Vaughn looked up at the sun high overhead in the cloudless sky, squinting and shading his eyes from the dazzling brilliance. Time for a break, he thought to himself, stretching out the kinks in his aching back. Goddess, he hadn't worked this hard in ages. He was going to feel it in the morning, he thought to himself, wincing at the idea. Still, he had to admit that it felt good to really use his muscles for a change, instead of sitting in the saddle all day, riding from sunup to sundown as he searched for any trace of his lost love.

Lost love.... He'd imagined finding her a thousand times or more, played it over and over in his thoughts: an infinitely variable film in his head, set to the cadence of hoofbeats. And each time she'd been happy—no, not just happy, but positively ecstatic—to see him, moved to tears by his devotion. Sometimes they returned to the islands in his daydreams, and sometimes they stayed put wherever he found her. But most often, they'd pack up and move to a whole new place. Somewhere quiet, isolated... just the two of them. Somewhere sunny and warm, where she could really thrive. She blossomed in the sun, just like those big yellow sunflowers she was so fond of. In his dreams, she had whole fields full of golden sunflowers, and she'd dance among them for the sheer joy of living as the sun smiled down on her.

He sighed as he wiped the sweat from his brow. Things hadn't turned out at all like he'd dreamed... but at least he'd finally found her. True, she seemed pretty keen on that kid, and sure, she was mad as hell about the other women.... Not that he could really blame her. He shook his head. What an ass he'd been, behaving that way. He was old enough, he should have known better. He did know better—but he'd gone ahead and done it anyway, and then he'd made it worse by trying to deny it and shift some of the blame. Now he was reaping a mighty bitter harvest from those wild oats, and he had no one to blame for it but himself. Still, he appreciated the opportunity she'd given him, letting him stay and work for her when she could have just sent him packing. And while she'd made it very clear that there was a boundary between them that he was not to cross under any circumstances... he hoped that with time and association, she might soften that boundary—might even do away with it all together, if luck was on his side.

He trudged up the steps to the house, and paused for a moment. The front door was wide open, and an unfamiliar scent was wafting through it. He sniffed, frowning as he tried to identify it, then sauntered on in, scraping his boots before stepping through the doorway. Tossing his hat onto the sideboard, he saw Rio at work in the kitchen, her face flushed from the heat, wisps of steam-dampened hair clinging to her face and neck where it had escaped her ponytail. She was stir-frying something, shaking a wok to toss the contents, then stirring vigorously as she poured in a sauce of some sort. A spicy-sweet fragrance filled the house, and she shook the pan a few more times before pulling it off the burner and quickly turning to pour the contents into a large bowl on the counter. She looked up as he came over, smiled distractedly, and turned back to her work, quickly removing a bowl and two large jugs from the fridge.

She grabbed a pair of plates and a couple of containers and lined them up on the counter. As she dished up rice, topped it with the stir-fry, and added slices of ripe mango to the plates and the smaller container, he asked, "What's cookin'? Doesn't look familiar. Smells spicy, though."

"Chili prawns," she replied, not looking up as she started to pour iced tea. She paused, the glass half-filled, and asked, "Tea, lemonade, or half and half?"

"Half and half, please. Thanks," he replied "Can I help?"

"Sure. Take those plates to the table, please?"

As she finished pouring their beverages, he carried the plates out. She snapped lids on the containers, dropped them into an insulated bag, grabbed the glasses and some napkins and silverware, and joined Vaughn at the table. They sat down, and he took a small taste of the food. He didn't care for fish, so he'd never tried prawns before. "Not bad," he said before taking a larger bite. "How'd you come up with it?"

"It's Neil's absolute favorite. Hana had the recipe, and she had intended to give it to me after he and I started seeing each other last summer, but she accidentally dropped her notebook of recipes into the river one day while she was out for a walk. Pages kept turning up here and there in the rivers and streams around here for weeks afterwards. Luckily she wrote them with India ink, so once the papers dried, she could still make them out well enough to copy them down into a new notebook, and she made copies of each them for me. It took her a long time to write them all out again, so I only just got it a couple of weeks ago."

"Huh. It's pretty good. I don't like fish, but these prawns aren't bad. They're not all soft and flaky like fish is."

"Yeah, I remember. Just about the only fish you ever could stand was raw fish, either sashimi or sushi. And even then you weren't a fan of it, just tolerated it."

After a few minutes of eating in silence, Rio looked over at Vaughn. "So how'd the work go? Any problems? Questions?"

He wiped his mouth and leaned back in his chair, taking a long drink of his tea and lemonade before answering. "It was fine. It's good to do some real work again—I was starting to get out of shape. I wasn't as fast as I'd like, but I'll speed up after I get used to it. I expect I'll be pretty sore in the morning, though."

