At the house, Guthrie parked in his usual spot. It seemed as though we all had our usual parking spots. Mostly. Evan got out first, and I gathered Clarence,

who'd been residing on my lap with his back half on Evan's leg.

I struggled a bit, heaving him up so I could scramble out without dropping him.

"Here," Evan said, in an offer to take him from me.

"I've got him," I said, and, once out of the truck, I set Clarence down, breathing a little hard from the exertion of his weight.

"He needs to go on a diet," Evan commented.

"He is on a diet," I said.

"I don't think it's working," Evan said, and I rolled my eyes.

"He's sensitive about being called fat," I said.

"Oh, yeah? Okay," Evan said, sounding amused.

Guthrie, who hadn't moved from his seat behind the steering wheel, leaned forward to look at Evan.

"So, I'll run you home," Guthrie told Evan. "We can do our talkin' on the way."

I wasn't oblivious to the fact that Guthrie wanted to get Evan home to his own place, and away from possibly talking to Brian and Adam. And, I

was fairly certain that Evan knew it, too.

"I was thinkin' I might have some of that banana bread that Harlie was talkin' about earlier," Evan said, slowly, as if he was considering it.

I caught the glint in his eye and knew that Evan was having a bit of fun, taunting Guthrie. Guthrie, however, hadn't caught onto that fact. He

glared at me, as if I personally was responsible for banana bread being invented.

"Yeah. Harlie likes to talk a lot," Guthrie said, in a rush. "She likes to talk to people she shouldn't-"

I huffed and gave Guthrie a worse glare than he'd given me. I knew he was talking about what I'd admitted earlier about popping up to

mouth off to Leo. I knew that what I'd done was a hundred times more dangerous than Guthrie just looking into the back door of the bar to

see what he could see. I'd actually confronted Leo. And, I knew that Jill must have sensed a reason to worry, or she wouldn't have stepped in

between the two of us, and tried to get Leo to go on his way and leave me alone.

Evan would flip if he knew. And, I wasn't naive enough to believe that Evan would do a little bit of talking just to me. He'd holler at me, or worse, and

then he'd tell Adam.

"Guth!" I said, in fury, trying to hush him up with my glare.

"What're you talking about?" Evan demanded, looking instantly suspicious.

"Nothing," I said, at the exact same moment that Guthrie said, "Nothin." My glare must have gotten thru to Guthrie, or he was feeling sorry, cause he

was backtracking.

Evan narrowed his eyes and gave both Guthrie and I a long, studying look. "I have a feeling that it's not nothing." He sighed, and with a hand on the

middle of my back, gave me a soft push to move me out of the way so he could get into the truck cab.

Once inside, he shut the door and said, "Alright. Drive me to the cabin, Guth." Guthrie started the engine and Evan looked out the open

passenger window at me. "I guess you and me will be havin' a talk later, huh?"

I didn't want to. Not at all. Even if Guthrie was sorry, and clammed up about Leo, Evan would pick at me like layers of an onion, until

he got me to admit to whatever it was that Guthrie had been talking about. But, getting into a fuss with him right now wouldn't help anything. And, hopefully,

the later wouldn't come, because maybe he'd get busy with work, or with Nancy, or whatever and forget.

Who was I kidding? He wouldn't forget.

I sighed, and just met his gaze. The two of them drove away, and I went to the barn, followed by Warrior, who was excited to see me.

I planned to check on Peppy. I hadn't spent any time with him recently, and besides, I wasn't anxious to go inside yet, and have to explain

anything about Guthrie dropping me off.

To my somewhat surprise, Jill was in the barn, holding the skunk, and sitting on a bale of hay. I mean I wasn't really surprised. She seemed to like being with Peppy.

"Hey," I said.

"Oh. Hey," she said, looking up.

I stood beside her, and said, "How is he?"

"He seems happy. He's making his happy sound."

I thought it was sort of cool that Jill had spent enough time with Peppy that she could decipher between the sounds he made. Nobody else but me could

do that.

"How are you?" she asked me, looking up. "How was town?"

