the front of the van, but stopped in the act of lifting the hood

when she noticed something on the front passenger fender.

Peg walked around the side of the van and nearly fel in

the ditch when she stumbled backward, clutching her jacket

as she read the words spray-painted the entire length of the

lower side of her van. She glanced right and left and then

turned to face the woods as she slowly backed up onto the

road. She looked toward the path and saw people on the

trestle, but nobody she recognized.

She started shaking. Oh God, what if the twins had been

with her? There was no way she could drive this van home

looking like that and … saying what it did. She shoved the

van’s hood closed, rushed around and reached in and got

her purse, then ran down the road trying to decide what to

do.

Oh God, she couldn’t let anyone see that side of her van!

She stopped at the end of the horse trailer parked in front

of the church and leaned a hand on the tailgate to catch her

breath, deciding to cal her mom to come get the boys and

go meet the bus while she got rid of the van. Peg took one

last deep breath as she straightened. Yeah, she’d hide it on

some tote road for now and decide what to do about it

tonight when she had more time to think. She walked

around the end of the trailer just in time to see Jacob—stil

on Robbie’s shoulders—reaching up to the bars to pat the

large nose pressed against them.

“What’s wrong?” Alec asked the moment he turned and

saw her. He walked over with Peter in his arms. “You’ve

been running,” he said, looking over her shoulder, then

back at her. “What’s wrong?” he repeated softly.

“Nothing,” Peg said with a winded smile. “I was just down

at the other end of town when I saw the horse trailer, and I

ran up here to relieve you of your two little helpers.” She

shrugged, mostly to loosen the knot in her pounding chest.

“I have to get going anyway, to meet the bus at the

Inglenook road.”

“Mom, the horses are going to Inglenook,” Jacob said

excitedly as Robbie walked over. “And Mr. Robbie said we

can ride on them. But only if you say it’s okay.”

Peg looked at Robbie. “Logging horses don’t mind

letting people ride them?”

“They’re not harness drafts,” he said, appearing

offended. “They’re mounts.”

“Why would anyone ride such large horses?” she asked

in surprise.

“Because we’re large men,” Alec said with a chuckle. “If

you’re meeting the bus at Inglenook, the boys could ride

with us if you’d like.”

“Yeah,” the twins said almost in unison.

“Pleeeze?” Jacob added.

Oh God, leaving them while she was a stone’s throw

away was one thing, but letting them go with the men? “Um,

I have an errand to run.” Damn, she’d lied herself into a

corner she just realized. “So I was going to have my mother

come meet me at the end of the Inglenook road and take

the children home.” And she stil had to figure out how to get

herself home.

Alec’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “We can save your

mother the trip by watching the boys and then Charlotte and

Isabel until you get back. That is, if you’re comfortable

leaving them with us.”

Oh God, was she? “My errand might take me an hour or

two to run.”

“Olivia’s at home,” Robbie reminded her, his smile not

quite reaching his eyes as his gaze searched hers. “Is the

van running okay? Because Gunter’s pretty good with

engines,” he said, waving at the young man standing at the

front of the rig.

“No. No, it’s running just fine. There’s just something …

personal I have to do without the children.” She sighed and

shoved her hands in her pockets so he or Alec wouldn’t see

them shaking.

“Pete was just tel ing me that he’s going to school on the

bus this fal ,” Alec said. “And that he’s worried you’re going

to miss him something fierce. This might be good practice

for both of you.”

Robbie reached down on his belt, unclipped his cel

phone, and held it out to her. “Take this, Peg, and you can

cal Alec’s phone and talk to either of the boys any time ye

want during your errand.”

Peg pul ed a hand out of her pocket, quickly took the

phone, and clutched it to her chest. “They … they can be a

handful sometimes.”

Alec chuckled, jouncing Peter. “I think we can handle

them. What do you say, Mr. Pete? Are you going to pul any

tricks on us?”

Apparently taking the question seriously, Peter vigorously

shook his head, then looked at Peg. “Please, Mom? We

want to go with the men.”

Peg saw Jacob vigorously nodding agreement with

Peter, and she blew out a sigh and did her damnedest to

smile. “Okay, you can go, and I’l be right there to pick you

up in one hour.”

“You take as long as ye need on your errand,” Robbie

said. He nodded at her hand. “And cal us every five

minutes if ye want. Alec’s number is programmed in. And

so is Duncan’s.”

“Where is he?” she asked, unable to believe she’d

forgotten about him.

A sparkle came into Robbie’s eyes. “Up on the mountain

with Mac.”

“Oh. Oh!” she repeated when she remembered Olivia

tel ing her what they did up there. “Um, I’m going now.”

“Good-bye, then,” Alec said with a chuckle when she

didn’t move.

“Mommm, leave,” Peter whispered. “We got important

work to do.”

Peg was pretty sure she had something important to do,

too. “Oh! Okay, good-bye,” she said, turning away only to

turn back and walk up to Robbie and pul on Jacob’s sleeve

to get him to bend down. But it was hopeless; she stil

couldn’t reach Jacob’s cheek—that is, until Robbie

dropped to one knee. “Bye, big man. Be good.”

She kissed Peter in Alec’s arms. “You be extra good,

you got it?”

“I got it,” Peter said, wiping her kiss on his shoulder only

to stop when he realized what he was doing. “Good- bye,

Mom.”

Peg gestured with the cel phone as she turned and

headed back to her van. “They can cal me if they want, too.

It won’t interrupt my errand.” She started walking backward.

“And thank you.”

She turned and started running, once again focusing on

what she needed to do. But at least now she had a cel

phone to cal someone for a ride. So other than being the

owner of a heap of scrap covered with vile words that she

needed to get rid of, at least things were looking up in the

little boys being around big strong men department.

Now, if she could just figure out how to actual y use the

phone, because honest to God, this was the first time she’d

ever even held one.

Chapter Twelve

Duncan stared down at the cel phone in his hand, tempted

to throw it against one of the stal doors. What in hel was

Peg doing—other than lying through her teeth?

“So what did she say?” Alec asked.

“She said she’s just coming in the Inglenook road.” He

glanced at Peg’s four children brushing two of the horses

tied in the aisle and frowned at Robbie. “Ye have no idea

what was bothering her earlier, or what her personal errand

was?”

“She had the look of someone being hunted at first,”

Robbie said. “But then her worry turned to leaving the boys

with us.”

“Which itself shows how cornered she obviously felt,”

Alec added, “to agree to let us bring them here and also

watch the girls.”

Duncan looked out the barn door and noticed the rain