by Liz Isaacson
“Yeah?” She pulled in a breath and held it.
Wes didn’t say anything, and Bree wasn’t sure what to think.
“Happy New Year,” he finally said, and Bree had the distinct impression that wasn’t what he really wanted to say. “I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Okay.”
The call ended, and Bree sighed as she leaned back and closed her eyes. She only had a couple more days before the Whittaker family would leave the lodge and the guests would come back. She was determined to sleep in until the fifth, and she padded down the hall to her bedroom, her phone on silent but her mind still moving.
She couldn’t get one question out of her mind—what were she and Wes doing?
The holidays ended; the Whittakers left the lodge; the guests returned.
Bree got back to work, posting the daily activities on the whiteboard outside the kitchen and sending out the group texts guests could opt into. She got the horses out of the stables and back to work, and Bree liked her routine. She thrived on it, actually, and she liked that she didn’t have a whole lot of time to text and talk with Wes.
Sure, she laid in bed at night, thinking about him, and she gave herself ten minutes each night to glance through Singles Spark. Several men caught her eye, but she still hadn’t done anything yet.
One man kept coming up in her notifications, as he swiped on her every single day. Four days, five days, and then six days.
Bree finally tapped over to Alex Jenkins, and Bree’s first impression of him was that he had a great smile. Happiness exuded from his eyes, and Bree pulled in a breath…and swiped right.
The next morning, she’d just finished sweeping out the barn when her phone made a noise she’d never heard before. She pulled it out of her pocket, a measure of confusion clouding her mind for a moment. Then she saw the orange spark in her notifications bar, and she pulled down to tap on the icon.
Alex had messaged her.
The wind picked up, and Bree couldn’t stand out in the cold, dumbfounded. She stepped back into the barn, which certainly wasn’t warm, but it at least protected her from the wind.
You finally swiped on me, Alex had said. I swear I’m not a stalker. You just have a great face, and I was hoping we could chat a little and get to know each other.
Bree had never had anyone tell her she had a great face. Wes didn’t even know what she looked like. A slow smile filled her face, and she quickly tapped out, You have a great smile. You’re the first person I’ve swiped on—because of that smile.
Aw, thanks. He sent her a cartoon fox with a big smile on his foxy face. What do you do, Breeann?
I go by Bree, she said. And I’m an event coordinator for a luxury lodge.
Sounds fancy, Alex said.
What do you do?
I drive a tour bus.
Ah, so we’re both in the hospitality industry. For some reason, Bree liked that. She looked at Alex’s face again, feeling a good vibe from him. I hate to run, but I have horses to feed before our first ride.
Go, Alex said. We’ll talk later.
Annie slipped her phone back in her pocket, feeling warmer and warmer by the minute, despite the fact that she stepped out into the winter wind. But it couldn’t touch her as she thought about her new conversation with Alex.
A week passed, and Bree’s guilt sat in her stomach twenty-four-seven. She was still talking to Wes, but her conversations with Alex had picked up too. She hadn’t defined a relationship with either one of them, but she felt like she should.
She stood at the sink, the warm water rinsing away the suds off the mug she’d been washing. She had no idea how long she’d been standing there, but all the soap was gone. She had to make a choice.
Wes or Alex?
She liked talking to them both, and since she hadn’t met either one, she simply didn’t know how things would go in person.
“Alex lives in town,” she murmured. But she couldn’t imagine calling Wes and telling him…telling him what, exactly?
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore?” she guessed.
“Talking to yourself?” Elise asked as she came into the kitchen.
Bree flinched and turned off the water. “Just a little bit.” She cleared her throat, put the mug in the dish drainer, and turned around. “I’m headed out to get all of the painting supplies for this afternoon’s class.”
“All right,” Elise said, clearly not realizing Bree’s inner turmoil.
Bree put on her coat and went out onto the porch. She got her phone out and tapped to pull up her text string with Wes. She hadn’t spoken to him on the phone in two or three days, and she knew he was busy. Could she just text him?
No, she thought, and she tapped to get the line ringing. Her heart started to sprint in her chest, and with every ring, she thought she might get to avoid this difficult conversation. The call went to voicemail, and Bree had serious second thoughts when his voice sounded in her ear.
And then she opened her mouth and words just came out. “Hey, Wes. It’s Bree. I’m…I’m so sorry, but I’ve met someone else up here, and I think I’m just going to…I don’t think we should talk anymore. I sure did like getting to know you—and I’m sorry.” She had no idea what she’d said, and her thoughts felt so tangled. “Okay, bye.”
She sighed as she lowered her phone and ended the call. “Was that the right thing to do?” she asked, tipping her head toward the heavens. She took a moment to listen, but she couldn’t hear anything.
She never had been able to hear the Lord very well. Since Bronson’s death, she’d been stumbling through life, going to church and praying and doing her best to be who she thought she wanted to be. But she simply felt removed from everyone, including God.
Her phone chimed, and she knew it would be Alex. A flame started in her soul, and she glanced at the message.
Wondering if you’d like to go to dinner with me.
