The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
And with those words, his first memory came flooding back. He was in a drafty room with other children, and a lady was sitting in front of them in a modest dress, her knees pressed together. She had thick glasses and a sweet smile.
“Let’s say it all together,” she’d intoned. “‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want...’”
And they’d all recited the words together, monotone and flat in the way kids did when they’d memorized something.
“‘He maketh me to lie down in green pastures...’ Mrs. Willoughby,” Sawyer said aloud, and tears pricked at his eyes.
He remembered her! She was kind and smelled like peppermints. She’d always had tissues on hand because she suffered from hay fever, and she sneezed a lot. He cast about, feeling for more memories that were connected to this one, but he couldn’t land on anything. Just the image of that Sunday school teacher sitting in front of the class, a tissue clasped in one hand, as she helped them recite the Twenty-Third Psalm.
But it was something more than a frustrating fragment about a black coat he couldn’t quite place—he had one solid memory!
Chapter Four
The next morning was Sunday, and Olivia blinked her eyes open to a ray of sunlight that had landed on her pillow. She rubbed her eyes and reached for her cell phone to check the time. It was seven—sleeping in by a ranch’s standards. She lay under the warm quilt for a moment longer, yesterday’s events coming back to mind. She’d come to Beaut to help the Whites reconnect with Sawyer, but it wouldn’t be as easy as she’d hoped.
It shouldn’t be about money. Olivia wasn’t a materialistic person, but a chance to reduce this pile of debt couldn’t be ignored. It would be nothing for the White family to call in a few favors.
The White family had moved out to Beaut in order to start Wyatt’s political run—giving him connections to some powerful local ranchers. Sending their daughter to the local public school had been a public relations choice, meant to make their family look down-to-earth. Mia had told Olivia that much in confidence. Wyatt White had gone about “pressing flesh” and listening to the concerns of the average Joe. But the Whites had never worried like the average Joe had to worry when it came to money.
They didn’t worry about bills, but they had worried about Mia. Wyatt and Irene had some glorious plans for their much-loved only child that hadn’t included marrying a common ranch hand. But Mia had loved Sawyer, and if there was one thing Mia’d learned from “roughing it” out here in rural Montana, it was that she wasn’t any better than anyone else. And that common ranch hand had been quite good enough for Mia White.
Olivia tossed back her quilt and reached for her clothes. The room was chilly this time of the morning, and she could hear the soothing murmur of voices from the kitchen.
It wasn’t easy watching Sawyer fall for Mia, but Olivia hadn’t been the right one for him. It didn’t matter that they’d harbored feelings for each other ever since that night in the diner, or that they’d clicked in a way that Olivia hadn’t experienced before or since. Sawyer needed a woman who wanted to make her life in Beaut, and Mia was willing to give up everything her family connections offered her for this man.
So when Olivia said that Mia deserved him, she meant it. Because with the rumors swirling around town about Olivia sleeping with all those guys, with the sidelong looks, the crude jokes, the name-calling, the bullying...she couldn’t stay.
Olivia pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, then went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. As she was coming out of the bathroom, she heard some babbling coming from the toddlers’ room down the hall. She paused, listening. No one else seemed to have noticed, so she headed in the direction of the children’s laughter.
Pushing the door open, she found the girls, each standing up in her own crib. The room was still dark, the curtains pulled. So Olivia opened the curtains and the girls blinked up at her with smiles on their chubby faces.
“Good morning,” she said, reaching down to pick up the first little girl. She had a B on her hand—so this one was Bella. “You ready for a new diaper?”
Olivia had learned the day before that keeping one toddler in a crib while she changed the other was the smartest move. So she grabbed a diaper and headed for the changing table on the opposite side of the room. The job was completed quickly enough, and just as Olivia was picking Bella up again from the changing table, the bedroom door opened, and Sawyer came inside.
“Hi,” Olivia said with a smile. She passed Bella over to her father’s arms. “She needs to get dressed. I’ll do Lizzie’s diaper.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.” Sawyer hoisted his daughter higher and headed for the dresser. “It’s church today. Do you normally go?”
Olivia shrugged. “In the city, I go every week. Do you?”
“Why do you ask it like that?” He glanced over at her.
“Because when I knew you, you hated church. I mean, you believed in God, but—”
“But?” He raised an eyebrow.
“You were the kind of guy who loved to point out ugly church history and TV preachers who stole money and that kind of thing. You weren’t much of a churchgoer.”
“Oh...” He frowned slightly. “I thought I’d go this week, all the same.”
Olivia held out her arms for Lizzie, who let out a squeal of happiness as Olivia lifted her out of the crib. “Okay...”
“You want to come with me?”
Olivia brought Lizzie to the changing table and
