He didn’t get his answer. But when he saw the note, he needed to know who’d left it more than ever.

  The note wasn’t signed.

  And it wasn’t just any note.

  51 died in the mine. Where are the records? What became of Gwenyth Wells?

  What the hell?

  He didn’t know the gritty details, but he knew enough. His grandfather had been involved in that mining disaster that had happened long before Asa was born. And not in a good way. From what he’d heard, his grandfather, Edgar, had been at least partially to blame. And had run off...

  Which was why Asa had only just been introduced to Chatelaine, where his Fortune ancestors had lived.

  Grabbing his phone, he took a photo of the note and sent it in a group text to his great-uncle Wendell, his grandfather’s older brother, and to Freya Fortune, the widow of his great-uncle Elias, asking if either of them knew who Gwenyth Wells was.

  Freya had been the one who’d written letters, bringing Edgar and Elias’s grandchildren, Asa and his cousins, to town the previous summer to receive their portion of the inheritance their great-uncle had left them.

  It was late. Wendell and Freya were probably long in bed.

  But they’d see the text first thing in the morning and be aware of what he’d found before anyone in town started talking...

  As he was putting his phone away, Asa saw the open text message as he’d left it, except that there were little dots scrolling, as though someone was typing. Figuring it was Freya, who he knew sometimes had trouble sleeping, he stood there waiting for her response. Would she want him to remove the note?

  Would that be ethical?

  The dots were gone. And a new text binged.

  Not from Freya.

  It was from Wendell.

  Yes, Gwenyth Wells was the widow of the foreman who died in the ‘65 mine disaster and got the blame for the collapse from Elias and Edgar. Her family was ruined. I don’t know much beyond that.

  Asa was heading back to his truck when his text binged again.

  Freya had finally sent a response.

  Oh, how awful, no wonder her name was familiar. Elias must have mentioned it over the years in sorrow.

  Shaking his head at his family history, Asa climbed back in his truck and headed home.

  Elias and Edgar Fortune had left a dead man’s widow thinking her husband had caused the collapse, when they’d known full well it had been their own fault.

  Somehow, feeling desire for a woman he couldn’t have didn’t seem like such a horrible cross to bear.

  And unlike his uncles, he’d do the right thing.

  One way or another, he’d figure out a way to quit wanting to have sex with his temporary wife.

  Because, also unlike his uncles, he had no intention of losing friendships or leaving town.

  * * *

  Lily was devastated. Full-out falling apart inside. Pacing the dark, from kitchen to front porch, she wore an imaginary path in the wood floors Val Hensen had had redone before she’d put the place up for sale.

  Asa had gone to town. Why? To be with another woman?

  No, he wouldn’t do that to her.

  Or to himself. He wouldn’t be that guy.

  But he’d do just about anything to not have sex with Lily. And they almost had...again. After only making love with Asa a couple of times, she already recognized that look in his eye when he was losing himself to desire for her.

  It was a heady look.

  One she’d never seen before on a man’s face. At least not directed at her.

  If she’d turned away, Asa would still be there with her.

  She should have turned away.

  Easy to see from the outside looking in, but when they’d been standing out there...she’d been captivated by the powerful want between them, too.

  No way she could have walked away.

  So he had.

  He’d told her where he was going.

  To town.

  Close to midnight on a Thursday night. She knew full well what there was and wasn’t to do in town.

  Meet up with someone.

  Or go to the Corral.

  There were no other choices.

  Except, maybe, going to another town. Where he could take care of his needs without anyone in Chatelaine, anyone who knew Lily, finding out about it.

  Stop it.

  At the door out to the front porch, Lily paused. Staring out.

  Could see writing on the wall almost as though it had been printed in big letters across the night sky. Her nights with Asa, being married to him, would be repeats of the current one. Him leaving at night, even to go into the Corral just to drink.

  Something he used to do with her. Their precious time together.

  Now his time to get away from her.

  Turning, she started her trail back across the room again. She had to buck up. To lift her chin and look for the good. In just a couple of weeks’ time, her entire life had changed. Giving her more than she’d ever thought she’d have. Making dreams come true that, in her previous twenty-nine years, she hadn’t even come close to achieving.

  At the kitchen sink, she glanced out, could see lights in the distance. She knew one of them was the security light at the barn where Laura was probably sound asleep.

  Stomping her foot, as though she could crush that night’s pain beneath it, Lily headed toward the stairs. When had she ever wasted time walking around feeling sorry for herself?

  She needed to go to bed. Get some rest. She had a busy weekend, and an equally hectic week ahead. More check-ins, and a lot of renovating to oversee to get the ranch as ready as it could be for a full summer. And the following Saturday, just eight days away, was her and Asa’s wedding party. In the back room at the Corral.

