CHAPTER ONE

      GRANT DODGE WAS ALONE. And that was how he liked it.

      He had spent the entire day out in the cold mountain air conducting roping demonstrations and leading trail rides. Not that he minded any of those things in isolation. It was the addition of people that made them somewhat challenging.

      Worse than having to deal with people in a general sense was dealing with people who recognized him.

      Not the typical small-town recognition; he was used to that. Though he could live without getting sad widower face from people he barely knew in the grocery store, but even then, at least it was people who knew him because he’d lived in Gold Valley all his life.

      What really got to him was the people who recognized him from the news stories.

      Eight years hadn’t done anything to make those moments less weird. People often couldn’t place where they knew him from, but