by Liz Isaacson
Wes searched for her in the people waiting beside him, his heart banging against his ribcage now. Bang, bang, bang. His pulse moved into his ears, and he couldn’t hear whoever Bree was with. He couldn’t see her either.
Somehow, Bree’s voice cut through the other noise, the hammering of his heartbeat, all of it. “And I’m not calling him,” she said. “So don’t even suggest it.”
He found her sitting at one of the tables-for-two on the other side of a black railing. She shook her hair, dark curls falling over her shoulders and down her back. She looked at the woman across from her, who held up both hands as if surrendering. Wes had to get a better look, and he wasn’t sure who he touched or pressed through to get closer. He just knew that he now stood a couple of feet behind Bree’s friend, his view of her clear and focused.
She was absolutely gorgeous, and Wes felt like someone had stunned him. He gripped the railing with one hand as her friend said, “So, what are you going to do, Bree? Stop trying?”
“Yes,” Bree said, the word almost a shout. “I’m going to stop trying. I don’t need a man in my life. All they do is break my heart.”
Wes wanted to shout that he wouldn’t. That he hadn’t. That she’d been the one to cool things between them, before they’d even had a chance to see if they’d get hot.
She looked at her friend with dark, soulful eyes, and Wes knew he could get lost in them. She wore makeup, but not too much, and when she reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear, he caught sight of dark purple fingernails.
He’d once told her that he’d dated a woman with bright red nails, and that he’d hated them. What color would you choose? she’d asked.
Purple, he’d said. A nice, dark, deep purple.
Just like what she had on her fingers.
It means nothing, he told himself. She hadn’t remembered that conversation. Even if she did, she’d just told her friend she wasn’t going to call him. At least he hoped he was the him she’d referenced.
His phone rang, startling him away from the railing. The last thing he wanted was for Bree to see him. But she did look over to him, as he literally stood maybe eight feet from her. Her eyes swept over him, past him, maybe not even seeing him.
He ducked his head anyway, never more grateful for a cowboy hat than he was in that moment. Colton’s name sat on the screen, and Wes swiped on the call, his heart beating at him to get out of there. Now.
“Hey,” he said. “Stagg’s is super busy.” He walked away from Bree, part of him begging him to stay. Telling him to go back and pull up a chair and say, Hey Bree. You might not remember me, but I haven’t stopped thinking about you in six months. I’m Wes Hammond.
Stick out his hand. See if she’d shake it.
“Can we go somewhere else?” Wes asked, desperate now. If Colton didn’t agree, Wes would simply march back to his truck and find something else to eat in the next town he came to.
And I’m not calling him.
“Sure,” Colton said. “Oh, I see you. We’ll make a plan.”
“Great.” Wes hung up, still striding away from Stagg’s—and the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on.
Chapter Two
Breeann Richards sighed as she opened her desk drawer and put her purse inside.
“Rough day?” Willie asked from the next desk over.
“When the Fourth is over,” Bree said. “Life will be normal again.” She collapsed into her desk chair, knowing that her exhaustion came from more than just working two jobs. It came from the additional debt she’d incurred over the five months she and Alex had dated. The man said he drove a tour bus, but he never seemed to have any money to do anything. And he wanted to do expensive things, like go river rafting and go out to eat at expensive restaurants.
Because of him, Bree had another gash on her heart, thousands of dollars in credit card debt, and this second job working for a temp agency, helping other people find jobs.
“At least the restaurants won’t be so crowded,” Willie agreed. She went back to her computer, and Bree should too. Her phone rang, though, and a small blip in her heartbeat told her she hadn’t gotten over Wes yet. Sure, she’d just told Elise she wasn’t going to call him—and she wasn’t.
Didn’t mean she couldn’t fantasize about making that call and hearing that voice.
But this call had Graham’s name on it, and Bree swiped it open. “Hey, Graham,” she said.