She sucked in a breath. He’d asked her out. He wanted to meet her. The smile on her face appeared instantly, and she couldn’t type fast enough to say, Yes, I think dinner with you sounds amazing.
Before Alex could reply, Bree’s phone rang. Wes’s name sat on the screen, and Bree almost dropped her device. She didn’t want to answer. She’d left a message. Couldn’t things just be left at that?
Maybe he hadn’t listened to the message, and she’d be forced to say it all again.
“You can do this,” she told herself, and she swiped to answer the call, hoping Wes had felt the distance between them too, and that they could walk away before either of them got hurt.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Annie finished her cleaning for the day and went back to the home office she shared with her daughters. Colton had driven her home, but he’d had to go back to Colorado to finish all of his business meetings.
She expected to hear from him that night, as the board was meeting that day to approve or disapprove the transfer of titles within his family company. Annie had been praying for relief from her nerves, because she couldn’t control what the board did. She didn’t even know what a board looked like in a business as big as the one Colton’s family owned.
She’d enjoyed the New Year holiday at his parents’ farm in Ivory Peaks immensely, but her life and business were here. Colton knew that; they’d talked about it for a long time. He’d reassured her over and over that once he was free from HMC, he’d be joining her in Coral Canyon.
Annie looked around her small house. It had always served her and Ryan and the girls well. But she had not invited Colton in when he’d dropped her off last week. Her whole house could fit in the living area of his parents’ farmhouse, and she knew he was used to much more opulent living.
She hated that she had these insecurities about herself, her life, her house. It shouldn’t matter, she’d told herself a few times now. Colton had never given her any indication that he cared where she lived, or how much money she had or didn’t have. But Annie knew they needed to talk about money before
anything major happened.
As she put a pot of water on the stove to get it boiling, she reminded herself that she and Colton weren’t going to get married immediately. He wasn’t in the same place as her, and that was okay.
Halfway through her dinner for one, as Emily was out with her fiancé, doing some sort of shopping, and Eden had a date with Mitchell, Annie’s phone rang. She picked it up and connected the call to Colton with the word, “Well?”
“It’s done,” he said, laughing afterward. “It’s going to be us, Annie. In Coral Canyon. Real soon.”
Relief flooded her, and Annie sighed even as gratitude enveloped her. “Are you happy?”
“Insanely,” Colton said. “I’ve been tired here for a long time.”
“You’ve said that.”
“So I’m headed your way this weekend, and then I have to start working with my cousin. I might not be back until the end of the month.”
“That’s okay,” Annie said. “You take care of what you need to take care of.” For a few days there, she’d simply thought that she’d never see Colton again. She’d believed they had a good thing going, even if they’d only met several days earlier. But she also knew that sometimes good things fell apart, through no fault of anyone’s.
She thought of his older brother, who’d been calling and talking to Bree. She’d started dating someone else, and she’d ended the phone calls with Wes, and Colton claimed his brother was really broken up about that.
So yes, sometimes good things fell apart. Annie was determined, though, not to be the reason she and Colton fell apart. She could be patient. She was in no hurry. There were crucial conversations still to be had, and Annie wanted to know everything about their future together, from children to grandchildren to finances. She wouldn’t be going into a second marriage blindly, and she’d fallen just as fast for Ryan the first time. They hadn’t talked about anything, and they’d had some trying times as they learned how to be married and how to raise a family with their different beliefs.
Not that they’d been that different. But she didn’t want the girls to eat snacks after dinner, and Ryan hadn’t cared about that. He didn’t mind if they didn’t have baths before school, but Annie couldn’t stand the thought of sending them off dirty.
“When I get there this weekend, will you go to dinner with me?” Colton asked, and Annie warmed from the inside out. She loved that he asked her out, and she could admit that she liked being courted.
“Sure,” she said.
“Pick somewhere good,” he said.
“There’s a new place I’ve been wanting to try. It’s Indian food.”
“I like Indian food,” he said.
“Good.” Annie went on to ask him about his mother, and how Wes was doing. They talked for a while, and then she said, “Colton, I know you need to go. You have a busy day tomorrow, and my girls will be home in a few minutes. But I wanted to talk to you about children.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, and Annie’s heart played leapfrog with itself. “All right,” he said.
“Just be thinking about it,” she said. “For this weekend. We can talk when you get here.”
“Okay.” Something crashed on his end of the line, and he said, “Annie, I have to go.”
“Go,”
“Bye,” he said.
Before she could say good-bye, the line went dead, with Colton saying, “Are you kidding me?”
Annie laughed, because she knew he’d agreed to cat-sit for a neighbor in his building, and she was sure the feline had just done something naughty. Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, just as she heard the garage door opening, she got a text from Colton.
Look at this cat. He knocked over my coffee. A picture came through a moment later, and there were spilled coffee grounds, a tipped container, and a very innocent-looking black and gray cat. Annie giggled at the cat’s wide eyes, imagining Colton’s displeasure.
You’ll have to drive through somewhere in the morning, she texted him.
I need that for tonight!
Annie burst out laughing, because she believed Colton. The man burned the wick at both ends, especially now that he had to finish things up at HMC.
