asa?” She was almost up to him.

  “Come on,” he told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the opened gate. Major walked just behind them, right on his owner’s heels.

  The horse was more doglike in the way it served Asa. Followed him. Stuck by him.

  Asa let her go as they stepped outside. The area had fresh straw on the ground, looking newly cleaned and ready for visitors. Only the one horse was there.

  “What do you think?”

  “About what?”

  “Her.” He nodded toward the horse.

  That was it? He’d bought a new horse? She walked over to the obviously young mare. “I don’t know all the much about horses, Asa,” she told him. Lily knew how to ride—she’d been fostered on a small ranch when she was thirteen—but that was about the extent of her knowledge. “She looks gorgeous.”

  Going up to the horse, wanting to be of use to Asa if he was asking her opinion on something, she ran her palm along the mare’s neck, not even sure of the breed.

  She loved the softness. The warmth. And when the horse turned, putting her nose to Lily’s neck, she held the mare’s head to her. “She’s lovely,” she said then. “How old?”

  “Two.”

  They’d have at least twenty years with her then...

  “What’s her name?”

  Asa came up to stand beside her. “She doesn’t have one yet.”

  So he was thinking about buying...

  “She’s yours, Lil. She’s purebred quarter, from the best lineage in the state. I bought her this morning...”

  Lily heard him. Noticed Major nosing the freshly laid straw a few feet away from them. As though he was keeping watch from afar.

  She shook her head. “I don’t get it.”

  “Family, Lil.” Asa’s soft words dropped into her world like little stars. “I’ve got Major. You’ve got her. She’s all yours. For as long as she lives...”

  Tears sprang to her eyes. She couldn’t help it. Fighting hard to blink them away before he saw them, she pressed her cheek to the side of the young horse’s head.

  That he’d get the horse for her...and give it to her where she’d last been with her parents...

  It meant the world to her.

  “I love her,” she said, hiding her face against the horse’s shoulder, petting her. Not wanting to let her go. “Thank you.” So much more wanted to tumble out. She gave it all to the horse instead. In long steady, warm caresses.

  Asa was there, in the background, watching. “You want to take her out? She’s saddle broken. Major can show her around the property...”

  Hell yes, she wanted to.

  She wanted to throw her arms around her husband, too. To hold on tight and tell him how very much she loved him.

  Instead, she hugged the horse and said, “I’m going to name her Laura. After my mom.” And didn’t even care that her throat caught with emotion as she said the words.

  Asa, in his own way, had just given her another part of her heart’s desire.

  Immediate family to call her own.

  Family that wouldn’t stay behind if she had to move on, but that would go with her, as Major always went with Asa.

  Family that would be there when she needed her. That would need her, too.

  Family that would be with her for however long their forevers lasted.

  Asa knew.

  He understood.

  And he’d given her Laura.

  Because the horse could give Lily what Asa could not.

  He might not be able to be the husband she wanted, but he was the best friend a woman could ever hope to have.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Asa was still giving himself a thumbs-up for buying Lily the horse later that week, still feeling the high that had come over him as he saw how much the gift had meant to her.

  Other than sex, he’d never seen her let go of the band of steel she kept around her emotions—until Laura.

  It was a high he figured he didn’t have to lose. Even after the divorce, he could still find little ways to give to her, to keep that smile on her face. Lord knew it wasn’t a hard thing to do.

  She’d had so little given to her growing up, the woman was grateful for a new toothbrush.

  He’d found that out when he’d run into town for some things, had picked up a new toothbrush for himself, and had given her the second one that had come in the pack.

  You’d have thought, by the smile on her face, the way she’d looked at him, that he’d bought her another diamond.

  Maybe, if they were still married by her birthday, he’d buy her a pair of those, too. Diamond earrings to match her ring.

  They’d added another meetup to their daily routine. Before dinner each night, they took Major and Laura out. Sometimes the ride was only fifteen minutes or so, but they did it together, looking out for their property he’d told her the first night he’d suggested it. And giving the horses some exercise.

  Not that Major needed any extra. Asa was on the horse as much during the day as he could be. Riding Major in lieu of taking the four-wheeler, more and more often.

  They’d taken to dropping Lily off at the house, to fix dinner, while he and Major led Laura back to the barn. By the time Asa had cooled and bedded down the horses, dinner was ready.

  As he stood on the porch Thursday night before bed, sipping the rest of the beer he’d had as he’d gone over the books Lily had brought home for him to inspect, enjoying the stars in the vast night sky, Asa could hardly believe he’d reached such a perfect place in his life.