I shrugged. "We didn't do much," I said. I wasn't going to tell her about Guthrie skulking around behind the bar hoping to see Leo and Chess.

"Where's Daniel?" I asked.

"He went somewhere with Crane." Unlike other times that Daniel had gone off with one of the family, Jill didn't sound bothered now. She sounded

almost glad.

"That's good," I said.

"Yeah. You didn't see Leo or Chess, did you?"

"No. We saw the truck at the bar, but we didn't see them."

"That's good," she said, looking back down at Peppy.

Curious now, I saw down on a bale of hay across from hers, Warrior at my feet. "What do you think they're going to do? Will they leave?"

"Only Leo knows what they're going to do," she said, dryly.

"Not Chess?" I asked.

"No. Leo runs the show."

"Hmm," I said, thoughtfully, but persisted. "But-what do you think they will do?"

I was worried, and I guess Jill could tell that, because she met my eyes. "I think they'll go back to Nashville. As long as they believe that

I'm going to be coming along soon, too."

"You mean go with them?" I asked, in alarm. I could see trouble ahead, and Daniel's heart being hurt in some way.

"No. I'm not going with them, Harlie. Relax."

I breathed a sigh. "Well, that's good." I hesitated. "What do you mean, then? You and Daniel will go back?"

"I'm not sure, yet, what we're doing. Daniel and I disagree on that a bit."

There was a time when I would have been glad, glad, to hear of she and Daniel having a problem between them. It might have meant the end of

their relationship-but now, well, I wasn't sure why, but it didn't thrill me. Maybe Jill was starting to grow on me or something. At least she talked

to me like I was capable of hearing the truth. Not like a little kid.

"What does Daniel want to do?" I asked. I wasn't sure she'd tell me. She might tell me to mind my own business.

She didn't. "Daniel wants to wait to go back to Nashville, until things are settled thru the lawyer. I think we should go back now, soon, to

appease Leo, and keep him from stirring things up. I think Daniel's taking the easy way-hiding away here."

I considered that. "But-aren't you thinking the same way? If you go now, just to keep Leo from being an ass, well, that's taking the easy way,

too, isn't it?"

Jill regarded me with a steady look. I'd surprised her, I could tell.

"You sound like your brother," she said. "That's just what Daniel had to say about it."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. You two are two peas in a pod."

I smiled at the country saying. Jill was picking up our ways.

"I think Daniel's right," I said.

"I'm not surprised at that," Jill said, but without any heat, and I didn't take offense. "Your brother is smart. I'll say that." She stood up, and

gave Peppy a kiss on his head, and then took him back to his cage and put him in gently.

"I already filled his food and water dishes," she said.

Once she had closed the cage door, she turned to look at me, slipping her hands in her back pockets.

She was silent, and I asked something that I'd been wanting to ask for a long time. "Is Leo all bad? Does he have any good in him at all?"

Jill gave an unladylike snort. "Not much," she said.

"But-" I paused. "You must have seen something in him. At the beginning. Or you wouldn't have been involved with him-"

"I've got news, Harlie. There's very, very little in Leo to see that's good."

"But-you married him!" I pointed out, unnecessarily.

"Lord, I know I did," Jill said. She blew out her breath and her bangs lifted. "I was young, and desperate, and very, very stupid."

I waited, and she went on. "I thought Leo was going to save me. From foster homes, and from being poor, and everything else that was

wrong in my life at the time. He made big promises. I chose to believe him."

"Did you love him?" I asked.

Jill was still for a long moment. "I thought I did. But, I hadn't had much experience with love, of any kind. No family-nobody who ever really

taught me what love was. Or what it wasn't. So-looking back, I know now that what I felt for Leo wasn't love. Or at least it wasn't any of the good

parts of love. Only the bad."

I fell silent at that, and Jill went to the door of the barn, looking out. "The sun's starting to set," she said. "It's so beautiful. Come and see, Harlie."

I could have said that I'd seen the sunset on our ranch more times than I could remember. But, I didn't say that. Instead, I stood up, and went to

stand beside her, looking at the yellows and the reds.

It was indeed beautiful.