Page 7 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

Colin’s jaw clenched for a moment, and he glanced at Bex, as if he were unsure of what exactly to say in front of her. “Did you notice anything on the drive into town?”

“Was I supposed to notice something?”

He sighed. “Do you remember what downtown used to look like?” he asked. “The arcade that was next door? And the laundromat that used to be across the street?” Nancy knew now what he meant. She and Colin used to hit the arcade on date nights, and her mom used to take the comforters to the laundromat because they didn’t fit in their washing machine at home. They were Windy Creek Main Street staples. She glanced out the front windows: the laundromat’s building, squat and dingy, was empty, the windows boarded up. “With the factory farms buying up land, a lot of the local ranches have sold off, and a lot of the owners have moved on. Mustang Crossing was holding its own, but I was struggling to make it with the herd. I didn’t want to give up my land—or give up on this town—which meant I had to find a new way to make a living. A successful dude ranch is much cheaper to operate than a working ranch.” He shrugged.

She had a thought. “Are you going to be in competition with the Lucky Star?”

The Lucky Star Dude Ranch was the only guest ranch in the area—apart from Sam Carden’s cowboy camp experience, but that only ran in the summer—and Colin was good friends with the owner’s nephew, Jarod Hunter. He’d left Windy Creek for California and a career as a stuntman, but surely his aunt and uncle would tell him about a new dude ranch opening up in the same town. Colin looked uncomfortable. “It was a business decision,” he said quietly. “It wasn’t personal. And I’m planning to offer to different kind of guest experience.”

The Hunters are mad. He didn’t have to say it for the message to come across loud and clear. “Have you heard from Jarod?” she asked before she could reign herself in.

Colin shook his head. “He doesn’t call home much,” he said. “I’ve thought about messaging him to tell him about the transition…but I just can’t bring myself to do it.” He shrugged and took a bite out of his burger. “It wouldn’t change anything anyway. The dude ranch is a done deal.”

Nancy knew that the dude ranch was important to Colin, but she had no idea that it was important enough that he would risk a friendship and a business contact with the Hunters.How badly was the ranch doing?Nancy decided then and there that as the launch event for the new venture, that meant Evie’s wedding needed to be absolutely perfect. Normally, a challenge was exciting for her, but she wasn’t used to the stakes being this high. She couldn’t be the reason that the dude ranch didn’t get off the ground. “Are you going to love it as much as the cattle ranch?”

“I’m going to love watching Bex grow up in a community with all of her friends around her, like we did.”

That alerted Bex. “What’s going to happen to my friends?”

“Nothing,” Colin assured her, voice full of confidence. “Not if I have anything to say about it.” He pulled Bex in for a side-hug, and she giggled and squirmed back onto her side of the booth. He looked back at Nancy. “What about your career? Aren’t you some kind big-city event planner now?”

“Something like that,” Nancy said but dropped her eyes to her plate.

“So how’d you have the time to come running at a moment’s notice—and stay here for a month?” he pressed, and she looked back at him, feeling caught.

She didn’t want to tell him that she dreamed of quitting each and every time she stepped into the building. “I’ve been meaning to take some time off anyway.” It was a half-truth. “Reagan, my boss, doesn’t like when we build up too much PTO.”

Bex looked at her. “Is your job like playing with Barbies?” she asked and straightened her skinny shoulders. Nancy almost laughed aloud at the earnest expression, but she schooled her features into something more businesslike. Girls were serious about their Barbies, after all. “Mine get married a lot.”

“More than most people,” Colin added with a wink in Nancy’s direction.

Bex glared at him, but her curiosity brought her gaze back to Nancy. “Do you get to go shopping every day? My Barbies use dandelions for their wedding flowers, but I get those out of the yard, so they don’t cost money.”

Nancy could hug her; she was too smart for her own good. “Sometimes I get to go shopping,” she conceded, “but it’s a little more complicated than it is with Barbies. I can’t just pick stuff that I like—I have to find things that’ll make the bride happy.”

Bex nodded sagely, but Colin snickered. “I’m sure the bridezillas keep you hopping somedays.”

Just wait ‘til they’re on your ranch, buddy, she thought, a little meanly, but kept it to herself. “Most of my clients are lovely. Stressed, but like Evie, you know? They just want to have the wedding that they’ve been envisioning their entire lives. I love working with them.” She sipped at her water. “Now my boss, on the other hand, can be a totally biiii—” She looked at Bex, who was watching her intensely, absorbing her every word. “—sybody. She’s a real busybody.”

Colin sagged a little in his chair, relieved at her save. “She doesn’t seem very nice,” Bex said.

“She’s not,” Nancy agreed, but she was saved from having to comment when their waitress brought them dessert. It was a huge banana split, the kind meant to be shared. “We didn’t order this,” Nancy said as the girl sat it in the middle of the table.

Colin looked sheepish. “I did.” He nodded toward Bex. “I mean, it’s kind of our thing.” It used to be his and Nancy’s thing. They’d sit across the booth, like they were now, and share banana splits. He’d save her the cherries because he knew they were her favorite. “But I bet there’s more than enough for three, right, darlin’?”

Bex nodded. “We never finish the whole thing. Too much sugar.” Nancy wasn’t sure if she truly meant that, or if she was parroting back what Colin had probably said a hundred times to her before, but Nancy was amused either way.

That night, they finished the banana split, and Colin handed over the cherries automatically. Neither he nor Bex liked them; it was like they’d been waiting for someone to come along and want the cherries and not mind if Bex hoarded all of the banana. Sharing this moment with them, Nancy could almost imagine that the last ten years had been a dream, that she really had stayed in Windy Creek. As they walked out of the diner, she felt Colin’s hand briefly touch the small of her back—just like he used to—and she half-wished that it could have been true.

* * *

It was dark when Nancy crossed the gravel parking area from the guest house to the main house, sketchbook in hand. She’d been in the big leather chair by the guest house’s front picture window, working on a sketch of the flowers for the altar, when she realized that Colin had no idea what her plan was, and if this was going to work, he needed to be on board.

She knocked on the door but tried not to be too loud. Colin said Bex was normally in bed before nine, and it was nearly ten now. He opened the door, confused, but she held up the book. “The plans for the wedding,” she said. “We should go over them.”

Colin let her in, and they sat at the dining room table together while he flipped through the pages. He got to the page of the altar flowers and let out a low, impressed whistle. “Where’d you learn how to draw like that?” He glanced at her, smirking. “I recall you barely being able to manage a stick figure back in high school.”

Nancy flushed. “Took some practice,” she admitted. She started walking him through her ideas, hoping that he’d like them. Barn chic was fairly new: an elegant mix of homey charm and pops of rich textures and fabrics and bold colors. To her relief, he only had positive things to say. In fact, he made a number of good suggestions for elements she could include—things that would be meaningful to Evie and Nick and that could be arranged without adding much trouble or expense. They worked well together, even better than she remembered.

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