Matched With Her Cowboy Billionaire Ex-Fiance

by Bonnie R. Paulson

  Leave it to his mother to take him to task and make him feel like a teenager once again. He hung his head in shame. After a second, he nodded and then looked at her. “You’re right. So, what do I do? Can I rename a different suitor? Is there any way out of this?” Taylor had to be wrong. Maybe she’d been speaking out in anger or something. Anything had to be better than nothing.

  Mom shook her head, regret defining the lines around her eyes and forehead. “No, Roman, I’m sorry. You can’t change anything. Everything has to go forward as is. Remember, if you quit, this time, you’re doing it with the knowledge that quitting never helped you in the past. Do you understand?”

  He did and nodded, his voice raspy with humility. “Yeah, I need some time to think through this.” She’d cleared up the things he’d doubted and she’d left little room to deny anything else.

  “Well, think about it and let me know what you decide. If it’s too much, we can have Brock do the matching, but unfortunately, you’re set as the suitor and you need to follow through, if you decide to stick with it. I do hope you will.” She patted his arm and looked down at the yarn sitting in her lap.

  Emotionally drained, Roman nodded as he stood and walked distractedly to the suite he’d taken over. One way or the other, he was going to deal with the consequences of eighteen years ago as well as the ones he’d made since he got back to Mistletoe.

  One way or the other he had to atone for the mistakes he’d made. He just wasn’t sure that would be enough for anyone.

  Elizabeth

  Her son had walked in just as she’d been about to message Taylor. Waiting until Roman’s footsteps faded down the hallway, Elizabeth picked up her cell and texted the girl she hoped might once again be her future daughter-in-law.

  Elizabeth: We have a candidate for you. He’s a really good match.

  Elizabeth bit her lip as she shot a glance in the direction Roman had disappeared. The only way she could get her son to do what he needed to, was to put more pressure on him. If he really was ready to commit to Taylor, his family, and the town, he needed to make that decision when things looked like he wasn’t going to get anything he wanted.

  Taylor: I really needed to hear that right now. Sounds good. Set up the time and I’ll be there.

  Elizabeth cocked her head to the side. That didn’t sound like Taylor. No, she was normally the type to say she was only available at certain times and how long she had available.

  Something wasn’t right.

  She opened a new thread and texted David.

  Elizabeth: David, it’s Elizabeth Wilson. Can you check on Taylor? I’m going to forward the text I just got from her.

  Elizabeth forwarded a screenshot of their conversation to David. Would he see what she saw? A minute passed before she got a reply.

  David: That doesn’t sound like her. I’ll find out. Set up the date and I’ll have Lily monitor. I’m not ready to leave the house yet still. Hope you’re feeling better.

  Elizabeth smiled softly at the sentiment in his text. If she wasn’t a Wilson and he wasn’t a Dean, they might have had a chance once upon a time – before she was a Wilson. In fact… he was the first one she’d met when she’d ridden into town, turned her head, but that was then.

  They were no longer an option. Instead, they needed to make sure their children were happy with families and careers.

  If the two most renowned matchmakers in US history couldn’t match their kids, who could?

  No one. The answer to that was no one.

  Far be it for Elizabeth to leave it to her children anymore. No, the time had come for her to step in and get involved. She wanted grandchildren and her heart attack had scared her in more ways than one.

  What if she died before any of her kids were married or had children?

  That wasn’t going to be acceptable. She needed to cuddle a baby and sooner rather than later.

  Swiping her message screen over to the thread with Taylor, Elizabeth pressed her lips into a thin line as she prepared to set Taylor up with the guy who was least likely to be her match. She just hoped Taylor didn’t get stubborn and think she was supposed to be with the guy because she’d been matched to him. That would be the worst possible scenario.

  Elizabeth: Okay, I’ll set up something for this Friday. Keep your schedule open.

  She’d have to make sure Roman had something scheduled at the same place and same time. The last thing Elizabeth needed was to waste a perfectly good date.

  Chapter 17

  Taylor

  The date with the undisclosed suitor had been postposed three weeks, well into November because of a freak snowstorm that left the community feeling unprepared for winter even though snowfall as early as September was always expected. The Indian summer had left everyone complacent. Even Taylor had been surprised that the temperatures, while cold had only been in the fifties, then had suddenly dropped to stunning low-teens followed by a blizzard blowing in, covering many of the season’s decorations along Main Street.

  Taylor had been in a weird state of limbo, not sure if she should be excited that they’d found her a match, or frustrated that she wasn’t able to get together with him until they set it up. She couldn’t even call him.

  She didn’t even know his name!

  Taylor swiveled in her chair, staring at her sisters as they discussed a matchmaking job she wasn’t working on. She sighed, turning her attention to the window. Studying the dark dusky purple mountain range in the distance, she tapped her finger on the armrest of the office chair. No expense spared as the Dean family had worked to make sure their offices were as professional and comfortable as possible.

  “Taylor? Are you going to join us?” Lily tossed a wadded-up piece of paper, hitting Taylor’s arm.

