CHAPTER ONE

      KATE GARRETT HAD never much belonged to anyone. And that was how she liked it.

      She didn’t have the time or desire to deal with anyone telling her what to do or how to act or how to sit. If she wanted to ride across the field like a bat out of hell and let her hair tangle in the wind, gathering snarls and bugs and Lord knew what else, she’d do that.

      It was the perk of independence. Compensation from life since it hadn’t seen fit to give her a mother who was around to tuck her in at night. The consolation prize that came for living with a father whose every word was scented with whiskey, who moved around her as if she existed in a different space. As if she wasn’t even there.

      But who needed warm milk and itchy tights and whatever the hell else came with being hovered over for your entire childhood? She’d rather have freedom and the pounding of a horse’s hooves on arena dirt.

      Or on the soft soil of the Garrett family ranch, which was what she had today. Which meant it was a damn good day. She had to be at the Farm and Garden for work in a couple of hours, so she would have to cut the ride shorter than she’d like. But any ride was better than none, even if she’d rather keep going until her face was chapped from the wind and her lungs burned.

      The sun was getting high in the sky and she knew it was time to haul ass back. She grimaced and slowed her horse, Roo, turning sharply, as she would if they were going around a barrel, before picking up the pace again on the way out of the loop and galloping back in the direction she’d come.

      Wind whipped strands of dark hair into her eyes and she cursed her decision to leave it loose. So maybe nobody yelled at her for letting