  And when he heard the door open, and the small thump of Lily’s boots stepping outside, he figured he’d finally found his own true Narnia.

  A ranch of his own. A best friend who shared his business acumen and a love for the place. And a town with both of his sisters living in it. He and Major had finally hit gold.

  “I’m firming up the guest list for Esme and Ryder’s wedding next month,” Lily said, “and I haven’t heard back from your cousin, Bear. I sent his invitation to the address Esme gave me, somewhere across state from here. I’m figuring, maybe he doesn’t know who I am. Have you heard anything from him?”

  Asa shook his head. “I knew Bear as a kid, of course, but I haven’t seen much of him since we grew up. I’m not even sure what he really does for a living.”

  “Esme didn’t know, either. She just told me to check with you, in case you knew more.”

  He shrugged, thinking back to some of the few fun days he and his cousins had spent together as kids. Times when their parents hadn’t been fighting with their spouses. Or off having affairs. “It’s possible he wouldn’t RSVP and still show up,” Asa said then. “Keep a place for him, just in case. It’d be cool if he was there...”

  More family back together.

  Without the fighting.

  Asa had never thought, before the previous year, that they’d all be living in the same town and growing closer by the week.

  Bear would probably be as shocked, and maybe as pleased, as Asa was.

  Finally finding a place where he wanted to stay.

  A place to call home.

  Lily leaned against the porch railing next to him. Reached for his beer bottle and took a sip.

  Something she’d done before, at the bar, when she didn’t want another one, but wasn’t quite done partaking.

  It had been his suggestion that she share his, the first time she’d expressed the predicament, a month or so after they’d met.

  Tonight, seeing her full lips covering the nose of his bottle, he was instantly hard.

  Something that had never happened in the bar. Not even close.

  “What?” With her lips hanging open for the edge of the bottle, Lily stopped midsip to look at him.

  Asa stiffened. He must have been staring at her. “Nothing,” he told her.

  Taking another sip and then handing him back the bottle, she said, “Tell me you’d rather not talk about it, or to mind my own business, but don’t lie to me, Asa. Please.”

  She didn’t look away.

  On the contrary, she was standing right up to him. Not letting him off the hook.

  Something else new.

  And because he respected her—because he wanted to keep her friendship and receive the same courtesy in return—he said, “It really was nothing. Just when your lips touched the bottle...it reminded me...”

  He let his words end there. No point in filling the moment with any more erotic imagery.

  She licked her lips.

  A natural response to having them talked about.

  And it took every bit of strength in the whole of Asa’s body not to lean over and kiss them. Instinctively, he knew she wouldn’t stop him. It was in her body language. The way she was still there in the moment with him, holding her ground...

  “I’m going into town,” he said, overwhelmed by the tension, the wrongness of wanting something that would ultimately hurt them both.

  And leaving his beer bottle sitting on the rail, he turned and strode through the house, out the side door, and didn’t slow down until he was strapped into the driver’s seat of his truck.

  He didn’t look back. Just drove. Needing lights. Even if it was just streetlights and those emanating from the Corral’s front window.

  He needed distraction.

  Time to cool down. To breathe.

  He could do this. Would be fine. They were just learning how to do it all—run the ranch while living together as friends who were pretending to be married. There were bound to be some stumbles along the way. They’d figure it all out.

  He’d intended to just drive it off, but by the time he reached town, a full-blown fog had fallen. Asa pulled into the park.

  What in the hell was the matter with him? He’d been hanging out with Lily for eight months or more, with no problem. Why was he suddenly having a problem keeping his hands, his lips, the rest of him to himself?

  Was it the proximity?

  Because, he had to face it, at the Corral, there hadn’t been a chance in hell of kissing Lily without an audience, so it had never been an issue.

  Was that really it? That he was really such a player that he had to have any woman he was alone with? Ones that he liked, of course, and who liked him back.

  Ones who wanted it.

  Yeah that must be it, he reassured himself. It was just a sexual thing...

  His thoughts suddenly broke off as he was distracted by someone in a hoodie. From the slight build and average height...he couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman...or someone he knew...but he watched as the person went up to the community bulletin board. Attached a note to it.

  He got out. Figured shooting the breeze with someone else, even a total stranger, would be better than sitting alone in his truck making an inconvenience into a way bigger problem than it needed to be. But before he’d taken his first step, the person had hurried away. Asa couldn’t even tell in which direction because of the fog.

  Still thankful for the distraction, and curious, he went over to the bulletin board anyway. The whole situation struck him as a bit weird. After all, who came out late on a foggy night to leave a note on a community bulletin board?