Page 51 of A Nice Day for a Cowboy Wedding

Cora didn’t relish the prospect of heading back to Denver. She hadn’t been back since they’d escaped Stephen, and there were no happy memories to make her want to return.

But, the smile on Micah’s face was everything she needed to know. He was excited. He wanted to do it, and it was the kind of normal activity she wanted to be able to offer her child. “I think it’d be great if we can coordinate it.”

“Great. We’ll work something out. We Tylers are headed up to The Slice is Right for dinner. Do you guys want to come?”

Micah looked expectantly at her, and Cora hesitated. This was getting to be almost too much. Too involved. If something happened . . . She pushed any doomsday thinking out of her head. Bad things could always happen, but living life trying to avoid them wasn’t living.

“That’d be great. I was planning on picking up a pizza for dinner anyway.” It dawned on her then that Deb wasn’t here. “Are you just going out to eat because your mother isn’t here to cook for you?”

“Naturally,” Shane replied.

“Don’t you think it’s a little bit ridiculous two grown men can’t cook dinner for themselves?”

“As if my mother ever let us near a kitchen. It’s not our fault she raised us a little useless,” Gavin offered.

“It’s not likeyoucan cook, Mom,” Micah piped in.

She glared down at him. “Which is why I know how important it is that you learn how to.”

Micah rolled his eyes, but he quickly turned to Shane. “Is Boone going?”

Shane and Gavin both tensed, but Shane did the best job of smoothing it out and replying to Micah blandly.

“Haven’t seen him around today. If it’s okay with your mom, you can go find him and invite him.”

Micah looked up at her so hopefully she couldn’t have said no if she wanted to. “Just in the stables and the house. Otherwise you need to stay within eyesight.”

Micah bounded off toward the stables without a second look, and Cora tried not to worry. It was good for him to be exploring things on his own, learning things on his own, and, if her heart was being ripped out of her chest while she let him wander around without supervision, well, she’d have to learn how to deal with that.

“He’ll be fine,” Shane reassured.

Cora smiled thinly. It didn’thelpher worry any, but she appreciated that he’d try.

“I’ll go see if Molly wants to come,” Gavin said. “Might call Lou and Em.”

“Yeah, whoever wants to,” Shane agreed, but his eyes never left Cora, and she couldn’t pretend she didn’t likethat.

Gavin walked toward the house, and Shane gestured toward the driveway. “Want to take a walk? Like, say, this path that will give us a direct line of sight into the stables, and also keep the house in view.”

“You’re a smart man, Shane Tyler.”

“I know a thing or two about worry.” They walked in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Shane broke it.

“So, I talked to Ben.”

Her eyebrows went up, though maybe she shouldn’t have been surprised. In her experience, most men didn’t do much of what they didn’t want to—and she knew Shane didn’t want to. But Shane wasn’t like most men she’d known. “How’d it go?”

“I don’t think it went well, but I don’t think it went awful. Which, quite frankly, doesn’t help me any.”

“What did he say?”

Shane shook his head. “A bunch of bluster about not owing me an explanation. He wasn’t going to explain himself to anybody for anything, and I was getting pretty damn irritated. Sure it was pointless and all. But as I was leaving, he said he didn’t want anything to do with the ranch. All he wanted was my mom.”

“Aww.”

Shane scowled. “Not aww. No awws.”

“Of course it’s an aww. He loves your mother, and he was willing to offer some piece of truth after not wanting to, to prove it. I think that’s progress.”

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