Larkspur Road Read Online Free PDF Page B

truly upset.
    What if there’s more to this?
she thought uneasily.
And what could it be?
    “Don’t worry, I’ll tell your mom that you’re welcome to stay. But you need to talk to her, too. And accept whatever she decides.”
    “Sure. As long as she doesn’t make me go back.” Britt’s eyes were already closing as she burrowed her face into the pillow.
    She looked so exhausted. And so unhappy. Not at all like her usual buoyant self.
    Drawing the curtains against the sunlight, Mia tiptoed out of the room, leaving her niece in semidarkness, with Samson’s small furry body pressed against her side.
    This has to be more than mere stress because her mother’s just gotten married for the third time and going on an extended honeymoon. And because her dad has a new wife and son.
    But…what?
    Slipping out the front door, she headed back to the Jeep. The day was warming now, the sun glowing in the sapphire Montana sky. She stripped off her hoodie and tossed it in the backseat. With just her tank top and jeans, the sun felt good on her bare shoulders. She climbed behind the wheel and began automatically organizing her priorities.
    First things first. Winny. Then home to play peacemaker with Samantha and Britt.
    Lucky me,
she thought ruefully, starting the engine. A fun-filled day of Quinn women family drama.
Not
.

Chapter Four
     

    Though the smells of fresh coffee, fried eggs, sausage, and warm banana bread wafted through the Sage Ranch kitchen, Travis scarcely noticed. He barely even noticed the frantic activity outside as his brother’s two rescued dogs, the gangly black mutt Starbucks and the little brown and black Tidbit, with his stubby tail, chased each other around the perimeter of the house—until they sounded a frantic joint alarm after spotting a squirrel impinging on their territory.
    “Hey, quiet, guys,” he ordered through the open window, halting the racket as the squirrel made its escape into the woods, and one of the horses whickered from the corral. Both dogs turned to gape at him, tails wagging.
    Ah, home on the range. Where the dogs and the horses play.
    Travis resumed rinsing his plate in the sink, then set it inside the dishwasher, hoping the two mutts hadn’t wakened Grady, still asleep upstairs as of fifteen minutes ago when he’d last checked.
    The boy was as worn out as a stub from that two-day drive. And who knew, maybe from all the tension in his life—and, if Travis knew Val—from all the yelling. The kid had been through a lot in the past forty-eight hours—uprooted from his home, transported hundreds of miles to a place he scarcely remembered, plopped down amid family he barely knew.
    My fault,
Travis thought as his older brother ambled into the kitchen.
I should have been there for him, kept him attached, connected to the ranch, to the family. But I was too busy with the FBI, chasing bad guys and trying to keep our undercover alive—while letting my kid’s life go all to hell.
    He had a brief image of Nichols, the grungy undercover agent he and Joe had been monitoring for months. Nichols had infiltrated one of the largest human smuggling rings in the country, working hand in glove with soulless thugs who traded in human misery. They’d been trying to keep Nichols safe and alive as he stockpiled a landslide of evidence. Ironic that at the end of it all, it was Joe, tough, gritty Joe, Travis’s grizzled veteran partner, who’d ended up dead in the blink of an eye.
    “I wouldn’t give a plug nickel for your thoughts right now,” Rafe commented drily, pouring himself a cup of coffee and automatically refilling Travis’s cup. “Looks like you woke up on the dark side of the planet.”
    “Guess you could say that. The planet of hard truths.”
    Rafe’s brows rose. “Such as?”
    “I let Grady down. Big-time. I should have been paying more attention, visiting the kid a hell of a lot more and making sure he spent some time with me in Arizona. And here on the ranch.” Travis