“’Night.”

He watched her go and knew he would be seeing her again the second he closed his eyes.

* * *

LUCY TURNED ONTO her stomach and shoved the fluffy pillow under her head. It was big—nearly as big as herself. She liked the way it was both squishy and firm. She liked the bed and the sheets and pretty much everything about the room. She and Tommy even had their own bathroom.

“Did you smell the towels?” she asked.

Her brother turned and stared at her. “No.” His expression said he didn’t know why he would want to.

“I did. They smell good. Like flowers, but not ’xactly. Not like the towels there.”

The “there” in question was Mrs. Fortier’s house, but Tommy would know that. There, towels and sheets smelled funny. Not bad like the time a sick cat had crawled under the porch and died, but sort of thick and goopy. Like something old had been wrapped in them for a long time. Plus the towels and sheets weren’t nearly this soft. Lucy rubbed her face against her pillow again. It almost tickled her skin.

“I like this house,” Tommy said. “It’s really big, but nice.”

“Yeah.” She flopped onto her back and stared up at the white ceiling. It was late, and they should be asleep, but everything was too strange.

Tommy turned on his side to face her. Their beds were sort of close together, but not too close. Lucy liked that.

“Zane’s real big,” her brother said.

“Scary.”

Tommy tried to deny it, then nodded quickly, as if he didn’t want to get caught agreeing with her.

“I like Chase,” Lucy said. “He smiles a lot.”

“C.J. said they’re brothers.”

Lucy didn’t want to think about C.J. or what she said about anything. C.J. made her feel all cold and shivery every time she looked at her and Tommy. Thad was different. He seemed to like them, but C.J....she didn’t want them there.

Lucy almost told her brother that, but she knew he wouldn’t believe her. He never believed anything she said about the adults they met. He always said they were nice and kind and looking for kids just like them. Lucy knew better.

“Zane and Chase kinda look like brothers,” she said instead, “but Zane is a lot older. I wonder why.”

“They’re still family,” Tommy said.

Lucy glared at her brother. He had a really stupid look on his face, like he was thinking about them being part of a family.

“Forget it,” she said. “We’re never going to find anyone who wants to adopt us.”

“We might.”

“No.”

She hated saying it, hated how it made her feel, but she knew one of them had to see the truth. Wanting and wishing were scary enough, but believing...that was the worst. Believing made her insides hurt.

She blinked really fast so Tommy couldn’t tell that she suddenly wanted to cry.

“Dinner was good,” she said to distract him. “Maybe we’ll go the whole week without being sent to bed hungry.”

“You think?”

“Maybe.”

Tommy pulled up his covers. “What did you think of C.J. and Thad?”

“She hates us.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“She looks at us the same way Mrs. Fortier does. Like we did something bad when we didn’t.”

“But Thad—”

“No.” She turned away from her brother. “It doesn’t matter. So what if he’s nice and likes us? Boys might be more special than girls, but in families, you know who decides. She does. Not him. And she doesn’t like us at all.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

PHOEBE SET HER Stetson on her head, then turned to gaze at herself in the mirror.

Jeans, boots, hat. All she needed was a six-shooter, and she could pass for Jesse James...well, almost.

A week ago if someone had told her she would be heading out on a real, live cattle drive she would have laughed in disbelief. But now that she was actually here, she could barely keep from dancing from foot to foot. So far everything about the ranch was too cool for words—and that was excluding the Zane factor.

She collected the saddlebags and small duffel that she’d packed the night before and walked out of the bedroom. Maya had gone downstairs a few minutes before, grousing about the limited amount of gear she was allowed to bring.

Phoebe would have liked a few more of her possessions along as well, but she could manage without for a few days. She would just have to—

She stepped out into the clear morning and instantly came to a stop. Everyone had collected in front of the house. Eddie and Gladys were over by the corral, taking video of the cowboys at work. The men seemed to be enjoying the attention, even showing off a little. C.J., Thad and the kids were clustered together but not talking. Maya smiled up at a handsome, older cowboy, but none of that mattered to Phoebe.

Without warning, without knowing why, what it meant or how to stop it if she wanted to, she found her gaze settling right on Zane. As if she’d known where he would be at that exact instant. As if he had some magical power to draw her attention only to him. As if he were magnetic north to her female compass.

She paused, willing him to look up and see her, but he remained in an intense conversation with one of the cowboys. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

Eddie and Gladys called out to one of the cowboys who was riding his horse out of the corral. He grinned at whatever they said and encouraged his horse to rear up on its hind legs. The two old women applauded.