"Horses. Where are the horses?" Becky exclaimed as she jumped off the third step of the ramp and onto the airstrip. She was a child with a mission.

"Becky, wait," Kate Harris yelled to her over-excited eight year old. What she wouldn’t do to have Becky’s energy.

"Hurry, Mom."

"Honey, I told you the horses wouldn’t be here. They’re all at the ranch. Watch where you’re going." Kate braced herself when she saw the oncoming inevitable collision.

Just as Becky turned around, she slammed into a cowboy who was loading luggage into the back of a jeep. Both crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust and grunts. Her daughter scrambled up and continued on her search, not stopping to see if the man was all right. Kate shook her head. She definitely had to work on Becky’s manners, but at least she knew she wasn’t hurt. That was just like Becky though. She bounced back from most everything without a scrape. Kate wished she were able to move away from problems with so much ease. Kate’s bumps and bruises were internal, though, and never seemed to get any better. She thought with time she’d heal, but it didn’t seem to be happening.

"Are you okay?" she asked the cowboy as she quickly crossed the airstrip, pulling her heavy overnight bag over her shoulder. "I’m so sorry. She’s so excited about our vacation. She may be little, but when she’s determined, her size is of little consequence."

Kate felt an odd sensation run through her as she looked at the man. She couldn’t see his face because his back was to her, but there was something about him. Something that made her think twice. Then she caught it. His fluid-like movements reminded her of…

The man stopped brushing dust off his jeans and jerked his head toward her. As if she were stuck in glue, Kate stopped. It couldn’t be, she thought as she stared back at him in disbelief. Not after all this time. Kate fought back the overwhelming urge to grab Becky and run back on the plane. Run home to her safe little apartment and forget she ever saw him.

As her mouth grew dry as the desert, her heart pounded wildly in her chest. She never thought she’d be standing face to face with Cord McClayne, Becky’s father, ever again. Hazel eyes, hauntingly familiar because they were the same as her daughter’s, bored into hers. He stood rigid as a giant redwood.

Kate opened her mouth to say something, but even though she had a million things to say to him, nothing seemed right. Too much time had passed for apologies and not enough had gone by for forgiveness.

Never taking his angry gaze off her, Cord reached down and snatched his crumpled hat. "Still speechless. Oh, that’s right. I’d almost forgot. Your father had said that you didn’t have anything to say to me. Some things never change, do they, Kate?"

Her stomach churned, and her sweaty palms were losing their grip on her bag. What rotten timing. If she had picked the later flight, she would’ve missed running into him. But Becky wanted to get to the dude ranch as soon as possible, and Kate would do anything to make her happy. The last few years had been rough on both of them and this vacation was supposed to be fun. But suddenly, it turned into her worst nightmare.

Was this a sign? Was she being tested? Was she destined to run into Cord so that she could ease her growing guilt that Becky deserved to know her father and he deserved to know her? There wasn’t time to think about that now because the man, flesh and blood, stood angry before her. And, she definitely needed some time to figure out what to do.

"You’re not giving me a chance, Cord."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "I don’t remember being given a second chance. Come to think of it, I never knew what blew my first chance anyway."

Since they were outside and she didn’t want their voices to be carried by the breeze, Kate said as calmly as she could, "You don’t have to raise your voice. I think we both owe explanations."

"Mom, over here. Here’s our ride."

Both Kate and Cord turned. Becky stood next to a cowboy who was tossing luggage into the back of a jeep just like Cord’s. The ranch logo on the door was impossible to miss.

"You can’t be going to Lazy Springs?" Cord eyed her with his mouth open.

Kate pushed aside the growing dread and tried to sound unaffected. "Yes, why? You, too?" Kate thought that if he were, he probably had a wife somewhere around here, maybe even a couple of kids by now. And, that meant Becky would have stepsiblings. She’d always wanted a little sister. When she was younger, she used to ask Santa for one. But, Kate had to tell her that he couldn’t bring that for her because that’s something mommies and daddies did.

A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach at the thought of him married to someone else. Promising to love, honor, and cherish another. When Kate was twenty-two, she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with him. Become Mrs. McClayne. But that was eight years ago. Before the walls came crashing down around her.

Becky ran up and tugged on Kate’s shirt. "Mom, let’s go. I want to see the horses."

Kate looked down at her precious child and said in her sternest mom tone, "I think you have something to say to…" She could hardly say, "please apologize to your father". So, Kate added, "…this man." Becky looked so much like Cord with her hazel eyes and black hair that Kate knew if he really looked at her, he would see the resemblance immediately.

"Sorry," Becky said as she scraped the tip of her shoe in the dirt. "You going to the ranch, too?"

Kate sighed. At least Becky had apologized before moving onto the subject that had occupied her every waking moment since Kate had told her where they were going for vacation.

Cord bent down on one knee. Most people didn’t bother to get down to Becky’s level to talk to her. "Yes, I am." With a narrowed gaze, he glanced up at Kate. "I own it."