Page 23 of Slow Hands Cowboy

He had to give it to Addison, she had fiercely loyal friends. And that was something he wouldn’t have thought she would have.

He would’ve thought that she was the sort of person who had frenemies. If he really thought about it. The kind who were more envious of her than actually supportive.

But that wasn’t the case.

He could see that Lydia, Denisha, and Anna would ride into battle for her. And they were ready to do it.

He decided that it was up to him to make an announcement that those that were lingering awkwardly could go and enjoy the reception. The food had been paid for after all.

He went up to the front of the venue, and whistled through his fingers. “All right now, feel free to go into the east barn and enjoy dinner. There’s a nice meal in there waiting for you, and because a lot of the wedding guests cleared off, there will be extra, and all of the extra will be donated to the local food pantry. If anybody else would like to make a donation, perhaps of the gift that they bought, let us know, and we will be sure to give you a receipt for a tax write-off.”

They might as well make something good out of this, and that could be part of Addison’s story.

He was thinking about it even now. Because the video was viral, and there would need to be a story about what happened with all of the things from the wedding, about what kind of person she was in the face of adversity.

Why the hell did he care?

He shouldn’t.

Except, his ranch was going to be attached to this.

And it was a good opportunity for them too.

It was in a video that was going to be viewed by millions of people, and if they didn’t want the ranch to become a bad omen, a sign that a wedding wasn’t going to work out, they had to make it a place that people were fascinated with, that they wanted to visit, that they wanted to get married at, in spite of the fact that the story was going to be that a wedding had collapsed there.

This had to be romanticized somehow.

He looked up, and watched the guests filter out of the ceremony area, then saw his brother Cody headed his way.

“What a clusterfuck,” he said.

“Yeah, agreed. But I know we can turn this around.”

“We better be able to. Because our ranch –”

“I know. We’re about to be famous for a runaway groom.”

“Did you have to lasso him? Because I think maybe if you hadn’t…well, gotten him like he was a naughty steer it might not have gone viral.”

“Did the guests have to post the bride’s humiliation on the internet?”

“Good point,” Cody said. Then he looked at Walker, a searching expression in his gaze. “Honestly though, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t just let her stand there wallowing in her humiliation.”

Walker shook his head, fury burning at the center of his chest. “Hell, if someone’s going to humiliate her, it better be me. I owe her one, for the prom. But not this. I’m not letting this be the thing. She didn’t deserve to have to stand there and feel all the questions, all the judgment. I’m no gentleman, Cody, and you know that. But there are certain things that are unacceptable. And that’s one of them. It has a lot less to do with respecting her, and a lot more to do with the kind of shit I can’t respect from a man.”

“Fair enough,” Cody said. “Where is she?”

“That’s private.”

“Come on. I’m your brother.”

“I know. But I’m going to let her cool her heels for a little bit, and then she can decide what she wants to do.”

“All right. I’ve got everything here then, you go deal with the bride.”

“You sure? Because I can deliver her things and then come back.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve got it handled. I need you on PR detail. Which means putting out some kind of statement about what happened, or something.”