do in a place like this?
“So, have you found a place to stay?”
“No, not yet.”
“We have a cabin you can use if you’d like. It’s one of the original ones my husband, Daniel, and I built when we opened the ranch to guests. A few years back, we remodeled and expanded the number of guest quarters, but we decided to keep a few of the older cabins for the staff’s use. It’s pretty basic, with just a bedroom, a small sitting area, a kitchenette, and a bath. Perhaps you’d prefer to live in town—”
“It sounds about the size of my New York apartment, so I should feel right at home. If I may, I’d love to stay here, especially as my car seems to have met an untimely end at the hand of a cowboy.”
Adele’s eyes widened. “Really? What happened?”
“That guy Ward? He may be excellent at cowboy stuff, but I wouldn’t let him anywhere near your car. Mine was running until he came along.” Recalling his high-handed manner, she frowned and added in a low mutter, “His people skills could use a little work, too.”
The amused smile on Adele’s face told Tess she’d heard this last bit, too. She was going to have to breakthe habit of talking to herself, which she’d gotten into while driving across the country. At least it didn’t seem as if she had offended Adele, she thought with relief.
“Well, Ward can be difficult at times. He was always a very opinionated little boy.”
“So you’ve known him a long time?”
Adele’s blue eyes twinkled. “Since birth. He’s my son.”
Oh, crap.
I T WAS F EBRUARY 14, and Ward Knowles didn’t do Valentine’s Day. Been there, done that, got the broken engagement to prove it. But it seemed he was pretty much a lone fish swimming against the tide. Everyone else was busy celebrating with all the heart-shaped gooey-centered sentiment the holiday invoked. It certainly was all around him at Silver Creek Ranch. As the holiday fell on a Saturday this year, the guest ranch was booked solid.
Since Friday, the corks had been popping from the bottles of a Mendocino sparkling wine that his younger brother, Reid, had selected for the weekend’s wine list, and the bubbly was flowing freely. In the main lodge’s gleaming stainless steel kitchen, Roo Rodgers, their pastry chef, had been creating chocolate fantasies to delight their guests’ taste buds. Not to be outdone, Jeff Sullivan, the chef, was offering specials to appeal to every palate: duck à l’orange; pepper-encrusted filet mignon; seared scallops with roasted Meyer lemons and capers on a bed of Israeli couscous; and, for the vegetarians and vegans, a warm orzo salad with roasted beets and greens and a mung bean and butternut squash stew.
His mother, romantic to the core, had worked withher new assistant to create the large floral arrangements in the lounge area as well as the centerpieces for the tables in the bar and dining room. The hushed oohs and aahs of appreciation when the guests entered the public rooms and beheld the gorgeous compositions was music to a hotelier’s ears.
“Luv” was good for business so Ward supposed he shouldn’t grouse. Nor should he be irritated by the fact that his mother’s new assistant continued to treat him with polite hostility. New York brunettes with attitudes sorely tried his generally charming demeanor.
He and his kid sister, Quinn, were doing their part to make the holiday weekend special for their guests by guiding them on a trail ride that would take them over the ranch’s sprawling acreage and into the neighboring state forest preserve’s miles of trails. The two-hour ride would allow the guests to work off the indulgences of the night before and whet their appetites for the delicacies ahead. Ward would make sure he set a pace just challenging enough so that the guests who’d booked the hour-long full-body massage would be groaning in bliss when their muscles were kneaded and stretched.
The February weather made it too cold for the guests to enjoy
Megan Hart, Saranna DeWylde, Lauren Hawkeye