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never hurt her.”
    â€œYou don’t think not knowing anything about her life or her community doesn’t hurt her? As you so annoyingly pointed out first fucking thing, you are her only grandchild. So how come I’ve never seen a picture of you?”
    The blush spread from her face to heat her neck and her chest. “I don’t know.”
    GG sailed back into the kitchen. “Aw. You two didn’t have to wait for me to eat. You should’ve just dug right in.”
    He got plenty of digs in, all right.
    Jade watched as Tobin turned and smiled at GG. “I’ll sort through those tools in the shed and see if I can’t find that missing bit. You enjoy lunch with your granddaughter. I’m sure you two have a lot to catch up on.”
    â€œAren’t you gonna eat? I know you’re starved, young man. You told me so yourself.”
    He grabbed a sandwich off the table. “It’ll be a working lunch, same as always.” He locked his gaze to Jade’s. “But don’t you worry. I’m not going anywhere.”

Chapter Three

    T obin didn’t even taste a single bite of his sandwich after he stormed out of Garnet’s kitchen.
    He crossed the yard and headed straight for the machine shed. He threw his shoulder into the wooden door because it always stuck—not because he was pissed off.
    But he
was
pissed off.
    After slamming the door behind him, he didn’t bother with the light. He didn’t need anything out here; he just figured it was a place where neither Garnet nor her granddaughter would follow him.
    Her annoying, pain-in-the-ass, argumentative granddaughter.
    Her goddamned beautiful granddaughter.
    Holy hell the woman was the most stunningly exotic beauty he’d ever laid eyes on. The round face with those almond-shaped smoky-topaz eyes. The warm caramel hue of her skin, her full mouth that almost distracted from the tip of her stubborn chin. And that hair. Glossy black that fell in a straight line below her shoulder blades. She was small—he topped her by at least a foot, but she had some delectable curves.
    By god the woman had some balls showing up here and accusing him of having ulterior motives. Maybe he did; he refused to let an adultwoman be railroaded into life changes that would put her in an early grave. Yanking her away from her home and her friends . . . everything that made Garnet vibrant would wither away with no one around to appreciate it. He’d never doubted that’s why she donned such outrageous getups. It got a reaction. It got people outside her normal circle talking to her. Or rather, Garnet talking to them.
    He’d taken her to the farm and ranch supply store in Rawlins about six months after they’d become friends. He’d gone to get his supplies, which took ten minutes, and in that time he’d lost track of Garnet. When he found her, by the warmers where the baby chicks were penned, he watched her scoop up a baby chick and bring it over to an elderly woman sitting on a bench by herself.
    The woman’s hands were gnarled and she could only stroke the chick’s downy head with a misshapen finger, but she wore a big grin the entire time Garnet cupped the chick in her hands. When the woman started to talk, Garnet listened. A harried woman around Tobin’s dad’s age came over and chewed the woman out for wandering off. Garnet held the chick out to the woman and told her the world would be a better place if everyone had more patience with children and old people. Kids because their excitement came from how they saw potential in everything and old people because they had to give up the things that were important to them, and that had defined them.
    It’d really struck home that this sweet, kooky woman had such a big heart. She’d gone out of her way to forge a connection with someone who looked as if they needed it. That was the first of many times he’d witnessed