Page 17 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

He nodded. “So you’ll be getting up an extra hour early to come help me out at the stables. If you can be good until your birthday and show me that you can be trusted around horses, I’ll get you riding lessons.”

Bex was excited for a second before what he meant set in. “I just had my birthday!” she wailed. “I have to wait nearly a whole year!” Fresh tears glittered in her eyes, and she sniffled pitifully, but her expression melted after a moment. He saw her realize that she was getting a good deal: Daddy promised horses eventually, and that was more than he had ever promised before. She threw her skinny arms around his neck and squeezed tightly. “Thank you, Daddy,” she said.

“You’re welcome, darlin’.”

Bex wriggled off his lap. “I’m going to find Jessie!” she roared happily and took off at a run. Colin laughed. She was a handful and a half, but he wouldn’t have her any other way.

Once Bex had run off, Colin looked to Nancy, who had lived up to her promise and kept quiet. “What are the chances she’ll lose interest in horses by her sixth birthday?” Nancy smiled at him, but it was full of sympathy. “Great,” he sighed and pushed away from the table. He needed coffee. He might need several cups of coffee today.

As he was setting up the coffeepot, Nancy’s arms wrapped around him. She pressed her cheek to the center of his back, and he felt grounded. “You’re an amazing dad,” she said. “Bex is lucky to have you.”

He patted her arm, keeping her where she was. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to let her ride,” he admitted. “Just the thought of it paralyzes me.”

Nancy squeezed him. “Problem for next-year Colin?”

A laugh caught in his throat. This was the part of Nancy that he missed the most: the girl who was his friend before they ever fell in love. “Yes,” he said. “Definitely next-year Colin’s problem.”

ELEVEN

Nancy was ready to tear her hair out. Evie had invited the bridesmaids over to her house for a “wedding planning brunch” so that they could work out the small details, and she had never heard so many bad suggestions in her entire life. “I’m just saying,” Ericka said, still wheedling for a dessert buffet to be catered by her brother, “it would be great to have a bunch of different sweets. Like one of those—what are they called—Viennese tables?”

“But—” Evie started. She looked at Nancy, eyes pleading.

“And the bakery couldreallyuse the business,” Ericka added.

Nancy took a breath. “I’m sure the bakery is wonderful,” she said, going for her diplomatic voice, “and I’ll bet that Colin would be really interested in setting up some kind of venue package so that he could send a lot of business their way when he starts lining up other events, but the wedding meal is catered. Colin and I have laid out the reception in the barn, and we didn’t account for a buffet table.”

Ericka was livid, Nancy could tell, but she just nodded. “Fine,” she said with a huff. She sent a look at Lila that Nancy didn’t think she meant for her to see, but Nancy could tell that lines were being drawn in the sand. Especially since she’d already shot down Cady’s suggestion earlier that her golden retriever Lulabelle be the ringbearer. Nancy had felt this way while she planned the junior prom—being constantly on the defensive as she protected her vision—but unlike then, she knew that she was absolutely in the right. This wasn’t about her vision; it was about Evie’s. And Nancy was going to see to it that her best friend got the weddingshewanted, not the one that would make her bridesmaids the happiest. She just wished that Evie would speak up for herself every now and then instead of having Nancy be the one to always say no.

What started as a fun brunch was quickly becoming a war that Nancy didn’t want to fight anymore. She hated being the bad guy. It was easier when the clients weren’t people that she knew; she could be coolly civil and cut off bad ideas with a few words. Here, she felt like she was tripping all over herself. “Excuse me a minute,” she mumbled and pushed herself off Evie’s couch. She made her way to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. She tore off the cap and gulped down a third of the bottle.

The cold water helped her to recenter. She’d worked with plenty of pushy, over-eager bridesmaids before, and she had always been able to make those situations work. She could do it here, too; she just had to remember not to take everything like a personal slight.

“Nance, come on!” Cady called from the living room. “We picked a hairstyle for the bridesmaids.”They picked one already? I haven’t been out of the room that long, have I?

Bracing herself, Nancy pasted a smile back on her face and went back to the living room. The bridesmaids and Evie were looking at possible hairstyles online, and the picture that was pulled up was an elegant updo with curls and twists. All of the women were smiling and nodding and looking at her for agreement, and Nancy tried not to feel stung. Her hair was the shortest in the group by far. There was no way that she was going to be able to pull off such a look. Evie had been pretty adamant about the bridesmaids looking as similar as possible—same dress, same heels, same accessories, etc.—so this felt like a deliberate snub from the other girls. Had they really not considered her at all?

She glanced at Evie, who was worrying at her lip, and Nancy didn’t want to continue to stress her out. This was supposed to be fun, after all. “It’s beautiful,” she said. From their reactions, that was the right answer. Cady beamed at her, and both Ericka and Lila visibly relaxed. They were all waiting for her to say no or point out why it wouldn’t work. Her giving in on this point had saved the mood, even if she still had no idea how they expected her to pull that hairstyle off.

The rest of brunch went a little more smoothly after that. They finalized the seating chart and the set list for the DJ, so it definitely was a productive day after the mood settled and they started working together. As they were wrapping things up, Cady snapped her fingers. “I just had the most perfect idea,” she gushed, and Nancy bit back a groan. They’d gone two hours without a spontaneous “perfect idea” from anyone. “We should do one of those choreographed routines for when the DJ introduces us!”

Dread pooled in Nancy’s stomach. Shehatedthose dances. It was true that she had seen some really cute ones over the years, but she had about as much grace as a dancing giraffe and wasn’t really looking forward to embarrassing herself. But if Evie wanted to do something like that, she would figure it out. “I know a great choreographer in Boulder,” she said. “He’s worked with me on a number of weddings.” She tried to keep the dread out of her voice, but she felt a wave of relief when that was finally the suggestion where Evie started laughing and shaking her head.

“Oh, God, no,” Evie laughed. “Those dances are always so cheesy.”

Cady pouted. “We did one at my second wedding,” she pointed out.

“And I recall you saying that wedding was your ‘literal worst,’” Evie countered, and Nancy could have cheered. Cady harrumphed but ultimately agreed that the wedding was pretty awful.

When the bridesmaids left, Evie visibly relaxed. “I’m sorry about them,” she said as she collapsed beside Nancy on the couch. “They’re just so invested, you know?”

Nancy nodded. “It’s been a long time coming,” she said and nudged her best friend. “You and Nick tying the knot.” Evie smiled, but it wasn’t an altogether happy smile. “Are you okay?”

Evie’s smile drooped a little further. “I want to marry Nick more than anything,” she said, “but everyone wants to be involved, and it’s hard for me to tell anyone no.”

“That’s why I’m here. Being the voice of reason is part of the job description, both as wedding planner and maid of honor.”

Evie shook her head. “But that’s not fair for you.”

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