Page 17 of The Rancher's Code

“Master key.”

“You have a master key to every room on the ranch?”

“Yeah. Dad gave it to me for wedding planning stuff. He said it makes it easier.”

“That’s a security risk, Amber?—”

“You’re a security risk!” She shouted back. “You’re atriskof ruining my wedding!”

Shit.

Does she know I kissed her wedding planner?

Is Dylan threatening to quit or something?

Shit, shit, shit?—

“But I did exactly what you wanted me to do,” I replied. “I took Dylan to see the night sky and?—”

“And you were supposed to check out the potential flower arrangements with me today! Like, right now!”

“Don’t you have an entire team of assistants for that?”

“I don’t care what they think! I care what you think!” She pouted as she came around behind my desk, grabbing ontomy arm. “Please! Can you just come look at it? It’ll take five seconds.”

I opened my mouth to protest but as soon as my eyes met hers, I felt a small smile on my face instead. In that moment, she reminded me of when we were little kids, her demanding to follow me up to a tree house or share my toys or insist it was her turn with a coloring book. Feeling suddenly sentimental, I decided to go with the flow, enjoying what would possibly be one of the last moments that my little sister was just my little sister.

Not a mom. Not a wife. Just Amber.

“Oh, my God. Are you actually making this easy for me?” Her jaw was wide open as I headed out the office door. “I thought you’d waste more time telling me how busy you are!”

“What can I say? I’m feeling helpful today.”

There were somany flowers stuffed inside the barn that I couldn’t tell what I was looking at.

It reminded me of standing too close to a puzzle, completely unable to see the big picture. There were roses like Dylan had talked about, but other types of flowers, too, sunflowers and daisies. I was lost among the flowers, even as Amber tried to point out different sections of them, explaining her vision for how they’d be arranged on her big day. I nodded along to everything she said, hopeless and helpless…

Right until I spotted Dylan across the room. He was laughing, a perfect sound, even throwing his head back a little like he was on a TV show. There was a man standing beside him, wearing a simple tank top and jeans, the only noticeable thing about him being the shell necklace against his skin. He wasabout the same height as Dylan, and it seemed like whenever he spoke, Dylan laughed again.

Huh.

I turned all my attention to their interaction, the stranger every so often reaching out towards Dylan and touching him on the shoulder. When Dylan said something, the stranger would tuck their own hair behind their ear, sometimes gently biting their lower lip. When Dylan looked away from the stranger, scrolling through something on his phone, the stranger still stared at him, eyeing him up and down?—

Ow.

I looked down at my palms, now noticing that I’d been squeezing my fingernails into them, hard. But why was I clenching my fists? I wasn’t mad about anything. I looked back up at Dylan and the stranger, curious about what would happen next?—

Ow. Again.

I shook my head as I walked over to Dylan and the stranger, not wanting things to remain strained because of last night. I especially didn’t want to be the reason Dylan decided to bail on planning this wedding for my sister, a thought that had only crossed my mind when Amber broke into my office. I needed to apologize to him ASAP and set things right the best that I could.

There was also the fact that I felt like I justneededto talk to him for some reason, a strange desire to inject myself into their conversation taking over me.

“Hey,” I started. “Are you good?”

Dylan shot me a confused look. “Yeah? Why would you think I wasn’t?”

Ow. For a third time.

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