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It’s like CowGate never happened. A cover-up that would even impress Olivia Pope.

I’ve organized a lot of weddings over the years but never one so personal to me. Raya has been back out to the ranch three times since she and Finn got engaged. We did cake tastings and visited caterers. We walked the grounds, and I asked tons of questions, taking so many notes so I could take the vision she had in her head and do everything I could to make it a reality. In the end, she said she trusted that I would make sure her day was exactly as beautiful as we’d imagined.

I cannot let her down.

Chapter Eighteen

Hattie

Ihead back to the lodge, kick off my shoes at the entrance, and go to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. I flip open my iPad and look over the list.

I don’t want to get too confident, but I think I’m on the cusp of pulling this off. And if I do, it’ll hopefully be the first of many events at the ranch. And the first step in me building a business of my own—something I never really knew I wanted until the idea hit me.

There are still things I can’t do until the day of the wedding because of the weather, but I’ve placed orders, confirmed vendors, replaced the things we lost in CowGate, and against all odds, everything is done.

Noble walks in and finds me standing in the kitchen, staring at the iPad.

He stops short and watches me. “You good?”

“Yeah, I’m just—” I purse my lips for a split second, then turn the iPad around. “Everything’s done.”

“How about that.” He seems less surprised than I feel.

“Yeah. Done,” I say, still trying to work it out. “I keep going back over it, because I budgeted more time, so I must’ve forgotten something, right?”

“Or you just worked faster than you thought you would.”

I stare at him, aware that his help is the thing I didn’t budget for.

I turn the iPad around and study all the lines struck through each item on the list, then I look at Noble. “You did a lot of this stuff.”

He shrugs. “What else was I going to do?”

Unlike my siblings, who’ve dedicated plenty of time to wedding and lodge prep, Noble hasn’t been sandwiching the tasks in after work hours. This is all he’s had to do.

Without saying a word, he’s been checking things off a list I never gave him.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I say.

“Happy to help.” He watches me for a few seconds, and I don’t know what else to say.

I start to feel nervous and fidgety, picking at the edge of the label of my bottle of water. “It feels wrong, like I should have more to do—I mean, this is a really big deal.” I go still. “I’ve got a lot riding on this wedding. It’s Finn’s big day, and you know I want it to be perfect, but⁠—”

“You have something to prove.”

“Sort of?” I admit. “So, you know, thank you.”

He waves me off, moves around the counter, and opens the fridge. He pulls out a bottle of water, twists off the cap, and looks at me. “No big deal.”

But it is a big deal.

It’s a big deal, Noble.

It’s not easy for me to rely on other people, but I’m starting to think having someone to count on in all of this might not be a bad thing.

But that partner can’t be Noble. No matter how good he is with his hands.

That thought sends my mind to places it shouldn’t go, and I quickly shake it away and say the first thing I can think of—“Should I go back to work?”