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I gaped at her. “I’m sorry.What?”
Audrey laughed. “Ha! I’m the one who’s sorry. Remember that when you’re lassoing a cow!”
COLE
“A dude ranch?What the hell is up with that?” I asked James.
He handed me his phone, which showed a website for a luxury resort in Jackson.Silver River Ranch, it read.
“It looks like a Ritz, not a ranch,” I said.
“It is a ranch, though. We’re going horseback riding. And fly-fishing. And we’ll eat big steaks in front of a roaring fire.” James looked excited.
“I don’t know how to fly fish. Don’t you have to wear big, ugly rubber boots?”
“Yep—they’re called waders.” James grinned. “And I don’t know how to fly fish, either. So we can look like asses together.”
I scrubbed a hand across my face. “Sounds like a plan.”
Once we landed, my phone pinged with a text from my father.
Ramos is still being difficult.
These are not the results I’m looking for.
I’ll take care of it.
Sighing, I turned my phone off. There was nothing I could do for my father at the moment. Ramos was being difficult, it was true. He’d asked me, in no uncertain terms, to pay him off. I wasn’t going to do that. If something happened with the property and it ever came out that our approvals were shady, we’d be liable. That wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation, but I vowed to deal with it while we were on the trip. I’d figure out a way to make my father happy. Then, when Jenny and I returned to Boston, I could talk to him about my plans for the future.
Which centered aroundher.
Jenny and Audrey had been thick as thieves with their bridal magazines for the entire flight. I was relieved when we landed, and Jenny finally looked my way. “Hey there.” She gave me a warm smile that made my skin flush.
“Hey, yourself.”
“Can you believe we’re going to adude ranch?” Jenny asked. “I don’t even really know what that is. Audrey said we might lasso a cow or something!”
“I’d pay good money to see you do that,” I said. I palmed Jenny’s lower back, feeling the familiar heat kick up between us.
She winked at me. “I might get real good with a lasso,” she teased.
“Sounds great, babe.” I kissed her cheek and hugged her curves against me, feeling like everything was better. That’s because everythingwasbetter when I was next to her.
A private SUV was waiting at the airport. We drove for thirty minutes through the flat plains of Wyoming, surrounded by majestic mountains. There was snow on some of the peaks. “I’ve never been out West before,” Jenny said, clutching my hand. “It’s different, huh?”
“So different.” Wyoming was a land of juxtapositions: the flat lands, the jagged mountain peaks, the dry grasses, and the greenhills. The limitless sky stretched above it all, silently overseeing the vast, rolling landscape.
The driver turned off the highway and headed down a long, single-lane road that crept up into the hills. “This is it,” James said, pointing to the crest of a nearby mountain. “The ranch is up here.”
The drive crested the hill, and we finally saw the resort.
“Holy cow,” Jenny said, deadpan. “Look at this place!”
I’d traveled all over the world, but even my jaw dropped. The “ranch” was an enormous stone building that jetted toward the sky. The resort was nestled on the mountainside, commanding a view of the valley below. I glimpsed an infinity pool at the front, lined with chairs, perfect for the incredible view.
I threw my arm on Jenny’s shoulder. “James, this looks amazing. And you know I’m not easy to impress.”
“Oh, I know, all right.” James nodded at me. “Glad you approve, Your Highness.”