The 'goddamn place' was a cabin outside of Big Timber, Montana, population 1804. At least, it said 'cabin' in the ad she'd answered. The description made it sound like a pretty big cabin. Two bedrooms, two baths, large living/eating area. Of course, two bedrooms could mean one small bedroom and a large closet.

Get your mind back on track, you fool, she told herself. Worry about the dimensions when you get there. Right now, let's just get there! She picked up the map and the instructions. She had followed them exactly from the airport in Butte and they had been perfect, right up to the point where there was supposed to be a driveway.

Something passed her from behind, startling her. She looked up to see a white pickup truck disappear around a bend in the road. Dammit! If she had seen it coming, she could have flagged it down and asked for directions. The 'city girl' in her cringed at the thought of flagging down a stranger, but the practical side of her said that there probably weren't too many serial killers traipsing about rural Montana. There just weren't enough victims. And besides, hadn't Montana used up its quota with What's-his-name...the crazy loon who sent those letter bombs...what the hell was his name? Lived in a shack...some sort of math genius...his brother turned him in. It was right on the tip of her tongue.

For God's sakes, Natalie, get a grip. She gave herself a mental shake and forced her mind back to the present situation. Now, she asked herself, do I do one more pass along this road or do I head back to the town?...she checked the map...Big Timber. She sighed. It was thirty miles away. Okay, one more pass and then, if I don't find it, I'll head back to town.

She put the car in gear and turned on her left signal. She looked carefully over her left shoulder. She chuckled at the empty road and wondered why she was bothering to signal. Habit, she guessed. She spun the wheel to the left to make the u-turn. She immediately jammed on the brakes. She had nearly turned into a pickup truck that was making its way slowly along the road. The truck swerved away from her and came to a stop. Natalie was left sitting sideways in the road. The driver jumped down from his truck and started toward her.

How could she have been so stupid? She just hoped he wasn't carrying a gun. She rolled down her window a bit. "I'm so sorr..." she began. But that was as far as she got.

"Are you okay?" he asked with concern in his voice.

"Do you mean 'okay' like 'have I forgotten how to drive'? I'm sor..."

He cut her off again. "No, I mean you...I just drove past here." He motioned back up the road. "You had your head down. I came back to see if you were okay."

"And I very nearly repaid that kindness by t-boning you," she said ruefully. The look he gave her made her wonder if the term 't-boning' as in 'splitting your car in half' was a slang term that hadn't quite reached Montana. "I'm lost," she confessed.

"You better get your car off the road," he said. Then he grinned. "'Cause in an hour or two, another car might come by."

She smiled and nodded. She put the car in reverse, backed up a bit, and then swung in behind the pickup.

"You're a good driver," the man said.

"Because I drove ten feet without hitting anything?" asked Natalie.

"No, because you used your signal every time you changed direction. Now, where do you want to be that you're not?"

She almost said, 'snuggled up next to you', but managed to clamp her lips together at the last moment. This was a seriously handsome man. When he had first walked up to her car, the part of her brain that wasn't in fear for her life was admiring the man - 6 foot something, in a pair of faded Levis and a grey and blue checked shirt. The Levis were faded because he had had them that long, not because they came that way. And the shirt fit him like a second skin. A line of music ran through her head. 'You're a fine piece of real estate' What was that from? Great! Now she had two things to keep her awake tonight - the song title and the Mad Bomber.

She looked up at the ice-blue eyes and the chiseled jaw. "I've rented a cabin around here, but I can't seem to find it." She fumbled among the papers on the passenger seat, searching for the contract.

"Hawk's Nest?" he asked, brushing his blond hair out of his eyes.

"Yes!" she said, relief flooding her body. He'd heard of it!

"I keep telling Nate he oughta fix that sign."

"Sign? What sign?"

"Well, there you go. My point exactly." He paused.

"So, you know where this place is?" she inquired.

He nodded. "Yep. Just around the bend. You'll have to turn the car again. There's a break in the trees. You can follow me." He walked back to the truck. Natalie enjoyed watching him walk away from her. Wow! Stop that, her brain told her. You're not here for that. My God! That's what got you here in the first place.

He swung the truck around on the road and she followed. He drove slowly around the bend. He must think I'm a moron, she thought. He's going so slowly. But then she realized why. He wasn't completely around the bend before he signaled right and turned into...well, if there was a road there, she sure couldn't see it.

