Forever and Always by Leigh Greenwood

sure when I saw Colby, but he wasn’t convinced. He wouldn’t even consider it until he got proof after his parents died.”
    â€œAre you close now?” Could brothers who’d spent nearly all of their lives apart regain that closeness? Now that he’d found them— if he’d found them—it would be easier just to watch than have his offer of friendship rejected.
    â€œI can’t say we’re close, but we’re good friends. We don’t live near each other, but that’s not the real reason, either. We’re just different people who are busy with our own lives and families. My wife and I own the ranch, and she owns the mercantile in town. Colby transports stuff all over the Territory and as far away as Santa Fe. Still, it’s nice to know I’ve found one brother. I’d hoped to find both, but that was always more of a wish than a possibility.”
    Logan wondered how he’d feel if he knew this disfigured stranger was his brother.
    â€œHow long ago did you find each other?”
    â€œAbout two years ago.”
    â€œThere’s plenty of time to catch up.”
    â€œI don’t know. Every time we think about doing something together, one or the other of us is too busy. Other times our children are sick, or our wives have a new baby. It looks like we won’t have time until we’re old men and can sit around reminiscing while our grown children do all the work.”
    If they hadn’t managed to build a relationship in two years, how could Logan expect to accomplish anything in just a few months? His father and his uncle had never been able to build a relationship, and they had spent their lives in near daily contact. Logan was a commodities dealer who had bought and sold products without ever seeing what he bought and sold. What would he have to share with a rancher or a teamster, men who spent their lives outdoors and in direct contact with the fruits of their labors?
    â€œI didn’t mean to bore you with all this talk about myself,” Jared said. “I just wanted to meet you and tell you that you could stay here as long as you wanted. Do you get into town very often?”
    Apparently Sibyl and the others had been able to keep the secret about him shooting the robbers, but he figured it was best if everyone knew he was working with Sibyl. Too much secrecy would only cause problems.
    â€œI plan to go in every day for a while. Mrs. Spencer needed some help understanding her husband’s books. I’ve done a little work in an office, so I offered to do what I could.”
    â€œIs she planning to sell the bank once she figures everything out?”
    â€œI think she’s planning to run it herself.”
    Jared grinned. “Good. I hope she’s successful. That will put her father in his place.”
    â€œWhy’s that?”
    â€œHe has as poor an opinion of Sibyl’s ability to understand business as her husband did. He expected Sibyl to hand everything over to him to run or sell as he saw fit. I hope you have more than a little experience, though. I hope you’re a genius who can turn the bank around. Norman was a good businessman, but he was also an arrogant, interfering snob who managed to alienate just about everybody in town.”
    Apparently no one had a good word for Norman Spencer. Why would Sibyl have agreed to marry a man so unlike herself? Surely her father couldn’t have forced her down the aisle, and he didn’t believe Sibyl would have married him just because he was rich. Norman hadn’t been unattractive, but he wasn’t so handsome a woman would lose her head over him.
    Jared swallowed the last of his coffee and stood. “I’d better be getting back. I hope you’re able to help Sibyl. I’d like to see her succeed, but she’ll need to find a way to win back some of the customers Norman drove away.”
    â€œShe wants to succeed, but she doesn’t want to