Chapter Nine

A fter sending the list of supplies they would need to start the cottage project to Jonas, Nathan stood back and watched Izzy with her mom. The two women were so easy with one another and so much alike. Deep inside where he didn’t let anyone in, he wished his conversations with his brothers were as simple. He could see the woman Izzy would be as she got older, and he liked that person.

The ladies disappeared into his mom’s shed. Izzy was telling her mom about their idea to turn the building into The Wedding Cottage. He was surprised at how much she liked his drawings. She’d grabbed them from the saddlebag she’d switched to Rosie’s saddle, probably thinking he hadn’t noticed, but he had. What was she up to besides taking ownership of his drawings?

He might be okay with that. She wanted him to trust her. Nathan wasn’t sure he had it in him to let her get that close. He hadn’t shared his drawings with anyone except his mom until he showed them to Izzy. He couldn’t believe he’d drawn them in the first place with only the hazy thought that he wanted to capture her vision of the cottage.

Izzy Payton was a whirlwind when she got an idea in her head. And despite his halfhearted, ineffective attempts to get her to go on her way, she’d made it clear she was on the Triple L to stay. At least until she finished the job he’d inadvertently hired her to do.

The lady was a hard one to keep up with. Once he decided to let her stay, she hadn’t let him off the hook. He wasn’t sure if he appreciated her high-handedness. What he did know was that for the first time, he could see the future. Maybe not with Izzy, who was headed in a different direction than he was, but with the right woman who could love the ranch as much as he did, and who would be happy to share a rancher’s life.

Izzy couldn’t possibly be the one. As far as he could tell, she was hopelessly obsessed with her work. He wanted more. Yes, for now, he wanted to fix the ranch, so they didn’t have to sell. When that was accomplished, there would be time to focus on his future.

So, he’d drawn the pictures, and like a love-starved puppy wanting attention, he couldn’t wait to present them to Izzy, hoping she would like them. A relieved flush warmed him from the inside out when she more than liked them.

He’d realized while doing the drawings that he didn’t want to grow old alone. A grown man of thirty-three shouldn’t be afraid of something that was potentially out of his hands. He would put in whatever effort it took to make sure the ranch continued to thrive. And if he got lucky, he would find the right woman. Hopefully, they would welcome two kids into their family—a girl and a boy, by natural means or adoption, it didn’t matter.

Where that dream came from, Nathan didn’t know. All he knew was that since Izzy’s arrival, his expectations had changed. He had changed.

Izzy and Sylvia came out of the shed talking animatedly. Izzy’s mom was holding one of his drawings as they went to the side of the shed where the garden would be. He followed them just to be sure they didn’t go overboard. He had a feeling that once they got the bit between their teeth, together mom and daughter would be unstoppable.

Reece and Timmy raced ahead of Nathan. Blake and Malorie disappeared inside the shed.

“Can I see?” Andee leaned over Sylvia’s arm to see the garden picture. “That is so pretty.”

Izzy’s mom looked up as he approached. “You’re very talented. This is lovely.”

“Thanks.” The way Izzy looked at him made Nathan’s heart beat faster. A big mistake, since she wasn’t likely to change her life for a rancher who wanted to raise a family in the place where his heart had grown deep roots.

He knew this like he knew his mother loved this spot, so why he was drawn to the wandering woman was a mystery he had no idea how to solve.

He turned to the boys. “How about we measure off where the garden’s going to go?”

“Yeah!” Both boys said together.

He paced off the boundaries of the garden with Reece and Timmy matching his steps. After they stacked rocks to mark the corners, he asked Izzy. “What do you think? Is this big enough?”

It was slightly wider than the shed and three times as long.

“That looks perfect.” She walked to the end of the area he’d marked off and swinging her arms in a wide circle said, “The arch can go here with a white pebble-covered pathway down the middle.” Izzy walked up the proposed path toward Nathan. “Would you be willing to put in a small solar setup to power garden lights and electricals in the cottage?”

Nathan frowned. That might be going a step too far.

“I would be willing,” Blake said as he and Malorie joined them. They were holding hands and had matching dreamy looks on their faces. Blake pulled Malorie close to his chest. Nathan wasn’t jealous. Really. But—“In fact, we’d like to be the first ones to be married here.”

