sure why,” he managed to say as they stepped away from Bree. “I was just tasked with finding you and taking you back.”
“Let’s go see what she wants,” Gloria said in a soft voice he’d only heard her use a few times. Whispers from the past streamed through his mind, and Matt fantasized about a new future with Gloria. One where she didn’t tell him he was blind to see his failing farm for what it was, and one where he didn’t tell her she needed to grow up and realize the world was bigger than Sugar Pond.
Maybe she could forgive him for the things he’d said two decades ago.
Maybe he could ask her to dinner, and maybe she’d say yes.
A smile lit his soul as they left behind the burgeoning crowd and entered a private hallway. Gloria actually stepped closer to him, and Matt glanced at her as he tucked her arm into his body.
He wasn’t sure if he was ready to move past his first failed marriage, but something in the back of his mind said, Yes, you are, Matthew. It’s time.
Sneak Peek! His Second Chance Chapter Two
Despite not being overly feminine or girly, Gloria Munson sure did love a good wedding. The Hammonds knew how to throw a party too, as she well knew from her time on the family farm. Every birthday, every holiday, every weekend it seemed, food and family could be found at the farmhouse where Gray Hammond lived with his wife and family.
Hunter Hammond came to the farm often enough for Gloria to know him well, and his almost-wife, Molly, came even more often than that. If Gloria had to put a label on Molly, she’d call the woman her best friend.
They worked together closely, along with Matt, on Pony Power, and besides Gloria, no one liked to see the horses and children in the program more than Molly.
“Did she say what she wanted?” Gloria asked, trying to tame the thrashing of her heart.
“If she did, I didn’t get the message,” Matt said, his body so warm next to her forearm and hand. She had no idea why she’d linked her arm through his, only that it had felt natural and easy in the moment. Not only that, but he looked so dashing in his full, three-piece suit, and perhaps she’d imagined the two of them about to attend a high-society ball.
She did read a lot of historical romance novels, after all. She hadn’t made it to the point where she’d bought any Regency dresses or anything. Gloria barely liked to wear a dress to church. In Montana, she’d been known to go in her jeans and cowgirl hat, but once she’d lost her father, the ranch, and every shred of dignity she had, Gloria had left the state in her rearview mirror.
In Colorado, she’d been reinventing herself one day at a time. Rebuilding her sanity one horse at a time. Restocking her savings one dollar at a time.
She probably had enough to splurge on a ballgown now, should she really want one. Gloria thought of the bright orange Post-it notes she’d scattered around her cabin. One on the bathroom mirror, one on the refrigerator, one above the front door.
Your own ranch.
Gloria wanted her own ranch with every fiber of her being. She’d thought she was set to inherit the one she’d worked with her father for so long, but that hadn’t worked out.
“Here we are,” Matt said, drawing her back to the hallway in the grand dome surrounded by snow-covered gardens. Gloria had found the landscape just as beautiful with flowers and vines wafting in the wind, the snow heaped on the sides of the sidewalk, and a cold, blue chill in the air as she had when she’d visited the Royal Chinese Gardens last spring.
He reached up and knocked on the door, and not two seconds later, a woman pulled it open. Her face softened as she took in Matt and Gloria, and Ingrid said, “Come on in,” as she stepped back and opened the door. “Matt’s here.”
Matt swallowed visibly, and Gloria understood why. Every single person in the room was female, all of Molly’s sisters, her mother, her cousins, and even some friends. Gloria’s life centered on the family ranch on the outskirts of Ivory Peaks, and she didn’t know every person Molly associated with.
“Matt,” Molly said, swishing forward in an enormous wedding gown. She radiated sunlight and joy, her smile broad on her perfectly made up face. “I just