Page 51 of The Way to a Cowboy's Heart

She hugged him back. “You not only get to eat it, you get to eat it whenever you want because Emily has taught us how to bake it!”

“Bless you, my child,” Ray said, kissing his fingertips and blowing her a kiss. “Not that Sarah isn’t already the best cook I know.”

“Oh, you!” she teased, hugging his arm. “That’s only because you have nothing to compare it to. I can see now why Liam came back from New York, raving about Emily’s food.”

Ray chuckled, kissing Sarah warmly on the cheek. “Yes, he did. But it wasn’t only all about her food.”

Emily blushed and Tara put a finger to her lips in a silent signal to Sarah and Ray.

“She’s right.” Sarah straightened. “We are not here to influence. Only… encourage. Right, Ray?”

“Correct.” He looked at his watch. “Darling, you know we’re supposed to meet with the happy couple, Sue and Gerald in twenty minutes, right?” He raised his graying eyebrows in a comically wiggly way. There seemed to be a twinkle in his eye as well. “Our old friends, Sue and Gerald Kowalski, who are renewing their vows here this weekend.”

She gave Ray’s hand a squeeze.

“Don’t worry,” Tara said. “I’ll clean up here. You two go and take care of your friends. Maybe they’d like some cake.”

“Yes,” Sarah said, “because if I eat it all, I’ll never fit into my—” she stopped as if remembering something—“my maid of honor dress today at Lisa’sMarried in Marietta. So, you all are on your own for the afternoon.”

Tara glanced sideways at her. “I think we can manage. Unless you want a second opinion picking out a—”

“No, no. They’re all picked. Just fittings. Anyway,” she went on, hugging Ray’s arm, “we’re off to meet with the Kowalskis. Thanks again for the lesson, Emily.”

“Of course. And I should get back to my place, too.”

Ray smiled and winked at her before they left the room and Emily turned to Tara.

“That was weird,” Tara said. “Did you find that weird?”

“I… don’t really know them well enough to say,” Emily told her. “But they are quite adorable together, aren’t they?”

“Adorable. And weird. Maybe it’s just because he’s feeling so much better now that his chemo is done and he’s fully in remission. That must be it.”

Ray, she had heard, had left prison with cancer. And it had taken some convincing to get him started on new treatments. He had given up on himself and any hope of fixing things with the woman he’d quietly loved for more than a decade, Sarah Hardesty. But she’d been widowed while Ray was in prison, and now they’d put past troubles behind them. Or so Liam had said. There was some other complicated past regarding the whole relationship that she wasn’t privy to, but perhaps it was none of her business. They looked happy. That was all that really mattered.

“Anyway,” Tara said. “You go on. I’ll clean up here.”

They had made quite a mess in the kitchen. “You sure? I can—”

“Definitely.”

“But perhaps I can take a bit of this cake back with me? Would that be alright then?”

“Of course. It’s all yours.”

She gave her a hug and packed up a large piece of cake in a Tupperware container. “Brilliant. Thanks, then. See you later. Cheerio.”

“Uh… Rice Krispies!” she shot back with a grin.

Emily laughed as she headed outside in the cool Montana afternoon.

*

Shay and Liamwere in the round barn, putting the finishing touches on the lights for the wedding vow renewal ceremony for the Kowalskis. Shay had done her usual magic with the place, despite the couple’s request to keep it simple.

They had spent most of the fall remodeling the round barn, an old, historic structure on the ranch that had been converted into a wedding venue, complete with a loft and staircase for brides to descend. But the rusticness of the barn remained, with beautiful beams and insulated cream-colored plaster walls. There was a new kitchen designed for catering and their new chef was in the kitchen, preparing some food already for tomorrow’s reception.

“I wouldn’t have taken Sue Kowalski for the simple type,” Shay noted as she strung the last of the mini lights around the stairway rail. “She seems more like give-me-all-the-bling type.

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