Wander Canyon Courtship

Chaz stepped back and scratched his chin. He focused on facts. “It’s been awfully fast.”

“Some might say that.”

A tiny crack in the wall of support she’d been showing. “And you’re a hundred percent okay with how fast?”

“It doesn’t matter what percent okay I am with it. Hank and Pauline have every right to get married as fast or as slow as they like.”

That was another crack, as far as he was concerned. He turned to face her squarely. “I wasn’t asking if they had a right—of course they have the right. I was asking what you think of it.”

They locked gazes for a long moment. He didn’t look away or back down because he knew she was deciding how honest to be.

“I think it’s brave.”

Brave, huh? That answer told him a lot.

* * *

The good news was that even the worst day could be salvaged by a very good steak, and the meal in front of Chaz was excellent. Dad had said a heartwarming grace over the food, thanking God for his new family.

The prayer woke Chaz up to the unsettling notion that soon he would be related to the woman whom he’d just spent the afternoon with matching wits.

“I’ve been reading up on how they handed down the estate a few years back,” Dad said as they talked about the grandeur of the Biltmore property. “Pretty amazing how a place that large is still privately owned.”

It made sense that Dad would notice that. The succession plans for large establishments like their own Wander Canyon Ranch in states like Colorado and Wyoming were a huge issue. Chaz himself had been trying to broach it with Dad for the past two years. “Who owns it now?”

“The owner who came back and turned it into the tourist attraction it is now left it to his son,” Yvonne offered.

“Smart move to keep it in the family,” Dad said. Chaz was inclined to agree, but something in his gut noticed his father’s tone wasn’t entirely casual.

“I think it’s always the best thing to do,” Pauline said. “Yvonne lives in the house my sister and I grew up in, and I love that it’s stayed in the family. Everything is so transient now. Family homes hardly ever happen anymore, don’t you think?”

“Where’s your mom now?” Chaz asked Yvonne.

“She lives in Charlotte, where my two sisters have settled.” Yvonne reached for the bread basket, and he watched her inspect the rolls with a baker’s professional eye before selecting one. “Janice and Rita run a super successful chain of boutiques there.”

She said super successful with just enough of an edge to let Chaz know there was some tension there.

Pauline jumped in. “Have we told you where we’re going on our honeymoon?” she asked in a bright, let’s-change-the-subject tone. “We’re going to Paris for a whole month.”

“Paris, France?” Chaz couldn’t hide his surprise. Dad didn’t travel—before. Dad was easily, willingly turning himself inside out to please Pauline. Was that really how love worked, turning sensible men into complete fools? Mom claimed to love Hank with all her heart when she was alive, but she’d never transformed into someone he didn’t recognize like Hank was doing lately. Dad was becoming a complete stranger, and that lit a slow spark of panic deep in Chaz’s gut. “For a month? That’s a really long time to be away from the ranch.”

Hank drew in a big breath. “Been giving that a lot of thought, actually. I’ve been thinking it might be getting close to my time to retire. Hand the ranch on down.”

Is that why I’m here? Maybe Dad wanted to work it out together before bringing back a plan to Wyatt.

Dad cleared his throat. “Course, they say it’s always best if the acreage stays intact. You don’t want to split it up if you can help it. My granddaddy bought that land,” Dad started explaining to Pauline. “My father worked it after him. It’s the Walker legacy, that land is.” He turned back to Chaz. “It’s time that Wyatt and you stepped into those boots. Without me, that is. And my honeymoon is a good time to get that started.”

Dad had listed Wyatt first, putting an unnatural emphasis on Wyatt’s name. Chaz’s pulse froze for a moment. Dad had just said the ranch would stay undivided. The hairs on the back of Chaz’s neck prickled. Blood was about to win out. Over the thing he cared about most in the world.

Chapter Three

It was as if a bomb had just been dropped in the room. Yvonne didn’t fully understand what was being said, only that it was large and unexpected and volatile.

In the chair next to her, Chaz was practically rattling with cold, barely held-in-check alarm. He stared straight at his stepfather and said very slowly, “What are you saying?”

The tone sent a chill down her back. Pauline set down her fork and gave Yvonne a brace yourself look.

Hank straightened as he met Chaz’s glower. “I’m saying I want you to manage Wander Canyon Ranch while I’m gone and when I retire.”

“Manage,” Chaz repeated.

“That’s what I said.”

“Manage isn’t own.” Chaz’s voice somehow managed to get lower and colder.

