“They call it a relationship, Mama.” He laughed.

“I couldn’t think of the word. Is it?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t gone on a date. We hardly have time for anything but working from daylight to midnight.”

“That’s a crazy job you’ve taken on, Son.”

He shut his eyes and could visualize her sitting in her rocker, waiting for the time to go to church. Her black hair had a few gray streaks nowadays, and her round face was showing signs of raising four kids, but the way his father looked at her, well, he wanted that kind of relationship when he did find someone to trust his heart with forever.

“But the crazy thing, Mama, is I like it. Of course, I like ranchin’ best, but I like all of it,” he said.

“Here’s your father. You call me more often, or I’ll show up on your doorstep long before spring,” she said.

“Maybe I won’t call then,” he teased.

“Sawyer O’Donnell! It’s just that I miss you, Son. I know you are old enough to make your own decisions, but a mother is allowed to miss her son.”

“Love you, Mama. Tell Daddy I’ll talk to him this week.”

Jill’s bedroom door opened, and she flat-out took his breath away. Her hair was twisted up, showing off that long, slender neck he liked to bury his face in. She wore a denim skirt slit up the side and pointed-toed black boots with red stitching that matched the sweater that hugged her curves.

“Wow. Just plain old simple wow,” he said.

“Thank you.” She smiled and handed him a long denim duster with fancy red shiny stones scattered across the collar.

“You should model for Western-wear catalogs,” he said as he helped her into the coat.

“I’m way too short to be a model, but thank you again. Did Aunt Gladys call? I heard you talking to someone other than the cats.”

“It was my mama. She misses me,” he said.

“Do you miss her?”

“Sure, I do, and if you are askin’ if I’m a mama’s boy, the answer is probably yes.” He grinned. “Not so much that I have to talk to her every day, but…”

Jill touched him on the shoulder. “Never trust a man who doesn’t love his mama. My granny told me that.”

“Smart granny.” He slipped his arms into his Western-cut sports jacket. “Finn and Callie have been talkin’ about us to my folks.”

* * *

Seating was snug in church that morning. While the Brennans’ side and the Gallaghers’ side had several empty spaces on their pews, the center section was packed completely full.

With Sawyer’s and Jill’s sides plastered together all the way from shoulder to knees, Sawyer had a choice: scrunch up his shoulders or drape his arm over the back of the pew. He chose the latter to make a little more room. Quarters so close meant that all he had to do was tip his head slightly to see any part of her, and he liked that very much.

First he studied her profile. Pert little nose, big green eyes with lots of eyelashes, lips made for kissing, and a neck just right to nuzzle. A hint of thigh showing from the slit down to the top of her boots reminded him of the power in those legs the night before, when they were wrapped around his body. A stirring behind his zipper said he’d best be paying attention to the song they were singing from the hymnal they shared, or it was going to be a long, painful church service.

Finn turned slightly in the pew in front of him and whispered, “Y’all should come to Salt Draw for dinner.”

Sawyer’s head bobbed once. “I’d love to. I’ll ask Jill soon as church is over.”

“Verdie is going to Polly’s right after church, but she left a roast in the oven, and we’d love to have you.”

“Thank you,” Sawyer mouthed and went back to singing.

He was determined not to look at Jill’s lips or her eyes or those cute little freckles that makeup couldn’t quite cover, so he let his eyes drift on down. Big mistake!

The red sweater stretched across her chest and hugged her midriff to her waist. With no effort at all, he could visualize what was underneath that soft material. He blinked, but the picture didn’t fade, not even when he forced his gaze down farther to the slim denim skirt and boots. It grew more vivid when he thought of her bare feet dangling when she’d been thrown over his shoulder like a bag of chicken feed.

He shut his eyes and let his chin drop enough that Jill would think he was dozing, and replayed the night before in slow motion. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, and looking back, it wasn’t probably the best of ideas for them to have sex after knowing each other only a few weeks. But he’d be a complete jerk to tell her that they shouldn’t let it happen again because they worked together, because they were such good friends, because they lived in the same bunkhouse. Besides, he didn’t want to tell her that, because he wanted it to happen again, and the sooner the better.

In all of his thirty years, no one had ever made Sawyer feel the way Jill did. The chemistry was so hot and so real that it couldn’t be genuine. It might be a flash in the pan that would burn itself out quickly, but he didn’t want to miss a moment of the heat.

Jill shoved a knee against his, and he sat up straight, eyes wide open.

“Is it over?” he asked.

“No,” she whispered. “The preacher isn’t even winding down. I didn’t want you to start snoring.”

“Finn asked us all to dinner. Got a problem with that?”

She shook her head. “I’d love to spend the afternoon with them, long as we can go home in time to catch a nap.”

The preacher’s gaze started on the Brennan side of the church and moved across the center section to the Gallagher side. “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord!” He raised his voice as he leaned closer to the microphone.

“Amen,” an old-timer yelled from the back of the church.

“There comes a time to let go of the past and move toward a bright new future,” he whispered.

Finn’s newly adopted son Ricky asked a little too loud, “What’s wrong with him, Granny Verdie? Is he yelling to wake us all up and then talking all soft to make us pay attention?”

Verdie nodded. “Something like that.”

* * *

Jill clamped her teeth shut to stifle the giggle. Out of the mouths of babes, she thought. Those kids were so cute all lined up on the pew. Finn sat on the end with Callie next to him, and then the kids, starting with Martin and ending with Sally, who sat right beside Verdie. Looking at them, no one would ever believe they hadn’t been a family since the children were born.

Callie and Finn had to have big hearts to take on the raising of four children and to let Verdie move in with them too. Jill examined her own heart and came up short. She wanted kids, but she wanted them to be her own. She glanced up at Sawyer, who was smiling at the comment too. He’d make a wonderful father.

Whoa, woman! One night of wild sex doesn’t give you the right to start thinking about babies with him.

She made herself concentrate on the kids sitting in front of her. She’d been to enough church services also to recognize the preacher’s tactics, and she wouldn’t want to be up there behind that pulpit. No, sir! With a congregation split into three parts, it couldn’t be easy to attempt to unify them, not even with scripture. And especially not when the two major factions had refused his offer of help that week.

In an attempt to keep her carnal thoughts at bay, she glanced across the room toward the Gallaghers’ side to see Naomi staring straight past her. She followed Naomi’s gaze to Mavis, who was firing daggers across the church. Evidently God did not hold the copyright on vengeance.

“When we forgive others, it brings peace to our own lives as much as it gives them peace for their wrongdoings,” the preacher said.

Forgiveness was not anywhere in the near future. It would take a lot more than a strong Sunday morning sermon for that to happen.