Читать книгу A Rancher of Her Own - Barbara White Daille - Страница 10
Оглавление“About time we had a wedding around here, Paz.” Jedediah Garland, proprietor of the Hitching Post Hotel on Garland Ranch, sat back in his chair in the establishment’s large kitchen and smiled.
The hotel cook and Jed’s longtime friend stood beside a counter with a slew of baking utensils spread out in front of her. “Do you think the banquet hall will be ready in time?”
“If the bride has her say about it, it will.” That bride was the granddaughter he and Paz had in common, who was set to get married in the hall before the month ended. She was also in charge of the renovations going on all around the hotel.
He sipped from his coffee mug and thumbed through a selection of before-and-during photos of the reception hall. His wife had always been in charge of the weddings held at the Hitching Post, a part of the business he’d let slide for far too long. “My Mary must be looking down and smiling at us all.”
Paz turned from her work to smile at him, too. “I’m sure she is. It will be nice to have a big wedding to prepare for again. We have you to thank for that, Jed.”
“Well...” He shrugged, but there was no point in being modest around Paz. She had known what he’d done, every step of the way, to get their granddaughter and the cowboy she loved together. “I did have a hand in things, didn’t I? And it wasn’t easy. But you know, when the big day comes, I doubt we’ll be needing a shotgun to get them down the aisle.”
She laughed. “I would say you’re right about that.”
He reached for his coffee mug again.
At seventy-something and still going strong, he had a lot of living ahead of him and some dreams yet to be fulfilled. Seeing his business built up again was only one of those dreams. The other, he’d shared with no one but Paz.
He wanted family around him, which meant he intended to see all three of his granddaughters married and giving him additional great-grandkids as soon as possible.
Thankfully, he’d had smarts and luck enough to get the first bride-and groom-to-be to come to their senses. Eventually.
For the next couple, he would need to bring out the big guns.