Hank didn’t flinch. “No, it’s not.”

Yvonne had the vision of two enormous bulls stomping and snorting at each other, each waiting for the other to charge. She busied herself with the irritable contact lens, needing something to do rather than watch this unfold. Why had Hank done this in front of her and Pauline? This should have been a private conversation between Chaz and his stepfather.

She realized, at that moment, what was actually happening. A surge of compassion rose up in her chest for Chaz. What a blindsiding blow to receive in front of strangers.

Hank cleared his throat. “The land is best kept in one piece, son. You know that.”

It seemed a cruel detail that Hank chose to use the word son at this moment. Chaz tightened his grip on the steak knife he was still holding, his knuckles white and his forearms flexing.

“A choice had to be made,” Hank continued. “One we all knew was coming someday, so I chose to make it now. We all want it to stay Walker land, don’t we?”

“My last name is Walker,” Chaz practically ground out through his teeth. “I have never, ever regretted changing my last name. Until now.”

Chaz put the knife down on the table in something just short of a slam. “Seems I’ve never been anything more than a stepson after all.”

“Chaz,” Pauline began, scrambling for calm Yvonne saw no signs of coming.

“Don’t!” Chaz shot back, scowling at her as if she’d put Hank up to this. “Don’t you even—”

“Don’t you talk like that to my bride,” Hank growled back with a force equal to Chaz’s tone. “I get you may be upset.”

“May be?” Chaz shouted. People around the restaurant began to stare. Yvonne and Pauline traded cautious looks, wondering what to do if one of the men would stalk from the room or throw a punch.

Yvonne sent a prayer flying up that Chaz and Hank would remember they were in public and miles from home. It seemed that Chaz somehow overheard her prayer, for he lowered his voice, but still jabbed a finger at her and Pauline.

“Is that why you did this here? In front of them? So I wouldn’t haul off at you like I want to right now? Manage Wander Canyon? Manage? No wonder you bailed on fishing. You know what I would have done had we been alone. Well played, Dad.” Chaz spit the final word out with such bitterness Yvonne felt it stab her chest. “You always did know how to drop a bomb.”

Yvonne looked to Hank’s reaction. He looked pained, but not ashamed, or regretful, or in any way unsure of his decision.

Auntie P. wasn’t marrying into a tangle. She was marrying into an all-out war.

* * *

Yvonne could barely believe they didn’t leave right there and then, but it was as if neither Chaz nor Hank would flinch first. Eat? Now? She was practically nauseous from the anger flowing between those two men.

She’d never been so grateful to lose a contact lens in her life. She didn’t even bother to really look for it, just pounced on it as a reason to wrap up this torturous meal and go home. There wasn’t a dessert in the world worth staying at this table for.

“I’ll drive,” Chaz declared as they reached the parking lot, grabbing the keys out of her hand when she pulled them from her bag. At least it would give him something to do—he’d probably implode from just having to sit steaming in the passenger seat.

Only that left her in that passenger seat as she directed Chaz home along the back roads toward Matrimony Valley. The van echoed with an icy silence, Hank and Pauline huddling in the back seat holding hands and exchanging wary looks. Chaz gripped the steering wheel and drove with careful, angry precision.

And silence. He merely nodded at her directions to turn here or there, barely uttering a word since they left the table. Even with half her vision blurred, Chaz looked angry enough to walk the forty-some miles back to the valley.

Now what? Yvonne’s brain spun in a dozen directions trying to figure out what to do next. Short of enduring the drive in ragged silence, there seemed to be nothing to say or do. There was no way to make this less awkward. There simply was...

A dark mound loomed into her headlights without warning. “Look out!” she cried and Chaz stomped on the brakes, but not before a heartrending thud and bump announced they’d hit whatever it was. Chaz wrestled for control of the van as it screeched into a slow-motion, tilting arc that veered it off the road.

Yvonne yelped as she was knocked against the van door, and Pauline and Hank gasped as they were tossed about in the back seat. The airbags deployed and deflated in a heartbeat, leaving Yvonne stunned by the sudden whack back against her headrest. For a moment she couldn’t breathe.

“What...?” Hank gasped, coughing. Yvonne tried to pull in a breath to answer and found her lungs didn’t work. She tried to ascertain what had just happened, but all she could take in was a hissing, ticking sound and the smoke rising off the crunched front of her van. No. Oh, no. Please no. Absurdly, her brain reminded her she had only four payments to go on the vehicle.

