Page 43 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

He chewed at the inside of his face, hating this. “The chapel has damage too. There’s no lights, no plumbing, and no AC—it’s just not viable. I am so sorry.”

Evie maintained her sweet demeanor and tried to hide her disappointment, but he could see how upset she was. He felt the same. Not only was this wedding meant to launch the dude ranch, but these were his best friends getting married. He wanted them to have the wedding of their dreams, and living through the destruction of their second venue probably wasn’t what they had in mind. “I’m so sorry,” he said again. “I’ll do whatever I can to make things right for you both.”

Nick clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s okay, man.”

Nancy and Colin spent the next hour chatting to various neighbors and friends. Everyone’s homes had varying degrees of damage, but as far as they could all tell, no one was missing, and no one had been seriously hurt. While they collectively figured out what needed doing, Mary Elizabeth supplied drinks to everyone on the house. She’d offered to get the kitchen up and running, but it had been Mr. Perriman who told her to take it easy. “You’ve got your own damage that you’ll need to sort through,” he said gently. “Don’t take on feeding everyone in town on top of it.”

“And what do you know about the damage on my property?” she asked him.

Colin was a little surprised to see his former teacher blush slightly. “Your place is on my way here,” he said, fumbling.

Mary Elizabeth smiled, and it was softer now. “You checked on it for me?”

“I was planning to check onyou,but you’d already come here.”

She reached out and put her hand on Mr. Perriman’s arm. Colin wrinkled his nose slightly. They were cute together and all, but it was still weird for him to see it. He imagined it was a bit like watching your parents flirt. “You came to check on me. That’s sweet, Jonathan.”

Colin smirked. For as long as he’d known Mr. Perriman and Mary Elizabeth, she had never called him by his actual name. He was about to say something to Nancy when she touched his arm, grabbing his attention. She pointed toward the door, and he let out a sigh of relief to see Alan and Jessie coming through.

He left Bex with Nancy and crossed the room. He shook hands with his foreman. “How’d you fare, Alan?”

The older man grunted. “Jessie couldn’t stop pacing, worrying over you all, but otherwise, we were just fine.” He gave Colin a hard look. “We drove past the property: it’s a mess from all sides.”

Colin sighed. “I know. I had to tell Evie and Nick that we couldn’t host their wedding. There’s nowhere to do it.”

Alan patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll rebuild—and there will be other events,” he said. Colin tried not to scoff. The cost of rebuilding the barn was going to put them squarely in the red, and he didn’t know how he was going to recover from that. Losing the ranch had always been an abstract fear of his, but now it seemed like a definite possibility. What would they do then? How would he be able to provide for Bex? “It’s going to be okay, Colin,” Alan said. “If your dad and I could keep the ranch afloat for all those years, you and I will figure it out too.”

Colin ducked his head. “Thanks, Alan,” he said.

Nancy approached them, arm around Bex’s shoulders. “Daryl, Sam, and Michael are going to ride around and help people clear debris. They wanted to see if you’d come…I can take Bex home if you want.”

Colin nodded. “That would be good,” he said. “I’ll be home when I can.” He squatted down. “You’ll be good for Nancy, right?” Bex nodded, and he kissed her forehead.

He met up with Daryl, Sam, and Michael, and they spent the rest of the day clearing debris and fixing what damage they could around Windy Creek. The sun had sunk below the horizon before they dropped Colin off at the main house. Bex was already in bed, and Nancy was bent over something at the dining room table. When he came through the door, she faced him with her hands on her hips. “I don’t think you should blow off the wedding.” she said.

He blinked and stared at her. He kept expecting her to say “just kidding” or something, but she just stared back at him with her eyebrow raised. “Nance, what do you want me to do? The chapel is unusable for at least a month, and there’s no barn for the reception.”

“Evie wants her wedding here,” Nancy said.

“What kind of wedding could she have? There’s no dance floor, no sound system—we can’t even use the caterers she chose becausetheyhave damage from the storm, too.” Nancy held out her hand. “What?”

She shook her hand at him. “Come with me,” she said.

Colin was happy for any excuse to touch her, so he took the proffered hand, relishing in the feel of her soft skin against his own. She took him into the kitchen where pictures and papers had been spread out across all of the available counter space. She had obviously been working hard all day on this. “The ceremony can be outside, near the pond, where it’s cool. The photos will be amazing.” She pointed to some sketches that she’d done.

Colin saw a picture of a picnic table and thought of a potluck. They could prepare a good bit of it here and ask a few of the guests to contribute some things, too. He told her the idea, and she hastily wrote it down. “It won’t be the grand dinner we had in mind, but it’ll be like those community suppers my mom used to have here. Do you remember?”

Nancy nodded and smiled. “Of course, I do,” she said gently. “Those were my favorite days. Running around this place with a pack of kids.” Colin pictured Bex doing the same, maybe meeting the boy who would one day turn into her forever person.

“What about flowers?” he asked. The ones they ordered—and the rosebushes that they’d gotten for free—were gone. The bushes were ripped from the ground, and the refrigerator at the florist’s shop had gone out, wilting all of the flowers they had ordered.

Nancy rifled through the papers on the counter and pulled out another sketch with pictures taped to it. “There are beautiful wildflowers all over the fields this time of year,” she said. “We can lean totally into the ranch country thing and make bouquets and garlands from those.”

Colin could imagine it: live music, dancing under the stars, the smell of honeysuckle and primroses. It wouldn’t be the wedding that Nancy and Evie had so painstakingly planned, but it would be a little more rustic. A little more Windy Creek. “This will work,” he breathed. It wouldmorethan work. It was a masterpiece, really. “Let me call Evie.” Nancy nodded, as if she had been waiting for him to come to that conclusion from the very start. He grabbed his phone and dialed.

“Hey, man.” It was Nick who answered. His voice was somber, as if there had been a death in the family or something. Colin supposed that after planning and dreaming of a wedding only to have that dream squashed was kind of like a death.

“Nancy has a plan to save the wedding,” he said. “A good one. Can you grab Evie and put me on speaker?”

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