Prologue
Peyton
The last thing I expected was to be back on the Triple J Ranch and to be laying my father to rest. We just spoke a week ago. He sounded happy and healthy, full of life and vigor. I had no idea he’d die doing the one thing he loved the most, yet here I am.
Jack Johnson, Jr. was an amazing husband and father. When he loved, he loved with his whole heart. Now it’s just me at the age of twenty-three and I’m home. It should give me a sense of peace, instead all it’s giving me is anxiety and a bad state of depression. I’m almost done with my college degree. I can taste it, the ranch was always in my dad’s blood and as much as I wanted to love it, I didn’t want to work on animals. Losing animals would kill me and that’s what happens when you own a horse ranch. You breed them and get them to the right hands and either they die of old age, or injury, or worse — a foal goes breech and kills them both. I couldn’t handle it. It’s why I’m not out to get my doctorate. I want to work in a peaceful setting. One that I know will do good, yet not have to deal with what I am now.
We lost my mother when I was eighteen years old. I was already off in my first year at theUniversity of Utah when I got a call home from my father. She withstood so much. For years, she battled cancer. It seemed like she would go into remission and then it would come back. It riddled her body.
Yet, she always had a smile on her face and was going on about promising her that I would go out and follow my dreams. She knew ranch life wasn’t my passion, like hers and Dad’s were. She didn’t hold it against me and neither did Dad.
So, I did what I told her I would. Even when she was going through chemotherapy and radiation.
At seventeen, I graduated high school early and set off for college. Nothing like having a full case load, but it helped that I graduated with not only my high school diploma, but also my Associates degree. So, I started right in as a Junior.
I’m lodged out of my thoughts when my father’s foreman, Buck, comes up and wraps his arm around my shoulder. He’s a surrogate father and I know if it wasn’t for him, the ranch would already be in disarray.
“How ya doin’ Peyton?” he asks. I put my head on his shoulder and let out a breath of air.
“I’ve been better. I know you’re going to need me here full time, until we figure everything out, but do you think you can handle things until I’m done this fall?” I ask him.
“I’ll stay here and help out until everything is settled, but you know your daddy got an offer on the ranch not long ago. Levi Heart wanted to buy the ranch, but your dad held firm. Said he was only fifty-five and wasn’t ready for that. May want to see what he has to say,” Buck gives my shoulder one last squeeze and then sets off to the barn.
I’m left thinking about why Levi would ever want to have two horse ranches and if it’s something that’s even still a possibility. It could work, our crew would still have jobs. I could keep a portion of the land and have less responsibility.
I leave the homestead cemetery and head to the house, with the weight of the world on my shoulders.
Prologue
Levi
Seeing Peyton sad and solemn isn’t something I’m used to. Before, when she would come home on breaks, she’d always be out riding and racing her palomino, Snickers. Her dad once told me, when they went to a horse auction when she was just twelve, she saw Snickers and begged for her. The only palomino he’d ever have on his quarter horse farm. He shook his head and laughed the whole time.
I never thought I’d see the day Jack would be buried. Sure, I wanted to buy the ranch a couple of months ago. He gave me the same old song and dance he has for the past year. It became a joke between he and I. Now, I’m left wondering what Peyton will do. She always said her future wasn’t with the ranch. She wanted something else. I’d see the wistful eye Jack would have when he’d talk about her and how proud he was of her for chasing her dreams.
Her usual coloring is much paler than it should be. The dark circles under her deep, soulful, blue eyes are enough to knock a man to his knees and want to take her in his arms and hold her tight.