Page 36 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

“I’ll go with you,” Nancy piped in. “We’ll take Bex—she looks like she could use a ride in the truck’s AC.”

Colin looked back and found his daughter, still gripping her water but looking even more wilted than before.Damn AC. He nodded at Nancy, and the trio helped Ruth to stand. Evie stood just beyond Nancy, hands clasped together as if in prayer. “She’s going to be okay,” Colin said, meeting her eyes. “Nance and I will see to her, and hopefully, we’ll see you all at dinner in the much cooler barn.”

There was a titter of nervous laughter, and then Colin and Nick, who took over for the minister, helped Ruth down the aisle and out into the equally hot afternoon sun. They got her into the passenger seat of Colin’s truck while Nancy helped Bex into her booster seat before climbing in beside her. The ride to the urgent care center was quiet and tense: the only sound was the loud blowing of the air conditioning cranked all the way up. “Daddy,” Bex said, her voice small and uncertain. “Is Ms. Ruth okay?”

Nancy answered for him. “She’s going to be just fine, sweetheart. We’re just being cautious.” Colin watched Bex in the rearview mirror; her tense shoulders relaxed a fraction, and she reached over and took Nancy’s hand. His heart squeezed in his chest.

Someone must have called ahead, because when they get to the urgent care, the staff was already waiting for them with a wheelchair. They took Ruth back to an exam room, reassuring them that she would be just fine, and Colin, Nancy, and Bex went to the waiting room. It took less than a minute for Bex to zero in on the toys, and she looked to Colin, hopeful. He nodded. “Don’t get your dress dirty,” he said. “We’ll be going back to the rehearsal dinner after this.” The idea of going back to the rehearsal was an exhausting one, but it wasn’t like he could blow it off. This was the christening of his dude ranch—his chance to show the guests what he had to offer. He had to try and salvage the event as much as he could and hope that the dinner made up for the miserableness of the chapel. He needed the word-of-mouth to bring him business, and no one would be recommending him for anything if it got around that he nearly killed an old woman with heat stroke.

Colin and Nancy settled into a couple of chairs beside the toy table, and for a moment, they watched Bex play in a companionable silence. A quiet sort of resignation filled him, and he finally asked the question that had been hovering in the air between them for days. “What’s going to happen after the wedding, Nance?”

She tensed beside him, just for a split second. “Reagan made me an offer,” she said. Her voice was gentle, as if she were speaking to a spooked horse. “I can buy into the firm and be made a partner.”

Colin heard her words, but it was like she was shouting at him from under water. They were muffled and hard to comprehend. “You hate this woman, right? I’ve heard you say nothing but bad things about her for weeks.”

“Well,” Nancy bit at her lip, “yeah, but—”

“Someone who treats their employees like shit doesn’t magically become someone that you’d be happy sharing a business with. She’s going to be just as awful as she is now.”

“You can’t know that.” But he could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

Colin itched to reach out and touch her, but he wasn’t entirely sure that it would be welcome at the moment. “Plus, buying in means you’re stuck,” he added. “You throw your life savings into the firm, and you’ll never be able to pull yourself back out.”

Nancy made to rub at her eyes and stopped the motion before she smudged her makeup. She dropped her hands into her lap, fisting the fabric of her sundress. “I know all of that,” she bit out.

“Do you?”

Bex looked to them, worried, as his voice carried farther than he intended. “It’s fine, darlin’,” he said and smiled. She turned back to the puzzle she was trying to force together with different pieces from what looked like at least three different puzzles.

“I haven’t made any decisions yet,” Nancy said. She reached over and slipped her hand into his. Despite telling himself not to, he found himself clinging to her. “Whatever I decide is going to be the toughest decision I’ll ever make. These last few weeks have been amazing; I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.”

Stop there, he begged her silently.Just stop before you ruin it. And therewasa pause, as if she was waiting for something. But whatever it was, it must not have come, because she continued a moment later.

“But I’ll regret it if I don’t at least think about what Reagan put on the table,” she said. “I’ve been working to be a partner for years.”

Colins heart plummeted. “Nancy—”

Aunt Ruth emerged from the back hallway looking much better. Colin could have screamed at her to give them a few minutes more. “Clean bill of health,” she told them while she settled up with the charge nurse. “Just a little dehydrated and overheated.”

Colin kept a hand on Ruth’s elbow when they walked back to the truck. Nancy called Evie and told her the news, then put Bex back into her booster seat. When Colin came back around to his side, their eyes met. “Let’s get through the wedding,” Nancy told him. “We’ve got four days until then; let’s enjoy them and not worry about the future. Okay?”

Colin hated that idea. “Okay,” he said through gritted teeth.

Nancy leaned in and kissed his cheek. He felt a tingle where her lips brushed his skin. “Thank you,” she breathed against him.

They got back in time for dinner, and that night, Colin twirled Nancy around the barn’s dance floor and tried to match her wide smile, but he knew he wasn’t totally successful at it. The tension between them was a sucking, gnawing thing, and by the end of the evening, they were both exhausted and tetchy.What an absolute mess, he mused as he tucked Bex into bed. She had thrown down over bedtime because she was overtired and unable to process it, and he’d spent nearly twenty minutes getting her calmed and settled in with her blankets and stuffed animals. By the time he came to bed, Nancy was already asleep, curled in on herself as far from his side of the bed as she could get.

TWENTY-THREE

Nancy woke up to Colin brushing kisses onto her bare shoulder, exposed by her tank top. At some point, he’d slid over and curved himself against her back. The whisper feeling of his mouth on her skin made her melt against him. Colin smirked and kissed his way up the back of her neck. Nancy shivered and a bolt of pureneedran down her back. She turned over in Colin’s arms and sealed her mouth to his in a deep kiss. He made a soft groan of surprise and want and rolled them so that she was pinned beneath him. They lost themselves in each other, all hands and clinging desperation.

Afterward, seated across the breakfast table from each other with Bex in between, they couldn’t stop smiling. The tension had lifted, and Nancy felt lighter than she had all week. “The community barbeque is today,” Colin said apropos of nothing. “Do you remember those?”

Nancy nearly rolled her eyes. She’d been gone a decade, yes, but she hadn’t forgotten everything. “Of course,” she said. Community barbeques happened two or three times a year, including great food, carnival games, and a petting zoo. They were perfect for family days or first dates, very wholesome. Thinking of wandering through the displays, maybe winning a prize for Bex, made her smile.

“Maybe we could go?” Colin said. His voice lilted up at the end in question. “It might be good to blow off some steam.”

Bex was practically dancing in her chair. “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” she chanted, clapping her hands.

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