"Yeah, I'd think so, if you haven't worked steadily in a while. Sorry about that."

Vaughn shook his head. "Don't be. I like the work, and I am grateful you're giving me the chance to do it, in spite of... well, everything."

She shrugged as she took a sip of her drink. "Yeah, well, it just worked out to our mutual benefit. You needed a job, and I needed help. Everyone's been after me for more than a year now to get some help. When Neil and I started seeing each other, I think a lot of people expected that he'd help out on the farm—that we'd get married soon, or even that he'd just move in with me. And maybe all that might make sense, in a way, but...." She paused to eat some of the chilled mango while Vaughn watched her, curiously.

"But?" he prompted her, after a minute.

Again she just shrugged. "Things don't always work out the way you expect, do they? I mean, look at us. A few years ago, I fully expected that we'd get married and you'd move your business to my ranch, maybe we'd have a kid or two.... But you didn't want to settle down, and I've moved on. Now I seem to be in a similar situation again. Though at least I don't have to worry about being pregnant and alone this time," she added in a faintly bitter tone. She stood up, grabbed her dishes and stalked out to the kitchen, suddenly annoyed.

"Why don't you.... Wait, you mean you and he haven't...?" Vaughn said, raising an eyebrow as the light dawned on him.

"Never mind. Forget I said anything." She grabbed their water bottles to refill them, and scowled when she saw Vaughn's was still nearly full. Pouring the tepid water down the drain and refilling both bottles with cold water from the faucet, she scolded him. "You need to drink your water, Vaughn. You're not used to the climate here. It's very different than in the islands. The air in the summer can be as dry as a desert. You'll make yourself sick if you don't drink enough, maybe even get heatstroke."

He grunted as he pushed back his chair and picked up his empty dishes, taking them to the kitchen. "I'm a big boy, Rio. I can look out for myself."

Rio rolled her eyes as she prepared to wash the dishes, tossing him a towel. "Whatever. At least leave the hat and vest behind. You should go see Yuri about some new clothes, get yourself something more suitable for summer than those jeans and long-sleeved shirts you're so fond of wearing. Here, I'll wash up and you dry."

A short while later, as she put away the last dish, she said, "If you're done with your work for today, let's saddle up the horses. I need to take Neil his lunch and make a few other stops, so I can take you around and introduce you to some of the villagers here. After that, I can show you around the mountain trails a little. Some of them are pretty narrow, and they can be dangerous if you're careless or if your horse gets spooked."

"Yeah, fine," Vaughn replied with his characteristic lack of enthusiasm. He really wasn't a 'people person,' so he hated being dragged around to meet a lot of strangers. Still, it was time spent with Rio, so he could put up with it just for that reason alone.

She filled a large bottle with iced tea and lemon slices, then pulled some jugs and bags from the refrigerator. She carefully placed those into sturdy saddle bags, put her water bottle, Neil's lunch and the tea into a small backpack, and headed for the door. "Don't forget your water," she reminded him as he started to follow her. He shrugged and grabbed the water bottle, then followed her out the door.

They saddled their horses and led them out. Vaughn started towards Rio to offer her a leg up, but she swung up into her saddle and was ready to go before he'd taken more than two steps. So he mounted his gelding, and off they rode up the long, shaded drive towards the little town.

The village was too isolated for many to bother with motor vehicles. None of the residents even owned one, preferring to walk or ride horseback. The only regular vehicles to be found in the vicinity were the trucks that transported supplies to and from Emma's little warehouse on the edge of town. These trucks generally stopped just within the boundary of the village, right at Emma's driveway, so it was rare to encounter a vehicle within the town itself. The roads in town were all dirt roads—fine for walking or riding, but unpleasant to drive on, especially in the hot summer weather when the dirt turned dry and dusty.

Rio's first stop was at Emma's, to drop off the goods that she wanted to ship to the city—some milk and eggs, and an assortment of vegetables and herbs from her fields. Watching her as she removed the saddle bags, Vaughn asked with wonder, "Can you really make a living selling so little?"

She laughed and said, "Surprisingly, yes. Some items are more valuable than others, of course—the yak's milk, for example, fetches quite a high price. I guess there's a fad for it right now, and my Layla produces a lot of really top quality milk. Plus I've worked hard to build up a good reputation, so that gives me a competitive edge in the market. Customers ask for my products by name in shops, so the shopkeepers specify my products from their suppliers. I could expand and sell a lot more, but I'd rather keep my operation smaller and more manageable. I'll never be rich, but I make enough for my simple needs, and that suits me fine."

