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Molly smiled. “It is a very good thing.” Then she grimaced. “Hopefully our taste in men isn’t the same.”

“I don’t think it’s catching. My sister married a great guy after my mother and I displayed nothing but horrible, horrible, awful taste.”

“So Lindsay has a prayer?”

“I think so. If Shane lets anyone near her ever.”

Molly laughed hard at that as they pulled up to Lou’s barn. “Lindsay’s sneakier than all that.”

Before they’d even gotten out of the truck, Lou appeared from the barn. A ways away there was a house. Nothing as big or as extravagant as the Tylers. In fact, it looked rather worn down, but loved and well-lived in. That must be where Lou lived, and maybe the grandmother Lou had referenced the last time Cora had been here.

“What are you guys doing here?” Lou asked suspiciously, the bandana haphazardly tied over the side of her face as it had been last time. “Didn’t forget a wedding thing, did I?”

“You know you didn’t,” Molly called cheerfully, tramping over to where Lou stood. “You remember everything. I was just feeling antsy over there with all that testosterone, and Cora has the day off her wedding stuff, so we wanted to come play with the flowers and feel like girls for a bit.”

“Cutting snapdragons today for market.” Lou frowned at them. “I don’t need help.”

“But you could use it,” Molly said cheerfully. “Besides, you should talk to Cora about supplying for more weddings than just Mom’s. That’d be another stream of revenue. And you know people doing these outdoorsy weddings want local shit.”

“You’re a real eloquent businesswoman, Mol,” Lou said grumpily, but there was a slight curve to her mouth. “And I know why you bitches are here.” She flicked a glance at Cora. “You can be exempt from being a bitch. I don’t know you well enough yet.”

“It’s okay. I can be a bitch.”

Lou’s mouth curved a hint again. “So, you know all about my sad sack of a situation. I can tell by that slightly sympathetic, slightly terrified look on your face. The question is, who told you? Shane or Molly. Which version you heard depends on which mouth blabbed. Molly exaggerates everything, and Shane makes everything about his idiotic brother.”

“Oh. Well.”

“Mostly me,” Molly offered. “And not everything. Just what you already heard from the busybody police of Gracely. So, what are we working on?”

Lou let out a hefty sigh and motioned them to follow her. They tramped around the barn and to a big, white tunnel thing. Lou opened a door, and inside there were rows and rows of tall, gigantic snapdragons, the like of which Cora had never seen before.

“Wow,” Cora breathed. “This is amazing.”

“Isn’t it? Lou’s got the greenest thumb in Colorado, I’m just about sure,” Molly said proudly.

Lou grunted. “I’m doing some cuttings for the farmer’s market. I’ll show you two how to do it once. If you fuck it up after that, you’re gone.”

“She’s just the friendliest,” Molly said, slinging her arm around Lou’s shoulders.

Lou flinched and hissed out a breath.

Molly withdrew her arm. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Lou said jerkily, though clearly the casual touch had hurt her. Cora’s heart twisted. Even though she didn’t know quite what Lou had been through, she knew what it was like to be physically hurt and not know how to truly deal with it, not know how to accept help or love.

“I don’t know why Gavin has to get in my business,” Lou said, stomping back toward a table filled with tools. “And Rex isn’t even my business anymore. Fighting with him was stupid.”

“Oh, please, you two have been all up in each other’s business since you met in grade school,” Molly said, following her. “And of course it was stupid. It was men. But, hewasjust trying to protect you. That’s how they all are.”

“Well, I don’t need protecting. I’m no one’s victim,” Lou said resolutely, pointing a pair of clippers at Molly. “Especially a Tyler. No offense.”

Cora ducked her head in the blooms and tried to ignore the flutter of uncertainty. There was nothing to be uncertain about. The Tylers were protectors, and if Shane ever knew what she’d been through, he’d treat her like a victim.

She just couldn’t let that happen.

* * *

Shane watched Micah all morning and afternoon, even when he was supposed to be overseeing branding but had sent Gavin to handle it instead. The kid acted normal, if decidedly less chatty, and yet Shane felt as though something was off.