“Is anyone hurt?” It was the first words Chaz had spoken in half an hour. He was shaking his head, recovering from the whack of the driver’s-side airbag now hanging deflated from the center of the steering wheel.

“I...don’t think so.” Yvonne gulped, finally able to breathe. Her shoulder felt pummeled by the seat belt, her cheeks stung from the slap of the airbag, but she hadn’t hit her head, and her arms and legs seemed to move freely.

“Dad?” The raw panic in Chaz’s voice pricked Yvonne’s heart—such a different tone from what he’d used at the table. Anger hadn’t erased every bit of love and worry, just most of it, and hopefully only for now.

“Auntie P.?” she said, twisting around to see Hank and her aunt righting themselves from where they’d tumbled over in the crash.

“We’re okay back here,” Pauline said in a breathless gasp. Yvonne saw no blood or evidence of any injury.

Chaz looked at her, his features sharp in the moonlight. “Are you okay?”

“I think so,” she replied, even though she didn’t feel anything close to okay.

“What was that in the road?” Hank asked.

Yvonne looked up the embankment to see the silhouette of an animal struggling in the road. Based on the whining sounds, it was injured. Could tonight get any worse?

“That sounds like a dog,” Pauline said, worry pitching her voice high.

“Or a fox or a wolf,” Hank cautioned.

Chaz took immediate control of the situation, holding out his hand. “Give me your phone to call 911. Your local number will be better to call from than mine.” Rather than be annoyed, Yvonne found herself grateful. One hour’s curmudgeon was another hour’s useful hero, it seemed.

Yvonne undid her seat belt and began hunting on the car floor where her handbag had spilled its contents. She unlocked the cell phone and handed it to him.

“Where are we?”

It took a minute for her fog to lift enough to name the back road she’d chosen instead of the highway.

He peered through the window, which thankfully hadn’t been broken in the impact. Yvonne said a prayer of thanks that they hadn’t been in Pauline’s small sedan or hit one of the many elk that populated the area. “Okay.” The animal’s cries pitched higher. “I’ll go look for a mile marker up there. Got a flashlight?”

“Just the one on my cell phone,” she admitted.

With a glare, Chaz pushed the groaning driver’s-side door open to reveal a wall of leaves. Without hesitation, he stepped out into the thick foliage and began clambering toward the road and whatever lay injured on it.

Yvonne knew this road well, but the dark of the night and the lack of any other cars on the road made it seem like the middle of nowhere.

“What did we hit?” Pauline asked.

“That animal up there and the tree in front of us.” Yvonne’s door practically fell open from the sharp incline of the van’s resting angle. One headlight sputtered and failed as if to announce the vehicle’s demise. Totaled, her mind assessed, though she couldn’t even see all the damage. “Are you two hurt at all?”

“No,” Pauline said. “A bump or bruise I’ll feel tomorrow maybe, but nothing more than that. Hank, honey?”

“Fine. And praise God, glad to be so. That was close,” he answered. He began to undo the seat belts and maneuver himself and Pauline up to get out of the car.

“Okay, then.” Yvonne stepped out of the car and climbed the short rise to where Chaz was crouched over the animal. She walked closer to see him talking to what looked like a German shepherd mix dog gasping in short, shallow pants.

Chaz pulled his belt from his jeans and looked back at her over his shoulder. “Find me two branches. Long and straight as you can manage.”

“Is he okay?” she asked, noting the dog’s unnaturally bent leg.

“No. But I think we only broke his leg. Branches,” he repeated. “Fast.” He turned back to the animal, stroking its head as the dog looked about with wild eyes. His voice held a caretaker’s calm assurance. “Easy there, big fella. We’ll get you out of this mess.”

Looking for branches in the middle of the night with only one contact lens seemed a rather daunting task, but Yvonne began to look around. “Chaz, be careful.”

“Bit late for that.” Despite the cool of the evening, Chaz pulled off his shirt and then the T-shirt underneath. Somehow he managed to look even larger than his already considerable height. Muscular, lean and strong. The dog gave a desperate whine as he wrapped the T-shirt around the bleeding leg. “I know it hurts. Just hang in there.”

She managed to find two decent-sized sticks in short order, delivering them to Chaz. He’d pulled his shirt back on but otherwise stayed focused on the animal, talking in low and steady tones. With the practiced hands of someone who tended to animals, he lined the sticks up on either side of the wrapped injured leg and secured it with his belt.

“You watch yourself there. You never know what an injured animal will do,” Hank warned as he and Pauline came up from the van.