  Startled, Taylor turned back to the group, cocking an eyebrow. “This doesn’t have anything to do with me or my case. You don’t need me on this.” Why was she even wasting her time there? She could be doing… something else. She just wasn’t sure what.

  Cari huffed and then tossed her pink pen on the notepad in front of her.

  “Don’t, Cari. Just leave it.” Amanda and Brooke both shook their heads, side-eyeing Taylor as if she could explode any moment.

  “No. Enough is enough.” Cari slapped her hand on the table beside her new spiral notebook. “Taylor, I’m going to speak for me, but I’m sure the rest of the family would agree. There’s something wrong with you. You’re missing most of your meetings. You’re late more than half the time. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I’m worried.”

  Taylor raised her hand and shook her head. “I made it to this meeting and you don’t even need me. Maybe we have too many meetings scheduled.”

  Cari shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure where your notes got to, but we set this meeting up two months ago and you were in charge of the correspondence plans for the client. You. This might not be your case, but you said you had room for it in your schedule. You penciled it in and now here you sit saying you have nothing to do with it. We were all counting on you. And now, what? You’re daydreaming out the window again?” She scoffed, and leaning back in her seat and swinging herself side to side as she glared at Taylor.

  Swallowing, Taylor glanced at the rest of her sisters around the table. She blinked as she realized that though some of them weren’t looking directly at her, their expressions didn’t reject the things Cari had said.

  She took a deep breath and braced her hands on the table as she used it to help her stand. “Got it. But just so you know, I’ve heard the things you guys say behind my back about my planner, my scheduling, my over-preparing. You used to make comments about me being early to everything, making sure nothing was missed, how anal I was, and whatever else you said. Most of the time, I gritted my teeth and just blocked it out.” She half-shrugged, her shoulders lifting and falling in a short jerky motion. “Well, I changed. I burned the planner. Transferred everything to my phone and now, I’m just making do. Like
the rest of you have been.”

  She folded her arms as she stared at each sister in turn around the table.

  They didn’t say anything, just slowly met her gaze as if they absorbed her words like a sponge and weren’t sure what to do with it.

  “Haven’t you wondered why I haven’t been texting you reminders? Or why you’ve all been left to handle your own timelines? Because I’m not your secretary. You rely on me to be on time, prepared, planned out, and responsible but you make fun of me behind my back and sometimes to my face. Then, when I take steps to change what no one likes about me, you complain? That is ridiculous and selfish. I help all of you all of the time. Why can’t you try to see how to help me?” She bit her bottom lip and turned from the table.

  She wasn’t going to sit around while she waited for her sisters to see what she’d been smothered under for so long.

  Taylor couldn’t admit it to anyone, but her phone definitely did not work as a reliable planner. Whether it was the phone or the operator, Taylor sometimes was woken from a sound sleep at two in the morning for a meeting that wasn’t supposed to happen until the following afternoon.

  Okay, fine. It was operator error. She preferred the reliability of a pencil and her hand writing. The easy erasing she could do, if she had to reschedule something versus trying to find the edit button on her phone. It was in a different spot on every screen.

  She pushed from the conference room, determined to find something to do before she lost her mind and reclaimed her life as an over-scheduler.

  Standing in her office, she stared at her desk with the large desk calendar in front of the computer. She just wanted to schedule and plan. But she couldn’t let herself. And that self-discipline had shifted her will power from making sure she was eating well to making sure she wasn’t over-planning. Now she ate whatever she wanted.

  She couldn’t be strong against both.

  It just wasn’t possible.

  She grabbed her coat from a hook on the wall and strode from the building. The last thing she needed was another run-in with her sisters.

  The wind bit at her cheeks and nose as she unbundled the scarf from the large pocket of her coat and wrapped it securely around her neck.

  Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out to glance at the screen.

  Elizabeth: Your match has some time this afternoon. Can you make room in your schedule? I know it’s short notice.

  Taylor: Tell me when and where.

  Elizabeth: Three at the stables north of town. Dress warm. You’re going to be outside.

  The stables? Judging by the clock on her phone she had an hour to get there. If they were meeting at the stables, they’d be outside like Elizabeth had said. That wasn’t going to work with the clothes Taylor already had on.

  Plus, how weird to actually do something last minute. She still wasn’t used to the spontaneity of not planning. Mostly she wandered around aimlessly until she figured out what exactly she needed to do. There had to be something she could do that might be half-planner and half… not planner. Was that even possible? Taylor was starting to see that she was an all-in kind of girl.

  If she was planning, she planned everything down to the minute. If she was unplanned, she did nothing and had no idea what she was doing. If she was dieting, she tried to starve herself. If she wasn’t… she had no control.

  Maybe she was the type of person who needed to have boundaries in place. Boundaries she could control. There was nothing wrong with that, was there?

  Taylor couldn’t be sure. She didn’t know what was an appropriate level of control that was acceptable, let alone what she could handle that wouldn’t be the tipping point toward the extreme for her. If she knew, she wouldn’t be in the situation she was in – lonely and longing for a man who wasn’t available for her.

  Oh, Rocky Mountain oysters! She wasn’t allowed to long for Roman. Not anymore! What was wrong with her? No. She wasn’t that lonely. Okay, she could accept that she was lonely enough to ask her father to match her, but she couldn’t be so desperate to crave a relationship with a man who wanted anything but. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

  No.

