Montana Cowboy. Jillian Hart

after them, skidded to a stop, lifted his nose into the air and breathed deep.

      “Don’t even think about it, Oscar.” Liam, the groom, grabbed the Lab by his collar. “Good behavior, remember? Or you’ll be banned to the house.”

      Oscar’s head tilted, he gave a whine of apology and irresistible chocolate eyes blinked sadly.

      “C’mon, I’ll get an extra hot dog for you.” Liam seemed like a really nice guy, kind and strong. A very nice combination. She thought of gentle, sweet Brooke and nodded. It was a good match. A very good one, indeed. The newlyweds met in the center of the deck. Soft touches, loving smiles and rippling laughter.

      Just the way love should be. Again, she thought of Kip and the wedding he’d wanted—big, fancy, expensive, a showcase. Without love, it would have been a shell of what a real wedding ought to be. She’d definitely done the right thing in fleeing Malibu even if she wasn’t exactly happy here.

      She caught sight of Jerrod ambling into view with a taller, older teen boy carrying a soccer ball. Jerrod looked as though he was having a good time. Good, she thought. Exactly what he needed.

      “What would you like, missy?” the elderly gentleman asked, his spatula poised and ready over the grill.

      She eyed her choices.

      “A hot dog, please,” she said with a smile, laughing when Luke held out his plate for one, too.

      They were so alike, it was kind of fun. She was so, so glad she’d decided to come. Here, with Luke, she didn’t miss home. He was exactly the friend in person he’d been online. She couldn’t ask for more than that.

      Chapter Four

      Laughter dominated the conversation buzzing around her as she took a bite of her hotdog. She couldn’t help taking a moment to drink it all in. Happiness buzzed in the air, family and friends chatted, laughed, joked. Best of all, the happy newlyweds sat together, their happiness so infectious it made Honor start to think love wasn’t such a bad thing, after all.

      “This isn’t the kind of wedding reception you’re used to, is it?” Luke dragged a potato chip through a puddle of dip on his plate.

      “You have no idea.” She reached for her cup of punch, sucked it down and reached for the mustard bottle. “You have no idea what I’m used to.”

      “Enlighten me.”

      “Not sure you’re tough enough to handle it.” She eyed the man beside her at the picnic table, considered his muscled form and shook her head. “No, I don’t think you can. Most men run.”

      “I’m not most men. Give it a shot. Just see if I bolt.”

      “You do look tougher than most.” She didn’t have to ask to know Luke’s strength wasn’t honed in a gym but through hard, physical work. “I knew something was off the instant I walked into church.”

      “Off?” A dimple etched into his cheek.

      She really needed to stop noticing his dimples. “Where were the nerves, the tempers and the frantic craziness? When my oldest sister got married, we lived in a frenetic state for four months pre-wedding.”

      “Was it a fancy wedding?”

      “An exquisite one.” She squirted mustard along the length of the bun in an even stripe. “A fairy tale come true. The wedding planner had to hire extra help to pull it all.”

      “Sounds like a fancy affair.”

      “The fanciest.” She didn’t mention her father was one of the most sought after financial managers in the state. His clientele ranged from movie stars to corporate multimillionaires.

      “Something tells me you were expecting something spiffier.” The wind ruffled Luke’s thick, sandy hair. “Hope we didn’t disappoint. I did warn you.”

      “I’ve been to a lot of spiffy weddings.” All three of her sisters’ weddings, cousins, friends, her father’s clients. “Not one has been as genuine as this one. Brooke and Liam clearly love one another.”

      “They do.”

      Silence fell between them. At the next picnic table over, the bride and groom nestled together, sharing a private moment despite the family surrounding them. The groom leaned in to whisper something, and Brooke’s smile blossomed and the love that filled her eyes when she gazed upon her new husband was singular. Never had Honor seen anything as pure and true.

      “And here I’ve vowed to stop believing in the existence of true love.” She dug her fork into the remnants of potato salad on her plate.

      “I know what you mean,” Luke agreed.

      “Those two had to prove me wrong.” She sighed a little, watching the couple. “What am I going to do now? Start believing again?”

      “Brooke and Liam have that effect,” he agreed lightly. “Where did your disillusionment come from, your former fiancé?”

      “Partly. Marriage is a big business in my family. Not that there isn’t love.” She looked quick to clarify. “But money trumps love if it ever comes down to it. You should have seen my parents’ divorce.”

      “Mine was pretty ugly, too.” He blocked out those old memories. Not worth thinking about. It was why he’d always thought long and hard before getting serious in a relationship. Not that it was a fail-safe plan. Sonya had broken his heart. Love could turn out better, like it had for Brooke and for his other sister, Bree, but there was a pattern in his family. One of romantic disaster. He was afraid of repeating it.

      Picking the right woman seemed to be the key, he’d decided. The trick was in finding her.

      “That’s why I’m single.” She took a small bite of hot dog. “I worried that Kip and I didn’t have what it took to make it last. There were too many problems.”

      “Like what?”

      “Just about everything.” She swiped a dab of mustard from her lip.

      Pretty lip. He leaned in a little closer, wanting to hear her better. The rest of the party faded away, the din of cheerful conversations silenced until there was only Honor with the breeze tousling her hair and the golden sunshine adoring her. Zip, there she was. The center of his attention.

      “Kip went to college with my sister and one day she bumped into him, found out he was all alone on the West Coast without family and invited him to Thanksgiving dinner.” She set down her hot dog and picked up her fork. “He was charming and his interest in me was flattering. When he called me up a week later to ask me out, I accepted.”

      “Was he a nice guy?”

      “He was. He was also really ambitious.” She shrugged her shoulders in a what-can-you-do gesture. “He was polite, he worked hard to ingratiate himself with my family and he seemed happy to be with me. It seemed like the sort of relationship I’d been hoping for.”

      “You’re using ‘seemed’ a lot. I get the sense that was the problem.”

      “Exactly. He did everything right and he said everything right, but something felt off. Something felt missing. I didn’t know what. I just chalked it up to him being so busy with his work. My father liked him and had offered him a job. Which was his goal all along, apparently.”

      “Oh, I get it. He’d set his sights on the boss’s daughter.”

      “And not really me.” A dash of pain flashed in her eyes, but she shrugged it away. She’d been hurt.

      He hated that. He knew what it was like to find out the one you were falling in love with wasn’t as devoted as you thought. “How did you find out?”

      “It was the first time we met with our wedding planner. He kept texting, answering his phone, leaving to sort out some problem at work. He had a high-pressure job, I got