chapter EIGHT

Brady carried his boots in one hand and a mug of steaming coffee in the other, pushing the screen door open with a socked foot.

This was the time of the morning he loved the most. Just before sunrise. It was the sounds he noticed first, like an intermittent whisper, small noises teasing the edge of his auditory range.

Like a smooth wave, the sound traveled, a wake up call that prompted new players to join the chorus. The sound grew, little by little, moving and growing until it was all around him.

And then, just as those first rays of light set the sky ablaze, it coalesced into the most beautiful song. Insects and birds, the soft yip of a fox just inside the tree line or a faint echo of wolf call riding the wind across the valley.

This was Brady's heaven. He couldn't think of a more perfect place on earth than right here. It was odd that he'd find such kinship with the land here. This wasn't the land of his birth. He started life in the Appalachian Mountains. Those green hills were a far cry from the majestic crags and cliffs of the Rockies.

The first time Brady set eyes on this place, it said "home."

Now it could be full-time. If he walked away from the military. He talked with his brother Jud, his friends, Riggs and Jasper in Cotton Creek, Matt Brickman, Gunner, and Gunner's wife, Oakley, in Montana and every one of them said the same thing. The day you start wanting to be on home soil is the day you should step back from active duty.

You can't have your head in the game if your mind is on home. That was pretty smart. He was going to talk to his brother Calvin when they could carve out some time for a private conversation.

For now, he'd appreciate this moment. It didn't get any better than this. He blew on the hot brew in his mug then sipped cautiously.

Having Hope around was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing came in the way they had started to develop a friendship, and the realization that they got one another. They laughed at the same things, agreed about a lot, and were able to argue good-naturedly about the things they disagreed about.

Not to mention, she was damn easy on the eyes. But Brady wasn't about to rush into something with her. Hope's focus was Andy and as someone who'd grown up with one parent, he knew how much her time and attention meant to the little boy. Brady would never do anything to interfere with a parent's relationship with their child.

But that didn't stop the thoughts that intruded when she smiled up at him with that look in her eyes that made him feel that maybe she was having similar feelings.

Brady wasn't conceited, nor was he completely blind when it came to reading people. He could recognize interest on a person's face and hear it in their tone.

He saw and heard it when they were together. So, why didn't he act on it? Was he scared of being shot down?

Annoyed that he was obsessing over the matter, he sat down on the back porch to finish his coffee. His phone chimed and he pulled it out to check.

A notification was displayed on the screen, alerting him to a news story about his family and the camp they had going.

Brady clicked on the link and started to read.

*****

Hope and Audrey were having morning coffee. Andy was with the other kids, camping.

"Did you read that news story about the camp?" Audrey asked as she settled into a seat at the small table by the window, where Hope sat with her iPad on the table.

"I did."

"And?"

"And what?" Hope knew before the words were out of her mouth that she sounded displeased She felt a bit that way and couldn't explain why.

"You're not happy for Andy to have been mentioned?"

"Not entirely," Hope admitted since there was no point in trying to wiggle out of the question.

"Why?"

Hope pushed the iPad away from her and looked at her mother. "I don't know. Honestly. I just know that the moment I started reading it, this feeling claimed me. I felt anxious and…and unsafe."

Audrey frowned and Hope saw her mother's hand go to the small jewel that dangled from the delicate gold chain around her neck. She knew that motion. It signified that her answer struck a nerve, which meant Audrey either shared those undefined concerns, or was about to tell Hope that her feelings were unfounded.

Either way, she was in for a response that wasn't likely to make her day any brighter.

"I haven't yet spoken with you about Sadie and Grace and I t,hink it's time I did."

That surprised Hope and also perked her up a bit. She'd spent a good deal of time wondering about that situation.

"My mother was special," Audrey began, "imbued with light and in touch with the world in ways others weren't and couldn't understand. She sensed things, and most of the time her senses were right.

"I never questioned it, until one weekend we were at Stella and Billy's ranch, and I came inside to go to the bathroom and overheard a conversation.

"It was about my mother and father. It'd always been a stain on my mother that she never married. She and the man who fathered Stella and Sheila, my aunts, were together eighteen years until he died. Then she struck up a relationship with my father, but that ended before I was born.

"They talked about how Jonas, her second love and my father, had treated her badly, leaving her to manage three kids alone. My grandmother laughed and said my sisters Stella and Sheila were quite capable of taking care of themselves. They were fourteen, after all. As far as her new daughter, Audrey, she was confident she could manage a baby."

Audrey paused, sipped from her cup, and made a face. "It's grown cold," she said and rose with cup in hand. As she went to the sink, she continued.