The kids shouted and gathered close to the couple. Sylvia slipped an arm around Izzy’s shoulder. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

As she cast him an I-told-you-so look, Izzy grinned. The woman lit up the whole outdoors, her thick, red hair as wild as her outlook on life, the ends picked up by a slight breeze. Her idea of restoring his mom’s shed into a wedding cottage was already taking off and Nathan was beginning to remember what being part of a family was all about.

Izzy hugged Malorie, laughing with her friend. Summer warmth drenched them in sunshine. Sylvia slipped her hand into the crook of Nathan’s arm. “What do you think of our girl? She’s full of surprises, isn’t she?”

Our girl?

Um, no. Fate wouldn’t be that unkind to him, would she?

Sylvia graced him with an impish smile before she took his silence for agreement, then moved off to congratulate Blake and Malorie.

“What do you think? You have your first booking.” Izzy was suddenly beside him, smiling.

He stepped back and nudged a small stone near his boot. Normally, he needed a lot more time and space to make decisions, which was likely why the Triple L had tumbled into such bad financial shape. Well, not this time. “What I think is we’d better get started on the remodel as soon as possible.” His phone pinged. “That’s Jonas. He’s on his way with the supplies.”

Somehow, long ago, he’d forged himself into the outsider looking in. As a result, his family had grown without his active participation. It was time to break that bad habit. As if reading his mind, the corners of Izzy’s mouth turned up in sympathy. She patted his arm, then without a word, she wandered over to talk to Timmy and Reece who were still stacking stones at the corners of the garden space.

Maybe she understood. Izzy Payton didn’t miss a thing. Wouldn’t that be a pain?

Andee tugged on his arm. “Can I ride Rosie, Uncle Nathan?”

“Of course.” He helped the child onto the horse. “Just to the road and back, okay?”

The minute they saw their sister riding, Timmy and Reece sprinted over, slowly followed by Izzy. “Can we ride too?”

“Sure. Who wants to ride Grace first?” Nathan waited for the boys to decide who would ride next.

Reece was patting Grace’s neck, but stopped and came to stand next to Nathan. “Timmy should go first. Grace is his favorite horse.”

Nathan held the horse’s reins as Timmy climbed aboard. “Just walk her to the road and back, okay Timmy?”

“Okay.” Timmy’s rare grin was worth Nathan coming out of his admittedly self-imposed isolation to spend time with the kids.

All three were taking lessons from Blake and it showed. Timmy passed Andee about halfway as she came back. They high-fived each other.

“You’re a good brother to Timmy, letting him ride first,” he said to Reece.

Reece shrugged, then grinned. “I’ve always wanted a brother.”

Reece’s words struck Nathan. He’d always wanted a sister but had been stuck with his brothers, or so he thought. Always afraid he wouldn’t be included, he’d kept his distance pretending it was his idea to stand back, creating he realized, the very thing he didn’t want. That wasn’t Jonas and Blake’s fault.

Izzy stopped beside him and watched the kids ride as if it was something they did every day. Her business motto flashed into his mind. Get in; fix the problem; get out; move on to the next problem. Or something very close to that. He’d found it on her website before he finally decided to go with his brothers’ recommendation to hire the spitfire.

If that attitude worked for her, why wouldn’t it work for him too?

Blake came to Nathan’s other side and gave the kids advice on their riding techniques.

Shoving his hands into his back pockets, Nathan said quietly, “You’re doing a good job teaching them how to ride.”

“Thanks.” Blake took his eyes off the kids for a second and glanced at Nathan. “I think. Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah.” He wasn’t ready to tell the brother who’d been gone sixteen years while he lived a different life before Jonas had brought him back to the fold, that he had regrets.

Fortunately, Izzy, as was her way, saved the day. “Mom is having a great time, and she’s feeling better than she has in a long time. I think I’ve got her talked into staying for a while.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Nathan was glad. It suddenly occurred to him that if Sylvia was happy on the ranch, Izzy could be too.

“I think so,” Izzy agreed and something inside Nathan perked up.

Jonas arrived with the supplies. They all, including Timmy and Andee after they dismounted and tethered the horses, helped unload the truck.