  Taylor tucked her hands into the pockets of her coat and finished walking the short distance to her in-town home, climbing the steps and letting herself inside. She would need jeans and maybe even some leggings underneath to help keep her warm for a date outside.

  In Montana, layers were the greatest thing ever invented. Layers and saddle horns.

  At least for Taylor. One more sign that she needed control in aspects of her life where other people didn’t. The saddle horn helped her stay on. Bareback wasn’t an option.

  She changed from her work clothes into a layered outfit made up of flannels, long johns, a long-sleeve t-shirt, and a fleece-lined jacket under a down-alternative coat. She grabbed a fleece balaclava that covered her head and neck and could cover her lower face, if she needed it to.

  The outfit wasn’t what she would prefer for her first date, but she wasn’t going to stand there shivering in the cold if they were going to be outside like Elizabeth had said.

  Walking back to the office, Taylor grabbed her car and tore out of the parking lot. She wasn’t in the mood to talk to her sisters again that day. There was nothing they could say that would make sense. She hadn’t held anything back and she had nothing to apologize for, even if she did feel bad that she’d gone off on them.

  But wasn’t what she’d said true? Wasn’t she tired of the entire situation? The fact that Roman agreed with them insomuch that he had brought the flaw up so many times when they were together, it became the mantra for any fight they’d had only seemed to confirm what her sisters said. Taylor had nothing else to think she needed to change than her scheduling problem.

  The north side of Mistletoe was bordered by a remotely owned piece of property that spanned two-thousand acres across and served as a divide between the Dean and Wilson ranches. The depth of the acreage dove into the lines and heights of the mountains beyond but also encompassed an abandoned down from the late 1800s.

  The stables belonged to the land owner, but was run locally by the same family for so long, most of the locals referred to the area as the Stanfords’ anyway.

  Parking in the fourth spot available from the main offices of the stables, Taylor left her keys in the ignition but turned off the car.

  She sat in the driver’s seat for a long, drawn out moment just staring at the light glowing through the windows. Three pm and it was already starting to get dark. Not enough that the sun was down, but it had definitely slid through the sky throughout the day as if it couldn’t wait to get to bed.

  Taking a deep breath, Taylor held it while she closed her eyes and then counted to ten. She had no idea what she was supposed to be thinking or feeling. She had no idea who she was meeting or who to look for. She hadn’t even been given a clue, just that he’d be there at the stables and to dress warm.

  Rubbing her hands down the front thighs of her jeans, Taylor controlled her breathing as her nerves worked overtime with questions, insecurities, and doubts.

  What would she tell a client in that situation? She would tell them to have faith in her match and have fun. That’s all she expected. She could do the same thing. Have faith and have fun. She climbed out of the car and licked her lips.

  She pushed through the door to the stables and came to a stop as she studied the man waiting by the main desk.

  Bryson Davis. Elizabeth and her father had matched her to Bryson Davis? Taylor actually could see that. He was a good-looking guy who didn’t preen. His clothing was understated and he owned a business that focused on Customer and IT support. He seemed respectful and gentlemanly. Exactly the types of things Taylor needed. Not to mention, he was always on time and never canceled at the last minute. All of that she’d gotten from his profile.

  He turned to look at her as she pulled off her gloves to straighten her hair.

  “Taylor! I wasn’t sure who I was getting m
atched to. Do you know? Is she coming soon? Are you going to be here to monitor it like the contest? Will there be cameras or anything? Wouldn’t that be great, if I was like the alternate or something? Can you imagine? Olivia Jensen.” He clapped his hands as he moved toward her, holding out his hand until she was able to take it and shake. He looked beyond her, craning his neck to see out the rectangle windows set in the door behind her.

  Overwhelmed with the deluge of questions, Taylor blinked and waited to make sure he was done speaking before answering. “Um, actually, Bryson, I think it’s me you were matched to.” She’d never been on that end of the matchmaking process. It was awkward and there had to be a better way to do that part.

  Why were they matched like a blind date? She took a steadying breath and smiled at him.

  Bryson blinked at her. He reached up and adjusted the button of the collar of his shirt and stretched his chin to the side. “Wait, I’m sorry. You were matched to me? I… I didn’t know you were looking for someone.” His expression went from professional friendliness to something more calculated and interested. He scanned her form from head to toe, his eyes narrowed.

  “Yeah, I decided recently that I’m ready to start a family.” She smiled and nodded toward the desk. “Are we going for a ride or doing something else?” Taylor just wanted to make him look at something instead of focusing on her with a look in his eye she hadn’t had directed on her in… ever?

  She wasn’t sure, but Bryson suddenly seemed off. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something didn’t feel right.

  “Yeah, actually, I thought we could go for a ride around the abandoned town. It shouldn’t be too long of a ride and the weather is pretty clear. What do you think?” He smiled at her and placed his hand on the small of her back with a possessiveness that left Taylor’s skin crawling. She moved ahead of him, trying to maneuver herself to the side to get his hand off her.