“Oh, she’s right here,” Eden said. “Flirting with her boyfriend.” She wore a massive smile on her face, and Annie didn’t deny that she was flirting with Colton, who was her boyfriend.
The thought felt strange for only a moment, and then acceptance flowed through her. “Hey, girls. How were your dates?”
“Great,” Eden said, taking off her coat and draping it over the back of the recliner. She circled it and sat down while Emily launched into all of the things she’d done that night with Kelly.
Annie had a brief moment where she wished she could go to bed at a decent hour, but she knew it wouldn’t be that night. And she didn’t want it to be. She wanted to sit up with her daughter as she showed her shoes and ribbons and pictures of delicious chocolate cake.
“This was the steak dinner,” Emily said, turning her phone. “It was amazing, Mom. But it’s so expensive, and I don’t know.” She looked down at her device, her sigh right there on her lips. Annie wanted to give her everything. The world, and the steak dinner for her wedding too. She’d always wanted to do that for her girls, but she’d hardly ever been able to. It was hard to be a mom and a dad and a business owner. She’d done the best she could.
“You should try Fizzles,” Eden said. “They’re just starting up, and they’re looking for clients. I bet they could cater your wedding dinner for way cheaper than Nuptials.”
Emily looked at her sister. “I’ve never heard of Fizzles.”
“It’s new,” Eden said, swiping on her phone. “Mitchell showed it to me.”
“He did?” Annie asked. “Are you guys talking about marriage already?”
“Mom, come on.” Eden barely looked at her. “I’m not you.”
“Hey,” Annie said, only slightly offended. She couldn’t help it if she knew who she liked, or that she fell fast. Plus, she was certain the Lord had put Colton in the vicinity of Whiskey Mountain Lodge at precisely the moment it had started to snow too hard to keep driving.
“His aunt owns it,” Eden said, handing her phone to Emily. “They’ve been in Jackson for years, and they’re just now expanding. Coral Canyon is the fastest growing town out here, and she just opened a small storefront.”
“Awesome,” Emily said, swiping on the phone. “This looks amazing. I’m going to call them tomorrow.” She beamed at Eden. “Thanks, Eden.”
“Yeah, of course.” She yawned and stood up. “Okay, I’m going to bed. I have to be at the Pherson’s at seven-thirty.”
“Don’t forget to do that basement bathroom this time,” Annie called after her youngest daughter. Love filled her, especially because Eden had stayed for all the wedding talk. Emily didn’t even realize just how much she talked about her wedding, and Annie was probably overly sensitive about it on Eden’s behalf. But she’d stayed.
“I’m going to bed too,” Annie said, picking up her phone and standing up. “Love you, sweetie.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
Down the hall, with her teeth brushed and in her pajamas, Annie closed her eyes, her last thought of Colton before she drifted into a happy sleep.
That weekend, Colton rang her doorbell five minutes after he’d texted to say he’d made it to town. Annie slicked her hands down the front of her apron and left the kitchen to answer the door.
The most handsome cowboy on the planet stood on her front porch, wearing that white cowboy hat, that ridiculously puffy coat, jeans, and a smile. “Hey,” he drawled. “Don’t you look amazing?”
She looked down at her dirty apron. “You’re just saying that because you see chocolate on this thing.” She laughed as she stepped back and let him into her house. “Come in.”
He did, pausing in her personal space to slip his arm around her waist. “Mm, it’s good to see you, Annie,” he murmured before cont
inuing into the house. She closed the door behind him, more nervous than she should be.
“My place is small,” she said. “But the cupcakes are done, and they’re delicious.” She led him into the kitchen, which seemed to be ragged from floor to ceiling.
“How long have you lived here?” he asked, shrugging out of his coat and hanging it on the back of a kitchen chair. His eyes roamed everywhere, as if making an assessment on her house right that minute.
“Twenty-five years,” she said, pointing him in the direction of the double fudge cupcakes, as if he couldn’t see them for himself.
“Are you committed to staying here?” He picked up a cupcake and started peeling off the decorative wrapper.
She watched him all the way until he’d taken that first big bite. She wanted to kiss the chocolate frosting from his lips, and she looked away as heat filled her. “I don’t know.”
“I think it would be amazing if we got our own place,” he said. “Here in town somewhere. You said they’re building a lot of houses.” He looked at her, deadly serious. “A fresh start, for both of us.” He took another bite of his cupcake, his eyes never leaving hers.
“The girls live here with me,” she said.
“They can live with us,” he said.
“You’re talking like we’re going to get married and move in together next week.” Annie put a smile on her face. “And we both know that’s not going to happen.” In fact, as Emily was already engaged, she’d likely get married before Annie and Colton did.
“I guess I should’ve warned you I wanted to talk about the living arrangements this weekend.” His eyes sparkled as he polished off his first cupcake. Annie knew it wouldn’t be his last.
“I don’t need to be warned,” Annie said. “Though I’m a little surprised it’s been on your mind.”
“You’re always on my mind, Annie,” he said.
She smiled at him, glad when he took her into his arms and kissed her properly. He tasted like chocolate, and he was downright delicious in every way.