“I’m sure going to miss you,” Catie said, holding Violet.
“I’m going to miss you too.” Amber wrapped a mug in newspaper and placed it in a box.
r /> “I wish things had worked out with you and Harp.”
So do I.
But she didn’t say it. “Oh, well, things are for the best. I’m going to get to know my daddy after all these years.”
“Yeah, who’d have thought? Thunder Morgan is your daddy. That’s something else.”
“I know.”
Amber had stopped ruminating on how different her life might have been if her father had been there when she was growing up. She had him now. That’s what was important.
“I’m so sad that Violet won’t grow up knowing her Auntie Amber.”
“I’ll be back in two months for the rodeo,” Amber said. “And I’ll be on the western slope. You’ll come out to visit. I mean, you’ll be out to visit Angie anyway. And I’ll be there.”
“I know,” Catie said, “but it won’t be the same. First Angie leaves, now you.”
“We’re not far away.”
But Catie was in the mood to sulk, obviously. Violet got cranky and Catie nursed her. Amber taped up the last box.
“That’s it,” she said. “Judy’s taking me to the airport tonight to catch the red-eye outta here, and the movers are coming tomorrow for my stuff. It should be on the slope in a few days.” She grabbed her suitcase. “I’m all set.”
“I hope you find what you’re looking for on the western slope with your dad,” Catie said. “And I hope things work out with your mom.”
“Things’ll work out one way or another,” Amber said. “They always do.”
* * *
Harper paced around Chad McCray’s ranch house. He hadn’t known where else to turn. He’d come over to see Catie but found out from Chad that she and Violet had gone into town to help Amber finish packing up.
“She’s leaving for Grand Junction tonight on the red-eye,” Chad told Harper.
“Damn.”
“What’s goin’ on with you?”
“I just…aw hell, I don’t know. I don’t want her to leave.”
Chad shook his head. “I gotta say I’m surprised. I could swear that woman was not your type at all.”
“She’s not,” Harper said. “Thing is, she is. She’s gotten under my skin. She’s been through some stuff that I can’t talk about. I don’t know if she’s told Catie.”
“About Rachel’s? Yeah.”
But about the web site and the photos? Probably not, and Harper didn’t want to break her confidence.
“Yeah, Rachel’s.”
“Can’t fault a girl for makin’ a livin’,” Chad said.
“And I don’t.”
“But you’re havin’ trouble processing the fact that you’re in love with a stripper, right?”