“That should do it.” After discussing when they would come back to get to work on the changes they wanted to make, Nathan looked at his family.

He could no longer blame Jonas and Blake for leaving him essentially on his own to run the ranch. It was equally clear that his cranky relationship with his brothers was more his fault than theirs. His feeling of being alone had started long before they’d left him—or been chased off, in Blake’s case.

Blake had made amends. Now, it was his turn. Hopefully, he hadn’t waited too long.

“Can we ride some more when we get back to the house?” Timmy asked.

Nathan placed a careful hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You’ll have to check with your dad, but you can help me in the barn tomorrow morning if you want.”

That brought a smile to his nephew’s face. “Thanks, Uncle Nathan.”

His family was happy. He couldn’t ask for more, could he? Getting the horses, he handed Rosie’s reins to Izzy. “We’d better get going.”

“I’ll see you back at the guesthouse.” Izzy hugged her mom.

After watering the horses, they waved goodbye to Blake and Malorie, and their little family. This was exactly what Nathan wanted. To someday raise a family on the Triple L.

They went back the way they came. When he couldn’t see the shed any longer, he decided, in for a penny, in for a pound. Maybe Izzy could shed some insight onto his dilemma. She seemed to have a special knack for very quickly getting to the source of problems.

“Have you ever been married?”

“No,” she said briefly.

So, she didn’t want to talk about it. For the first time in a long time, Nathan was more interested in someone other than his own troubles.

His gut said she would make a great wife and mother for the man she eventually decided to marry. “It sounds like there’s a story there.”

He wanted to figure Izzy Payton out. The trick for her would be finding a partner who didn’t mind her wandering ways. That wouldn’t be him. Too bad they didn’t have similar ideas about how they wanted to live their lives.

“It’s not a pretty story.”

That sounded very familiar. “I swear I won’t tell anyone. Besides, you’ve seen my not-so-pleasant side. I promise I won’t be shocked.”

Shifting in her saddle, she cast him a disgruntled glance. “I was engaged once. And before you ask why it didn’t work out, he left me at the altar to go on a world walking tour with his best friend Catheryn Evans. They met in college,” she supplied before he could ask.

“What an idiot,” Nathan swore. He couldn’t imagine walking away from Izzy under any circumstances. Even though they’d had a rocky start and had different goals in life, she was one of the most interesting women he’d met. “What did you do?”

“It’s embarrassing. I should have seen it coming.” She shrugged, then grinned, a brief glimpse of mischief lighting her face. “I donated everything to a donation center, including the wedding gifts, still wrapped, the food from the reception, the cake, and I said good riddance.”

“Good for you. I don’t know if I would have been that forward-thinking.”

He matched Grace’s gait to Rosie’s as Izzy pulled on her reins, slowing to a slow walk. “Thanks for that. Like I said, I should have seen it coming. How about you? Have you ever been married or almost married?”

“No. Not even close.” He almost snorted but found he was glad to have some restraint and her full attention.

“Why?” She cast him a curious glance. “You’re a good-looking guy—”

He snickered. “And not always easy to get along with.”

“There is that.” She calmly agreed.

He would not deny that he’d always been edgy, even as a kid. But to answer her question—

Honestly? “I’m not good at dinner conversation. And I never met a girl I wanted to date more than once or twice. I’m kind of a picnic sort rather than a club man. Strawberry Ridge is not that big or overflowing with single women, or fancy places to take a date. I had this ranch to run. And... I don’t know,” he admitted with little more evidence than that he just wasn’t easygoing with lots of stories to tell.

“Huh.” She was silent after that.

“That’s it?” What was she thinking? “You don’t have anything else to say? Like, um, you have to keep trying?”

She laughed. “You have to keep trying, Nathan.”

The sound of her laughter went straight into his chest and paraded around his heart. Now he was more than curious. “If I was a business, like the Triple L, instead of a person, what would you do to fix me?”

“First off I’m great at working magic with businesses, but fixing people? Not in my thing,” she said, a twinkle flashing at him from clear blue eyes.

He found it hard to believe the lady. She had mean people skills. “Yeah, but you work with branding. How would you brand this down-on-his-luck rancher I know, Nathan Lohmen?” It felt funny to talk about himself in the third person, except he was beginning to think that if he wanted to be someone a woman could be interested in going on more than a few outings with, Izzy was the one who could come up with a scheme to make it work.

