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CJ tried not to sound bitter, but she didn’t think she was successful After so , after so many disappointments, she felt as if she had finally reached the end of the road

She and Thad would never have children Not their own and not any they adopted She and her husband loved each other They had a strong, healthy h

Beside her, Thad turned her hand over and laced his fingers with hers

“I like them,” he said softly

Her chest tightened Of course he did Because he was a good , whether it was in his personal life or in the courtroo law, he’d been appointed to the bench where he could put all his idealistic notions into practice Her husband, the man whom she had loved since the first o, would like a ten-year-old pickpocket and his con artist younger sister

She turned her head to study his faaze of his blue eyes, the thinning blond hair worn in a conservative cutnot because he was conservative, but because he was cursed with unruly curls thatrock star She visually traced the lines at the corners of his eyes and the firood man A kind man A man who loved her and never blamed her He knew her better than anyone, knehat he was asking Hoas she supposed to tell him no?

“All right,” she said softly “We’ll take Lucy and Tom to give them Please, don’t expect to make it more”

He sret it”

She didn’t answer Instead she prayed that he was right Between the two of therets for this lifetime

CHAPTER FIVE

“GOATS?” PHOEBE ASKED as she stared at the array of large, open pens Several horned goats nibbled on their breakfast of hay and sooats, too?”

“Those are dairy goats Heidi makes cheese”

Phoebe shrugged “And that’s different how?”

“These are cashine the horror of discovering a cattle secret”

She supposed the rooats the same way it did to cattle, but as far as she was concerned, four-legged grazing animals were all pretty much the same

She’d sure seen plenty on her tour The Nicholson Ranch was nothing if not huge As they’d been on foot, she and Chase had only explored a tiny bit of it She didn’t know the going price of cattle on the hoof, or the per acre value of land in this part of the country, but fro to die poor