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Rocky Mountain Cowboy
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candle in a window.
    And she never forgave her mother for shattering her life. They lived at the Cameron family estate, where Mary threw herself into partying and spending. Within months of arriving, Jenny was sent away to boarding school in Europe.
    Her mother barely knew she was around, and her grandfather thought Europe would be far enough away so that she wouldn’t try to run away. He didn’t know that they need not have gone that far to keep her from her father. She had promised Tom she would never run away, and she always kept her promises to her beloved father. And, actually, boarding school ended up being more tolerable than living with her mother and grandfather.
    Her mother had died several years ago, and her grandfather had followed her to the grave two years afterwards. Jenny had come to hate them both after they had separated her from her father, but her hatred had eased over the years into simply a deep regret.
    After Mary’s death, Samuel Cameron had tried to win his granddaughter’s loyalty and affection with with more money and gifts. But the only thing she ever accepted from him was the college education he had paid for, and that was because Tom had begged her to accept it. He’d wanted her to have the higher education he couldn’t afford for her, and because of her mother’s money, there was no way to qualify for financial aid.
    She’d finally, begrudgingly relented simply to please her father. But it had been a bitter, bitter concession to make. All she wanted, all she’d ever dreamed about was coming home to work side by side with her dad like she’d done as a girl. But Tom had wanted a good education for her, and she’d never been able to deny her father a thing.
    So, after graduating from one of the several boarding schools she’d attended and been booted out of for rebellious conduct, she went to the University of Southern California Art and Design School, where she studied fashion design. The contacts she’d made there led her to the movie industry.
    Designing costumes for films had eventually replaced the dream she’d once had of returning home and helping her father with his ranch. Success and time had changed her goals, but maybe not her truest and deepest ambition.
    She’d come to accept her altered course in life. She liked her job and the people she worked with, and she had received an excellent education, which she had put to good use. Tom had been enormously proud of her, and she had been reunited with her father, just not in the way she had always dreamed of. She had paid a high price for her success, though, and if she had been able to alter her life all those years ago, she was certain that she would have been much happier for it. Tom might still be alive, too.
    Tears welled in her eyes as she slowly emerged from the pain of the past to the pain of the present. Leaning on stiffened arms, she flattened her gloved hands on the cold hard surface of the casket, and dropped her head. Tears splattered onto the shiny black surface as fresh waves of pain assaulted her. She wanted to drape herself over the casket and cry her heart out. She wanted to be with her father!
    “Oh Daddy, how can I say good-bye?” she murmured in a broken whisper.
    S omeone’s large hands on her shoulders gently lifted her and turned her away from the casket. She looked up as Mr. Larson offered her his handkerchief. She just stared blankly at his chest, and he had to brush her tears away himself. She couldn’t make her brain tell her hands to do anything. She wanted to collapse into his arms.
    Their eyes met, and there was a moment of complete understanding between them. There was no need to voice what they felt. Draping an arm around her shoulders, Hawk steered her toward the street where his newer model Dodge truck was parked.
    Unfortunately, there was no escaping the gauntlet of mourners waiting to express their sympathy.
    She let Hawk make the thank you s and accept the condolences, grateful that they
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