Chapter Eleven

W ith summer revving up, Nathan had gone out into the barn early to avoid the heat coming later in the day. Wiping the sweat off his brow with his forearm, he wished he could stop thinking about Izzy Payton as easily. The lady was a menace to his peace of mind. A pest he couldn’t seem to ignore. He wanted to get to know her better, but she wasn’t his only problem.

Working with Jonas and Blake on their mom’s she-shed was an eye-opener. He didn’t want to be at odds with his brothers anymore.

Blake and Timmy came down the stairs from their apartment over the barn. Blake leaned into the stall Nathan was finishing up—it was the last one. “Do you need help?”

“No,” he said briefly, then decided if he had the guts, Blake could be just the one he should talk to about finding himself at a crossroads. “I’m almost done.” It wasn’t many more words but at least it wasn’t his usual grunt at his brother.

“Good.” Placing a hand on Timmy’s shoulder, Blake studied him closely. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Nathan straightened. Now just wasn’t the time. “I’m okay. What are your plans for the day?”

Timmy pushed his glasses up on his nose, a grin spreading across his young face. “We bought some plants. Dad said we can plant them.”

The kid wasn’t the same reserved boy who’d come to live on the ranch with his dad. Nathan hoped he’d played a little part in making him feel like the Triple L was his home—the same as it was his home when he was Timmy’s age. He wished he’d understood that better at the time.

“We’re moving the plants to Dad’s truck and meeting Malorie and the twins at the cottage.” Blake patted his son’s shoulder.

When Nathan had come down from the house, he’d seen the colorful flowers in the back of Izzy’s Rover. “I’ll help.”

Changing his character was the problem. He and his brothers had one communication style. Mostly loud, and louder. How did he tell Blake and Jonas what he’d kept buried all these years—that it was his fault their dad had the heart attack that took his life? At fifteen he’d wanted so much to find out why his biological mother had given him away. Was there something about him she couldn’t love? He’d thought knowing the answer to that would make him feel settled and less angry all the time.

But Adam, usually a patient man, couldn’t understand why being a Lohmen and staying on the ranch wasn’t enough. Nathan had never seen his dad so angry. Zelda would have understood, but before he could get over his disappointment and ask her, his dad had his heart attack and was gone, and all Nathen could remember was their argument.

After that, he didn’t dare make her sadder by giving her the idea he wasn’t happy to be a Lohmen. So, he’d kept his secrets.

He was convinced now that he had to come out of hiding if he wanted the ranch to succeed. If he wanted to succeed. And Izzy—taking her out on a date—had somehow become part of that equation.

Is that what he wanted? To ask Izzy on a date?

Blake pulled a key from his pocket and opened the Rover’s rear door. At Nathan’s curious look, he said, “I got the key from Izzy last night when I picked up Timmy.”

Of course. Since Blake had been back, Nathan had seen how organized his brother was with everything. Something Nathan also remembered from when they were kids. He had to be. He was raising a thirteen-year-old with special needs. In the fall Timmy would start school in Strawberry Ridge with the twins. He was settling in well, was more engaged, and seemed to be happier in the routine his dad had established for his son. Blake’s adopted son set a good example for what Nathan hope to achieve in his personal life.

The transfer of the plants didn’t take long. By the time they were done, Izzy had come out to join them, which distracted him from thinking about what he could do to make amends with Jonas and Blake and then, finally, turn his back on the past.

Together they watched Blake and Timmy drive off. Nathan turned to the woman, her hand shielding the sun from her eyes as she watched his dad’s truck disappear. “Are you ready for your first barrel-racing lesson?”

She was dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and her work boots. Her hair was pulled back in a thick ponytail that hung down her back. “Sure. What do we do first?”

No hesitation. The fact that Izzy knew her own mind was one of the things Nathan admired about the passionate woman. He wanted to know more.

“Let’s bring Rosie and Angel in from the pasture.” He grabbed two leads and handed one to Izzy. “You take Rosie. She’s had some experience with barrel racing. I’ll ride Angel.”

Izzy kept up with his long stride without any effort. She asked, “You’re good to ride?”

“I’m good.” Once he started working on the cottage, he didn’t notice any pain in his hips—a little twinge here and there, but nothing long-lasting or interfering with his movement.

He was more focused on whether he could convince Izzy to stay longer than she planned. Draw out her lessons maybe? It was a sneaky move but how else was he to find out what gave her the strength to move forward no matter what the obstacle. Something he wanted to learn to do.

They walked Angel and Rosie back to the arena. The barrels weren’t set up, which was fine. First, he wanted to see how she sat in the saddle. He should have noticed when they rode to the cottage, but he’d been too busy working out a way to get her to stop suggesting changes that would take the Triple L further away from the way he remembered the ranch as it was back in the day.