“It’s a dog, Dad, not a bear. No collar, but it could be chipped.” With an eerie feeling, Yvonne noticed he had placed himself between the animal and her, Hank and Pauline.

Chaz’s calm control set all of them at ease. The dog tried to get up, but Chaz gently held it still. Yvonne watched regret and compassion battle in Chaz’s eyes. The accident showed her a different side of this man, one that tugged at her in ways that made little sense. There was more to Chaz Walker than just Pauline’s sourpuss label.

By the time the thin, high wail of a siren finally cut through the silence, Yvonne could honestly say she was grateful Chaz was nearby.

Chapter Four

Chaz let out a breath of relief as he listened to the emergency veterinarian’s report. “Broken leg, skin lesions, but nothing that can’t heal in time.”

“Can you contact the owner?” Yvonne asked. She looked beyond tired, and Chaz supposed that for a woman who normally kept the early morning hours of a bakery, 11:30 p.m. felt like the middle of the night. He’d found it a kindness that she’d stayed with him, even though Dad and Pauline had already gone back with the tow truck that had taken what was left of Yvonne’s van back home. He was pretty sure it was totaled, and she seemed to agree, but neither of them spoke of it.

“It’d be the first thing I’d do, if I knew who the owner was,” the vet replied. “This guy’s got no microchip, and if he had a collar it’s long gone. The best we can do is provide a description to the sheriff and keep him here.”

Chaz took one look at the bank of crates in the room behind them and felt his stomach tighten. “I’ll cover the bills,” he offered, “but then what happens?” This dog’s desperate eyes had hooked into him back there on the roadside and hadn’t let go since. He’d run a ranch for years. He was no stranger to the injury and even the death of animals. He couldn’t explain why this was different but it was.

The vet shrugged her shoulders. “Shelter, most likely.”

That wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. “And then what?”

The vet gave a do you really want me to say it? look that made Chaz want to punch something.

His response was instantaneous. “So he comes back with us.”

That declaration woke Yvonne right up. “To the valley?”

“Do you have a vet in town?” the doctor asked, her eyebrow raised.

Yvonne pushed her hair back from her face. “Dan Mullins, but...”

Chaz cut in, eyes steady on the vet. “Can the dog safely travel to...” The town’s name still felt silly on his tongue. “...Matrimony Valley?”

The doctor’s gaze flicked to Yvonne as if they might be able to talk him out of this. Not a chance. Chaz had made up his mind. He’d wounded this dog. He wasn’t going to leave him to whimper in some cage. He wouldn’t let this dog be abandoned by whatever idiot had left him wandering a mountain roadside at night.

“The leg’s cast. He’s in stable condition,” the vet replied. “It’s just painkillers, antibiotics, rest and regular meals from here. I can send the X-rays with you. Honestly, he’s likely to try walking in a few hours. If he can manage the cast, short walks outside for necessary business should be okay.”

“Then he comes with us.”

Yvonne rubbed her eyes. “Bruce Lohan’s coming with his truck to pick us up. I suppose there’s room...”

“He’ll ride on my lap if he has to.” The practicalities of what he would do with the dog when he got back to the valley didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to have the final act of this terrible day be him abandoning a dog. Especially not one he’d injured.

He’d never had a dog of his own because Wyatt’s dog, Rocker, was just plain mean to other dogs. He’d meant to get one of his own when Dad had given him the guesthouse on the ranch, but never got around to it.

Before tonight, he’d thought of that guesthouse as a sign of independence, of Dad recognizing the need for his own space. Now it just felt like a demotion, as if he’d been put out of the big house where Dad and Wyatt lived. The way you put a dog out in a doghouse.

The dog was going to be his, period.

Yvonne had the good sense to recognize this was not open for discussion. “Okay, then,” she said cautiously as she pulled out her phone. “I’ll send a text to Bruce that he’s got another passenger.”

“Good.”

“But the inn.” Yvonne pursed her lips. “Hailey doesn’t have rooms that allow pets.”

The idea that this dog might give him a way out of that fussy inn made him that much more indebted to the beast. The last thing he wanted right now was to be under the same roof with his stepfather. “So we do something else.”

Yvonne’s face brightened. “Bruce and Kelly have a cabin they rent in the back of their property. You might be able to stay there.” She raised her phone and stepped from the exam room. “I’ll go check.”

“Looks like you just got yourself a dog.” The vet clicked her pen and picked up a clipboard. “Name?”

“Charles Walker.”

She smiled. “We covered that already. I meant the dog’s name.”