She followed the truck and as soon as she made the turn, she realized that it was indeed a road. She also realized that the reason she had missed it the four times she had gone up and down the highway was because at the exact moment that she should have been looking for the road, she was concentrating on the bend.

She followed the truck for ¼ mile uphill through trees. Suddenly, they came to a clearing and there it was. It looked great from the outside - a log cabin with a wide front porch. There was a half-barrel on either side of the steps, overflowing with pink petunias. Baskets of the same were hanging at the corners of the porch.

"Pretty," she said, getting out of her car.

"Yep. Nate keeps the place nice. He lives over that hill. This was his sister's place. She designed it. Then she died..." He paused.

"Not in the house," he hastened to add. He stopped, blushing.

"It's okay," Natalie said with a smile. "I'm not squeamish." She held out her hand. "I'm Natalie Reardon. Thanks so much for your help..."

"Ty...Ty Harper," he answered, shaking her hand. "My place is just a couple of miles up the road," he added. "If you need anything, just come by or call. Harper Farms. Sheep." He hesitated. "I wonder if the phone is on. There hasn't been anyone staying here lately. Nate usually turns stuff off."

"I have a whole list of instructions on how to open the place," laughed Natalie. She walked around to the back of her car and opened the trunk.

"Let me help you with that," said Ty. Natalie was pretty sure she was falling in love with the sound of his voice. "Well now, this sure is heavy for such a little bag."

"That's my computer," said Natalie. "I'm a writer."

"I hope you aren't planning on using the Internet," said Ty, stepping up onto the porch. "I'm pretty sure there's no connection for that here."

"No, I'm not," said Natalie. "I'm here to get away from the world. It will just have to get along without me for the next month. I'm here for peace and quiet and to get some work done." She lifted the Welcome mat and picked up the key.

"Well, I'll just get out of your way then," said Ty, setting her suitcase down inside the door and placing her briefcase carefully on the kitchen counter at the back of the cabin.

You idiot, she told herself. Nothing like pushing the guy away. She smiled at him. "Thanks again for your help. And if you don't mind..." She fished a pen and a credit card receipt out of her purse. "I wouldn't mind having your phone number...just in case."

Ty told her the number and she wrote it down on the receipt. She wrote 'Ty' above it and looked around the room. She spotted the phone hanging on the wall by the fridge. She walked over and picked it up. There was no dial tone.

"It must not be hooked up yet," she said. She pulled an 'I Heart Montana' magnet off the fridge and secured the phone number with it.

"Hmmm..." said Ty. Even in rural Montana, it wasn't good to be without a phone. "I'll tell you what - I'll call you tomorrow morning and if I don't get through, I'll try every so often. If I don't get through by the afternoon, I'll call Nate. He's in Florida right now, but I've got his number."

"Why would anyone leave this beautiful spot in the summer to go to Florida?" she blurted out.

Ty grinned at her. She barely suppressed a moan. "He's visiting his sister...his other sister, not..." He blushed and made a kind of 'aw shucks' movement with his shoulder that made Natalie's toes start to curl up. She laughed and so did he.

"Well, Natalie, it was nice to meet you. I'll just get along now and let you get started on your peace and quiet." He moved to the door. "And I'll call you in the morning. How early is too early?"

"Oh, any time. I'm a morning person." She realized that a 'morning person' on a Montana sheep farm might be up long before a 'morning person' from New York City. "Seven?" she asked.

He nodded at her. "Okay."

She followed him onto the porch and watched him get into his truck. They waved to each other and she stood there until his truck disappeared from view.

Mm, mm, mm...now that was a fine looking man! Natalie retrieved the rest of her belongings from the back seat of the car. These consisted of a printer and some bags of groceries. She set everything down and surveyed the place.

The cabin was wide, but not deep. She was standing in the living room. Doors led off to rooms on either side. The kitchen was at the back. It was open to the living room, separated only by a counter. A small table and two chairs sat by the front window to her right. She bent over and looked at the wall. Perfect, she thought, when she spotted the electrical outlet. She put the box with the printer on the table and retrieved her briefcase with her computer from the counter. She sat on the chair and looked out the window. Perfect, she thought again.

