by Jennie Marts
He laughed, then his expression turned serious as he raised his hand and rested it against her cheek. “I love you, Jocelyn.”
“I love you too.” She pressed her cheek into his palm. “I have no idea where I’m going to live or what our life is going to look like, but I know I want my life to be with you.”
“We’ll figure it out. Together.”
She liked the sound of that.
“Jocelyn!”
She turned toward the sound of her name being called and was shocked to see the Carlsons coming around the corner of the stage and hurrying in her direction.
She took a few steps toward them, then Julia hurled herself forward and threw her arms around Jocelyn. “I can’t believe we found you.”
“It was much easier once Chase called you up on stage,” Mike said.
Jocelyn waved them away from the stage, and the four of them walked closer to the ranch until the sound of the music wasn’t quite as loud. “What are you guys doing here?”
“Besides being huge Chase Dalton fans, we came to find you,” Julia told her.
“Why?”
Julia tipped her head to give Mack an appraising once-over. “So this is the guy you threw us over for?”
A smile tugged at the corner of Jocelyn’s lips. “Yes.”
“I can see why. He’s cute.”
Mack held out his hand. “Mack Talbot.”
Mike stuck out his hand and gave Mack’s a firm shake. “Mike and Julia Carlson. We’re the ones Jocelyn bailed on to come find you.”
Mack shrugged. “I can’t say I’m sorry she did.”
“We’re here to tell you that you don’t have to,” Julia said. “We put an offer in this afternoon on that second place we looked at yesterday. Then we called Andrea on our way down here and told her that we are for sure expanding into Colorado. And we also told her we don’t want to work with anyone but you.”
“I appreciate that, but I’ve already decided I’m not going back to New York. I’m staying in Colorado.”
“That’s perfect. You can work remotely from here, and we’ll just plan to meet a couple of times a month when we’re in Denver. Or we could even come up here to meet you.” Julia paused to gaze around the ranch. “This place is totally amazing, by the way.”
As much as Jocelyn appreciated the compliment to the ranch, she was stuck on the first part of what she’d said. “Wait. You’re saying you still want me to work for you, but I can do it remotely? From here?”
“Absolutely.”
“And Andrea agreed with this idea?”
“She was totally on board. In fact, she seemed a little annoyed at herself that she hadn’t thought of the idea first. I think she’s planning to call you tomorrow to run the concept by you.”
“I’m stunned. And flattered.”
“But will you do it? Will you keep your job and work on our campaign remotely?”
“You bet I will.” Jocelyn peeked a glance at Mack, whose face beamed with a proud grin.
“Great.” Julia gave her another quick hug. “We’ll hash out the details later. But right now I want to go back and catch the last of Chase Dalton’s set. I love that guy.”
Jocelyn waved her on. “Go. Have fun. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Mike raised a hand, then he and Julia took off back toward the stage.
Jocelyn turned back to Mack. “Can you believe that just happened?”
“Yeah, I can. Everything seems to be falling into place.” He gazed out over the crowd. “Now we just have to get through tonight and see if our efforts raised enough money to rescue the ranch.”
“Well, that’s it. That’s the last of the cash donations,” Jocelyn said the next morning, as she put the final stack of twenties into a pile.
It was just her, Mack, and Gram sitting around the table as they compiled the final tallies of the vendors, entrance fees, and donations. Peaches was curled in her lap, and Savage was sprawled out on the floor next to her feet. The basset hound hadn’t left her side all morning. Apparently Mack and her grandmother weren’t the only ones who were glad to have her back.
“So, did we make it?” Mack squinted at her over the rim of his coffee cup.
She blew out a sigh. “Not quite. We’re still two thousand dollars shy, but with the donations online, we just broke ten thousand dollars.”
“Ten thousand dollars?” Molly pressed back against her chair. “I can’t believe it. I never imagined a concert that we put together in five days could bring in ten thousand dollars.”
