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Even though it wasn’t that part of me that had the tears.

“You deserve it.” I forced a smile.

She met it with a modest smile of her own. “I don’t know that I’d go that far.”

“No. You do. Everyone deserves to have hope.” Even me.

And right now, my hope was that Amber was lying.

CHAPTER 12

After helping Amber back inside and down from the attic, I made some vague excuse to leave her and search for Reeve.

“He’s out with the Callahans,” Parker, the stable manager, told me when I found him out in the shed, putting gas in an ATV. “They’re branding the calves up at the cowshed in the east pasture.”

The doors of the shed were propped open so I squinted out over the property and pointed toward one of the trails. “That one? The one on the north side of the house?”

“Yep.”

I was already heading out when he shouted after me, “It’s a little more than a mile out there. If you want to give me fifteen or so to finish up, I can drive you.”

“In fifteen minutes I’ll already be there.” I didn’t wait for h