Page 20 of The Cowboy Fix

She led the way onto the porch. “With very little changes, your mom’s shed could be used for the bride and her attendants’ changing area. You could also put a roof on this porch. That would make it a great sitting area for the groom and his groomsmen. Maybe turn it into an all-weather porch.” She walked to the side of the she-shed toward his parent’s tree and spread out her arms. “The garden could be here under this aspen for shade with the arch in the front. Whoever is officiating could stand with the bridal couple.”

This little shed would host the kind of small, cozy wedding she would have wanted if Jim hadn’t insisted they go big, then decided not to show up on the day he’d told her was the only one his boss would let him have off. The silver lining in the whole thing was that they’d put off planning a honeymoon until they had more time to plan aromantic trip—his idea, not hers.

Get over it, girl. It’s been a year.The voice inside her head wasn’t telling Izzy something she didn’t already know. What kept the painful disaster lodged in her chest was that Jim had left a note with his best man, a guy Izzy barely tolerated and only because he was Jim’s best friend. That should have been a sign. People who surrounded themselves with less savory friends were probably not top-shelf humans themselves.

Slamming the door on her encroaching memories, Izzy came back to the present. “We could do whatever version you like of bring-your-own-wedding.”

“I don’t want anyone carving their initials on these trees.” He’d walked a little further out to his parents’ tree. The aspen near the she-shed and his parents’ tree were stunning together and would be perfect for wedding pictures.

“We’ll add that to the contract with a hefty fee if they don’t leave everything as they find it,” she promised.

“When do you want to get started?” He was asking questions. That was enough.

She started taking pictures. “I need to put a proposal together and a cost analysis, but tomorrow or the next day?”

“That will give me time to talk to Jonas and Blake to make sure they’re on board. We’ll have to see about permits.” Nathan’s gaze took in his mother’s shed and the trees. Hopefully, he was seeing her vision of the garden and arch all set up for a couple’s perfect wedding. He finally faced Izzy and said, “I think this might work.”

She believed him and couldn’t stop watching the expressions flickering across his face. “I think so.” She snapped another picture of Nathan standing in the middle of what would become the garden. “If your brothers approve, you could call the project The Wedding Cottage.”

His dark brows came together. Sometimes, she wished in her excitement she would watch how she phrased things better. Quickly, she added, “You can take a vote.”

His brows arched.

“Draw high card?”

His lips twitched.

“I think I’ll quit there,” she said with a laugh.

He smiled at her, and Izzy’s pulse picked up as though she was running the most important race of her life. “Good idea,” he said. “Are you ready to go? We can finish the tour and then I need to get back to the horses.”

“And I have a business plan to write up.”

After driving along the edge of towering mountains on the backside of the property, the hills, and pastures dotted with trees and undergrowth along a river that bordered one side of the acreage, they got back to the main ranch house in the late afternoon.

Izzy was dying to put her fingers to her keyboard and get started on the proposal taking shape in her mind. She’d had more fun than she expected, even though Nathan had been mostly quiet through the tour, only giving historical facts when she asked.

When he pulled up in front of the barn, she’d taken enough pictures to have her pick for any promotional materials she wanted to use for Zelda Lohmen’s she-shed as a destination wedding location. She could already see the sales pitch:Welcome to The Wedding Cottage.

“I’ll help you with the horses,” she said, barely willing to postpone putting her vision into a document, but she’d promised to help with the animals. And she wanted to check on Cookie.

He shook his head. “I’ve got it. You can start work at eight tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll take care of the picnic things then.”

“Okay.” Nathan moved slowly, his limp more pronounced than when they’d started earlier.

The man was stubborn. From the set of his shoulders, he wasn’t about to change his mind. Not tonight anyway. He disappeared into the barn as she watched, concerned that the day they’d spent together had been too much.

He wouldn’t appreciate her suggesting that he needed more time to recuperate. He was right about one thing. She could use the rest of the afternoon and night to design a plan that would show the Lohmen brothers they didn’t have to lose the ranch. Silently, she promised Nathan.

Seeing him at his mother’s shed, Izzy thought she understood why in the beginning he’d been so reluctant to make changes to the ranch. Everything about the Triple L reminded him of his parents, especially his mom. After all this time, she suspected he was afraid that if he changed anything, he would lose his memories as well.

By the way he breathed in every acre, she could see how attached he was to the ranch his parents had built from scratch with little but a dream to get them started. Before the doctors had finally diagnosed her mother’s condition, all Izzy could think of was the tragedy of losing Sylvia. If she had, after watching Nathan at his mom’s sanctuary, she could believe that many years down the road she would find herself still grieving and walking in his shoes. She could read it in every bit of the property’s history he shared.

When she looked out of the window over the sink, Nathan was leading Duke into the barn.

He just needed someone to hear him. She could be that someone as long as they kept it about the business of saving the ranch and didn’t get all personal while they were at it.

---