“Well, the majority of the credit goes to Chase,” Mack said. “His impromptu appearance brought in hundreds more people than we’d expected. And his asking for donations really tipped the bucket in our direction.”
“And your Facebook post made a huge difference too,” Jocelyn told him. “The power of social media.”
“And a love story,” Gram added. “People love a good romance.”
Jocelyn ducked her head, heat warming her cheeks. Mack’s knee touched hers, and his hand brushed across her leg. Her lips curved into a coy smile.
“If you two lovebirds are done making googly eyes at each other, we should probably get all this down to the bank,” Gram said.
“The bank?” Jocelyn asked, turning back to her grandmother. “Aren’t they closed today?”
“Yes, but I know the bank manager, and I told him I didn’t want to have all this cash out here at the ranch, so he said we could drop it off this morning, and he’d lock it up.”
“Good. We’re coming in with you, and I’m going to talk to him about giving you an extension on the last little bit of the loan.”
“You’ll do no such thing.”
“It’s either that, or you let me pay off the final two thousand dollars with the bonus money from my promotion.”
“You don’t even know when you’re going to get that money. But I’m not letting you use it for me anyway. But you can try. To talk to the bank manager, I mean. Not try to pay it.”
The house phone rang as they were getting ready to leave. Jocelyn picked it up. “Hello.”
“Hello, who’s this?” Mrs. Crandle’s voice boomed over the line.
“It’s Jocelyn. Hello, Mrs. Crandle.”
“No time to chitchat, dear. I could barely sleep last night. I have to know. Did you make it? Did you raise the money you need to rescue Harmony Ranch?”
Jocelyn was touched by the woman’s concern. “Not quite. We’re still two grand short. But we’re heading down to the bank now to drop off the donations and see if we can work out some kind of arrangement with the bank manager.”
“On a Sunday?” She let out a huff.
“You know small towns. I’m sure it will be a short meeting. But the loan is due tomorrow so we need to know how much more we have to scramble today.”
“Well, tell Molly not to worry. I’m sure it will work out.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Crandle.”
Thirty minutes later, Mack, Jocelyn, and Gram’s collective mouths dropped open as the bank manager sat across the desk from them and gave them some unexpected news.
“What do you mean, the rest of the loan has been taken care of?” Mack asked, the first to get his mouth to work.
The manager shrugged. “Just what I said. Someone called me this morning and made an anonymous donation of two thousand dollars, so with this deposit, the loan will be paid in full.”
“But how could someone just call you out of the blue like that?” Jocelyn sputtered. “And with a donation of the exact amount we were short?”
Gram nudged her arm. “Is this you trying to pull a fast one on me? Are you the anonymous donor?”
Jocelyn shook her head. “No. I swear. It wasn’t me.”
Her grandmother tapped the edge of the knee scooter, then her eyes widened. “No. It coul
dn’t be. There was only one other person who knew we were short exactly two thousand dollars.” Gram squinted at the bank manager. “You don’t have to tell me who it was, but blink twice if it was the old lady who lives next door to the ranch and whose name rhymes with handle?”
The bank manager held her gaze, but a grin tugged at the corners of his lips. “I think you know that if it were a certain Mrs. Handle, she wouldn’t be too thrilled to find out I was the one who spilled the beans about her generosity.”
Gram nodded as she tapped the side of her nose. “The secret’s safe with me.”
Elated, they thanked the bank manager and headed toward Mack’s truck.
“We did it,” Jocelyn shrieked, throwing her arms around her grandmother’s shoulders.
“We sure did,” Gram said. “I still can’t believe it. And I can’t believe Edith Crandle came through with the final donation. We’ve got to go over there and thank her.”
“But you just told the bank manager you wouldn’t give away her secret.”
“Fine. We’ll make up another reason to stop—we can say we’re checking up on the dog. And I’ll just thank her for calling this morning.”
Mrs. Crandle seemed surprised to see them ten minutes later when they showed up at her door. Jocelyn wasn’t sure she was going to let them in.