  They’d agreed one night over dinner, the day that they’d both had texts from their sisters telling them to save the date, that they had a ton worth celebrating. The ranch. A home—albeit hers would be changing, it was still out there someplace, waiting for her to find it. But no matter where she ended up living, the two of them would be working here together long into the future. A forever friendship. Even Laura’s advent into their lives was a true blessing. So, while others celebrated the legalities of a marriage certificate and rings on Lily’s and Asa’s fingers, the two of them would be toasting to having found the futures they’d dreamed of having.

  In her bathroom, Lily scrubbed her face. Hard.

  Getting rid of the grit that had tried to take over her mind downstairs.

  Just standing in that bathroom, in a real home, she had so much more than she’d ever had. And she wanted Asa in her life, as best friends—forever.

  It was all well and good to reach for dreams.

  But not to the point of killing a different version of a dream that had actually become reality.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Asa awoke on Friday feeling as though he’d managed to walk across fire and not get burned. He’d faced temptation with Lily and had gotten them both out of the situation before flames had consumed them.

  And he knew that having done so once, he could do it again. As many times as necessary. He’d found the wherewithal to beat the demon that had been threatening their lifelong friendship. For however long desire continued to tempt him, he’d just get in his truck and drive. He had his escape hatch.

  With the success giving buoyancy to his step and lifting his mood, he sought Lily out in the office midmorning. There were no more check-ins due until late that afternoon. And no checkouts. Everything else could wait.

  “You feel like getting lunch in town?” he asked her. And then, so as to ward off any hint of a return of the demon, quickly added, “I have to make a stop and would like you to go with me. We could order takeout, make the stop, pick up lunch, and eat it on the way home.”

  Home. His and, for the next several months, hers.

  The thought brought no threat. No feelings of danger.

  Just...satisfaction.

  “Of course,” Lily said, standing. “Where’s the stop?”

  “My great-uncle Wendell’s.” It felt right, taking her with him. Not for show—though formally introducing Lily to the Fortune patriarch would further solidify their marriage in the eyes of anyone who could possibly have doubts—but because something truly weird was going on. Something worthy of mention to someone he trusted most.

  And Lily was his someone.

  His best friend.

  She’d stopped at the edge of her desk and was looking at him. Frowning. “Why would we be stopping there?”

  Only then did it occur to him that Lily wasn’t just his best friend. She was also the woman who’d grown up in foster care and, until recently, had lived in a tiny old apartment, and had worked serving food to others in a café.

  “You’re going to love Fortune’s Castle,” he told her then, grabbing her purse, handing it to her and heading toward the door. She wasn’t a foster that no one kept for long anymore.

  Hadn’t been for a long time.

  She’d become a woman who would do anything for anyone. Who put others first and always found the good in any situation. Who brought a smile with her into pretty much every moment of her life.

  And for the time being, she was his wife. As far as he was concerned, that meant she would always be a Fortune.

  And before they divorced, he would see to it that she never, ever felt like she had to hesitate again before walking in anywhere.

  * * *

  Lily listened as Asa told her what he’d seen in the park the night before. She picked up on his escalated energy, his need to find out why on earth someone would have left a note about a decades-old mine collapse.

  More, she felt almost light-headed with relief to know that he hadn’t gone to the Corral to drink without her.

  Or to seek comfort in a woman.

  He’d driven to the park.

  And parked.

  The thought brought the threat of tears, and to avoid them, she tuned in to what he was saying about Freya Fortune. She already knew about the letters his great-aunt had sent to him and his siblings and cousins. Everyone in town did. But the fact that Freya had said that her late husband had probably mentioned knowing the mining foreman’s widow after Asa texted her about the mysterious note he’d found tacked to the community bulletin board the previous night, was intriguing.

  And... Asa was taking her to his family’s famed castle. She could hardly believe that she was actually going to see inside the place known all over the state for its elaborate feat of architecture, hidden rooms, and supposedly secret messages buried in the cement. She’d heard that Wendell Fortune’s art collection was impressive as well.

  She’d driven by the place more times than she could count.

  And now Asa wanted her to be a part of that piece of his family legacy.

  Like he was giving her an official admittance into the Fortune family.

  Shaking off the lofty thought, Lily spent the rest of the drive reminding herself that she was and always would be...herself.

  And that self took things as they came. She didn’t get dramatic and fanciful.

  Those were the types of emotional forages that could take the cheer right out of a woman. Or a little girl being shuffled from home to home.

  Still, she couldn’t help the sharp intake of her breath at her first step into the renowned masterpiece. The place was huge, with high colorful ceilings. She could only imagine all of the hidden messages in the barrage of art, and as they walked through to the room where Wendell sat, waiting, she really found the place kind of bizarre.

  Fascinating, ornate, and glamorous, but an odd thing for a man to build as his family home.

  She’d seen Wendell before, of course, as Martin Smith, the man he’d been posing as all of her life. He’d been at town functions. A ribbon cutting in the park.

  She’d glimpsed him often enough to know that the man in the big ornate chair, who welcomed them in with kindness, but not a tone of warmth, had truly grown frail.

