them. Tall and red haired, raised on a huge ranch not far away, the two of them had bonded as children when they traveled with their fathers to various cattle affairs. Rose, medium height, strawberry blond hair, had lived in Tulia and been Emily’s friend while she was there. When her family moved to Daisy, she and Alana had become sort-of friends. Rose’s parents had been very strict and she had never been allowed to go anywhere other than school, but Alana had liked her. The rest of the ladies, she’d gotten to know when Emily married Justin Dawson. Claire, a tiny little woman with a big attitude, had been one of Emily’s bridesmaids, and was married to Levi, the foreman at the Longhorn Canyon Ranch. Retta, a tall blonde with even more sass than Claire, was Emily’s sister-in-law, and married to Cade Dawson.
Dixie was the youngest woman in the group, and the newest to become a part of the friendship. A few months ago, she and her daughter, Sally, had been homeless. They had taken refuge in an abandoned house that had caught on fire, and Rose’s husband, Hud, who was a volunteer fireman, had rescued them. Now, Dixie worked for Claire in the quilt shop that she owned halfway across the state in Sunset.
Friends, becoming family, Alana was thinking when Trudy joined them. She was going to need all of them to help her get through the next few days and weeks.
An hour later, the presents had been opened. Alana still had what appeared to be a permanent blush on her face because of all the sexy lingerie that the women had given her. Dozens of cookies had been devoured, and the babies were having a good time with all the tissue paper scattered on the floor.
“So what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” Trudy asked. “I’m planning to make breakfast and a light lunch. Rehearsal dinner will be tomorrow evening at the church. Iris has a caterer lined up for that.”
“We have a lady bringing in the stuff to do mani-pedis in the morning,” Alana answered. “Then in the afternoon a massage therapist is coming to give us all a full-body massage. Then we do a rehearsal at six o’clock and the dinner afterward. I’m getting nervous thinking about how fast the days are going.”
“That’s completely normal,” Trudy said. “I’d worry more about you if you didn’t get a little bit of bride jitters.”
“Yep,” Iris said. “Do you think that massage lady can work miracles and rub a few of these wrinkles out of my face?”
“Who said it’s a massage lady?” Alana giggled and remembered teasing Pax about chaps. “Maybe it’s a cowboy wearing nothing but chaps and boots.”
“Oh, my!” Iris laid a hand on her chest. “If he’s going to do that, then I’ll be last.”
“Why’s that?” Alana asked.
“By then, he’ll be too tired to laugh at the way gravity has claimed most of my skin,” Iris answered.
“It’s a middle-aged lady who’s been doing this for years,” Alana confessed. “All of y’all’s husbands would kill me if I brought a hunky man in here to massage us.”
“They might at that.” Retta yawned. “But what a way to go. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m taking my daughter, Miss Cranky Pants Annie, up to bed. It’s early, but it was a long drive out here, and we’ve got a big day tomorrow. Lord, I’m lookin’ forward to having my nails done and getting a massage, even if it won’t be by a sexy cowboy. I would have driven all the way to California for that.”
“Me too.” Claire looked down at her nails. “It’s so sweet of you to plan something like this for all of us.”
“Daddy and the wedding planner did it,” Alana admitted. “And Saturday morning, the hairdresser will be here to take care of all of us.”
“Holy smokes!” Dixie exclaimed. “I hope someday I can have a wedding like this.”
“What you want most,” Claire said, “is a good marriage like we’ve all got and what Alana and Pax will have.”
“You got that right,” Dixie said.
* * *
The barn had been transformed into a fairy-tale setting by Friday evening when the entire wedding party arrived. Dixie, bless her heart, had volunteered to help out by staying at the ranch house and watching the children for both the rehearsal and the dinner afterward. Trudy had insisted on staying late to help, and Billy Ray had popped in at the last minute to see if