Page 92 of The Backup Bride Proposal

“It’s good he has you here,” Tess said. “I think you keep him from getting in his head about this.”

“You think so?”

Donna nodded. “We do.”

It was quite the compliment. “Well, thank you. But really, it’s been helpful for him to be here with all of you. He’s told me how much family means to him. I’m glad he was here when he found out.”

“He means everything to us, too.” Donna took the last bite of her scone and took a sip of coffee. “He belongs to us as much as he belongs to James.”

Tess nodded. “Sometimes more so. Or at least that’s how Donna and I always saw it.”

Donna reached over and took Tess’s hand, squeezed it. “When he’d come here for summers, his parents weren’t always with him. So we’d teach him everything we thought he should learn.”

“That’s true,” Tess said. “Like respect for the outdoors, how to treat animals.”

“And how to respect women,” Donna added.

“Definitely that. And Dad taught him all about the horses and the land. Things he didn’t learn in the city.”

“Invaluable lessons, all of them,” Mae said. “You helped raise a fine man.”

Tess gave her a confident smile. “We think so.”

It was clear how much Tess and Donna loved Kane. It showed in how he treated her, too. She’d dated quite a few men. Some awesome. Some not so much. She ranked Kane high up there on the list of honorable men.

After Tess headed outside to work, Mae helped Donna clean up the kitchen despite her protests, then went outside to see what she could do to help. She cleaned the horse stalls alongside Lana, one of the staff whose dad also worked at the ranch as a trainer. Lana attended college and worked part-time on the ranch whenever she was on break.

“I’ve been comin’ here since I was six years old,” Lana said as they hauled in fresh straw for the stalls. “It gives me a chance to hang out with my dad, and be near the horses.”

“You love the animals.”

“I do. I’m going to veterinary school.”

“Oh. How exciting for you. That’s hard work.”

“It is. But it’ll be worth it in the end.”

“Yeah, it will.”

After she finished cleaning stalls, Lana went off to do something else, which meant Mae was left with nothing to do. She went to the stalls to visit her favorite horse, Annie, surprised to see that she wasn’t in there, so she wandered outside to see if she could find her.

She asked around and someone told her Annie was working out at the racetrack. Since she hadn’t been there yet, she had to ask for directions. It was left of the arenas, and when she found it she gasped at how big it was. She supposed it had to be good-sized for the horses to be able to stretch out and run. Adam was at the track along with a couple other people, including the jockey who currently sat atop Annie, taking her on a walk around the track. Mae didn’t know that Adam and Kane had returned from their errands, and she hadsearched the area for Kane as she’d headed this way but hadn’t seen him. Figuring he was busy elsewhere, she walked near the track, stopping by Adam but not saying a word. She was entranced by Annie’s utter beauty as the jockey took the horse through her paces.

And when he urged her into a trot, and then a full run, Mae held her breath. She was like dark lightning, as if her feet weren’t even touching the ground. She flew around the track, as graceful and beautiful as anything Mae had ever seen. The jockey finally slowed and edged her into a walk, cooling her down.

“She’s so beautiful,” Mae said.

“That she is,” Adam said. “She’s a perfect horse. Just about ready for her first race.”

Mae looked over at Adam. “She hasn’t raced yet?”

“Not yet. But she will. And she’ll be a winner.”

“You can tell?”

“We’ve run enough racehorses through here that I can tell a winner from one who can compete but will never be a champion. Annie will be a champion.”

For some reason, that made her so happy.

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