The tension stretched and then snapped when Duke took one last sweeping glance at the lodge, the barn, the rolling hills beyond. His parents had bought this land and raised two boys here—Duke and his brother, Daniel. Daniel had turned it into the Wilder Ranch, living here year-round and welcoming guests each summer until he died two years ago. Lily and Duke kept the business limping along, but it was never his priority and always her dream to be here full-time, to take it over, to bring it back to what it had been in the golden summers of her childhood. Seventy-eight horses and two hundred acres of glimmering Wyoming beauty were her idea of perfection, but Duke resented every single fence on the property like he was a cat in a cage.
Her larger-than-life father fit his cowboy hat on his head and nodded to the two of them. “Well. I’m off.”
There weren’t hugs. Leo and Lily didn’t even step down from the wide porch. They silently watched the long, strong shape of Duke Wilder stride over to his old hulking truck and climb in.
Lily turned to Leo, bouncing on the balls of her feet, joy bubbling up inside her with a force that might shoot her off into the gray-blue sky.
“You ready for this, boss?” he asked.
Lily answered Leo with a kiss she hoped told him the things she sometimes still struggled to say.
She let it all sink in. Right now, everything was exactly right. No one and nothing rushed her past this single, perfect moment. With the dust of Duke’s truck still swirling in his wake, all that mattered was the love at her side and the bejeweled galaxy of land around her. Her galaxy. She took a breath to speak but was caught in a double take at the tender expression on Leo’s face as he looked down at her. “Lovesick City Boy,” all the cowboys had called him from that very first day he met her, five months ago.
Laughing—blissful—Lily cupped his cheek and stretched to kiss him again. “Promise me we’ll be happy here forever.”
He nodded and brought his forehead down to rest against hers. “I promise.”
Chapter One
Hester, Utah—Archie’s Bar
May, Present Day
“IN HINDSIGHT,” LILY said, wincing, “I know better than to ignore a bar fight going on behind me.”
Archie extended a meaty hand, passing her a dripping cloth full of ice. “I’m more concerned you took an elbow to the back of the head and barely flinched.”
“Is that a joke about me being hardheaded?” She sucked in a breath at the shock of ice against the nape of her neck.
Archie leaned over the bar. “I’m saying you’re a tough little cowgirl, Lily Wilder.”
Lily shoved him away with a laugh. “Kiss my ass, Arch.”
“Any time you want, Lil.”
With an elbow resting on the scuffed wood, she held the ice in place and watched condensation track in slow, fat streams down her pint glass. But as soon as she dragged a finger through it, the glass got muddy. All day long, wind worked the red desert dust into the creases of her clothing, into her hair. Hands, arms, face. Thank God for showers and sunscreen. With the kind of crowd one found at Archie’s, though, it was never worth showering before coming in—whether Lily was sitting at the bar with a beer or working behind it in the off-season. The errant elbow to the back of her head was proof enough.
The door opened, briefly blasting the dim room with light, and Nicole arrived in a flash of messy blond hair and checked red-and-blue flannel. Sliding onto the stool beside Lily’s, Nicole lifted her chin to Archie in both silent greeting and beverage order. He pulled a lager into a questionably clean glass and slid an even more questionably clean bowl of peanuts toward the women. More starving than fastidious, Lily dug in.
Nicole gestured to the ice pack. “What the hell?”
“Petey and Lou were at it. I was collateral damage.”
“Need me to kick their asses?” She moved to stand, but Lily stopped her with a hand on the arm.
Nicole was taller and stronger than Lily, and her loyalty made her nearly feral when provoked. Lily wagered that Petey and Lou would have a pretty fair fight on their hands. If Lily gestured for Nic to go at it, she’d die trying. But Nic was all she had, so Lily tipped her head instead toward the small stack of papers on the bar near her friend’s arm. “Is that the new group?”
Nicole nodded. “Arriving tomorrow.”
“Dudes?” Lily asked. Their clients were almost always men coming out to hunt treasure and play at being outlaws. A group of women felt like a breath of fresh air. Those trips were quieter, more easygoing. They almost made the job worth it. Almost.