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Mom leveled him with a cool look, but then returned her focus to Shane. “I need you to put a young boy to work. A little grunt work, but some stuff with the horses too.”

“What young boy?”

“Cora’s son. Got himself into a bit of trouble, and Cora puts on a brave face, but I can tell she’s worried. I told her nothing better for a troubled boy than some ranch work.”

“Who the heck is Cora?” Gavin asked.

“The wedding planner,” Shane muttered. “What kind of trouble are you talking here?”

Mom waved a hand. “Doesn’t matter.”

“It might matter.”

“No. It doesn’t.”

Shane wanted to groan. His mother was always so bound and determined to stick her nose where it didn’t belong. To help even when they had a million problems right here. It never failed that he was trying to do one thing—like, say, save his mother from making the biggest mistake of her life—and she would come out of nowhere with some new thing.

“We don’t know anything about kids.”

“He doesn’t,” Mom said, gesturing toward Gavin. “But you were just as much a part of raising the three younger ones as I was.”

“That’s not—”

“It’s more than true. Now, stop arguing. They should be here any minute. Follow me.”

Shane knew there was no point in arguing. He’d never sway his mother’s opinion on both thisandthe wedding. Stopping the wedding was more important.

Besides, this means you’ll get to see more of Cora.

Which was not something he wanted. Or didn’t want. He was totally ambivalent about seeing more of Cora. Sure he was.

“The boy needs some hard work, a little horse time. God knows that’s the only thing that kept your brother out of jail,” Mom said, all but marching down the hall toward the front door.

“That we know of,” Gavin offered, trailing behind.

“Ha ha. Now, Cora’s a little worried about leaving him with near strangers, so she’ll be tagging along today. Just give the boy things to do, let him get attached to the horses. If you see a spark of interest in anything, nurture it. I’m sure it’ll ease Cora’s mind.”

“What do you care about your wedding planner’s mind?” Gavin asked, then shook his head as they reached the door. “Never mind. I’ll never understand why you have to swoop in and save everyone.”

“I guess I could ask you the same question. Unless you magically stopped checking in on Lou every day,” Mom said in a sing-songy voice, opening the door to a pretty summer morning.

“That’s not everyone,” Gavin grumbled.

Mom grinned at Shane as they stepped out onto the porch. In the distance, Shane spotted what he assumed was the shiny top of Cora’s car. Dawn was just lighting up the ranch. His favorite time of day.

Thatwas the odd jumpy feeling in his gut. Certainly not anticipation.

Cora’s car came to a stop at the end of the drive, and she popped out of the driver’s seat. Instead of her usual wedding planner business-wear, she was wearing jeans. The kind of jeans you didn’t see on a ranch. These were those skinny things that might as well have been made out of lace for as thin and formfitting as they were. She bent over to grab something from inside the car, and, yes, very . . . formfitting.

“Did you just check out my wedding planner?”

Shane jolted. “What? No! Gross, Mom.”

Gavin snorted a laugh.

“You did. You just checked her out. Oh, that’s funny.”

“Why is thatfunny?” Shane demanded.