Page 31 of The Rancher's Code

“No! I’m not having any of this! Not today!” The words came out of me without thinking, my feet leaping into action. I ran towards the wrangler, gently cupping the dove in my hands before carefully placing the bird in a nearby cage. I repeated theaction a few more times, the wrangler and I working in sync. He tried to thank me when we were done, but I was already moving over to the horse problem.

“Ursula?” I called the horse’s name, recognizing her the closer I got. “Are you really going to do this to me today?”

As if she understood, Ursula cut a look over at the bridesmaid. I took the woman in, eyeing her up and down, quickly noticing that she was wearing stilettos with diamond spikes sticking out of the sides. They were the kind of thing that admittedly looked amazing but were probably concerning to Ursula.

“You! Take those off. Put them in your hand. You can hold them as you dismount and before you walk down the aisle. And no, this is not a negotiation.”

The bridesmaid hastily obeyed, and Ursula took a few tentative steps back towards her.

“I love you. Never change,” I said to Ursula before I turned to leave the barn. Once I was outside, I accidentally bumped into an older woman, nearly knocking her to the ground. I reached out for her just in time, narrowly avoiding a potential faux pas.

“I’m so sorry! I’m sort of all over the place today?—”

“And you look fabulous darling, if you don’t mind me saying.” The woman smoothed out the front of her designer jacket. “You must be Dylan Reid, wedding planner extraordinaire.”

“The one and only.” I smiled. “And you are?”

“Amber’s future mother-in-law.” She smiled back. “Candace Thornton.”

“Lovely to meet you, Candace. I have to get back to managing things but I’m happy to chat later?—”

“Oh, I think we should chat now.” She brought a hand up to the side of her face. “There are just a few things I think we could tweak. I know it might be a little late, but I think it’d be worthit. For starters, this proposed entrance on horseback with the bridesmaids… it’s sort of tacky, don’t you think?”

“No offense to you, Mrs. Thornton, but this is Amber’s wedding?—”

“And we both want the best for her, don’t we?” She sighed. “And about all those roses… do you think we could arrange them differently? We could always make time for that?—”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Oh, thank God.

Whatever that is, it sounds like the perfect excuse to get out of this conversation.

“Sorry. I have to—” I pointed towards the direction of the sound. I didn’t care what that sound had been, I just needed to get away from Mrs. Thornton ASAP. I’d managed to never scream at a meddling mother-in-law during my entire career and I didn’t feel like starting now. I practically ran away from her, not stopping until I’d reached the source of the unexpectedbooms.

Fireworks?

I’d agree to let Amber have an extremely modified version of the fireworks show she’d wanted. Instead of 15 minutes it was going to be no more than five. Still, no fireworks were scheduled to go off until at least after the ceremony was completed, around the time of their first kiss as husband and wife.

“Why am I hearing fireworks?” I asked no one in particular, a crew of technicians standing in front of me.

“Sorry, boss. Looks like someone got the time wrong. We have enough supplies so it’s not a huge deal?—”

“It better not be. I swear to God, if I have to see any of you again tonight—” I held up my hands as I took a few steps away from the situation. “Please. Just do your jobs? Please. I’m begging you.”

Just a few more hours before the ceremony.

Just a few more hours to go without killing anybody.

I forced down a few breaths before I offered the crew an excited thumbs up. “We’ve got this, everybody! Let’s go!”

I briefly wondered if they could tell I was lying through my teeth.

One perfect day.One perfect day.

I was crouching towards the ground, keeping to the back of the ceremony, out of the way of the cameras and everyone else. Breathing had become more impossible as the day had gone on, disasters needing to be dealt with and fires put out. I was anxiously awaiting another disaster around the corner as I watched the groomsmen perform an unauthorized, synchronized dance down the aisle.

Thankfully, it went off without a hitch.

---