She moved across to the other wall where there were two doors. The first led to a bedroom, not the size of a closet exactly, but not large. It held a brass bed - a double - and a dresser. There was no closet but further searching revealed a set of four brass hooks on the back of the door. A small nightstand held a lamp with a frilly, pink shade. The bed was unmade. Natalie sat down on the mattress and bounced a couple of times. Not bad, but she liked a firmer mattress. There was a window on the other side of the bed, but it had dark curtains drawn across it and she couldn't see the view.

The next door led to the bathroom. Nicely appointed, very clean, shower and tub. Two folding doors in the wall opened to show a washer and dryer. Perfect!

She moved to the other side of the living room. Two doors by the kitchen were closets - one holding cleaning supplies and an upright vacuum and the other shelves full of linens.

The third door led to the second bedroom. Well, the first bedroom, she corrected herself. The master bedroom. It was beautiful. It had a brass bed and dresser, similar to the ones in the other room. But it had room for a night table on either side of the bed...and an armchair and a floor lamp at the foot of it. And there was a closet. She opened a door to find two rods about four feet long going down either side of the small room. Plastic hangers...lots of them, thought Natalie...hung from the rods.

She pulled open the curtains on a large window to see a spectacular view of the trees and the mountains in the distance. She moved to the head of the bed, where there was another door. She opened it to find another bathroom, smaller this time, only a toilet and sink. Perfect! She sat on the bed, bouncing to test the firmness. Perfect! The whole place was just perfect!

Natalie went back to the main room. There was a stereo sitting on a bookcase, but no television. She sat on the sofa and then in the armchair. She smiled. Each piece was placed to give the person in it a great view out the windows. She thought she preferred the armchair. She turned sideways and hung her legs over the side, adopting her usual reading position. The view was even better! She laughed to herself. The dead sister, God rest her soul, knew how to sit in an armchair.

Natalie stood up and went to work, inspecting the contents of the kitchen cupboards and putting away groceries. In a basket on the counter was a pad of paper. It was headed 'Stuff I probably won't get done today' and had a picture of a very harried-looking secretary. Not very encouraging, thought Natalie. She set it on the counter and put a pencil beside it. As she moved through the kitchen, unpacking the groceries, she made notations on the list. She had purchased enough supplies to get her through a couple of meals, but she hadn't wanted to buy things like steak sauce and salad dressing, until she checked out the cabin.

There was supposed to be a barbecue, she remembered and opened the door in the back wall. She stepped out onto a small porch. Two steps led down to a stone patio. A new-looking gas barbecue sat on the corner of it. She went over and looked at the propane tank. It had a gauge on it. The arrow pointed to Full. Good, she thought. If the power goes out or something, I can still cook.

Natalie looked around her. The cabin was nestled against a hill. The front of it and the side with her bedroom faced the downward slope and enjoyed the incredible view of the trees and the mountains off in the distance. The back of the house and the side with the small bedroom were up against the hill and had no view. There were a couple of molded plastic chairs and a table on the patio, but none of the comfortable padded chairs of white wicker that adorned the front porch.

This was someone's dream house, she thought. The front porch for sitting and the back patio for eating. The area was sheltered by the hill, and there would be little wind to disturb someone dining
al fresco. Natalie went back into the house. Yes, the sister would have had the big bedroom for herself and the small one for guests...or junk, thought Natalie. She knew what the second bedroom in her apartment was used for and figured Nate's sister had probably done the same. She thought she liked Nate's sister a lot and wanted to know her name. She'd try to find a way to ask Ty when he called tomorrow.

She got some linen out of the closet and made up the bed. She opened a can of spaghetti sauce and put it on to warm. She sautéed some onions, mushrooms and peppers and tossed them into the sauce. While the sauce was simmering, she unpacked her suitcase, putting everything away neatly in the dresser and the closet, telling herself sternly that she would be neat this time, not the usual slob she was at home when she was working.

She went back into the kitchen and put water on to boil for the pasta. She thought about making a salad; there was oil and vinegar in the cupboard. But she decided against it. It had been a long day and she was tired. It was going to be dark soon and she figured a plate of spaghetti and a glass of wine would do. And then into bed.

She picked up the phone. Still no dial tone. Peace and quiet, she thought. Peace and quiet for a whole month. Just the sound of boiling water and simmering sauce. Peace and quiet.

The sound of a car door slamming made her look up. She didn't know it yet, but her peace and quiet was already over!