on the Teton Mountain range off in the distance. It was a particularly beautiful morning in Idaho’s Teton Valley, the crisp blue sky dappled with billowy white clouds and the sun bursting through, sending rays of golden sunlight streaming down to the ground in columns of warmth. The temperature had finally risen and Kenzie had dressed for the part in a brown T, boot-cut jeans, her favorite tan boots and a wide belt held in place with the All-Around Cowboy buckle she’d won four years ago at the local ranch rodeo, the belt and buckle riding low on her hips.
Work gloves and her phone were stuffed in one back pocket, and a packet of spicy beef jerky in the other just in case she had to miss lunch, which had been almost every day last week. She was hoping this week would go easier.
Dora and Dolly, the family’s yellow Labs, sniffed the ground as they searched for any new scents that may have dropped from the sky overnight, happy to chase after whatever moved in the expanse of grass that surrounded the ranch house.
Never taking these perfect moments for granted, Kenzie pulled in a deep breath, drinking in the fresh, early morning scent that surrounded her. She only wished she had more time to enjoy these long lazy days like she’d had when she was a kid, when the hours seemed endless. She was hopeful that once the family ranch was lucrative again, an occasional lazy afternoon might be possible, but until then, Kenzie had no time for anything other than work and worry.
All ten of her mares were in various stages of estrus or heat, a situation she’d purposely planned for. Granted, the mares were as ornery as June bugs caught in a net, but once they were impregnated, they’d calm down. At least that was the idea. Now all she had to do was inseminate them, and with her sister’s help, next summer her mares would be part of the first annual colt auction on the Grant ranch. She hoped to double that count in twelve months’ time, and onward until she brought it up to about thirty or forty workhorses for sale each year.
She didn’t like to admit it, but full-time ranching was taking its toll. She knew it would be hard from having grown up on the family spread, but now that her dad had handed over the reins, Kenzie wasn’t so sure she wanted to handle them entirely on her own. Her parents now depended on her almost 100 percent, which was fine, but the burden of it sometimes weighed her down more than she ever dreamed that it would.
“Good, ’cause I’ve ordered the semen from a quarter horse ranch out of Canada. Their workhorses are known throughout the country as being some of the best stock,” she told Coco.
Coco gazed over at her, her eyebrows knitted together with concern. “I wish you had consulted me on this order first. I thought we decided on a distributor in Colorado. I’ve recommended them before to other local ranchers and they’ve been dependable with their deliveries. They’ve already done all the customs paperwork for you.”
“Sure, but what could be better than going directly to the source, right?”
“I’ve heard there could be problems with customs, causing major delays.”
But Kenzie wasn’t listening. She’d stopped walking, pulled her deep brown cowgirl hat down low to shield her eyes from the sun and stared at the white three-quarter-ton pickup. The truck was pulling the exact seventeen-foot horse trailer that Kenzie had lusted over just last month when she was in the market for a new one. The price tag had been a little too rich for her, so she’d had to settle for one that was used and half the price.
The thought flitted through her head that perhaps her dad had decided to splurge and had secretly bought it, but that thought was quickly dashed. She knew her dad would never undermine her financial plan for the ranch. He respected her decisions too much.
Still...
“Do you know what this is all about?” Coco asked, nodding toward the fancy rig heading for them.
“No, but maybe Mom does. Now that their anniversary is less than two weeks away we’ve been getting all sorts of weird things delivered to the ranch. Mom is getting more and more giddy over the ceremony. I’m so glad we were able to convince them to celebrate forty-five years with a real wedding celebration. Who knew they’d never had one?”
“I don’t think Dad’s excited about all the fuss, but this means so much to Mom that he’s coming around. He’ll do anything for Mom, we all know that,” Coco said. “Her whole face lights up whenever she talks about any of the details. I’ve had so much fun helping her plan.”
“We all have. Just yesterday an older man arrived with four white doves. Mom wants them released during the ceremony. Did you know, they’re actually homing pigeons? Anyway, we did a practice run, and the birds squawked the entire time. It wasn’t pretty. Or rather, it didn’t sound pretty. You can imagine her reaction.”
Coco nodded. “She must have been annoyed.”
“She was. The man apologized and assured her it had never happened before and would never happen again, but Mom thought it was a bad omen. It took all day for Dad and me to convince her that their wedding ceremony isn’t doomed. You know how she’s always felt about elaborate weddings. Nervous that something major will go wrong. Where she got that idea she won’t say other than it’s just a feeling. Of course, it didn’t help that Kayla’s first and second weddings were disasters. And Carson’s wedding was strange, at best.”
Their mom and dad had gotten married at the courthouse in a simple ceremony with no guests. She had insisted it be held that way and had always associated a big wedding with a catastrophe.
“Exactly, and with the Grant track record, who can blame her?”
Their sister Kayla had left not one but two separate grooms standing at the altar, and their brother, Carson, had planned a fancy church wedding with a woman who had already dumped him.
“Callie and Joel’s wedding turned out okay,” Coco reminded her.
“Except for Great-Uncle Peter streaking through the back of the church in his birthday suit during the vows, everything else went off beautifully.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about Great-Uncle Peter. Will he be coming?”
“Yes, and Great-Aunt Beverly promised to keep a tight rein on him this time.”
“Isn’t she the one who tried to do a pole dance during the reception, and I had to treat her when she slid too fast, fell over and bonked her head?”
“Yes,” Kenzie answered, remembering Great-Aunt Beverly circling the pole with her undies showing, singing “I’m an Old Cowhand.” “Mom might be right.”
“So, I wonder what this is? Maybe Mom and Dad want to ride in on special horses? White Arabian horses to go with the white doves, maybe?”
Kenzie snickered and shrugged. “Who knows? She’s been springing these changes on us for the last couple of weeks. She’s also thinking of handing out white helium balloons to everyone to be set free once Mom and Dad say ‘I do.’ For someone who doesn’t believe in elaborate weddings, she’s really all in for this one. I’ve stopped trying to second-guess what she’s thinking up next. I just go along with everything. It’s simpler.”
As the rig came closer, Kenzie’s stomach began to feel queasy, like the bacon and eggs she’d downed in a hurry that morning weren’t sitting well. Or perhaps it was the instant coffee she’d made in the microwave before her mom put on a pot?
It didn’t help that the dogs seemed skeptical of the intruder as well, their tails still as they sniffed the air for any strange scents.
“That’s a Montana plate on the front of the truck. I can’t believe she had to go all the way to Montana to find a horse. Something else must be going on,” Kenzie offered.
“I know the Scotts are driving in for the wedding. Maybe Jan and Fred decided to show up early?”
Henry Grant, their dad, and Fred Scott had served in Vietnam together, and had a long-standing friendship. The two men would do anything for each other, and over the years, the Grant family and the Scott family had spent time on each other’s ranches. For the most