Montana Hearts Read Free Page A

car. She had explored the town where Zoe Ryder had lived, the town that perhaps Sarah’s new heart already knew.
    Since her surgery she’d worked hard to gain strength and build endurance. In recent months she’d walked three or four miles several days a week and felt stronger because of the effort. She had needed that energy today to work off the adrenaline and distress that flooded her veins and her heart.
    She’d walked past buildings constructed in the early 1900s with the brick facades and actual hitching posts left over from an earlier era, making the town look like a set from an old Western movie. Kurt Ryder, with his long legs and masculine swagger, fit like a well-cast actor in this setting.
    He still fit into the scene now that horses had been replaced by battered pickups with large dogs standing guard in the beds of the trucks or tied up to the fenders.
    He wasn’t going to hire her as a housekeeper. She’d seen rejection in his golden-brown eyes and the surprised arch of his brows.
    Probably for the best, she thought as she had stood staring off into space, trying to quell her sense of failure. Admittedly, she wasn’t the greatest housekeeper in the world. Or cook, for that matter.
    She never should have told him she had planned to stay around for a couple of days. He wasn’t going to call. She’d been foolish to even consider coming here.
    There was no reason for her to stay.
    No way for her to help the family who had lost so much.
    On a weekday afternoon, no one seemed in a rush in Sweet Grass Valley. Traffic through town was light. The lush scent of sage and grass on surrounding open rangeland drifted on the air along with the smell of hay stacked in the backs of passing trucks.
    Zoe Ryder had walked down this sidewalk, past the bakery, dress shop, grocery store and the one-screen movie theater across the way, probably greeting the proprietors by their first names. She’d been a part of this community in a way that Sarah had never been a part of Seattle.
    Did the people miss her? Had Zoe left a hole in their lives as she had in those who had loved her?
    It felt strange to envy someone who was dead. But Sarah did, at some cavernous level she hadn’t realized existed in her soul.
    Please, Lord, help those who loved Zoe and miss her to find peace within Your loving embrace.
    Sarah had seen a decent-looking motel about twenty miles back in Shelby, on the highway the way she’d come. She’d stay there tonight and then head home to Seattle tomorrow.
    As she got into her car, her cell phone rang.
    She froze, momentarily paralyzed. It could be her friend who was waiting on the results of her CPA exam and handling Sarah’s accounting business while she was out of town. A simple business question she could answer.
    Or it could be…
    With a shaking hand, Sarah flipped open the phone. She didn’t recognize the number.
    Her throat tightened and her mouth went dry. “Sarah Barkley,” she answered.
    â€œMs. Barkley, this is Kurt Ryder. If you’re still interested in the housekeeper job, I’d like to talk to you.”
    â€œYes…” Her voice caught. She squeezed her eyes shut. “Yes, I’m still interested.”
    â€œGood. I think it would be best if you came here, to the ranch. Then you’d know what you’re getting into.”
    That sounded a bit ominous, as though she’d agreed to work for the local ax murderer. “I can come there.”
    She propped the phone against her shoulder and searched for a notepad and pen in her purse while he gave her directions to the ranch.
    When he finished, she closed the phone and took a deep breath. Her insides quivered with a combination of excitement and trepidation. Second thoughts assailedher like the bugs that had spattered her windshield on the highway.
    This is what she wanted. This is why she had come to Sweet Grass Valley. To help those who had given so much.
    As