A Hero To Count On. Linda Turner

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      “What do you mean you need someone to pick you up?” Elizabeth asked, shocked. “Where are you?”

      “Changing planes in New York.” Katherine laughed. “I’m scheduled to arrive at four in Willow Bend. You can pick me up, can’t you?”

      Surprised, Elizabeth said, “What? Oh, yes, of course.” Her thoughts on the wedding she and John were scheduled to attend at three-thirty, she didn’t have a clue how they would get there on time to pick her up, but she could hardly tell Katherine that. She’d been through too much lately—the last thing Elizabeth wanted her to think was that her arrival was an inconvenience. “Everything’s kind of crazy today, but someone will be there. Are you okay? Priscilla said you were in Scotland.”

      “I was. I just needed a complete change of scene. But I need family, too,” she added huskily. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

      At the sound of her sister’s voice thick with pain, Elizabeth wanted to cry. “I know it hurts, but give it some time. Things will get better.”

      “I know,” she choked. “I’ll see you this afternoon. All right? I’ve got to go.”

      She hung up almost immediately, and Elizabeth didn’t doubt for a minute that her sister was crying her eyes out. Her heart aching for her, she hurried into the dining room, where the rest of the family was lingering over an early lunch.

      “Who was that?” Buck asked as Elizabeth took a seat across from her fiancé, John. “I’ve been expecting a call from Luke Hucklebee about the livestock trailer he’s selling—”

      “Katherine’s in New York,” she said. “She decided Scotland wasn’t the right place for her, after all.”

      “Thank God for that,” Rainey said. “What time’s her plane getting in?”

      “Four.”

      “Four!” Buck repeated, frowning. “But we won’t be back from the cattle auction. And you and John will still—”

      “Be at the wedding,” she finished for him. “I know.”

      “We could leave the auction early,” Rainey suggested. “Someone needs to be there to pick her up.”

      “I agree,” Elizabeth said, “but I don’t see how John and I can just walk out in the middle of the wedding. Unless, of course, we leave between the wedding and the reception, make a quick trip to the airport and bring her back with us to the reception.”

      “Oh, I don’t think that would be a very good idea,” Rainey said. “The last thing she’s going to want to go to right now is a wedding.”

      “True, but what else can we do? After all the cows we lost to rustlers, you and Buck really need to go to the auction and pick up some calves—”

      “I’ll go.”

      When everyone at the dining room table turned to him in surprise, John’s half brother, Hunter Sinclair, grinned crookedly. “Did you think I meant the auction? No, thanks—Buck and Rainey can handle that. I don’t know one end of a cow from another. I was talking about Katherine. I’ll pick her up at the airport.”

      “Are you sure?” Elizabeth asked him. “I thought you were going to Aspen.”

      “I can do that anytime,” he assured her. “I don’t mind. Really.”

      Studying him, Elizabeth still hesitated. Hunter had only been at the ranch a few days, but she’d recognized him for who he was within the first twenty minutes of his unexpected arrival. A flirt and a tease. He was too good-looking for his own good, and he could sweet-talk a woman without even thinking twice about it. That was the last thing Katherine needed right now.

      “I appreciate the offer, Hunter, but Katherine’s been having a difficult time lately. She’s not going to be very good company—it would probably be better if either Buck or I picked her up.”

      “You mean because of that louse she was dating,” he said. “He broke her heart and now she doesn’t want anything to do with men.”

      “Well, I don’t know that for sure, but she’s been crying a lot. You shouldn’t have to deal with that—”

      “I’ll handle her with kid gloves,” he promised. “Honest. I know better than to take on a woman who’s just found out the man she gave her heart to is a rat. She’s safe with me. I’ll treat her like my sister. Scout’s honor.”

      “You don’t have a sister,” John pointed out, grinning. “And as far as I know, you were never a Scout.”

      “I could have been,” he retorted with twinkling eyes. “I will be in my next lifetime. And I’ll have a sister, too. Okay?”

      “Yeah, right,” his brother chuckled. “You’ll probably pester the hell out of her, God help her. Elizabeth just wants to make sure you don’t do that to Katherine.”

      “Me? C’mon, you know I’m a sweetheart. I’m certainly not going to pester Katherine. She’s Elizabeth’s sister, for heaven’s sake. I’ve got to keep peace in the family. So go to your friends’ wedding. I know you’ve both been looking forward to it, though God knows why. Why people celebrate when they’re making the biggest mistake of their lives—”

      “Hunter—”