Mandy’s eyes narrowed. “But you’ll come back, though, especially once Dad’s home.”

Katrina felt a familiar knot form in her stomach. Maybe it was because she’d left home so young and she didn’t really know her father. Or maybe it was because she’d always sensed his disappointment in her. But the thought of being in the same room, of coming under his scrutiny, of dealing with the walking-on-eggshells feeling she got whenever he looked her way, made her want to turn and run.

“Katrina?” Mandy prompted.

“My schedule’s pretty busy.”

“But you do get time off.”

“I do. But there are rehearsals. I’m doing a little teaching now.” Katrina turned and started walking, not wanting to face her sister while she stretched the truth.

Mandy followed her lead. “You really do hate it here, don’t you?”

“It’s…” Katrina struggled for the right words. “Intimidating.”

“I don’t see why.” Mandy urged Katrina down a side aisle.

“Of course you don’t. You’re like Ms. Super-Rancher.”

Mandy laughed while she pushed open a door, and the sunlight flooded through. “You make a bigger deal about everything than it has to be. You always have.”

“I do not.” Katrina stopped short, unease shooting through her.

They’d walked outside into a large, green field, fences in the far distance. It was dotted with horses, in ones and twos, heads down, grazing.

“I won’t let them get you,” Mandy assured her.

“I’m not in the mood for an intervention.” At her mother’s insistence, Katrina was here to touch base with her family. But she wasn’t here to conquer her fears and become a better human being.

“We’re just walking. It’s nicer out here than it is in the barn.”

“In the barn, they’re all behind fences.”

“If they attack, I’ll throw myself in front of you.”

“Funny.” Mandy might be taller and heavier than Katrina, but it was still a hundred-odd pounds against two-thousand. If a horse went rogue, Mandy wouldn’t be able to save her.