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not a white picket fence kind of guy.”
    â€œMost people who can’t settle down have something to hide.”
    â€œCriminal types, you mean.”
    â€œYou said it. Not me.”
    â€œI did my time. And I learned my lesson. I do not make choices that could send me back to prison. Ever.”
    â€œI’ll bet that makes your mother happy.”
    â€œMy mother was killed during a home invasion when I was a baby.”
    â€œYour father then. Grandparents. Siblings. Whoever was hurt when you were sent to prison so young.”
    â€œNo one was hurt.” At this rate Jay was going to need another fifty or so laps in the pool to calm down enough to get to work. “My only living relative—the aunt who raised me—passed away during my freshman year of college.”
    â€œYou ever been married?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhat about girlfriends?”
    â€œNo one serious.” Not that it was any of this man’s damn business.
    â€œAny close friends?”
    â€œNot that I can think of offhand.”
    â€œYou have no one at all.”
    Jay felt exposed by the shock in the sheriff’s voice. And forced himself to answer the question, too. “No.”
    Now the other man knew Jay’s dirtiest secret. He was completely alone in the world. No meaningful relationships. He’d never had anyone with whom he felt close. Had no idea how to be a member of a family unit. Let alone the head of one.
    â€œAny more questions, Sheriff?”
    Jay’s voice must have had more of an edge than he’d intended. Leaving the unopened bottle of water on the counter, Sheriff Richards stood and moved toward the front room. Before he reached the door he turned, a look of concern lining his face.
    â€œWe aren’t unforgiving folks,” he said, his hands at his sides. “Nor are we unwelcoming. We’re just protective of our way of life out here. It’s why we’re all here, and not in some other place. The people of ShelterValley have chosen a lifestyle that makes them happy. It’s my job to protect that as well as to protect them.”
    And an ex-con with long hair and secrets roaring into town on the back of a Harley didn’t fit.
    Jay couldn’t agree more.
    â€œWe’re a family here in Shelter Valley. A big, overgrown family sharing a homestead in the desert. We all look after each other’s kids, and after each other. But I guess you wouldn’t understand that.”
    No, probably not.
    And he sure as hell wasn’t selling his bike or cutting his hair to make them all happy.
    At Jay’s continued silence, Richards opened the door. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around,” he said. “Call if you need anything.”
    Jay had the oddest feeling that the guy’s offer was sincere.
    â€œCome back anytime,” Jay offered in return. But only after he’d shut the door firmly behind the other man.
    Â 
    T HE ROAD WASN’T WELL TRAVELED . Two dirt tracks was the extent of it. Ellen bumped along easily, breathing in the peaceful mountain air through the open window of her green Ford Escape, appreciating that the temperature dropped so drastically in mere minutes as she left behind the hot desert that she also adored.
    Each time she made this bimonthly trek she felt torn. Part of her wished that Joe Frasier could open himself up to a move to town, to having more than only her and Sheriff Richards in his life. And part of her understood why Joe clung so voraciously to his mountaintop home. Life made sense out here.
    Still, life was meant to be lived, not avoided.
    Ellen slowed from the 15 mph she’d been going to climb the steep track to 5 mph as she pulled into the cleared bit of dirt in front of Joe’s rudimentary cabin. He’d cleared the spot for her—had that been almost five years ago?—when Sheriff Richards had first asked Ellen to be his partner in this effort to assist the lonely