"My mother told me that from the beginning, they recognized I was different. I saw things others didn't. At first everyone attributed that to my overactive imagination."

Audrey turned from rinsing out the cup, grabbing a dish towel as she did. "Until what I said started making sense, or being proved right." She dried the cup and put it away, then returned to her seat at the table.

"When I was five, I told my mother that I was lonely. There weren't many kids around my age and even though I loved all the farm animals, I'd really like some people friends.

"She said that if I created a place in my mind and made it real, it would attract other kids who were doing the same thing and we could have our very own private club. A magic club."

Audrey smiled. "I tell you, I spent so much time making up that world. From water so clear you could see every pebble on a stream bed, to skies that were a perfect endless blue. Everything was perfect. Everything there was at peace.

"It was perfect, but it wasn't. I was still alone. One night I sat at the window in my room, a small room on the top floor, built into the attic with one dormer that jutted out over the front of the house. I told the Universe that I felt alone even though I'd made the perfect place.

"That night when I went to sleep, I had a vivid dream. A girl entered my dream. She looked sort of like an Indian princess. She asked if we could combine worlds. That way we could be friends. I was so excited, but of course, woke and was still in my normal world, so I felt letdown."

"The next night, she came again and this time she brought a friend, another beautiful Indian princess, or so it seemed to me. They were so pretty, and when they asked me to take their hands and come into their world, I was ecstatic.

"The moment our hands joined, we were there, in the world I'd created. Only it was better. They called it the tree house, and said it was a very private place, but I was welcome to come any time."

Audrey shifted in her chair and glanced out of the window. "What you saw when Sadie and Grace showed up was three women who, as children, somehow connected on another plane. At that time, they knew me as Audrey Rose and I knew them as SaeMae and GraMae. I didn't know they were, in fact, Sadie Mae and Grace Mae."

She cut a look at Hope. "When I was thirteen, I went to work in the shop our family opened in town. A bakery. Between that, school and our chores at the ranch, there wasn't a lot of free time. I tried once, when I was fourteen, but couldn't get back to the Tree House, so I chalked it up as a childhood fantasy.

"Then all these years later they showed up in Cotton Creek and it was like being granted a wish you didn't realized you'd made. They brought back a magic I thought was gone.

"And more important," she said as she reached for Hope's hand. "They reminded me that I wasn't the only one in the family with magic. You have it. From me, through my father and from your own father, Michael."

"My father's name was Michael?" Hope had never been told his name, and no amount of pleading or cajoling had ever convinced Audrey to speak it.

"Michael what?"

"Whitehorse."

"Is he native?"

"No, at least not entirely."

"Is he alive?" Her curiousity was aroused and Hope leaned forward, gripping her mother's hand tightly.

"I don't kno.," Audrey slid her hand free and laced the fingers from both hands on the table before her. "I'd tell you if I knew, but I don't. What I do know is that what was passed down to you is why you sometimes have reactions like the one today. You sense something the rest of us don't."

"Then what do I do?"

"Pay attention. If there's something amiss, you'll catch wind of it, but there's no point in worrying or obsessing over it since, as yet, all is well."

Audrey stood and stretched. "And on that note, Grace, Sadie, and I are going riding today. Do you want to join?"

"No thanks," Hope declined. She wanted some time alone, to consider what her mother had told her and what she'd experienced. She wanted to try and come to terms with the story.

"But, hey," she called out to her mother as Audrey headed for the door. "If you met them all that long ago, why did you pretend you didn't know Sadie?"

"I didn't." Audrey stopped and turned to face Hope. "Like I told you, she said she was SaeMay and Grace was GraMae."

"And you never knew their real names?"

"Never."

Hope had to ask. "Well, don't you feel like it's sort of – I don't know— like something out of a story? I mean, Mom, you just met women who were girls you dreamed of as a child. That doesn't happen every day."

"Neither does an Angel saving your son, and yet it happened," Audrey pointed out, then smiled. "Magic comes in many forms, Hope. You know that and even recognize it in others. It's a real shame you can't recognize your own."

Hope was surprised by that statement. This wasn't the first time in her life, her mother had referenced magic, but Hope had never once believed magic lay within her. She'd seen it first hand, through Joe, but she'd sure never done anything magical.

Maybe whatever magic she possessed was of the mundane kind, like being able to smell rain. That idea didn't bother her. Hope had never aspired to be extraordinary. Just happy.

And that turned her thoughts to a tall, handsome man which made her wish for things she couldn't have because she was quite sure there wasn't enough magic in the world to make Brady Blackstone fall in love with her.