Chapter 4: The Ex Kept His Calendar

Hallie Kincraig introduced herself by handing me Tate's missing jacket.

She held it between two fingers on the path beside my trailer.

"He always leaves something," she told me.

I recognized her polished turquoise boots from the supper tables.

I had not known she was the former fiancee he mentioned last night.

They had ended their engagement two years before I arrived.

That seemed long enough to stop describing his habits as shared property.

I took the jacket because the wind was blowing dust across it.

"I will tell him where it came from," I said.

She smiled and looked over my shoulder into the little trailer.

It stood on a rented patch beside the ranch's guest cottage.

I could afford to stay there while I chose somewhere permanent.

Nobody had offered me a wedding in exchange for a roof.

I reminded myself of that before her expression could make me defensive.

"You will find the house takes some managing," she said.

"I have not agreed to manage it," I replied.

"Of course," Hallie said, her smile becoming more careful.

She reached into her bag and produced a little calendar.

A blue ribbon marked a page covered with her tidy writing.

"You can keep track of him with this," she told me.

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