Damn. If Jesse wasn’t shoving my repressed issues into my face, it was Rose. What did a girl need to do to catch a break? I had issues. I didn’t like to talk about them. I didn’t like to think about them. End of story.

“Is there anything else you need tonight?” I asked, worrying over a stack of shirts on the island to distract myself. I noticed a JW written in black pen on the tag. Dammit. Did I even gravitate to his clean laundry?

The skin between Rose’s brows came together. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. Shaking her head, her face ironed out. “No, I think you’ve done more than your fair share of work today. In fact, I’d say you earned yourself a day off tomorrow.” Her voice was back in all its Rose warmth. “Go into town and check out the sights. Relax. Unwind. You have my blessing.”

The sights? Jesse and I’d driven through what I guessed Rose was referring to as the “town,” but it was more like a one horse village still stuck in the 1800s. It was so non-descript, I’d already forgotten its name.

“Did you tell my mom you were giving me tomorrow off?”

“No,” she answered. “That’s between me and you. Your mom wanted you here so you could ‘prove’ yourself.” Rose’s eyes almost performed a full-on eye roll. Impressive. “From the moment you stepped foot at Willow Springs, you’ve proven yourself, Rowen.”

I shifted and eyed the exit. The conversation was taking another turn toward the uncomfortable.

“Listen, I don’t know what you’ve done, or what your mom thinks you’ve done, to deserve spending your whole summer where I’d guess is the last place you’d want to spend your summer. And you know what?” She didn’t wait for me to reply. “I don’t care. Every morning we get a chance to be different. A chance to change. A chance to be better. Your past is your past. Leave it there. Get on with the future part, honey.”

The laundry room was either the mecca of pure genius or utter insanity. After what Jesse and his mom had said, I couldn’t quite decide. What was it about the Walkers and their need to have deep, meaningful conversations? Apparently they’d missed the memo about the rise in casual conversation.

“I drank a lot. I skipped class a lot more,” I started, the words coming out of me before I knew they were coming. “I messed around with guys. I did drugs.” Rose’s gaze didn’t shift once. “I ran away from home. Twice. I got arrested. Twice. I tried hurting myself so many times I can’t remember how many.”

After that, I shut my mouth. Not that it really mattered. I’d said more than enough, but at least she knew who I was and what she was dealing with. If Mom had decided to leave out the gory details, Rose knew now. I wasn’t just one of those kids off on the outside; I was off all the way through.

“So now you know why I’m here. This summer is my chance to convince her I’m more than a liability.” I crossed my arms, trying to hold myself together. “But here’s what I can’t figure out. Why would you want me here in the first place?”

“Oh, sweetie,” she said, a little breathless. “Get over here.” She opened her arms and motioned me into them.

I went after a moment’s pause.

Rose folded me tightly against her, and I wondered if I’d ever been given such a fierce hug. “You’re here because you’re supposed to be. There’s nowhere else you should be right now. As God is my witness, I’m a hundred percent sure of that.” She sounded like she had a huge lump in her throat. That made two of us. “But you’re wrong about one thing. This summer isn’t your chance to prove yourself to your mom.” Leaning back just far enough my face was in front of hers, Rose’s eyes locked on mine. “This summer is your chance to prove yourself to you.”

Holy brain overload. So much was being said, even more was bing meant. I needed some time alone to figure that out before any more pearls of wisdom got dropped on me.

“I’d better get to bed then,” I said, managing a smile. “I’m going to have my work cut out for me if I’m supposed to be proving myself to me.” There was a brain bender if I’d ever heard one. “Thanks for everything, Rose. You’re pretty cool, despite being my mom’s childhood best friend.”

She laughed and let me out of her arms. “You know what they say. Opposites attract,” she said, her voice loaded with inflection. “Keeps things interesting.”

When I thought about my polar opposite, a tall, grinning cowboy with a rosy outlook and a fine ass popped to mind.

I had to shake my head to get Jesse out of there. There was so much wrong about fantasizing about the son of the woman standing in front of me, I was sure there was a special place in hell for people who did it. I started heading for the door.

“So what do you think? Gonna take tomorrow off?”

I paused in the doorway. “Nah. I think I’d better earn my keep.”

“You’re really up for another full day of laundry duty?” Rose’s voice was full of disbelief. Rightly so.

“About that . . .” I turned to face her. “Are you still okay with me working around the rest of the place if I wear something less . . .” I glanced down at my clothing, trying to paraphrase it, “intense?”

Rose nodded. “More than okay with it. You want to hang with me and the girls tomorrow?”

“Um, yeah,” I began, fiddling with the hem of my skirt. “I just don’t . . . I don’t exactly have . . .”

“Why don’t you stop by Lily’s room before you head to bed?” she said, saving me. “She’d be happy to loan you a few of her things until we can get into town to get you some new clothes. You two have to be pretty close in size.”

“Really?” I said. “You don’t think she’d mind?”

“I know she wouldn’t.”

Why? Why would a teenage girl not mind another teenage girl who was basically a stranger knocking on her door and asking to borrow some clothes? Oh yeah, because the Walkers were the damn nicest people I’d been around. Something was in the well water out at Willow Springs.

“Okay,” I said with a wave. “I’ll see you in the morning. I mean, I’ll see you at the crack of dawn.” I smiled at Rose as I left the laundry room behind.

“Tomorrow morning. Brand new chance. The first day of whatever life you want to have for yourself.” Rose called after me, “Wake up wisely.”

The first floor was quiet as I headed for the stairs. No sounds other than the ticking of the old grandfather clock in the foyer and the chorus of crickets coming through the cracked open windows. The kitchen lights were turned off, along with most of the other lights, except for one small lamp glowing in the living room window. Rose had told me earlier they always kept that one light glowing to remind them that when the night is at its darkest, there’s always a promise of dawn to come.

Yeah. I wasn’t living with just the nicest family in existence; they were probably descendants of Aristotle.

I still hadn’t met Neil, Rose’s husband, but if Willow Springs kept him as busy as Rose, it wasn’t a big surprise I hadn’t bumped into Jesse’s dad. Especially since all I’d been bumping into was washing machines and dryers.

Before traipsing up the stairs, I took one more look around. He wasn’t here.

Maybe he didn’t live here anymore. He was nineteen after all. Maybe he lived some place else and only worked there. Maybe he stayed back in the bunkhouse with the rest of the ranch hands.

When I realized I was spending way too much time contemplating where Jesse laid his head at night, I gave myself a mental slap and bolted down the hall toward Lily’s room.

The door was halfway open, but I still felt the need to knock.

“Entrez-vous,” was the sing-song reply.

“Hey, Lily,” I greeted, stepping inside her room. It was almost identical to the one I was staying in except the walls were a minty green instead of tan.

“Oh . . . hey, Rowen,” she said, spinning in her desk chair. “I thought you were mom.”