Chaz rubbed his eyes. He was weary on so many levels it felt like his soul ached. “I have to name the dog right now?”

“Well, no, but...”

Without warning, Chaz’s mind brought up the story of William Cecil, the son who’d returned to the Biltmore estate when it was in bad straits. The son who’d fought to turn the failing property into the massive enterprise he’d spent the afternoon wandering.

It seemed as good a name as any. “Cecil.”

After a questioning look, the vet filled in her chart. “Cecil it is. I’ll give you a week’s supply of medicine to control pain and infection. I’ll throw in a blanket to take him home in, too. I’ll send word to this Dr. Mullins in Matrimony Valley to see Cecil tomorrow for follow-up. We’ve done the rabies, but Mullins can get him brought up to date on his other shots. I’ll go get that blanket, and a meal or two’s worth of food to tide you over.” With that, the vet left the room.

Cecil, somehow sensing the weight of the moment, looked up at Chaz with worried eyes. The frightened plea in those eyes sealed it. As of this moment, Chaz would have walked all the way back to the valley carrying the animal rather than leave him here.

“Cecil okay for a name?” he asked, feeling foolish.

Cecil licked his palm and settled his head against Chaz’s hand, closing his eyes in rest. It must have been sheer exhaustion that choked his throat at that moment, not any loyalty to this scruffy canine or the weight of obligation he felt looking at the freshly applied cast.

It didn’t matter that it made no sense, and he had no idea what was going to happen after tomorrow morning. How the dog was going to get back to Wander Canyon didn’t matter. Whether or not Chaz even had a Wander Canyon Ranch to go back to after this whole wedding mess was a problem for another day. This was one thing he could set right in a whole heap of “not right” all around him today.

Yvonne stepped back into the room, yawning. “Bruce will be here in twenty minutes, and you can stay in the cabin for the rest of your visit.”

“Cecil and I appreciate it.”

She gaped at him. “Cecil?”

“Cecil,” he replied, simply nodding. Even if he had an explanation for how and why he’d just named the dog—which he didn’t—he couldn’t put it into words anyhow.

She gave him an understanding smile. Her soft eyes told him Yvonne recognized why Cecil couldn’t go anywhere but home with him. “Hello, Cecil,” she said, touching the dog’s dark, velvety ear. Cecil gave a low moan that sounded far too much like a contented sigh.

As for Chaz, the warmth in Yvonne’s voice settled into his chest before he could stop it.

* * *

Most mornings Yvonne loved the solitude of the bakery. There was a glorious optimism in creating delicious things before most of the world had even opened their eyes.

Not today.

With an out-of-commission van and a sleep-deprived brain, the ovens seemed more like taskmasters than partners this morning. Dawn came blaring through the windows, and there didn’t seem to be enough coffee in North Carolina, much less in her corner of Matrimony Valley.

Not too long after the school bus rumbled down the street, Yvonne looked up from a tray of cinnamon rolls to see Kelly Lohan, Bruce’s wife and the town florist, coming through the doors.

“I was sure I’d find Cathy Bolton behind the counter this morning. You can’t have gotten much sleep last night.”

“She’s coming in later to hold down the fort when I go over to Ziggy’s.” Jerome Zigler of Ziggy’s Valley Garage had towed the van all the way back to Matrimony Valley last night, but gave no indication of a prognosis. Yvonne offered her friend an apologetic grimace. “Sorry to haul Bruce out in the middle of the night.”

“It wasn’t the first time. And it was for you.” Bruce was now a helicopter pilot for a commercial firm, but he had been a Forest Service pilot when he’d first come to the valley. The tale of how Bruce and Kelly fell for each other during one of the valley’s most calamitous snowbound weddings was one that had warmed everyone’s heart.

“Well,” Kelly continued, “you and Chaz Walker and now an adorable dog named...Cecil?”

“Yeah, I’m still not quite sure how that happened. But I have to admit, it’s sweet and rather noble. Chaz Walker is certainly a load of surprises—good and bad.” Yvonne slid a tray of sugary spirals into the waiting oven. “You’re okay with putting them up?”

“The cabin was empty. Better our cabin than asking Hailey to break policy, and you should have seen how Lulu and Carly went crazy over the dog this morning. I had to practically push them onto the school bus. Someone ought to warn poor Cecil he’ll be getting loads of little-girl care while he heals.”

