“You don’t think I’ve come at this from every possible angle?”

Alex drummed his fingers rhythmically on the tabletop. “And you trust her?”

“What’s not to trust? There’s nothing in this for her.”

“It gets you to Lyndon.”

“I don’t think she wants me in Lyndon.” Zach could get bigheaded about this and decide that Abigail had some interest in him beyond their brief fling. But he was realistic. Her goodbye this morning had been final.

Not that he blamed her. He’d forced her to go against her family. And if he knew anything about Abby, it was that she was loyal to the core. Though their lovemaking was explosive, it was temporary and in some ways selfish. She wasn’t going to let herself do that again.

Alex leaned back in his chair, twirling a silver pen between his fingers. “Then I guess we get the legal department assembled this afternoon.”

“And Accounting,” said Zach. “Relocating is going to be expensive. We’ll have to break our lease. I can’t imagine what it’ll do to our taxes. And we should offer employees some kind of moving allowance.”

“Are there even enough houses for everybody in Lyndon, Colorado?”

Zach realized it was a good question. “I wonder if we could stage it out, maybe plan the bulk of the move for next summer. That way, people with kids wouldn’t be so inconvenienced.”

“You think people will quit?”

“Some might,” Zach reasoned. “But at least they’ll have the option.”

Alex’s frown deepened. “You are absolutely sure there’s no other way?”

“I am absolutely sure.” He’d had three of their lawyers look over the moratorium and Abigail’s suggestion. They proclaimed her a genius and told Zach they’d hire her as a researcher in a heartbeat.

“There is a bright side,” said Alex.

“Yeah?”

“I’m starting to think Stephanie might have been bluffing.”

“Will you take her back?” Zach was often baffled by his friend’s relationship with his girlfriend Stephanie. It seemed to cause him a whole lot more angst than happiness.

When she wasn’t angry, she was pouting. She demanded nearly all his attention. If he was half an hour late leaving the office, she was on the phone. And when he traveled on business, she was always convinced he was going to spend time with other women.

“I don’t want her back,” said Alex. “But she does have her ways. I figure it’s safer if I leave the state. I’ll go be the advance man in Colorado. Keep me away from temptation.”

“I don’t understand how you can possibly be tempted.”

“That’s because you’ve never been in love.”

Zach might not have ever been in love, but he couldn’t imagine love was anything like Alex and Stephanie’s relationship. If a guy was going to go to all the trouble to be with one woman, she should at least make him happy. A vision of Abigail flashed through his mind. Okay, he wouldn’t exactly call every moment with her happy. Exhilarating, yes. Exciting, absolutely. And the highs were very, very high. But the lows sure sucked.

Then again, the lows were mostly when she left him.

“It’s not all laughs and sunshine,” Alex put in.

“Apparently not.”

“The good is very good.”

“And the bad is very bad.” Zach shifted his mind back to Alex and Stephanie. “Seems to me it should at least be a fifty-fifty proposition to make it worth a guy’s while.”

“It’ll happen to you one day.”

“Not like Stephanie.”

“Yeah, well.” Alex brought his hands down on the arms of his chair. “Stephanie ain’t going to happen for me either. To make sure of that, I’m going to Colorado.”

“No forwarding address?”

“Probably for the best.” Alex stretched. “Damn, this is going to be expensive.”

“That it is,” Zach agreed. “Only thing it’s got going for it is that’s it’s better than the alternative.”

“True enough.”

Zach started to rise, but Alex spoke again.

“So, you going to call her?”

“Abigail?”

Alex set his pen down on the table. “Yes, Abigail. The woman you slept with last night.”

“I never said I slept with her.”

“Are you going to call her?”

“No.” Zach would like to call her. He’d love to call her. But he’d bothered her enough for one lifetime. It was time to back off.

“You mind if I call her?” asked Alex.

“What for?”

“To ask her out.”

Zach’s fingers curled tightly around the arms of his chair. “On a date?”

“There’s got to be some kind of nightlife in Lyndon.”

“Over my dead body.”

“So she’s off limits?”

Zach leaned forward. “Look me in the eye, Alex. What do you see?”

“My body chopped up into tiny little pieces if I so much as look sideways at Abigail Jacobs.”

“Close enough.”

“But you’re not going to call her.”

Zach wished he could. “She doesn’t want to hear from me.”


