Page 20 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

“It’s fine, Nance,” he said in a tone that said it was anything but. He shook his head, got up, and headed for the door.

“Colin!” she called after him as his back disappeared down the hallway. She heard his feet on the stairs and sighed again. She could go after him, but she glanced down at her phone. She can’t leave this client hanging. She’d made him a promise that everything would be absolutely perfect, and if the pictures he was sending her were any indication, literally nothing looked the way she had said it would. Nancy didn’t have a choice but to let Colin go.Another time, hopefully, she thought as she found Reagan’s number in her contacts. If anyone knew what was going on, it would be the Queen of Mean herself.

THIRTEEN

Colin woke up in a piss poor mood that even a cup of strong, black coffee and Bex’s cheery morning chatter couldn’t lift. He tried to smile his way through getting Bex ready for school, but she was an intuitive kid. “Daddy, what’s the matter?” she asked as he buckled her into her booster seat.

“Nothing, darlin’,” he said. “I just woke up grumpy, that’s all.”Getting passed over for a work call can do that to a guy, he thought. Not that Bex ever needed to know that.

Bex nodded sagely. She knew all about waking up grumpy, as even a five-year-old was wont to do. “Say one happy thing,” she told him, “to help you feel better about the day.”

He smiled—it was what he always told her when she came stomping into the kitchen on those bad days. He leaned forward and kissed the girl’s forehead. “I love you,” he said. “That’s my happy thing.” Bex beamed at him, and the ride to the school ended up being a pleasant affair. He turned up the radio for them both to sing along, and he gave her an extra-long hug before he left her in her classroom.

The hug from Bex kept him smiling the whole way home, but when he came up the driveway, that smile froze. Nancy stood in the middle of more rosebushes than he’d ever seen outside of the rose garden two towns over.This wedding is getting out of hand,he thought until he noticed Nancy’s absolutely frantic expression. He parked his truck in his usual spot, and when he opened his door, he could hear her on the phone. “I didnotorder a dozen rosebushes! I ordered roses—bouquets ofcutroses—for the altar and tables, and I need them in two weeks, not today.” Whoever she was talking to, it didn’t look like it was going well. Colin didn’t mean to stare, but he couldn’t just walk by when she was so upset. “No,” Nancy barked into her phone, “no don’t put me on hold!”

Colin could see that she considered throwing her phone. “Don’t do it,” he called out, causing her to hesitate. She turned to look at him. “It’s not worth the trip to get a new phone and trying to get your pictures and contacts back.”

Nancy cocked an eyebrow at him. “Speaking from experience?” she asked.

Colin chuckled. “I can neither confirm nor deny that,” he said.

She smiled, and he hated how tentative it was. Colin almost said something, but she motioned to the rosebushes. “There was a mix up with the order,” she said.

“Can I help?” The words were out of his mouth before he could even think them through.

Nancy held out her phone. “Do you think you could convince the flower shop to take these back? The woman I talked to didn’t seem overly concerned.”

Colin reached for her phone and then stopped. He had a thought. “Is she going to fix the order? I mean, will you still get the cut roses that you ordered and paid for?”

Nancy nodded. “As far as I can tell,” she said. “Before she put me on hold so that she could get the shop’s owner, she pulled up and confirmed the correct order. It doesn’t sound like she’s willing to send anyone to come pick these up, though.”

“So these rosebushes are yours? Free and clear?”

She shrugged. “I guess so.”

“Then, we can just plant them, right? Why waste a day waiting and negotiating and letting them die when we can just put them in the ground?” He’d done a little work around the outside of the chapel, but most of the renovation had happened inside. Rosebushes would certainly spruce that area up, and they would look great in pictures, which would be a major selling point for the venue.

Nancy looked at the bushes: a mix of red, white, and pink roses all in full bloom. “They are gorgeous,” she said, and then nodded. “Okay, let’s plant them.” She looked at Colin. “Do you have time for this today?”

Colin had a list of things to do, but nothing was immediately pressing. And this would benefit the dude ranch. “I can spare it,” he said. “Can you get your hands dirty?”

She smiled. It wasn’t an altogether friendly look, but at the sight of it, Colin felt a stab of want in his belly. Competitive Nancy was the girl he fell in love with first, and the fire in her eyes called to him now just as it had then. “I’ll manage,” she shot back.

Together, they began loading rosebushes into the back of his truck. He ran to grab two shovels from the shed, and they headed to the chapel. While it was an old building, it had been fairly easy to restore. It was small, just six pews on each side of the aisle, but it would be a great spot for weddings, vow renewals, maybe even christenings. It had been on the property his whole life, but they hadn’t done much with it in recent years. Now, it was easily one of Colin’s favorite places.

They unloaded the bushes and started laying out a configuration around the chapel that enhanced the beauty of it without taking away the focus. “My mother told me once that a good garden should look like it has always been there,” Colin said as he fiddled with spacing the bushes so that they wouldn’t crowd each other.

“My mother would disagree,” Nancy said. “Though I think regimented rows of rosebushes would take away from the magic a bit.”

Colin could picture Mrs. Sharp’s flowerbeds in front of their house: all sharp angles and pristine lines. It always struck him as a little clinical. “Your mother’s daylilies always look lovely,” he said anyway.

Nancy laughed. “I’ll tell her you said so.”

They fell into a companionable silence for a while. When he’d decided not to bother with the flowerbeds around the chapel, he’d covered them in white pebbles. Which now meant there were white pebbles to dig out and holes to dig for the bushes. The sun beat down on them, but Colin liked the work. He always felt the most himself when he was working with his hands.Seeing Nancy all rumpled is a definite plus, too, he thought. There was something about her being a mess that made him want to go all caveman and carry her to his bed.

Colin shook that thought off. They had other things to focus on at the moment. “Hey,” he called to her. “We should save some of these pebbles. They might look good in some vases for inside the chapel.”

Nancy stopped what she was doing, and Colin could almost see the cogs turning in her head. It made him smile. “Just the rocks?” she asked.

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