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DYLAN

I’d never been to Montana before.

But I’d read about it in books, seen it on TV and in movies. I knew to expect wide, open plains and a beautiful vast sky, the sort of thing that’s so perfect it had to be photoshopped.

Still, I’d had no idea how it was going to make me feel until I stepped foot onto Stratton Ranch.

The place was massive, boundless fields surrounded by endless forest. Even the air was perfectly crisp, with hints of burning wood floating in the breeze every so often. More than anything, I loved how it smelled and wondered if I’d be able to purchase a candle with a scent like that once I was back home?—

Wait.

Did they make Montana scented candles in the city?

Were people in the city even curious about what Montana smelled like?

“Welcome to Paradise Valley!” A young woman’s bright voice suddenly shook me out of my thoughts.

The car I’d been riding in came to a halt a few inches away from her and the driver offered me a polite nod. I stepped out of the car to greet my new client, my mind running through her profile as I sized her up:

Amber Stratton.

Engaged to Doug Thornton.

Beautiful.

Rich as hell.

She also seemed nice enough, judging from the smile that was still on her face as I walked up to her.

“Did you find the place okay?” she asked. “I sent the driver to the airport an hour ago?—”

“Oh, it wasn’t his fault. I brought like four suitcases—” I stopped, mid-sentence, confusion dawning on me. “Uh, wait. Did the driver just… drive off? With all of my stuff?”

I helplessly stared down the road as I watched the car take a slight turn.

Amber laughed; even her laugh sounded expensive. “No, silly. He’s taking your stuff to one of the guest houses on the ranch.”

“One of the guest houses? There’s multiple?”

“Mr. Reid, it’s 400,000 acres,” she replied. “And the Strattons are nothing if not fantastic hosts. What else are we supposed to do with all this land? The cows and horses have enough, don’t you think?”

She laughed again and I laughed along with her, even though I couldn’t imagine what 400,000 acres looked like.

Well, I guess it looks like this?

“Here, come with me.” Amber linked my arm in hers. “I want to show you something.”

“Uh…”

It was all I could manage to say as we walked into yet another one of the guest houses. It was too small for anyone rich to live in full-time, but with plenty of space to make someone feel very comfortable.

Except it was obvious that no one lived here at all because the entire house had been dedicated to Amber’s wedding planning. There were dozens of wedding dresses in the living room alone, with various jewelry options strewn along the couch, the table, and the chairs.

There were also several women running to and fro, some with fabric in their hands, others with stacks of documents—a few of them on the phone in different languages. I saw one woman’s hand shaking as she downed a cup of coffee, probably already at her caffeine limit for the day.

But it was only 9AM.

“So, this is wedding HQ.” Amber beamed at me. “Don’t worry. I have a room squared away just for you, so you can have your own office.”

“Thank you!” I tried my best to sound unbothered by the chaos that surrounded us. “I take it you’ve already started planning the wedding?”

“Just a little bit, here and there.” She grinned before letting out a small squeal. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry to do this, and I’m sure you get this all the time, but I can’t actually believe you’re here to plan my wedding! I’ve followed all of your work on social media and just—the way you make people’s dreams come true? No wonder the Wedding Genie has so many followers! You’re amazing!”

I smirked at the title.

Wedding Genie.

I’d worked hard for my reputation as the wedding planner who could make anything happen. If someone wanted a full-blown circus to entertain at the reception? Call me. If someone wanted a celebrity who hadn’t been seen in decades to officiate? Call me. If someone wanted to have an astronaut make a special appearance from space right before they cut the cake?

Yep. They just needed to call me.

It wasn’t easy doing what I did, and while it paid well, my favorite part was seeing the look on people’s faces. It was like I was performing some sort of magic trick, pulling it off with perfect precision, making it look oh-so-simple. In reality, all of my work was the combination of years of sleepless nights, hoarding favors like a madman, and being incredibly skilled at networking. Honestly, the only real magic I’d ever experienced was the joy I’d brought other people along the way.

Which was probably why I kept at it, despite the difficulty only seeming to increase as the years ticked by. That was the problem with being the Wedding Genie. Anybody who rubbed the lamp just assumed I’d be able to create some magic for them, too.