Then she’d pulled a card out of the deck he hadn’t thought of. Doing something positive with his mom’s she-shed instead of watching the building deteriorate slowly over each year that passed. Her ingenuity had given him hope for the future of the ranch.

They saddled the horses and led them into the arena. After he mounted Angel, and Izzy easily swung up on Rosie’s back, he instructed, “Let’s try walking in a circle. Follow me. We’ll change gaits as we go.”

When he glanced back after making a few circles at varying paces, he could see Izzy and Rosie very easily kept up. She wore a look of concentration that he was becoming familiar with and that made him think if she worked at it, she could be a great barrel racer. Maybe not this year, but next year for sure. That was if she didn’t leave as planned.

He understood why she would move on when her job on the Triple L was done. There was always another job to go to. But he didn’t like the idea of her leaving. He was being unreasonable, he knew, given that her purpose on the ranch was very clearly spelled out, and their lives would ultimately go on whether they were together or not.

Finally, he urged Angel into a tight circle, so they faced Izzy and Rosie.

“It’s after lunchtime. I think that’s enough for today.” He had to smile. Some of her hair had worked free of her ponytail and become a reddish fiery cloud around her face. Her blue eyes were bright with enjoyment. “You’re doing great.”

He was about to ask if she’d like to go somewhere for lunch when she beat him to it. “How do you feel about going to Luke’s Grill for a business meeting? I have a couple of things to go over with you.”

Huh. A business meeting wasn’t a lunch date, but it was close enough.

“What about Jonas and Blake?” he asked her. Blake was at the cottage with his family. Jonas was... who knew where.

“They’re basically on board, aren’t they? Whatever decision you make, they’ll go along with, right?”

Nathan wasn’t sure about that, but if it meant that it would be just the two of them, did it matter? “We can take my truck. When do you want to leave?”

“I’ll need about forty-five minutes to shower and change.” If the excitement simmering in her eyes was anything to go by, Izzy Payton might be ready to go in less time than she anticipated.

Game on. “I’ll be ready.”

Yup. Less than forty-five minutes later—because he was impatient—when he pulled up in front of the guesthouse, Izzy was waiting for him in the garden. Leaving the engine running, he jumped out, opened the passenger-side door, and helped her, and the familiar satchel she carried, into the cab of the truck, then pulled on the seatbelt so she could easily reach it and snap it in place.

She was pretty in a spring-flowered dress with flat, patent leather shoes. Pretty enough in fact that he had to come up with a topic of conversation that wouldn’t make him look like he was more interested in kissing her than he was having lunch. His pulse began to simmer. “Tell me about your work and why you like it so much.”

“That’s a long conversation.”

He shrugged. “We have plenty of time.”

“All right. The Triple L is the biggest job I’ve taken on, which is why I’m excited about it. It’s my first ranch restoration and a big challenge.” After placing the satchel flat on her lap, she shifted so she could look at him while she talked.

Nathan settled in, wondering what she might reveal, like what had she hoped to gain from taking on the Triple L’s problems.

“My main purpose is to give struggling businesses new life, whether that’s restoring financials like with the ranch, or updating the physical structures, bringing in customers, that sort of thing. When I get it right, it’s very rewarding. The last project I worked on was a Shakespearean theater that was a little worn around the edges and had low attendance for its plays. The financials were not good. So, I made a business plan to get more sponsors, and theatergoers to attend the performances. It worked out great.”

“A nice addition to your résumé, then,” he said softly, remembering she’d included a recommendation from the manager of the theater on the application she’d submitted to Jonas. At the time he’d been skeptical that she could do what she claimed she could. Now? He hoped she could. “If you can do the same here, the Triple L will be a feather in your cap too.”

“My bread-and-butter comes from recommendations by previous clients.”

He nodded. If she got the ranch back in tip-top shape, she would deserve the best recommendation he could give her business.

“We can do the same for the Triple L. The more recommendations we get from couples who get married at the cottage, or from folks taking riding lessons, the more we can build up a steady clientele for future business.”

He wasn’t sure they could meet such a lofty goal in the short time they had before the bank manager got serious about collecting on his loan. Still, it was worth a try.

On the edge of town, Nathan turned onto Mesa Avenue. Luke’s was on the right. “How long did it take you to finish the theater job?”

“Three and a half months, and only because a waterpipe burst. It was a fun project.”

As he pulled into Luke’s parking lot, Izzy unbuckled her seatbelt. “We don’t have much time to turn the ranch around,” he reminded the ambitious woman.

“If we can get business rolling in, then we can present a plan of intention and projected outcomes to the bank manager and maybe get an extension on your note.”

