Justine Davis - The Coltons - Fisher, Ryder & Quinn

“Convinced it was the right thing to do. It wouldn’t have been right for me and Jericho to be together. Even though we love each other as friends, he deserves more from a marriage and Olivia will give him that,” she admitted. She grabbed her glass of iced coffee, light with milk and sweet with sugar and took a big gulp. The cool helped chase away some of the heat of midday.

“Do you think what happened with T.J. has to do with you and Jericho? That he’s angry about it?” Jewel pressed and then quickly tacked on, “Or is it about Fisher Yates?”

The heat that pressed down on her now came from Jewel’s inquiry and her own guilt about both the Yates men. “T.J. was upset with my decision to marry Jericho. He said he already had a dad.”

“And Fisher?” her friend repeated.

She recalled T.J.’s words about how maybe she should talk about it, but she still wasn’t ready to reveal the secret she had kept for so long. “That’s a complicated story. Plus, I don’t think that it has anything to do with the boys and last night.”

Taking another bracing sip of her drink, she met Jewel’s too perceptive gaze and realized her friend knew it was time to back off about Fisher. That she would talk only when she was good and ready. “I’m sorry about last night, Jewel. I’ve talked to T.J., but I feel as if he’s only telling me part of what really happened.”

“I’ve spoken with Joe as well, only…” Jewel hesitated and then picked up the sticky bun, tore off a piece. “There’s something not right about their story,” she finally said.

She nodded. “I agree, although I can’t put my finger on what’s wrong.”

“They say they dropped Sara off, but I don’t remember if she was home when I got the call. Do you, Ana?” Jewel asked.

Ana rolled her eyes upward as she tried to remember, but then shook her head. “I do not know. She was home later. When you and Joe came home.”

“So maybe Sara was with them when the accident happened?” Macy said and glanced over at the young teen, who deprived of her two friends thanks to their chores, was sitting alone on the edge of the pool.

“If she was with the boys, why didn’t the police see her?”

“And if she was with them, why would they lie about that?” Jewel wondered aloud.

“She has many secrets, I think,” Ana added and absent-mindedly rubbed her hand over her belly once again.

“If she doesn’t want to be found, she wouldn’t want to be involved with the police,” she said, considering the police were bound to discover who she was.

Jewel took another piece of sticky bun and motioned with it as she said, “But that doesn’t explain why they were speeding, does it?”

“T.J. said there was another car out on the road. One that was challenging them to prove their car was better.”

“A drag race? Joe says they didn’t realize they were speeding. That they didn’t see the other car until it was too late to stop,” Jewel said, but then she turned in her seat to glance at the pool and Sara in particular. “I don’t know what to believe, but my gut says it involves Sara.”

“Boys, cars and girls. A familiar mix, don’t you think?” she suggested, remembering her own teen years and the many times that mix had caused problems in town.

“I hope that’s all it is,” Jewel said, finishing off the last of her sticky bun and pointing at Macy’s, which remained untouched before her. “If you’re a true friend, you’ll eat that,” she said.

“Why is that?” she asked.

“Because otherwise I’m going to devour it and you don’t want me to get fat.” A hesitant smile spread across Jewel’s face and Macy realized she was trying to lighten the moment.

As another playful shout came from the pool, Macy grabbed her sticky bun and with a playful snort said, “Fat. Right. That’s why Deputy Rawlings is always making goo goo eyes at you.”

“Goo goo eyes?” Ana asked, slightly confused by the expression.

“That means he’s interested in Jewel,” she explained and Ana smiled broadly, nodded with some spirit. “Definitely. I’ve seen how he looks at you whenever he visits.”

The blush that now blossomed across Jewel’s face wasn’t from the warmth of the day. “I’ve tried my best to discourage him. I’m just not ready for another relationship.”

Neither was she, although she had been hard-pressed to forget about Fisher during the day thanks to their encounter that morning. “Me, either,” she chimed in and finished off the last of her sticky bun.

Ana was done as well with her treat and as Macy glanced at her watch, she realized their lunch hour was almost over.

“Do you want me to work with the older children on their study skills while Ana and the younger kids do some craft work?”

Jewel nodded. “I know school is still some time away, but it would be good for them to be ready. It’ll also give me some time to talk to the boys.”

The three women split up to finish their work for the day. As she aided Sara and the two other older children with their study exercises, her mind was half on what was happening with Jewel, T.J. and Joe in the library where Jewel often met with the children privately.

It came as no surprise to her later that Jewel had not been able to get any other information from them.

It also didn’t surprise her to see T.J., Joe and Sara huddled together by the corral later that afternoon, clearly engaged in some kind of animated conversation. As soon as the rest of the group neared in order to take some rides on Papa’s Poppy, the conversation stopped.

Their actions worried her, but with T.J. grounded for a month due to the speeding and accident, the trio was unlikely to get into trouble anytime soon.

Anytime soon hopefully being long after Jericho had returned from his honeymoon and Fisher had left town.

She knew which Yates brother she could count on to help her and it sure wasn’t Fisher, she thought.

Relative quiet ruled over dinner that night.

T.J. didn’t have much to say about either his discussion with Jewel or what he, Joe and Sara were talking about at the corral.

In truth, she didn’t push too hard for the information. If she did, T.J. would become even more tight-lipped and remind her that she had something she needed to get off her chest as well.

Namely Fisher.

She hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind all day and as she slipped into bed that night, he once again invaded her dreams as if to remind her that she had been about to marry the wrong Yates brother.

A small crowd gathered around the steps of the church. Jewel and Ana. An assortment of Coltons. Jericho and a pregnant Olivia, her rounded belly larger than it had been just a few weeks before. Buck Yates stood beside them, a broad smile on his face.

As she neared the group, she stumbled on something and looked down.

She had stepped on the hem of her dress—her wedding dress.

Confused, she paused and stared back up at the gathering of friends and family, only everyone had disappeared, leaving only two people on the steps—Fisher and T.J.

T.J. looked solemn and too grown-up in his dark blue suit—the suit she had bought for him to wear for her wedding to Fisher.

No, not Fisher.

Jericho, she reminded herself, but as she stared at her son and the man standing next to him, she realized just how much T.J. looked like Fisher, his father.

It was there in the squareness of their jaws and the lean build of their bodies. T.J.’s hair was darker than hers, closer to Fisher’s nearly black hair much like T.J.’s eyes were a mix of Fisher’s green and her brown.

The physical similarities between the two men was undeniable.

She wondered why she hadn’t seen it before. Why others hadn’t seen it over the years. Suddenly, she realized everyone had gone.