Rancher Untamed. Katherine Garbera

groaned as she noticed that all of the pull-in parking spaces were taken and she’d have to parallel park. When she was done about five minutes later, she walked into the bridal showroom. It was an elegant space that had been designed to suggest understated opulence. Classical music played in the background. Pippa knew that she’d take some of the design elements from this small bridal shop with her when she returned to London and claimed her place on the board of House of Hamilton. The royal jewelers needed to attract a younger crowd and Pippa was determined to do that.

      She sighed, realizing she already knew the decision she would make regarding seeing Diego again.

      It had to be a no.

      She wanted the chance to prove herself to her family and the world more than she wanted a new lover.

      * * *

      Diego hadn’t expected his younger brother to be waiting when he got home to Arbol Verde, but Mauricio was sitting in the breakfast room enjoying huevos rancheros that had been prepared by Diego’s housekeeper, Mona. And he was drinking a Bloody Mary, unless Diego was mistaken.

      “No need to ask how your night was,” Mo said as Diego entered the room.

      “Same. Struck out?”

      Mauricio shook his head. “You don’t even want to know. Breakfast or shower first?”

      “Shower. I assume you’re going to still be waiting when I get out,” Diego said.

      “Yes. It’s business. I have a line on a piece of property on the outskirts of town that is exactly what you’re looking for,” Mauricio said. “Go shower. I’ll wait here.”

      Diego started to turn away, but Mo had that look like he’d been rode hard and put away wet, which wasn’t how Diego wanted to see any of his brothers.

      He walked over and pulled out one of the ladder-back wooden chairs, spinning it around and straddling it. He reached out and snagged a piece of the maple and brown sugar bacon that Mona always had on the breakfast table.

      “What happened last night?”

      “Hadley was there,” Mauricio said.

      Of course she was. “I thought she moved to Houston.”

      “She did. But she came back for the auction,” Mauricio said before he took a long swallow of his Bloody Mary.

      “You broke up with her,” Diego reminded his brother as gently as he could. Hadley and Mo had been a couple since high school. He’d followed her to the University of Texas, and when they’d come back to Cole’s Hill, everyone expected them to marry, including Hadley. After waiting five years—longer than most women would, according to Bianca—Hadley had given Mo an ultimatum and he’d balked.

      Hadley had packed up and moved out of the town house they’d shared and started dating again. Since then, if gossip was to be believed, Mauricio had had some wild hookups out at the Bull Pen.

      The Bull Pen was a large bar and Texas dance hall on the edge of Cole’s Hill. It had a mechanical bull in the back and live bands performed there nightly. It was respectable enough early in the evening, but after midnight things started to get rowdy.