“Heya, Bree,” he said. “We’ve decided to go ahead and hire a butler.”
Bree couldn’t help smiling. “I think it’s so odd to call them that,” she said. “But all right.”
“It’s better than bellhop,” Graham said. “And besides, he’ll have to help with more than just taking bags to rooms.”
“What else?” Bree said, jiggling her mouse to get it to wake. “I’m assuming you called me, so I can make a job listing for you?”
“That’s right,” Graham said. “We want him to have experience with horses.”
“You’re only looking for males?” Bree asked.
“No, anyone,” Graham said. “But they have to be able to carry heavy baggage up and down stairs.”
“I’ll put sixty pounds,” Bree said, typing information into an intake form for new listings. “Horse care required. What else?”
“Cooking is a plus. Customer service,” Graham said. “Current driver’s license, with no accidents in the past three years. He’ll be a valet too.”
“Valet,” Bree said.
“Patsy would love someone who can be part of the admin team,” Graham said. “So a business background maybe.”
Bree’s eyebrows went up as she keyed in the info. “How much are you paying this person?” She wondered if she could lift sixty pounds, as she had all of these other qualifications.
“It’s a full-time position,” Graham said. “Though we don’t have room at the lodge for them, so they’ll have to come up the canyon every day. I don’t know. Beau said seventy-five.”
“Thousand?” Bree couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice.
“Yeah,” Graham said. “If we can get someone who does all these miscellaneous things, but really has a business mind…the lodge needs that. Patsy does a great job of running things day-to-day. You all do.” Graham exhaled heavily. “We think we just might need someone with more of a, I don’t know, some type of background that can help the lodge stay current. Maybe even expand. Thrive.”
“Yeah,” Bree said. “I know what you mean.” Whiskey Mountain Lodge was a stunning mountain villa, with views of the Tetons that were unmatched. All the rooms were fully booked almost all the time, especially in the summer. They did fine. But they weren’t growing. Even Bree felt stagnant in her position there, and she wouldn’t mind some help with the horses, and some new blood to offer new ideas for events.
“Okay,” she said. “Let me read this back to you.” She did, outlining the requirements for the job, the salary, and then she asked, “When do you want it to close?”
“Can we leave that open?” Graham said. “Open until filled.”
“Sure,” Bree said. “I’ll get this processed, and it’ll be on the website by tomorrow morning.”
“Great,” Graham said. “I’ll tell Andrew, and he’ll get the word out.”
“Perfect.” The call ended, and Bree finished up with her end of posting the listing. It would take a few hours for the system to generate the listing, and she clicked the final approval box and got the process going.
She met with a couple of people as they came in to look at the job board. She took two more listings, noticing a man hanging around outside the workforce office. That wasn’t entirely uncommon, as sometimes people had to work up the courage to come in and admit they needed help finding a job.
Coral Canyon was booming right now, though, and there were more jobs than people to take them. She was still considering applying for the butler position at the lodge herself.
By the time the office closed, and Willie and Bree could go
home, the loitering cowboy had left. Thank goodness. Bree didn’t need any more experience with handsome cowboys. No, siree. She was done with them, thank you very much.
Still, in the back of her mind, and in the tiniest corner of her heart, she still wanted one—a good one. There had to be a good man out there somewhere, didn’t there? One who didn’t lie about his name, and one who didn’t lie about his job, and one who wouldn’t bleed her dry financially and emotionally. Right?
She closed her eyes and asked the Lord, right?
He didn’t answer, of course, and Bree was starting to wonder if He ever would. She banished that poisonous thought though, because all she had to do was go outside and look at the mountains to know God existed.
And if He existed, He wouldn’t abandon His children here on earth. Bree simply had a harder time communicating with him than other people did. Seemingly everyone, she thought, but she put that out of her mind too.
Pastor Clemens had said the Lord spoke to different people in different ways, and Bree couldn’t carry the burden of comparing herself to anyone else when it came to the Lord too. Heaven knew she was already doing it in every other aspect of her life.