“Well... hmmm.” She studied him head to toe sparking a sudden desire he didn’t want to waste on a coach but would rather save for that one special woman. “You’d need to leave the ranch occasionally. Maybe go to the library—you like to read. Or volunteer for a major town celebration...” She stalled for a minute. He could see her mental wheels turning before she perked up, a grin spreading across her pretty face. “The Strawberry Ridge Rodeo is coming up. You could become a sponsor. Show off the Triple L’s horses. Ride in the parade. Go to the dance. I’m sure there will be a lot of eligible women there.”

She’s not the one , Nathan told himself sternly. Izzy was smart and cute and funny, and surprisingly easy on his senses, but he wasn’t seriously looking for a girlfriend. He was just thinking about it. And experiment, so to speak, to see if he could make a romantic relationship work.

“You seem to know a lot about the rodeo.”

It’d been ages since he’d been to one of Strawberry Ridge’s major events aside from the Fourth of July barbecue and parade. The last time he’d gone, the Lohmens went as a family.

“I’ve done some research for your barrel-racing business.” She studied him closely.

Off in the distance, he could see the ranch house. Probably he should stick to his everyday cowboy brand. “We start your lessons tomorrow.”

“Okay, but don’t you think we have a lot of work to do at the cottage if we’re going to get the place ready for Blake and Mal’s wedding?”

He shouldn’t be surprised by the woman who was full of unexpected revelations. Like, who in his ever-loving right mind would leave her at the altar? And her penchant for going after what she wanted without a whisper of hesitation.

“We do, but first I want to set up a reno schedule with Jonas and Blake. Between the three of us, we can get started with the heavy lifting and get ready for you girls to do the pretty stuff.”

He knew the minute the words came out of his mouth that he was in trouble. Her brows shot up. “Are you hinting that because I’m a girl I can’t do the heavy lifting , as you call it?”

“No—” What was it about her calling BS on his assumptions that kicked his pulse into overdrive? “I was just hoping that you might oversee the kids in the barn in the mornings. Now that Blake and Timmy are back, the kid wants to help with the horses. Andee and Reece will want to be there too. Blake’s already been showing them the ropes, but we’ll need him at the cottage.”

“And you need someone to babysit,” she interpreted raising her brows.

As heat blasted his face, Nathan stumbled over his next words. “I wouldn’t put it like that exactly. We just need to get an early start.” He tried to sweeten his proposal. “I’ll feed them before we leave for the cottage. That would give you extra time to work on the marketing angle.”

“Hmmm.” Izzy broke out in a full-blown laugh that had his heart beating fast to keep up. “You should see the look on your face.” She slapped a hand to her mouth. Suddenly, he wanted to kiss the outrageous lady to cut off her laughter. It took a lot of restraint not to. “I’ll be glad to spend time with the kids in the barn. I haven’t had a chance since I got here, so it’ll be good. Mom too.” The sassy woman winked at Nathan. “We can talk pretty things while we’re overseeing the kids.”

“All right. You’ve had your fun.” He barely resisted pulling Izzy close to give her a long, can’t-stop-myself kiss. Instead, he said softly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be—”

“Obnoxious?”

She liked finishing his sentences. And it didn’t make sense, but he liked her finishing them, too.

He’d meant to put some figurative distance between them, and he hoped she would accept his apology. Nathan reluctantly smiled, welcoming his resistance to Izzy’s natural sass.

She was quite the lady. Too bad they hadn’t moved closer to having the same future in mind. Looking down the road, nothing had changed.

“One more thing. Nobody knows about my drawings, not even my brothers. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Too late.” She patted the saddlebag behind her. “The cat is already out of the bag. Besides, your talent is too good to keep it hidden. They’ll see them anyway when they see the flyers.”

He heaved out a sigh. Secretly, he appreciated her strength of will but if he wasn’t careful, he’d end up with a bigger crush on the woman riding Rosie than he’d briefly had for Malorie. And this time he was afraid it wouldn’t be as easy to come to his senses. It’d be better if he just stayed out of her way.