But there was no stopping Molly Stone when she set her mind to something, and she wheeled Midge right into the woman’s living room.
“Come on in. Make yourself at home,” Mrs. Crandle muttered. “You will anyway.” But the woman also scooted around Gram to stand on the other side of the living room, almost as if she were blocking the hallway.
The little brown dog raced into the room, its tail wagging as it greeted each of them with a lick and a sniff. Jocelyn sat on the sofa, and the dog jumped into her lap. She laughed as she scratched the puppy’s ears and it rolled over for a belly rub.
“We just wanted to stop by on our way home from the bank to tell you thanks for checking in this morning and that the loan has been paid in full. Harmony Ranch has been saved,” Gram told her. “So we still get to be neighbors.”
“Yippee,” Mrs. Crandle said in a deadpan voice as she lowered herself into her recliner. “I’ll start planning a party.”
Gram waved away her sarcasm. “Oh don’t be such a sourpuss. We’re so excited. And we can’t believe how many people pitched in to help. Do you know someone made an anonymous donation to the bank just this morning for a whopping two thousand dollars? Can you imagine? Who would do such a thoughtful thing?”
“No, I can’t imagine,” Mrs. Crandle murmured, as she straightened the doily covering the armrest of her chair.
“So many things really came together to make this weekend a success,” Jocelyn said. “The biggest one was having the country music star, Chase Dalton, call Mack out of the blue and offer to play a few songs at the concert. Have you heard of him?”
“Oh, I think I’ve heard the name.” Mrs. Crandle’s attention was laser-focused on the doily, although Jocelyn couldn’t imagine how it could get any straighter.
“We couldn’t believe it,” Mack said. “He really made all the difference.”
Mack was interrupted by a man’s voice coming from down the hallway. “Hey Grandma, I was going to run into the store. Do you need me to grab you anything?”
Jocelyn sucked in her breath as Chase Dalton stepped into the room. “Grandma?”
Mack’s mouth fell open as his gaze darted between Chase and Mrs. Crandle. “Chase Dalton is your grandson?”
“Sorry, Grandma. I didn’t know you had company,” Chase said, offering them all a sheepish grin and a little wave. “Hey y’all.”
“Edith, you little sneak,” Gram said. “Are you the one who arranged for him to offer to play at the concert?”
Mrs. Crandle gave a slight shrug. “It wasn’t a big deal. He was coming through Colorado for a visit anyway, so I just asked him to come a couple of days early.”
“Which worked out well, because she also needed me to fix that old furnace that’s been giving her trouble,” Chase said, smiling at his grandmother as he rested his hand tenderly on her shoulder.
“It was a big deal,” Gram said, taking Mrs. Crandle’s hand in hers. “Having Chase play is what made the concert such a success, and him asking for donations is what earned the money to help pay the loan. We thought he saved us, but you were the one who was really behind it. You rescued Harmony Ranch.”
A soft rose color bloomed on Mrs. Crandle’s cheeks. “No—we rescued Harmony Ranch. All of us. We all played a part, and we did it together.”
“Thank you,” Jocelyn said, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears at the loving gesture Mrs. Crandle had given her grandmother. She never would have thought the neighbor she’d always viewed as a little crotchety would be the one to come through with the most generous and thoughtful offerings. “What you gave us was a real gift.”
“You are the one who gave me a gift.” Mrs. Crandle patted her thighs, and the little dog jumped down, raced across the room, and leapt into the older woman’s lap. He gave her chin a quick lick before curling up on her legs. “This little guy brings me happiness every day. I named him Phil, because he fills me with so much joy.” She put her arms protectively around the dog’s body. “I’m keeping him, just so you know.”
Jocelyn grinned. “Yeah, I know.”
Later that night, Mack and Jocelyn cuddled on the porch swing as they looked out over Harmony Ranch. The sun was just setting, and it threw a golden glow over the pond and the little cluster of buildings that made up the living history museum.
