Page 1

Chapter One

Cora Preston pulled her car to a stop at the open gates of the Tyler ranch. Despite having spent her entire life in Colorado, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

She had moved to the small mountain town of Gracely from Denver almost three years ago, but she’d spent most of her timeinGracely. Occasionally, she took the trek up to Mile High Adventures where her sister worked, and there was something soul cleansing about the views from up in the Rockies, looking down at the world below.

Butthis. . .

Green stretched out in waves beyond the sturdy wooden archway. Scattered across the expanse were little black dots she assumed were cattle, then the land covered in all that green began to roll, until far off in the distance gray, rocky, snow-capped peaks reached for the impossibly blue sky.

Cora breathed through the flutter of nerves. She wasn’t here to admire the surroundings. She was here to plan a wedding.

It seemed a crazy undertaking when she’d never had a wedding herself, a crazy undertaking when she knew her sister, Lilly, would be ten times better at it than she.

But Lilly had enough work at Mile High Adventures as PR specialist, plus mother of starting-to-be-mobile twins, and she’d given Cora this job because supposedly Cora had a “natural talent” for planning events.

Cora thought it was BS, but she wanted to make Lilly proud. She wanted to prove to everyone in her life that she’d grown up in these past few years. No more wallowing in all the ways life could be unfair, no more shrinking from being a hard-ass mother to her twelve-year-old. No more skating by.

She was reaching for the stars now, or maybe those snow-peaked mountains. Strong, immovable, and majestic.

She was ready to bemajestic.

The gate was open, as Deb had said it would be. Cora had met the bride-to-be only once, at their initial consultation. Lilly had been there, so it had been much easier for Cora not to be nervous.

Deb was a sweet, older woman, all her children grown—some even older than Cora herself—who wanted to have the grand wedding she hadn’t had as a young woman. Cora had immediately liked Deb for her clear, no-nonsense strength mixed with her desire to have a whimsical, outdoor spectacle of a wedding.

“And you are going to be the one to give that to her,” Cora said aloud to herself, taking a deep breath in and out before pressing her foot on the accelerator again.

The narrow asphalt drive curved its way around, meandering along those green, fenced-in fields, cattle and horses happily grazing in different sections. When the house came into view, she could only stare wide-eyed.

It looked like a movie. The wood fairly gleamed in the afternoon sunlight, a golden brown, with dominant glass windows reflecting the blue of the sky. The house existed in a cove of sorts, pine trees tall and proud surrounding the house except for the front yard.

The Tylers had someseriouscash.

But before she could make it to the house that looked more like a fancy mountain resort she’d never be able to afford than a home, she had to stop.

A man on a horse was blocking the drive, and a cluster of what appeared to be baby cows ambled across.

Another man on a horse made his way toward her. When she rolled down her window, he tipped his cowboy hat. An actual cowboy hat, like this was a movie or one of the romance novels she’d read that had finally gotten her to wake up about Stephen.

“Pardon us. Just separating some calves from their mamas,” the man said in a deep, swoon-worthy voice. “We’ll be out of your way in just a moment.” He smiled politely. At least it seemed polite. All she could really make out was his chin and his mouth because the brim of the hat shaded most of his face.

A real, honest-to-goodness cowboy hat. She knew nothing about cowboys or what they wore, but he might even be wearing chaps.

Chaps.

She wanted to giggle. Instead she forced herself to nod. She was a professional here on professional business after all.

“Can I help you with something?”

“Oh, I’m Cora Preston.” Which was a stupid thing to say. Why would some ranch hand know who she was? “I-I have a meeting with Deb Tyler.”

Then his expression did change, at least what she could see of it. His mouth firmed into a grim line. “I don’t suppose this is about the wedding,” he said flatly.

“Well, yes.” She smiled. She was the face of Mile High Weddings. It was her job to be as charming and professional as Lilly. No matter how intimidating it all seemed.

The man did not smile back. In fact, he made a noise and a movement, and then he and his horse moved away, going to converse with the man blocking the road.

Cora stared at them with a frown on her face, but when the one who hadn’t spoken to her looked over his shoulder in her direction, she smiled again.Smile, smile, smile.