She’d grown accustomed to having Shelby all to herself. Her daughter represented her lifeline as she groped in the darkness of her past. She didn’t want to share Shelby and only felt relief when she found out her ex-husband was dead and wouldn’t be calling on her for visitation rights and joint custody.

But Ryder wasn’t Jeremy. Again, once the hypnosis peeled back a corner on her memories, they poured forth in sweet, agonizing detail. She recalled her first meeting with Ryder when Jeremy brought him to their Paris apartment. The problems with Jeremy had already begun, and Julia and Ryder had shared many laughs that weekend that excluded a morose Jeremy. Electricity sizzled between them, the same connection she felt the first time she saw him on Silverhill’s main street.

When she and Jeremy separated, Ryder had kept his distance, but the pull between them was too strong. Her skin tingled even now as she recalled making love with Ryder.

She remembered discovering her pregnancy as if it happened yesterday. She also remembered the uncertainty that plagued her. Wary of large families with pressing expectations, Ryder had told her many times he didn’t want children.

So why did the knowledge of his paternity frighten her now? If he didn’t want kids, why did she fear he’d snatch Shelby away from her?

Maybe her real fear was that he wouldn’t. That he’d have no interest in his daughter at all.

Shaking her head, she hitched the backpack up on her shoulders. She didn’t know what she wanted or what she feared.

“Slow down, Shelby.”

Except Jim Brody. She feared him. After that disastrous session yesterday, Jim had left several messages on her answering machine. She and Ryder had barely spoken on the drive home, and he dropped her off with a world of questions unanswered between them. So when the phone rang after dinner, she left it for the machine to pick up. But instead of Ryder’s voice, Jim’s voice, slurred and alternately pathetic and demanding, spewed out of the answering machine. The background noise indicated he’d placed those calls from a bar. Jim, the former alcoholic, had fallen off the wagon.

The booze had loosened his tongue and his inhibitions. He rambled on about how he loved her and wanted to protect her from her dangerous past and the dangerous men in it. With each message he left, Julia became more and more convinced that he had left the flowers, slashed the tires and bloodied her porch. And the fire at the hotel? He was probably responsible for that, too.

She shivered to think of the number of times she’d been holed up in that office with him alone.

“Wait for me, Shelby.” Shelby had the sure-footedness of a mountain goat, but Julia always liked to keep her in sight on the trail especially on this narrow pathway.

Shelby plopped down on a rock to wait for her before negotiating the only tricky part of the trail. Julia took Shelby ’s arm, pulling her up and in front of her while she gripped her waist. Single file they picked their way along the path that led to a sheer drop to their left for several feet.

A shadow fell across the trail and Julia peered up. A large boulder tumbled from the hillside to their right. She screamed and shoved Shelby forward where the path widened.

The boulder crashed into Julia’s legs, knocking her off her feet. She teetered on the soft shoulder of the path until the gravel gave way beneath her sneakers and she slid off the side of the mountain.

“Mama!” Shelby screamed above her and then her small face floated at the edge of the crumbled precipice.

“Stay back, Shelby.” Julia grasped the dry, scrubby bush growing out of the side of the rock and extended her toes to feel for a ledge. Emptiness gaped below her. “Get back on the trail.”

Shelby sobbed, but her head disappeared from the side of the ledge. Julia swung her body forward and cycled her legs to find a foothold on the face of the rock. The soles of her sneakers slid against the rough slab, dislodging small plants and pebbles.

Her body swayed, and the bush she clung to dipped lower as a root pulled free from the crack. She held her breath, afraid to make a move. She hoped Shelby would just wait on the trail for someone to come. Would someone come in time to help her?

She’d tossed her cell phone in the backpack, but it might as well be on the moon. She couldn’t risk reaching back with one hand to retrieve it.

Her shoulders ached and her hands stung from the prickly bush she clung to with all her strength. Another ledge extended about ten feet below her. If she let go and dropped onto this outcropping she might break her leg, but if she fell she could very well roll off and plunge another fifty feet to her death.

She inched her toe up the side of the rock and felt another scrubby plant to her right. She tested the plant with her foot, and it stayed in place. Gripping her lifeline, she hoisted up her body with her foot balanced on the plant. As she inched higher, she released one hand from the bush to reach for another one above it.

The plant below her right foot gave way, and her knee slammed against the rock as she grabbed for her secure handhold. A sob ripped through her throat.

Don’t panic. Don’t lose control.

She searched the rock with her left toe, finding an indentation. If she could use this hole to push up again, she could grab that higher, sturdier plant and get closer to the edge. She took a deep breath and tensed her muscles.

“Julia?”

“Ryder! Ryder, I’m down here. Where’s Shelby?”

“ Shelby ’s safe.” Ryder’s head appeared over the edge of the rock. “Oh my God. Julia, don’t move.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t plan on going anywhere.” Her shoulders burned now and her bloody hands throbbed with pain, but she felt an insane joy at seeing Ryder’s face hovering above her.

“Hang on for one more minute.” His face disappeared and despair descended again like a heavy cloud of dust.

“Ryder, don’t leave me!”

“I’m right here.” His head popped back into sight. “I have a rope with me. I’m tying it into a lasso.”

Julia closed her eyes and concentrated on the light breeze caressing her face. She didn’t know how or why, but Ryder arrived just in time. He’d save her.

“Ready?”

Peering up at him, she called out, “Yes.”

A circle of rope twirled down to her right. “Did that make it over you?”

“No, but I think I can reach it with my right hand.”

“Don’t. I’ll try again.”

The rope slithered up the wall of rock and then whistled as it flew toward her again. This time the rope landed around her shoulders.

“It worked.”

“Okay, take one hand at a time and slip it through the rope. The object is to get the rope under your arms and hold on to it. I’ll yank the lasso tight and then pull you up. Can you do that?”

“Yes.” She uncurled her hand from the scrubby plant, slid it through the circle of rope and then grasped the line leading straight to Ryder. “Okay, that’s one.”

Holding on to the rope was more secure than the bush, so she had an easier time with the second hand. With the rope encircling her body underneath her arms and both hands holding on to it, she called up, “I’m ready.”

The lasso tightened around her. Even if Ryder had disappointed his parents with his ranching skills, he had a handle on this cowboy stuff.

“I’m going to start hauling you up now. Scream and yell if there’s a problem and hold on to the rope.”

Julia braced her feet against the rock and as Ryder pulled up the rope, she walked up the side of the cliff. She arrived at the top and Ryder scooped his arms beneath hers and yanked her over to solid ground.

She collapsed on top of him and they lay together, their breath escaping in short spurts. Ryder tightened his arms around her and she rested her cheek against his chest, listening to the echo of his thundering heart.