He secretly crossed his fingers that she was right. The account manager hadn’t been all that flexible when he’d spoken to her the month before his accident. After his conversation with her, he’d had to confess to Jonas how far in the hole the ranch was. Big brother wasn’t pleased. After that, Jonas called Blake home, packed up his home and law office, and moved back from Denver.

He sprinted to catch up and open the restaurant door. “Have you been here before?”

“No, but I checked the menu out online. If it’s as good as it looks—”

He followed her into the cool interior, a welcome contrast with the early August heat outside. “The food is great.”

“Good. I’m famished,” she said and after looking around, took a seat in the booth the waitress led them to. “I love the Old West vibe they have going.”

Aged wood covered the walls. Wagon wheel lights hung from the ceiling. The smell of lunch grilling made Nathan realize how hungry he was, for food but also for the company of a lunchmate who wasn’t just having a business meal with one of her clients.

It’d been a long time since he’d indulged in a social moment away from the ranch and with a pretty lady who had his pulse galloping.

He picked up the menu. Izzy was already scanning hers. “The taco salad looks good. What are you going to have?”

“A burger and fries.” He didn’t have to study the menu. He knew what he liked. And what he liked was sitting across from Izzy Payton and watching her concentrate as she selected her meal.

They placed their orders. The silence between them stretched too thin. Nathan finally gave in. “Should we get this meeting started while we’re waiting?”

“Sure.” She turned serious, bumping up his racing heartbeat even more as she opened the satchel. “Blake, Malorie, and the kids should finish planting at the cottage today. Mal said they’d stay until they got it all done. After that, all that’s left to do is stage the inside, take some photos to put up on the website I’m almost done with, and start booking weddings. Jonas has already taken care of the permit and insurance issues.”

Nathan was a skeptical man by nature, but this time he wanted Izzy’s vision of turning his mother’s she-shed into a wedding venue to work. Not only because it was a step in the right direction to save the ranch, but because in his mind and heart, it was a memorial to Adam and Zelda, and would wipe away some of the guilt he still carried around after how his last conversation with Adam had gone. “We can take bookings right away?”

“We can. It’s a charming wedding location. All the promo is ready to go.”

He pulled his brows together and drank down what was left of his water. “How can you be sure?”

Leaning on her arms, she handed him a flyer she’d pulled from the satchel. “Blake and Mal have booked the cottage for August twenty-fifth. This flyer is ready to drop off at the library, the Strawberry Ridge Journal , the Chamber of Commerce, the Booklover’s Hideaway, and any other business in town that will let us leave a stack on the checkout counter. I’ve also got a digital copy ready for social media. That should drum up some business.”

That was a lot of people who could interrupt the peace of the Triple L. Nathan’s enthusiasm cooled.

A colorized version of his drawing of the cottage looked back at him from the front page of the flyer. On the second page was his sketch of the blooming garden and wedding arch. Opposite that was a sweet paragraph about the cottage’s origins and a dedication to Adam and Zelda. The contact information needed to schedule an event was on the back.

Izzy watched him closely. “What do you think?”

He stared at the flyer, realizing for the first time that he was holding the means to make amends with his brothers. Concern propped up by gratitude washed through Nathan.

“I like it. Thank you for doing this.” He paused, then, “I just want to make sure the ranch isn’t about to be turned into a dude ranch.”

“It won’t be, I promise. We’ll cap the number who can attend the events and keep The Wedding Cottage and anything else we do low-keyed.”

He locked gazes with the amazing woman. “I don’t know if you can keep that promise, but if you promise, then I say let’s move forward. I’ll even help distribute the flyers. Jonas and Blake will be on board too.” Nathan was rewarded with a warm smile that warmed him up inside.

“I promise.”

Their food arrived. For the first time in a long time, he felt like they just might pull the Triple L out of trouble. “You’ve done a great job.”

“ We’ve done a great job,” she corrected him. “The next thing I want to discuss is the ranch having a presence at the Strawberry Ridge Rodeo in September.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. I should have mentioned it when you asked about lessons.” Why hadn’t he? Because he’d had such a long convalescence, he’d lost the riders he was training. While he was stuck in a hospital bed, his students had moved on, taking their horses with them to the new trainer he’d recommended. “Before my accident, a lot of the riders and horses I trained made a strong showing.”

“We have seven weeks before the rodeo starts,” she reminded him before popping a forkful of salad into her mouth.

“That’s not much time to make connections.” The lady was a smart cookie. “Let’s focus on one thing at a time, all right?”

“Like you said, we don’t have much time before the rodeo to shake hands and make friends in all the right places.” She put her fork on her plate. The woman had a way about her. “It’ll be part of your branding.”

The spark in her eyes said she wasn’t giving up. The branding issue cinched the deal. “All right. You win.”

For now.