Page 29 of The Cowboy Fix

He knew this like he knew his mother loved this spot, so why he was drawn to the wandering woman was a mystery he had no idea how to solve.

He turned to the boys. “How about we measure off where the garden’s going to go?”

“Yeah!” Both boys said together.

He paced off the boundaries of the garden with Reece and Timmy matching his steps. After they stacked rocks to mark the corners, he asked Izzy. “What do you think? Is this big enough?”

It was slightly wider than the shed and three times as long.

“That looks perfect.” She walked to the end of the area he’d marked off and swinging her arms in a wide circle said, “The arch can go here with a white pebble-covered pathway down the middle.” Izzy walked up the proposed path toward Nathan. “Would you be willing to put in a small solar setup to power garden lights and electricals in the cottage?”

Nathan frowned. That might be going a step too far.

“I would be willing,” Blake said as he and Malorie joined them. They were holding hands and had matching dreamy looks on their faces. Blake pulled Malorie close to his chest. Nathan wasn’t jealous. Really. But—“In fact, we’d like to be the first ones to be married here.”

The kids shouted and gathered close to the couple. Sylvia slipped an arm around Izzy’s shoulder. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

As she cast him an I-told-you-so look, Izzy grinned. The woman lit up the whole outdoors, her thick, red hair as wild as her outlook on life, the ends picked up by a slight breeze. Her idea of restoring his mom’s shed into a wedding cottage was already taking off and Nathan was beginning to remember what being part of a family was all about.

Izzy hugged Malorie, laughing with her friend. Summer warmth drenched them in sunshine. Sylvia slipped her hand into the crook of Nathan’s arm. “What do you think of our girl? She’s full of surprises, isn’t she?”

Our girl?

Um, no. Fate wouldn’t be that unkind to him, would she?

Sylvia graced him with an impish smile before she took his silence for agreement, then moved off to congratulate Blake and Malorie.

“What do you think? You have your first booking.” Izzy was suddenly beside him, smiling.

He stepped back and nudged a small stone near his boot. Normally, he needed a lot more time and space to make decisions, which was likely why the Triple L had tumbled into such bad financial shape. Well, not this time. “What I think is we’d better get started on the remodel as soon as possible.” His phone pinged. “That’s Jonas. He’s on his way with the supplies.”

Somehow, long ago, he’d forged himself into the outsider looking in. As a result, his family had grown without his active participation. It was time to break that bad habit. As if reading his mind, the corners of Izzy’s mouth turned up in sympathy. She patted his arm, then without a word, she wandered over to talk to Timmy and Reece who were still stacking stones at the corners of the garden space.

Maybe she understood. Izzy Payton didn’t miss a thing. Wouldn’t that be a pain?

Andee tugged on his arm. “Can I ride Rosie, Uncle Nathan?”

“Of course.” He helped the child onto the horse. “Just to the road and back, okay?”

The minute they saw their sister riding, Timmy and Reece sprinted over, slowly followed by Izzy. “Can we ride too?”

“Sure. Who wants to ride Grace first?” Nathan waited for the boys to decide who would ride next.

Reece was patting Grace’s neck, but stopped and came to stand next to Nathan. “Timmy should go first. Grace is his favorite horse.”

Nathan held the horse’s reins as Timmy climbed aboard. “Just walk her to the road and back, okay Timmy?”

“Okay.” Timmy’s rare grin was worth Nathan coming out of his admittedly self-imposed isolation to spend time with the kids.

All three were taking lessons from Blake and it showed. Timmy passed Andee about halfway as she came back. They high-fived each other.

“You’re a good brother to Timmy, letting him ride first,” he said to Reece.

Reece shrugged, then grinned. “I’ve always wanted a brother.”

Reece’s words struck Nathan. He’d always wanted a sister but had been stuck with his brothers, or so he thought. Always afraid he wouldn’t be included, he’d kept his distance pretending it was his idea to stand back, creating he realized, the very thing he didn’t want. That wasn’t Jonas and Blake’s fault.

Izzy stopped beside him and watched the kids ride as if it was something they did every day. Her business motto flashed into his mind.Get in; fix the problem; get out; move on to the next problem.Or something very close to that. He’d found it on her website before he finally decided to go with his brothers’ recommendation to hire the spitfire.

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