She was another one on his list.
He had known Libby most of his life—or known of her. She was younger than him, Leo’s age. Luke guessed everyone in town knew that she’d broken up with Ryan Spangler and then shortly after that lost her job at the sheriff’s department. Leo said there was some trouble with Ryan after they broke up, although he didn’t know what. But never mind all that. Libby Tyler was in his house. Not her house. His.
“Luke?” she said, her voice full of surprise as he walked toward the house. “Wow! It’s been ages since I last saw you!” She smiled and extended her hand. “How are you? How’s Leo?”
“We’re all doing great, thanks,” he said. He held her hand a long moment, looking into her eyes for any flicker of understanding, any recognition of what her father had done to his. He saw none.
“What brings you out?” she asked cheerfully, conveniently forgetting, perhaps, that this had been his home. Maybe that helped her to settle in.
“A little unfinished business.”
She looked confused by that. “Jackson didn’t mention anything.”
“No?” Luke said as amicably as he could.
The screen door banged; Libby jumped a little as a woman with long blond hair and brown boots sauntered out onto the porch. She was as pretty as Libby was cute, sultry where Libby was fresh. But there was a resemblance between them, around the eyes. The third heir, he supposed.
“Well hello,” she said, eyeing him, a hint of a smile on her face.
“Luke, this is my sister, Emma Tyler,” Libby said, and to Emma, “This is Luke Kendrick. He and his brother, Leo, used to live here. I went to school with Leo.”
Emma’s smile deepened. “Hello, Luke Kendrick.”
Luke knew women like Emma—she was the type to know exactly what affect she had on men and how to use that to her advantage. But he wasn’t biting. “Hello,” he said.
Emma deliberately flicked her gaze over the length of him, but Luke was distracted. Behind her, Blue Eyes walked out onto the porch in her conservative suit, her hair clipped to the back of her head. She was staring at him, clearly trying to work out why he was here. “It’s you.”
Luke smiled. “It’s me.”
“You guys know each other?” Libby asked incredulously.
“No!” she said quickly, firmly. But she was blushing and her fingers fluttered nervously around that little M at her throat.
“We met only briefly,” Luke said. “Up on Sometimes Pass. I changed her tire.”
Madeline’s blue eyes were fixed on Luke, and she pointed in the general direction of her car and, presumably, the spare. “It was a nail. Construction site.” She cocked her head to one side to peer at him. “Why are you here, again?”
“Yeah, why?” Emma echoed curiously.
“Jackson Crane invited me. Is he around?”
“He’s late,” Libby said. “No, wait—there he is.”
The four of them turned around to see a four-wheel drive F-250 truck barreling up the road. It slid into the drive and Jackson hopped out, all smiles. He’d changed clothes since Luke had last seen him, preferring hiking boots and cargo pants for the trip out to the ranch.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said to them all, and held up a six-pack of diet coke and a bag of potato chips. “I brought snacks.”
The four of them stared in disbelief at Jackson.
Jackson grinned, unfazed by them. “So, did you gals—and Luke,” he amended with a nod, “have a chance to get acquainted?”
Luke wanted to kick him. With the point of his boots, right between the eyes. It wasn’t as if they’d signed up for a class, here—they had some serious issues to address.
“Jackson, what is going on?” Libby asked.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and I’ll answer them all, I promise. So what do you think, Madeline?” Jackson asked breezily. “Not as bad as you thought, right?”
The other two women jerked their gazes to Madeline, who looked startled. “What? I didn’t think it was bad,” she tried, but looked as if she were about to twist right out of her shoes.
“Hmm. From the look of things, you guys didn’t get at as acquainted as I’d hoped,” Jackson said, as if they’d somehow failed him. “No worries! Let’s go sit at one of the picnic tables and discuss a few things.” He began striding across the lawn.
Emma looked at Libby, then followed Jackson to the west lawn. Libby was close on her heels.
Madeline looked at Luke. “This is weird,” she said.
“Tell me about it.” Luke gestured for her to precede him. Madeline hesitated, but then reluctantly began to walk.