Kelly’s daughter, Lulu, had connected strongly with Bruce’s daughter, Carly, when they had visited for the wedding, and the two girls had contrived mightily to get their parents together so they could become sisters. Their new family was one of Yvonne’s favorite Matrimony Valley happy endings.

Little girls smothering Cecil meant little girls around Chaz. She had to admit, it might be amusing to watch that man handle such a heavy dose of cuteness.

Kelly leaned in, concern on her face. “So the van...?”

Yvonne wanted to lay her head on the counter. “I don’t even want to think about the van.”

“But everyone’s okay? No one was hurt—well, people, that is?”

Yvonne wiped her hands on a nearby towel and came around the counter. “That depends on your definition of okay. No one but Cecil’s hurt more than bumps and bruises.” It still felt ridiculous to call the dog by that name and recognize that Chaz had taken it in. “I just kept looking over at him, sitting there in Bruce’s passenger seat with that dog piled on his lap, trying to figure out what had just happened.” It was such an impulsive thing to do, and that man struck her as a long way from impulsive. Still, the compassion she’d seen from him impressed her as much as it had surprised her. Especially given the hours just beforehand. “I guess it was the last straw for him.”

Kelly pulled the coffeepot from the brewer and poured a cup for herself, then refilled Yvonne’s. “What do you mean?”

Sitting down at the front window tables, Yvonne gave a quick recap of the dinner and Hank’s announcement.

“That sounds like a terrible thing to do. Who’d pit one son against the other like that?”

“That’s what I think,” Yvonne agreed. “And why on earth do it here, in front of me and Auntie P.? Hank is about to marry one of my favorite people in the whole world, and I’m worried. His actions are a huge red flag for me. I don’t know how to tell her how I feel, or if I even should.”

“Have you tried talking to her?”

“There wasn’t really a time last night.” Yvonne stifled another yawn. “But I plan to today. She told me something was coming, but she looked as uncomfortable as I felt when Hank announced it. The whole restaurant stared when Chaz blew up at his father. But really, can you blame the guy? I don’t think Pauline knows what to do about it. I sure don’t.”

Kelly sipped her coffee. “Do you need me to drive you down into Asheville to a rental car company?”

“Let’s wait until I hear what Ziggy has to say. I’m bracing myself that it won’t be good news.” She sat back and squinted her eyes shut. “I was only four payments away from being able to afford my first new van in the spring.”

Kelly pasted on a hopeful smile. “Ziggy works wonders. Maybe it can be repaired.”

“I think he was holding the van together for me as it was. I was counting on it making it through one more winter.” When she’d first opened the shop, it seemed like everything had worked out perfectly. If God could bless a bakery, He’d blessed hers. Work was hard, but satisfying.

All that had somehow fizzled out in recent months. Now work was just hard. The joy of making brides happy had disappeared. That was why Auntie P.’s wedding seemed so important—it was a chance to get that spark back by baking the perfect wedding cake for someone she adored.

Instead, Pauline’s fast and dramatic engagement to Hank Walker seemed to be clouding over with doubts. She didn’t much like the man she saw in Hank last night. Could she trust Auntie P.’s heart to a man who’d cut one son clean out of the family land? Actually, letting Chaz manage it but not own it seemed even crueler. What was her role in all this supposed to be?

“You haven’t gotten off to a good start with the Walker men, that’s for sure.”

“Hank seemed so nice yesterday. He looked—still looks—completely in love with Pauline. But this ranch inheritance thing. Wow. I don’t know what to think.”

“Chaz didn’t strike me as a ray of sunshine even before all this.” She gave Yvonne a look. “Then again, I remember saying that about Bruce when I first met him, too, and he turned out to be wonderful.”

Yvonne didn’t reply. Last night showed her layers in Chaz she hadn’t thought were there. She couldn’t decide how she felt about that.

Kelly raised an eyebrow. “Rather heroic to save an injured dog and take him in. He could have just left the dog with the vet. That’s got to count for something, don’t you think?”

Yvonne held up her hands. “Don’t expect me to be able to figure this out today. I’m working on about four hours of sleep. I’m just glad Nancy’s wedding isn’t until tomorrow afternoon—I feel like I can barely make toast today.”

The bell over the door rang, signaling the bakery’s first customer of the day. “I’ll let you go,” Kelly said as she rose. “Do you want me to ask around town and see if anyone has a van you could borrow until you figure out what to do next? Or maybe Bruce’s truck?”

Yvonne rose and waved to the neighbor coming through the door. “I only have to get the cake and cupcakes across the street to Hailey’s. I’ll manage.”