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right?”
    “Of course.” She pasted a smile on her face. “Why wouldn’t I
be?”
    “I know you once thought you were in love with him.”
    “That was a long time ago.”
    “Yes,” he said quietly. “A long time ago.”
    “How’s your sermon coming along?”
    Russell shrugged. “Fine, fine.”
    Rising, she walked around the desk and gave her father a
hug. “I know it’ll be wonderful, like always. I’ll go fix dinner.”
    In the kitchen, she stared out the kitchen window while she
waited for the soup to heat, sighing as her thoughts turned toward Mitch, as
they had doing all day.
    Why hadn’t he sent for her? When her father insisted she
leave town until the baby was born, she had made him promise he would forward
any mail she received, but none had been forthcoming. Still, she had waited,
hoping, for months and months. Every time her father went to the post office to
pick up the mail, she had been certain that she would hear from Mitchy, but the
days and weeks passed, and there had been no word from him and finally she
realized he was never going to send for her, that his love, like his promise,
had been a lie.
    Even now, she could remember how devastated she had been
when she finally admitted to herself that she was waiting for a letter that was
never going to come. She had felt so lost, so lonely, so bereft. She had cried
until she was certain she had no tears left, and then she had cried some more.
    She had been determined to put him out of her mind, and she
had turned her every thought to the baby she carried. She might not have Mitch,
but she would have his child.
    But even that comfort had been denied her. She had never
seen her son. Her father had told her the baby was born dead, that it was for
the best if she didn’t see the child, that she should put the whole affair
behind her and go on with her life. For months afterward, she had dreamed that she
heard her baby crying, that it was wandering in the dark, looking for her.
    Gradually, the dreams had stopped and she had sought to take
her father’s advice, to put that period of her life behind her. She had thought
herself quite successful at it until today, when just hearing Mitch’s name
brought it all back, made her remember how desperately she had loved him, how
her heart had ached when he left her, how empty her arms had been when the
child she had longed for was taken from her.
    Tears burned her eyes and slid down her cheeks and she
dashed them away. She would not cry for Mitch Garret. Not now, not ever again.
    She was going to marry Roger Smithfield. They had grown up
together, gone to school together. He was a good man, an ambitious man, and she
cared deeply for him. Soon he would have his own business. They would have a
home of their own, a family of their own. She was going to be the best wife any
man ever had. And if Roger didn’t make her heart sing the way Mitch had, if
Roger didn’t make her flesh ache for his touch, well, she could just live
without that. Love and lust had brought her nothing but misery and despair.
    Sniffing back her tears, she removed a pan of biscuits from
the oven, filled two bowls with beef stew, and went to tell her father that
dinner was ready.

Chapter Five
     
    Mitch shook hands with his father’s lawyer then left the
man’s office. Closing the door, he stood on the boardwalk for a moment, then
shoved the legal documents into his back pocket. The ranch was legally his now,
to do with as he pleased. Ironic, he mused as he descended the stairs and
crossed the street, that the first piece of property he had ever owned should
be a place that held nothing but unhappy memories.
    He muttered an oath as he stepped onto the boardwalk. Why had
he come back here? Why hadn’t he just written to the lawyer and told him to
sell the ranch, lock, stock, and barrel and send him the money?
    Shit, he knew why. He had come back to Canyon Creek hoping
for a miracle, hoping that she would still be here, that he would have