Page 151 of Colt

Not only that, he’s giving me what even I didn’t know I needed—permission to take up space without feeling like I need to earn it first and to go after what I want.

Pressure builds behind my eyes too. This is terrible.

This is wonderful.

Whatever it is, I know I’m a professional, damn it. So I blink back the tears and go on to the next slide, where I share the color palette I decided on. It’s a stunning mix of earthy yellow tones, some deep turquoise, and vibrant crimson.

Paige gasps, her hand going to her mouth.

Billie’s face splits into a smile.

Dale claps his hands, then immediately looks guilty. “Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Laughing, I cross my arms. “I take it that means you like what you’re seeing?”

“Lainey, I love it.” Holy shit, are those tears in Dale’s eyes? I haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet.

Colt sends his father a look. “After the presentation, remember?”

“It’s all right, really. I love a good collab,” I reply.

“I love hearin’ you talk shop more,” Colt says back.

Nash is wearing a shit-eating grin. “Lainey and Colton, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I⁠—”

“Shut up,” Colt says smoothly.

“Make me.”

Dale drops the side of his face into his hand. “Y’all, Lainey is up there doing the Lord’s work trying to make the ranch a more lucrative operation so that when I pass it on to you, y’all don’t gotta worry about money. But now I’m thinking I just might pass it on to her instead.”

Billie nods. “Girl power.”

“Anyway,” I say with a smile. “I kept the color palette somewhat neutral in keeping with the yellow tones Dean and I agreed on. I was inspired by what I’ve observed around the ranch. This is a glorious time of year, and I hoped to capture that in the palette.”

My heart works its way up to my throat as I click to the next slide. This is the meat and potatoes of my presentation—the logos themselves.

I spent whole weeks working through my ideas. At first, I agreed with Colt about avoiding horseshoes so we wouldn’t echo Lucky River Ranch’s logo. I focused instead on horses, barns, longhorns. That kind of thing.

None of it felt right, though. Because I’m sticking with Double U Ranch, I kept coming back to the idea of two horseshoes looped together. Seemed too obvious at first, but then I started playing around with monogram-type letters, only done in a rustic, literal “branding” style, and it suddenly clicked.

So now the logo looks like this: a pair of intertwined horseshoes with the ends pointing up, creating a W. Beneath that is written “Double U Ranch” in a cool serif font that’s a total classic with a Western twist.

I present several spins on the same idea, each one a slightly different iteration of the original logo. I have the whole thing in white against a marigold yellow background. In the next option, I added some turquoise and oxblood red.

It’s all totally different from anything I’ve ever done before.

My whole being swells with pride as I look at my work. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to create a damn thing when I first arrived and Colt met me with his surliness and his cigars.

But nevertheless, I persevered. And I’m damn proud of what I have to show for it.

Even if the room goes dead silent. Seriously, you could hear a pin drop for how quiet everyone suddenly gets.

I look out over the table, trying to gauge what’s going on. Is this not what they were expecting? They loved the color palette, so surely I can’t be too off the mark with the logos.

Then: a clap.

I blink, pulse skidding to a painful stop when Colt stands and claps again. And again. Slowly.