in the spring. I get to watch sheep unburdened of their winter wool dance around the pasture in the spring. I fix baby goats’ legs so they can keep up with their siblings. I celebrate every birth, every recovery with the family.”
“That means you also mourn every loss with them,” he pointed out astutely.
“Ah, but there’s no good without the bad, Ryan. No life without death. No celebration without mourning.”
“But someday, you’ll watch Magnolia take her last breath,” he said. Not cruelly. Almost like he was warning her, like he was afraid she hadn’t protected herself enough from the eventuality.
She reached out and laid her gloved hand on his. “I know. But when she does, I’ll know that I gave her the best possible life I could between our meeting and our parting.”
He wrapped his fingers around her fist. “You have to know how terrifying that concept is to me.”
“Maybe that’s why you think you can look for a life partner and not the love of your life.”
“I like certainties. Guarantees.”
“You don’t get a lot of those in real life,” she said with sympathy. “This land? It was tended by John Pierce. Phoebe’s first husband and father to the Pierce brothers. This was a dilapidated, broken-down farm when he took it over. He grew crops, raised a family, taught the whole town a lot about respecting the land and each other. To honor him, his family carried on with his legacy. They took what he’d built and found ways to make it their own. Carter works the land. Beckett’s the natural-born leader. And Jax has the artistic soul. Phoebe remarried, but she still lives on the land she and John worked together. Just because he’s gone doesn’t mean they all don’t still love him.”
Sammy thought about John on that long-ago Winter Solstice, beaming at her in that flannel coat. “For a long time, I thought it was your cousin who talked me into being a vet, but I think the credit is really due to John Pierce. We all leave fingerprints on each other. His mattered so much to so many people. I want mine to matter too.”
“Some fingerprints shouldn’t be left behind,” Ryan said softly. His grip on her hand tightened, and she wondered who had left their fingerprints on him.
“No, they shouldn’t,” she agreed. “Maybe that’s why we gravitate toward people and animals with the right kind of prints.”
They sat shoulder-to-shoulder on their mounts and took in the panorama.
“This doesn’t suck,” he said finally.
She laughed. It was as good as a gold star from the man. “We should head back. You’ve got an emergency to tackle, and I’ve got wreaths to make.”
He looked earnestly into her eyes. “If I were smarter, I’d have taken you up on your offer.”
“You are smarter. You’d have to be different, and I don’t want that. I kind of like you the way you are.”
“Surly and unfiltered?”
“Brooding and realistic,” she decided. “I hope you find your partner, Ryan.”
“I hope you find the love of your life, Sam.”
She stifled a sigh. “Let’s get back before you freeze your West Coast ass to the saddle. Think you’re up for a trot?”
“Most definitely not.”
Ten minutes later at a slow and awkward trot, the stone barn on the hill came into view. “That’s John Pierce Brews,” she said, slowing her mount.
“Part of the legacy?” Ryan asked.
“When Jax came home from LA, it was with two aims: to win back Joey and to start the brewery. He knocked them both out of the park… eventually.”
“She looks like she’d put up a good fight.”
“You’re not wrong. Rumor has it the first time Jax saw her when he came home, he kissed the crap out of her and she slapped him so hard, people in town heard it,” Sammy said.
Ryan snorted in amusement.
A shrill whistle cut through the air, and she spotted her former crush and current client Carter Pierce bundled up against the cold next to his pickup truck. Summer’s blonde head popped up on the other side of the hood. They both waved and Sammy returned the greeting.
“That’s Carter Pierce and his wife, Summer. And their twins,” she added with affection when two toddlers practically tumbled out of the back seat.
“Older brother to goat guy and the mayor, right?”
She glanced at him, surprised. “You sure get around a lot for a guy who can’t wait to get out of here.”
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