Willie exited the building first, and Bree turned to lock the door behind them. They had the next two days off, and Bree couldn’t wait for her four-day weekend. When she turned, Willie gave her a hug, and they walked toward their cars.
Willie’s phone rang, and she said, “It’s Connor,” with a laugh in her voice. “See you Monday, Bree.”
“Yeah, bye.” Bree didn’t wait around to hear Willie chirp hello to the man who wanted to be her boyfriend. She pressed against the rising jealousy in her stomach, telling herself that she didn’t need another low-life cowboy loser in her life. She didn’t.
“Ma’am,” someone said, and Bree looked up. Adrenaline spiked in her body, sending her pulse flying though her feet froze.
The cowboy who’d been loitering near the windows had taken up camp near her car. He actually sat on the tailgate of his truck, his long legs dangling toward the ground. He certainly looked the part of a Wyoming cowboy, but he hadn’t sounded like one. He carried more of a Texas twang in that ma’am, and Bree couldn’t help taking in his strong jaw, that long, sloped nose, and his dark gray eyes.
Her pulse picked up for an entirely different reason now, and she tried to put the brakes on it. Unsuccessfully. She’d broken up with Alex five weeks ago.
“Did you need a job?” she asked. “I saw you outside earlier.”
He shook his head, changing it to a nod only a moment later.
“Is that a yes or a no?” she asked.
He nodded, and she wondered why he wasn’t speaking.
“We have a website,” she said, reaching into her purse and pulling out a card with all the information he’d need on it. She thought he could definitely lift sixty pounds—probably a hundred—right up over his head. But if he couldn’t talk, he couldn’t get the job at Whiskey Mountain Lodge.
Customer service was a requirement. She stepped toward him and handed him the card, her fingers coming dangerously close to his. “If you look there, you can see all the openings. We have a ton of stuff right now.”
He looked at the card and then her, and Bree had a severe sense of déjà vu. Did she know him? Where had she seen his face before?
She knew a lot of people around Coral Canyon, as she’d moved here the moment she’d graduated from college. She’d left home the day after getting her high school diploma, and she hadn’t been back in nineteen years now.
A pang of missing hit her, and she supposed she should at least call her parents that weekend. See how patriotic things were in Mountain Dale. But Bree knew there’d be red, white, and blue everywhere, same as here, though the two towns existed in two totally different states.
“If you need additional help,” Bree said. “There’s always a couple of people here to go over things with you.” She put a kind smile on her face, though her energy for the day was nearly gone. “My name’s Bree, and I work every day. Well, we’re closed tomorrow and Friday for the holiday, but first thing Monday morning. I only work until noon, usually. Today was just weird.”
She commanded herself to stop talking, wondering why she was still babbling on in the first place. She didn’t want to admit that she felt something magnetic pouring from the handsome cowboy on the tailgate, and he was holding her in place.
Adjusting her purse, she stepped toward her car. “Okay, bye.” She wanted to kick herself in the teeth. He didn’t need to know her work schedule, or that she had another job up the canyon that she worked—usually—from one until whenever everything was done.
At least she wouldn’t have to come down to the workforce office for the next four days. She’d just opened her door when the cowboy said, “Thank you, Bree.”
She froze again, her heart pittering, and then pattering, and then pouncing. It seemed to take a very long time for her eyes to lift from where she’d been searching for her keys in her purse to the man who’d just spoken.
She knew that voice.
She knew this man.
How?
While she stared at him, he cleared his throat and jumped down from the tailgate. He kept his cowboy hat dipped down, keeping that gorgeous face from her sight, and walked toward the driver’s door.
“Wait,” she said—more of a blurt really. “Do I know you?” She went halfway around the front of her car, keeping some distance between them. He hadn’t parked immediately next to her either, and two spaces separated them.