Her phone buzzed, breaking the stillness, and she pulled it from her pocket. She didn’t recognize the number, so she answered with a cautious, “Hello.”
“Hi there. I was calling about the dogs you found,” the voice on the other end of the line said.
Jocelyn’s heart practically stopped beating. Why now? When the dogs were just settling in?
“I was just checking to see if you had heard from their owners. I saw the posters, and they were so cute, I was going to offer to adopt them if they hadn’t been claimed yet.”
Jocelyn let out her breath. “Oh, that’s very kind of you, but they both have been claimed, and they’ve found their forever homes. Thanks for calling, though. Bye.” She put her phone back in her pocket and slumped back against Mack’s arm. “Whew. For a second there, I thought we were going to have to give the dogs up.”
Mack laughed. “As if anyone could pry those pups from either of those women’s hands.” He rubbed his thumb gently over her arm. “I like how you said they found their forever homes.”
She smiled up at him. “That’s what I’ve found too.”
“What about New York? Will you miss it?”
“I don’t think so. Not much. I’ve always been on my own in the city. So many people live in New York, but I’ve still always felt alone there.”
“You’re not alone anymore.” He picked up her hand. “I was thinking I could fly back with you though. I could help you pack up your closet, then we could rent a truck and drive back to Colorado together. I’ve never been to the East Coast. It could be fun.”
“I love that idea.” She snuggled against him. “And I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Her grin turned coy. “Not that it matters, but I’d like to point out that I did say it first.”
“Say what?”
“That I love you.”
He laughed as he shook his head. “It’s not a competition.”
“I know. But I still told you first.”
He pulled her against him and pressed a kiss to her lips. This was one competition he was happy to lose.
Because in the game of love, he’d already won.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Three months later…
>
Jocelyn stood at the back of the church, her arm looped through Hank’s elbow, as she waited for her cue to start down the aisle toward the man she loved. The church was gorgeous, decorated in soft greens and blues and covered in sprigs of wildflowers.
Hank gave her hand an encouraging pat. He looked so sharp in his tuxedo. And so proud. He’d been thrilled when Jocelyn had asked him to be the one to give her away. “But we just got you,” he’d teased in his Hank way, then tearfully told her he’d be honored.
She couldn’t believe they’d pulled off a wedding in only a few months. But she’d found there wasn’t much she and Mack couldn’t accomplish together when they set their minds to it.
She looked out over the sea of faces who were there to celebrate with them. Emmet Scott was dressed in a new gray suit and sat next to her grandmother. Gram and Loretta were in the front row together, grasping tissues in their hands, their eyes already tear-filled. They’d enthusiastically congratulated themselves over breakfast that morning, claiming credit for their matchmaking efforts at getting her and Mack back together.
Sophie, looking beautiful in a soft pink floral dress, sat alone in an empty pew. She’d become a good friend to Jocelyn over the last few months.
Savage sat at Hank’s feet, but pushed up and started down the aisle at Mack’s beckoning whistle. The rings were tied in a bow around his collar. Loretta had made the basset hound a miniature tuxedo that strapped around his substantial belly. He looked more like a sad butler than a ring bearer, but Jocelyn didn’t care.
It seemed like half the town had shown up to the wedding. So many people who were more like family than friends.
Jocelyn spied Edith Crandle standing at the back, taking her duties at the guestbook quite seriously.
Her eyes went round as she saw Chase Dalton sneak in the back. Edith had asked if she could bring a plus one, but she and Mack had assumed that meant she had a suitor. Chase gave his grandma a quick kiss on the cheek. She hugged him, then directed him to an almost-empty pew.
He smiled as he slid in next to Sophie. Jocelyn grinned. She couldn’t help but notice the way Sophie’s lips curved into a smile as she nodded to the man wearing Wranglers and cowboy boots. She sat a little taller in the seat as he took off his black Stetson and smoothed his sandy blond hair before setting the hat in the pew on his other side.