He looked at her in surprise as she vanished into a small outbuilding near the back of the property. She'd matured a lot since she'd left him, become more shrewd, more confident, more... independent. Of course, she'd always had an independent streak in her. But when they'd met, she was still reeling from the shock of the sudden loss of her parents and feeling a little like a lost lamb. He suspected that was part of why she'd been attracted to him, at least at first. Fifteen years her senior, he represented the stability and security that she had craved so desperately right at that time. How could she possibly have known that despite his lead in years, he trailed far behind her in maturity?

He heard a peal of laughter from the shed, and a moment later, she emerged, still laughing and pulling a smiling middle-aged woman along behind her. The woman had a kerchief tied over strawberry blonde curls, and she wore yellow boots and a big apron over her clothes, decorated with two big apple patches. "Vaughn, this is Emma. She runs the local shipping business, so she's the one that collects my goods and sells them to the distributors, as well as ordering supplies for the businesses in town, like Hana's store."

Tipping his hat as he looked solemnly down at her, he said, "How do you do, ma'am?"

Emma giggled and smiled up at him. "Well, Rio, he certainly is charming! I'm pleased to meet you, Vaughn. I do hope you enjoy your stay in our little village!"

He tipped his hat to her again as Rio mounted, and he noticed that although her expression was serious, her eyes were laughing. She waved to Emma and they set off at a brisk trot towards the plaza, arriving at the same time as a pretty blonde wearing a waitress's uniform. Rio again slid to the ground, and taking off her pack, she pulled out the bottle of tea and the bag of food and hurried up to the stall where he could see Neil glowering.

"Hi, sweetie, sorry I'm a little late. I took the time to make your favorite, so I hope you don't mind too much?" she said as she handed him the meal.

He flushed and grumbled, "Yeah, thanks. But I told you not to call me that in public. And what's he doing here?" He glared over her shoulder at the horseman, who coolly returned his stare.

Rio sighed, then said, "I'm showing him around, introducing him to some of the townsfolk while I run my errands, then I'm going to take him up the mountain and show him the trails. Our horses need the exercise anyway. You should bring Jack back with you tonight—then we can go for a ride tomorrow. I still have enough room in the barn for him, you know, even with Flash there."

"Hey, I've been promising to give Lissie some riding lessons—why don't I bring back a couple of my horses, too, and we can go on a group ride!" Rod called from his adjacent stall.

"Who's your friend, Rio?" the blonde waitress asked, looking up at Vaughn with large, sapphire blue eyes.

Before Rio could reply, a voice called, "Did someone say something about riding lessons? Count me in! I've been dying to learn how to ride a horse!" A moment later a lively redhead appeared, trotting up the path towards them. "Hey, Rio, who's the handsome stranger?" she exclaimed eagerly as she charged up to the group.

Sighing, Rio replied, "Tina, Lissa, and Rod—this is Vaughn. He'll be working on my farm, at least for the time being. Vaughn, this is Tina, the local newshound and mail carrier. That's Rod over there—the guy I told you about that trained my pets. And this is his girlfriend, Felicity. She's a waitress at Clement's, so if you eat there, you might see her on duty."

He nodded to Rod, then tipped his hat to Tina and Felicity, saying, "Ladies, it surely is a pleasure to make your aquaintance."

Felicity smiled shyly up at him, but Tina squealed. "Ooh! How dashing! Are you a real cowboy?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned to Rod, saying, "So will you teach me how to ride a horse, too? Pleeeease?" She clasped her hands tightly together, begging him with all her might, her eyes scrunched up as she grimaced from the effort.

Through her laughter, Rio noticed the look of dismay on Rod's face, and looked up at Vaughn. "It's much easier to learn one-on-one. Maybe you could give her a lesson? You're the most experienced rider here, after all."

He glared down at her and opened his mouth to protest, but Tina cut him off. "Oh, would you? How thrilling—riding lessons from a real cowboy! I'm so excited! Hey, Rod, can I borrow a horse from you? What time are we meeting up? Let's all meet at the river at ten tomorrow and bring a picnic to eat up at the lake! Oooh, I can't wait!" Then before anyone could respond, she was dashing off again, this time towards Hana's store.

"Wha... what just happened?" Vaughn asked after a moment of stunned silence.

"Tina just happened," Rio said, looking at him with an amused look.

"Is she always like that?"

"Yep, pretty much," she said, everyone nodding agreement.

"And you want me to teach her how to ride? Forget it. Count me out."

Somehow Rio managed to convey with a single look a reminder that he was far from being back in her good graces, and that refusing her request would be another mark against him. In that moment, he decided that he cared more about winning Rio back than anything else, so he found himself saying, "Okay, okay. I'll do it. But you owe me, Rio."

She just smiled enigmatically at him in reply.