“No,” he said, pulling open his door. “Thanks.” He lifted the card and got in his truck. The engine started and he pulled away before Bree could even move.
Confusion riddled her mind, and her eyebrows pulled down. She did know him—or at least that voice. She’d heard that voice say her name before.
A wild, terrible thought entered her mind, and she spun to watch the black truck disappear around the corner.
It couldn’t be…. Why wouldn’t Wes just say who he was?
Her throat had never been drier, and yet, Bree couldn’t move. When she finally thawed, she couldn’t get her phone out of her purse fast enough. She still had Wes’s number. She’d just call him and ask him if he was in town and had happened to talk to someone about a job today.
“But you gave your name,” she said. “So if it was him, he’d know it was you.” She looked down the road again, half-expecting the truck to come back. Bring Wes back to her. Could that really happen? Could she and Wes have a second chance at…whatever they’d started the first time?
She got behind the wheel of her car and started the engine so the air conditioning would start to blow. Then she dialed Wes, clenching her teeth while she squeezed her eyes shut, a constant prayer streaming through her mind.
Three rings. Then four. Five.
His voicemail kicked on, and it was so impersonal and a recording, so she couldn’t really identify if he was the same man who’d literally said six words to her. Frustrated, and not wanting to leave a message, she hung up.
He’d see she called. Then he’d either call her back or ignore her. “Please let him call me back,” she said as she pulled out of the parking lot and went the same direction as the black truck had. She thought of no one and nothing else for the long drive back to her cabin up the canyon from town.
Time for her second job to begin.
Wes did not call back. The patriotic parade on the Fourth of July found Bree waving a miniature American flag with one child in her lap and two more on the blanket beside her. Rose and Liam always needed help, and Bree loved their triplets.
She worked around the lodge on Friday, prepping everything for the next couple of weeks so she wouldn’t have to work so late into the evening. Saturday, she did the same, putting on a children’s craft class, taking a group horseback riding, and coordinating a fishing expedition for the guests at the lodge that holiday weekend.
She found some solace and comfor
t at church on Sunday, but her question of who was that cowboy? had yet to be answered by anyone, man or divine being.
Monday, she woke early and made sure Patsy had everything she needed for that morning’s mountain yoga class, and then she drove down the canyon to the office. She scanned the parking lot, her heartbeat ricocheting around inside her chest.
The black truck wasn’t there. The gorgeous cowboy didn’t come in. Bree wasn’t sure why she felt so defeated and disappointed. She should’ve known someone like her wouldn’t be able to attract the gaze of a man like that. Still, she’d been dreaming of Wes, and she’d almost texted Colton to ask him to send her that picture he’d shown her once, months and months ago.
But she didn’t want him to know she’d never truly let go of his brother. She’d told him at least a dozen times that she’d made the right decision when she’d called Wes and ended their phone calls. Even after she’d broken up with Alex—and Colton had been the first to know—Bree had denied him concerning Wes.
“All right,” he’d said. “But he’s not dating anyone right now….”
Bree just needed a break. She drove back to her cabin and hurried to eat lunch before heading over to the lodge to make sure the afternoon check-ins went well. She liked to have brochures and schedules of their upcoming weekly activities on the counter, and she always worked check-in to help with the traffic and to answer any questions about events.
Bree loved working at Whiskey Mountain Lodge, and she truly felt like part of the Whittaker family. She loved Elise, Patsy, and Sophia, and she wasn’t surprised to enter the office and find she was the last to arrive.
“Afternoon,” she said to the others, reaching up to secure her ponytail a little tighter. She’d grown her hair out in the last six months, and she liked how feminine the longer locks made her look.
“There you are,” Patsy said. “We have the Kings coming today, and I need to be here for them. But Graham hired a new—butler, I guess?—and he started this morning. Could you help him this afternoon?”
“He hired someone already?” Bree asked, stowing her phone in the back pocket of her shorts.
