Page 77 of The Backup Bride Proposal

“I’m already in love.” She turned her head to look at him, seeing the flare of heat in his eyes. “With the ranch, I meant.”

A quirk of a smile crossed his lips. “Of course. Come on, let’s change and I’ll show you the ranch. You brought boots, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did. And extremely provocative lingerie—in multiple colors, I might add—that you’ll just have to think about the rest of the day.”

“Oh, man. Now you’re just torturing me.”

She laughed, cupped his chin, then rose up to press a soft kiss to his lips. “That’s the idea.”

Kane was already dressed appropriately but she wasn’t, so he left the room. Mae changed into jeans and her boots, along with a gray T-shirt, then braided her hair, reapplied her sunscreen and headed downstairs. Donna was in the kitchen, rolling out dough.

“He’s out back waiting for you, honey,” Donna said.

“Thanks. What are you making?”

“Biscuits to go with supper. Dad’s smoking some ribs to put on the barbecue later. We’re having beans and corn on the cob and biscuits. You’re not a vegetarian, are you? If you are, I can fix something up for ya.”

“No, I like meat just fine, but thank you for asking. And supper sounds amazing. I can’t wait.”

Donna smiled. “Thanks. Go get your tour, now. Oh, before you head out there, grab a cowboy hat. It might not be summer but you have a beautiful face and you need to protect itfrom the sun. The spare ones are in the mudroom off to your left.”

“Thanks.” After picking out a hat, she went out the back door and found Kane sitting at the table, talking on his phone. Or, rather, he was arguing with someone, so she decided to give him privacy. She stepped off the porch and did a slow wander, taking in all she could see, which included multiple horse barns, trails that she was dying to explore and people milling about, all of whom looked extremely busy doing whatever it was they did.

“Sorry about that,” Kane said, coming up to walk beside her.

“No problem. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just a discussion with my agent.”

“Sounded more like an argument.”

He laughed. “That’s how most of our discussions go. He’s looking out for my future, so I get why he pushes. But sometimes I push back.”

“Ah, I see. It’s good to have someone in your corner, though.”

“That it is.”

He walked her around to the horse barns, which were gorgeous, and she met some amazing, beautiful horses. She could have spent the entire day there, but he finally dragged her away to the arena, where there were several horses and people working. That was where they found Kane’s grandfather and aunt.

“Climb on and we’ll watch,” Kane said, helping her up on the top post of the arena.

It was like a ballet, watching the graceful horses prance around the arena. Adam and Tess were obviously practiced riders who knew exactly how to maneuver the horses, speed them up and get them to quickly turn and then come to anabrupt stop, dust flying up around them like a sudden tornado. Mae was mesmerized at the way horse and rider were in absolute sync.

“This is the way we train the cutting horses.”

“For rodeo,” she said.

“Yeah.”

She’d been to plenty of rodeos. You couldn’t live in Oklahoma without having gone to at least one rodeo. She’d been to several. The horses were always her favorite.

“Do you train horses to work here, or for show?”

“We board and train horses here for various people, both those who show and those who rodeo. We also train new riders who want to enter the circuit.”

“I’m sure that keeps everyone busy.”

“It does.” They continued to walk along, coming to another barn.

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