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Chapter 1

Clare

“Miss Clare Stevens?” I turn my head to look at the man who said my name The sun blocks my view until he takes another step forward, his cowboy boots tapping on the concrete of the train station’s entryway His ives ht of him

He looks like he could be uess how old he was, he’d be around this old Instantly, the little bit of the fear I’d been feeling slides away The h lines around his rey hair is cut short, his skin is deeply browned by the sun, probably fro out on the land

“Yes, that’son for over an hour I was starting to wonder if ed hish money to catch a train back out of Lobo, Texas I would have been stranded in a town in the middle of Nowheresville

“Sorry about that, s all over the place Had to round the bastards up” He cringes slight at his own curse “Excuse e, ma’am”

I s him know it doesn’t bother rew up on a farm with ten ranch hands I’ve heard it all”

“That so?”

I nod “Yeah, until ot sick and we had to move to the city” I can still hear the pain in my own voice It’s still fresh I can’t hide it, even if I wanted to She left o, and I don’t have anyone now The ranch I’d grown up on was gone It wasn’t our ranch, but it felt like it after all the years we poured into working there The ranch hands there were the only family I’d ever really known, but the Blackwells upped and sold the ranch last year and there wasn’t the option of going back to work there now

I’d found myself up the creek with no paddle

“Sorry about your loss”

I just shrug my shoulder because I really don’t want to talk about it

“That all you got?” He nods at the one bag I have sitting next to the bench That all you got? The words burn

“Yeah, that’s all I got”

He studiessoft