* * *

“Got a minute?” Lisa’s head popped up above the roofline of the shed where Abigail was perched while she replaced some broken shingles. Seth was perpetually busy on civic matters in Lyndon. Mandy and Caleb were honeymooning in Hawaii. Katrina and Reed had opted for Australia. Abigail’s parents were staying in Denver for a while, to be close to the medical facilities while her father completed his recovery. As expected, Travis and Abigail were left holding the fort.

Ozzy gave a belated, warning bark from his post at the bottom of the ladder.

“I didn’t know you were coming today.” Abigail pulled a couple of roofing nails out of her mouth and dropped them back in the pouch on her leather tool belt.

“Drove in with Seth.” Lisa stepped up two more rungs and maneuvered herself around the top of the ladder.

“Careful,” Abigail cautioned. She was wearing heavy, leather work boots with thick-tread soles, while Lisa sported a pair of expensive pumps.

Lisa’s gauzy, pastel-patterned blouse billowed in the breeze above her skinny jeans. “Wow. Quite the view up here.”

Abigail glanced around. She’d been focused on work for the past few hours, but now she noted the fall colors against the evergreens and newly snowcapped peaks in the nearby foothills. October was well under way, and they could expect the first snowfall in a few weeks.

Lisa sat down next to her on the sun-warmed, black shingles. “How’s it going?”

Abigail shrugged. “Busy.” Fall was a frantic time on the ranch. Along with roundup, they had to make sure everything was winterized and battened down. Colorado was a beautiful state, but it had its fair share of rain and snow. “How about you?”

“Busy in Lyndon, too. We’re knee-deep in next year’s budget. The environmentalists have turned the Canada goose into a poster child, and the flocks are wreaking havoc at the airport. You know, the usual.”

Abigail scooted backward on her canvas work pants, setting another shingle strip in place.

“Saw an interesting application at city hall today,” said Lisa, swiping her hair back from her face as the wind raced up the pitch of the roof.

Abigail hammered in the first nail.

“For a business license,” Lisa continued. “Corporate headquarters of DFB Incorporated.”

Abigail hit her finger with the hammer. “Ouch!”

“It’s the parent company for Craig Mountain Brewery.”

“I know who they are.” Abigail shook the pain out of her hand, her mind reeling. Zach was going to do it. It had been three weeks since she’d presented her idea, and she hadn’t heard a word about his decision.

“Did Zach tell you he was doing this?”

“He didn’t.”

“But it was your idea,” Lisa guessed.

“It was,” Abigail admitted, taking a breath and setting the next nail.

“It was absolutely brilliant.”

It had been a brilliant idea. But it was also a very radical idea.

“I didn’t think he’d actually go through with it. He’s uprooting more than two hundred people.”

“The water license exemption was attached to the business application.”

Abigail looked up. “So it’s signed, sealed and delivered?”

She wanted to ask if Lisa had seen Zach, if he was in town. But she forced herself to stay silent. He knew full well where she was, and how to get hold of her. The fact that he hadn’t bothered contacting her told her everything she needed to know.

“They want to take over the Buskell Building on Fourth. That means a variance to zoning, and they’ll need to make provisions for parking. But all that’s minor stuff compared to the water license.”

“So he’s really doing it.”

“Looks like.”

Abigail let the hammer rest on the roof, gazing across the river, trying hard not to remember her last night with Zach.

“What did he have on you?” Lisa asked softly.

“It’s not important.”

“You look sad.”

Abigail mustered a smile. “I’m not sad. Dad’s doing better. Mandy and Katrina are having fantastic honeymoons. The price of beef is up.”

“You can’t fool me.” Lisa scooted closer. “I know you too well.”

“You’ve only known me for five months.” Ironic, really, considering Abigail’s own family hadn’t picked up on anything being wrong.

“It’s the genetic link. You have my eyes. And they’re sad.”

“Your eyes are green and round. Mine are hazel and almond shaped.”

“What did he have on you, Abby?”

“You’re like a broken record.” But deep down inside, Abigail wanted to share with someone.

Lisa leaned back on the heels of her hands. “I’ll just wait.”

“Okay.” Abigail set up for another strip of shingles, then another and another, moving farther away from Lisa, while her mind went to war with itself.

Finally, she dropped the hammer and rested her hands on her upraised knees. “Fine,” she called out.

“Yeah?” Lisa called back.

“Yeah.”

Lisa stood up, made her way across the roof then plopped back down again.