  “Thank you for seeing me,” Asa said to the patriarch, his formality reminding her that he’d only met his great-grandfather’s older brother the previous summer. “First, I wanted to introduce you to my wife, Lily.”

  The old man nodded. “I’ve seen her. One of the Perry triplets. Terrible tragedy there...” Wendell shook his head, and Lily warmed up to him in a way she’d never ever have expected to.

  One of the town’s founding fathers, or a relative of such, knew about her parents. Knew that she’d been born a triplet to loving people.

  She and her sisters and parents had been memorable.

  It didn’t change anything about her, or her life.

  And yet...in a strange way...it did.

  If nothing else, it changed how she viewed herself.

  “Secondly, I just keep thinking about last night’s note,” Asa told his great-uncle. “Do you have any idea what became of Gwenyth Wells?”

  Wendell’s chin quivered a bit as he said, “I don’t, but I remember that she was ruined. I heard that she knew that my younger brothers were responsible for the mine collapse.” He lifted a shaking hand about an inch out of his blanketed lap, then let it drop. And continued, “She knew that they were the ones who’d placed the blame on her husband, the mine’s foreman, who died in the collapse.” He paused again, the wrinkles at his neck moving with the breaths he took.

  Because Asa sat silently, so did Lily.

  “It was rumored that she’d vowed to seek vengeance on Elias and Edgar, but they’d already fled town,” Wendell continued after the brief pause.

  Sitting on the big leather couch with Asa, Lily wanted to place a hand on his thigh as his grandfather was mentioned. She settled for leaning enough that her shoulder touched his.

  “And she was never heard from again?” Asa prompted the older man. “Did she have any relatives in the area? Any other family?”

  “She had a daughter, Renee, I think her name was.” Wendell frowned. “She was a handsome young woman, as I recall. Seventeen or eighteen. Sure gave her father a sleepless night or two.” Wendell’s tone lightened, though the man’s expression didn’t change much.

  “So is she still around? Married? Going by a different name?”

  Wendell’s headshake was minimal, but there. “She left town with her mother soon after the disaster, and I never heard of either one of them again until last night.”

  “So what do you think of the note?”

  The old man shrugged and readjusted the blanket across his knees. “My guess...someone’s playing a prank. Or is out to cause a stink. These young kids today...just don’t have enough hard work to keep their minds out of trouble.”

  While Lily didn’t agree with that statement—she figured today’s kids had way more to deal with than even she had growing up, with all of the information coming at them instantly all day long—but she understood Wendell’s views came from an era when even kids worked on the ranch from sunup to sundown. With education coming in as a luxury. Or at the very least, coming in second.

  And she told Asa as much a short time later as they stopped in town to pick up their lunch and head back to the ranch.

  There followed a conversation about the internet and social media, and the pressures they brought—as well as the plethora of mind opening information—all the way back to the ranch. They didn’t judge the past against the present. Didn’t even compare. They just talked.

  Sharing thoughts. Impressions. Memories.

  Just like any of dozens of evenings they’d spent together at the Corral.

  They didn’t talk about his family’s history. Or the fact that Wendell Fortune knew who she was and remembered her parents.

  But there was comfort in knowing that she and Asa knew those things about each other.

  Knew that they came with emotional investment.

  And held the information safely.

  Because that was what best friends did.

  * * *

  Asa woke every morning with a sense of anticipation. Finding the life he’d dreamed of even better than he’d imagined. Far better.

  It wasn’t just hard work so that he could be the boss of his world. It was taking on all kind of tasks, challenges, being creative, and getting to meet interesting people among the vacationing strangers who were happy to share his property.

  It was about knowing that Lily was sharing the days with him. That had been his missing piece. Not doing it alone.

  Plus the fact that she was loving the work as much as he was—the challenge, the opportunities to grow something bigger and better—was a satisfaction he hadn’t even known how to conjure up. And the knowledge that she wanted to continue to be his partner on the ranch even after their marriage ended? Well, that was more than he’d ever have envisioned for himself.

  The days all rolled by one after another, each one different in the tasks that cropped up, and each one the same, too. There were no days off. Not until they’d gotten a firm grip on every aspect of the business, made some initial changes, and hired a few more staff.

  But he and Lily had started taking a little more time, when they could, for their afternoon ride. It had become kind of like the Corral to him, those hours with Lily, he on Major and her on Laura, instead of on their barstools.

  Up on separate horses, there was no danger of anything physical cropping up between them, just as there hadn’t been sitting at the bar at the Corral.

  And they could talk about whatever came up between them.

  Like the upcoming wedding party being thrown for them. He was uneasy every time he thought about it. Such a public display of pretense. Everyone there together all at once. The ones who knew them best. He figured he and Lily needed a strategy—some kind of plan they could work out together—but wasn’t sure what it would be. Or, even how she felt about the gathering.