“And you don’t have to worry about anything, okay?” Amber continued. “My staff—any of these girls—they’re at your call and command. I want to make things as easy as possible for you, and I remember in this interview you did for Bridal Magazine where you talked about sometimes just needing more hands?—”

“What’s your dream wedding look like, Amber?”

“What?”

“Why’d you pick me to plan your wedding? You clearly have the resources to plan anything you want.” I offered her a warm smile. “But you wanted to bring me in. Why?”

“I just want… one perfect day.” Amber’s eyes shone as she spoke. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“Then, let’s make it happen.”

Oh, my God.

Amber Stratton is insane.

I was sitting in my appointed office in the guest house, trying to type up notes as fast as I could. She’d been pitching ideas for the wedding for the past hour; importing white sand from different beaches for the aisle, a floral archway half the size of a high-rise. And now, she was talking about the reception champagne being dusted with diamonds.

I paused my note taking as I held up a finger, genuinely confused about what she’d meant by that.

“Did you just say diamond dusted champagne?”

“Yep!”

“Do you mean you want the rim around the glasses to be dusted with diamonds?”

“No, I want there to be edible diamond dust in every glass.”

“But… why? It won’t show up in the pictures if it’s inside the drink?—”

“If it doesn’t show up in the photos, that’s something they can edit in later.”

“But the costs would be astronomical. And the camera is one thing, but the guests might not even be able to see it in their glass unless?—”

“Dylan! One perfect day, remember? You promised me.” She looked sad for a moment as she sat across from me. “I thought we were on the same page about this.”

“You’re right. One perfect day.” I nodded, going back to typing up my notes.

This woman is going to break me.

Being a wedding planner, I was used to high maintenance clients. I’d had people throw wine in my face, threaten to sue me, sob into my arms if we weren’t able to get every detail just right.

But Amber was different.

She was unreasonable, but she was so damn kind about it, I didn’t want to let her down. This entire ordeal would’ve been easier if she’d been a monster. If she’d been awful, I wouldn’t have cared as much about trying to inject some reality into her wedding plans.

“What do you think about the bridesmaids entering on horseback?” she casually suggested.

“Like, the horses are part of the ceremony?”

“Exactly! You get it!”

“Are the horses trained to be part of the ceremony? Am I going to have to train horses for this, Amber?”

“You can do anything, right, Wedding Genie?”

“Amber—”

“What is all this?” A deep voice rounded the corner, his frame soon entering my office.

Oh.

He was handsome in a way I wasn’t expecting, with dark hair and a sharp jawline. His gaze was intense as he stared over at me, like he was cataloging me somewhere in the back of his mind. I stared right back at him, even though I knew it was completely impolite. When I got my manners back, I broke off eye contact, taking a second to take in his sun-bronzed skin and his weathered hands…

Hmm.

He must’ve worked on the farm. I wondered how many years he’d put in.

“Cole!” Amber shot out of her seat and into his arms. “You came!”

“Of course, I came. You made it sound like an emergency.”

“It is an emergency!” She grinned. “I wanted you to meet the wedding planner.”

“That doesn’t sound like an emergency?—”

“Please! I know how you get when there’s people on the farm that you don’t know.” She rolled her eyes before she nodded over at me. “Dylan Reid, meet Cole Stratton. He’s my big brother and future CEO of Stratton Ranch?—”

“You shouldn’t say things that aren’t true yet, Amber?—”

“Whatever! Everyone knows that you’re Dad’s favorite.” She rolled her eyes again. “Just be nice to Dylan, okay? Don’t scare him off by being an asshole.”

“It’s wonderful to meet you, Mr. Stratton,” I said, rounding my desk with my hand already outstretched for a handshake. “It’s an honor to be planning Amber’s wedding?—”

“That’s an awfully soft hand you have there, Dylan Reid,” Cole cut me off, not taking my hand at all. “Is that normal? For wedding planning types?”

“And? Just what are you insinuating?”

