Page 2 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

“Are you getting dinner?” Colin asked, nodding to the growing line at the register. Her stomach growled as her answer. She blushed and nodded. “Join us,” he said. “We can catch up.”

* * *

They got their food and settled into one of the booths that lined the walls. Colin put ketchup and mustard on Bex’s kiddie burger: his movements were automatic. He wasn’t playing the part of father; hewasher father. It was almost surreal watching them, but in the best way. Even in high school, she knew Colin would be a good dad someday—but no one could have expected things to happen the way that they had.

It had started when Colin’s parents had died when he was just twenty, leaving him as guardian to his fourteen-year-old sister. Sabrina had always been a handful, and from what Evie had told Nancy, the teen had spiraled further out of control after losing her parents. While the pregnancy had been the wakeup call the girl had needed to get her life back on track, she’d been nowhere near ready, emotionally, to be a parent. Colin had taken over, as he was in the habit of doing, and Sabrina had gone on to lead her own life, heading to college and then law school while Colin raised her daughter.

It had been strange for Nancy, being on the outside of the situation, hearing about it only through Evie. In high school, the four of them—Nancy, Colin, Evie, and Evie’s fiancé, Nick—had been so close, almost inseparable. It felt wrong to hear about Colin going through a crisis with her not there to help. Nancy had considered coming back, but by then, it had been five years since she left Windy Creek. They weren’t the same people they’d been at eighteen. She had her life, her career—working at the event planning firm under the evil queen, Reagan. He had his ranch and his daughter. They had nothing in common anymore. Her sudden presence wouldn’t have helped; it would have only thrown things off even more. So, she’d stayed in Boulder and more time passed. Insurmountable time, maybe.

“You must be going to kindergarten now, right?” Nancy asked Bex. The little girl grinned and nodded. “Well, I’ll bet you’re the smartest girl in your whole class.”

Bex seemed to mull it over before nodding again. “I read on a first-grade level,” she said proudly. She looked at Colin. “When I’m in first grade next year, I’ll get to ride the bus instead of getting driven in. Right?”

Colin’s smile was suddenly tight. Nancy got the impression that they’d had this discussion before. Maybe more than once. “We’ll talk about it next year.”

Nancy was confused by the tension in his eyes and mouth, but it wasn’t her place to ask. She and Colin let Bex fill the silence with her little girl chatter as they ate their dinner. Meanwhile, the awkwardness between them thickened into a blanket of tension. “What are you doing here, Nance?” he asked, finally. “I figured I’d see you at Nick and Evie’s wedding, but that’s a month away, and I know you’re not the type to randomly visit.”

“Evie called and told me that she fired her wedding planner when she wouldn’t listen to what Evie envisioned,” Nancy told him, ignoring the dig as best she could. How could she ever explain to the man who was practically the town mascot her complicated feelings about this place? “I offered to step in.”

Colin’s golden-brown eyebrows pulled together slightly. “She didn’t mention that she lost her venue with that whole debacle, did she?”

Nancy shook her head. “I’m not surprised to hear it, though. Some event planners can be pretty petty.” She should know; her boss, Reagan, was the master of pettiness. She once called and canceled an order of extremely expensive embossed napkins because a couple wanted to change the menu a few weeks before their wedding. She told the distraught bride that the company had lost their order. They ended up using napkins Reagan picked up at a party store. It was a little detail in the grand scheme of things, but in any of the pictures of the elegant, cloth-covered tables with their tall flower arrangements and flatware, the napkins definitely looked cheap and out of place. “She may have texted me about the new venue, but my phone is dead.” He raised a disbelieving eyebrow, as if to say,Who travels without a phone charger?“The Pontiac’s outlet is on the fritz.”

“You still drive the Pontiac?”

“It’s a good car,” Nancy said, defensive.

Colin smirked, and her heart did a cartwheel. “Outlet notwithstanding,” he teased, then shook his head. “Anyway, as of this afternoon, the wedding is going to be the first event held at Mustang Crossing Dude Ranch.”

Mustang Crossing was the McCabe family ranch. Nancy had gone there hundreds of times when she and Colin were dating, but it certainly hadn’t been a dude ranch back then. Last she heard, the 15,000-acre property was still home to a sizable herd of cattle. “When did you become a guest ranch?”

“The transition is happening right now. The wedding is our soft opening.”

Nancy took a sip of water. “Looks like we’ll be working together a lot then.”

He dipped his head in a single nod. “Looks that way.”

The prospect was a little worrying. For all of his wonderful qualities, Colin could be just as stubborn as her. She remembered butting heads over school projects; she really hoped to avoid that. She got enough conflict in her day job—she didn’t want to deal with it when she was technically on vacation, doing a favor for a friend. “Well,” she said, reaching for the right words to say. She wanted to tell him that she was excited to work with him, but that wasn’t quite the truth. “Well, that’s great,” she lied. She pushed away from the table, nearly upsetting her glass of water. “I need to get going. My mom and dad went on a cruise and rented out the house as an Airbnb, so I need to find a place for the night, at least—”

“She could stay in the guest house, in one of the pretty rooms.” Both Nancy and Colin looked to Bex, who had been attempting to build a fort out of French fries. “The one with the pink and white quilt. That’s my favorite, and she’ll like it too.” Her words were final; she went back to her construction project. Nancy floundered, waiting for Colin to say something, take the invitation back. Having somewhere to sleep would be fantastic, but she didn’t think she could or should stay on the ranch. Way too many memories for the both of them. Right?

Colin stared at his niece for several long beats. “I could use a test guest,” Colin said finally, looking to Nancy. The look on his face was pinched, but his voice didn’t waver as he spoke. “Get some feedback on the guest house. And it would keep you from having to shell out for a hotel, or cram into Evie’s guest room with all the wedding junk she has in there.”

Nancy blinked once, and then again. That was not what she was expecting him to say. “O-okay,” she said. “Sure, that would be great.”

Colin made a noise that sounded like an affirmation, and Nancy sat back down and watched them finish their meals. Bex chattered on and on, excited to finally have a guest coming to stay. Colin redirected her half a dozen times back to her burger, and finally, they called it and gathered their trash.

As they headed toward the door, her eyes found Mr. Perriman again. He was enjoying his own dinner. When he saw them, his eyes seemed to light up. She waved, and he returned the gesture. “I can’t believe he’s retiring.”

“Evie told you, huh?” Colin sighed. “It’s weird thinking of Windy Creek High without Mr. Perriman.”

Nancy glanced at him. She wondered if he was thinking about sharing notes with her throughout sophomore English. While they hadn’t started dating until junior year, that class had been the breeding ground for the massive crush she developed on him. “Agreed.”

He held the door open for her and Bex. It was full-dark now, and the distant-mountains were huge shadowy bruises against the starlit sky. “Do you remember the way to the ranch?” Colin asked.

As if she could ever forget. “I think so,” she said. “I’ll meet you there.”

“If you’re sure,” he said. She was—how many times had she made that drive senior year? How many times did she sneak over to see him in the middle of the night? While he wrestled with Bex’s booster seat, Nancy pulled out of her parking spot and drove out of Windy Creek proper and into the ranchland outside of town.

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