“Oh, I’m not insinuating anything. I’m just saying it. Seems like you’ll be charging a lot of money in exchange for not very hard work. It’s a good deal if you can get it, at least for you.”

“You don’t think I work hard?”

“Sorry. Let me be clear,” Cole replied, with a wink. “I don’t think what you do is really work. Isn’t it all phone calls and emails?”

“Cole! What did I just say about being an asshole!” Amber whined. “What’s wrong with you?!”

Amber turned to me, pleading. “I’m so sorry, Dylan. If it helps, he’s like this with everybody. He doesn’t know when to shut the hell up.”

“I think it’s interesting that your brother seems to think that only his work is real work, whatever that work is.” I stared him down, not breaking a sweat. “Although, what’s the job description for CEO again? Isn’t it all phone calls and emails?”

A few seconds passed by.

Finally, Cole broke into a smirk. “Funny. Very funny.”

“Thanks.” My tone was clipped.

“Anyway, we should get going!” Amber linked my arm in hers once again. “Dylan and I need to head into town. We need to look at more fabrics and Dylan needs to eat something for lunch. Right, Dylan?”

“Sure. Whatever you say.” Cole and I were still staring at each other, as if we were both trying to get under each other’s skin.

But if Cole Stratton thought that I was going to blink first…

He was dead wrong.

“I’m sorry about my brother,” Amber apologized before she took a sip of her lemon water. “He’s the worst. I mean, he’s also the best. He just doesn’t know how to talk to new people.”

Amber and I were sitting in Canyon Creek Diner, a restaurant that felt like a blast from the past. It was 60’s themed, with red booths and an old school jukebox player tucked away in the corner. The menu was burgers and milkshakes, with the only option for coffee being black and hot. There were rodeo posters lining the walls, but with current dates, as if whoever owned the place allowed the local ranchers to use the place as a community corkboard.

Much like Stratton Ranch, Canyon Creek Diner was a lot more pleasant than I ever would’ve expected.

“Don’t worry about it.” I shook my head. “Cole isn’t the first guy to try to make me feel lesser than because of my job. A lot of guys like him, you know, super over the top masculine types? They just like to cut me down because I’m their polar opposite. It might be some kind of king of the jungle thing.”

“That’s not Cole’s thing at all.” It was Amber’s turn to shake her head. “He’s not like that. Not territorial or whatever. I don’t know. It comes from a good place?—"

“You ready to order, sweetheart?” An older woman stood beside us, paper and pad in hand. She wore a bright, colorful blouse with dark pants, her glasses resting against her upper forehead. “Oh! Amber! Hey!”

“Hey, Jolene!” Amber beamed. “This is Dylan Reid. He’s my wedding planner.”

“God bless you.” Jolene laid a hand on my shoulder. “You must have the patience of a saint, of ten saints. I love Amber, but she’s out of her loving mind. She’s a Stratton, though, so it’s not her fault. It’s in their blood.”

I looked over at Amber, expecting to see anger on her face. Hadn’t this woman just insulted her and her family?

Instead, Amber broke into a laugh. “I’m not even the craziest one in the bunch and you know it, Jolene!”

“You’re a city boy, aren’t you?” Jolene brought her attention back to me. “I can feel it.”

“Actually I’m from?—”

“Oh, you remind me of my ex-husband.” Jolene wistfully sighed. “He was a city boy, just like you. Just an awful, terrible man. Mean, and bitter, and hateful. Really good in the sack, though. And gorgeous in the right light. What a mess.”

“I’m sorry to hear that?—”

“If you try to order a latte, I’ll have one of my line cooks throw you out on your ass. That’s one of the perks of owning this place, I don’t have to put up with anything I don’t like,” she interrupted me again. “But I like you, city boy. And if you’re as good in the sack as my ex-husband, I should warn you to stay away from these cowboys out here. They’ll be able to smell it on you. Don’t let them make you stupid, you hear me?”

“Trust me. The only cowboy I’ve met so far doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“Good! Keep it that way.” Jolene chuckled. “They’re not worth the trouble.”

“Amen.” Amber fist pumped in agreement, before she looked down at the menu. “Do you think we could split a Canyon Creek special?”