Page 1 of Eighteen Bowties and Counting

Chapter One

Beau Peterson poured himself a cup of coffee, the feeling down deep inside him starting to bubble to the surface. He hadn’t decided if it was a good feeling or a bad one, and he glanced over to the clock ticking away in his kitchen.

His parents had owned it, but it had originally belonged to his grandfather on his dad’s side. So the grandfather clock seemed fitting. It told time precisely, and if Beau knew his best friend, Bennett would be arriving any minute.

He stirred sugar into his coffee and lifted the hot liquid to his lips, his gaze skating by the championship photos of his younger sister and the horses she used to show. The coffee stung bitterly against his tongue, and he went back to get more sweetener. The first chime on the clock had just sounded when Bennett knocked on the front door and opened it at the same time.

“Ah, coffee,” he said, his grin permanently in place these days. And why shouldn’t it be? The man was getting married this weekend.

Ruby lifted her head from where she lay on the couch, her breakfast long gone. Pepper, Beau’s black lab, jumped down from his pre-work nap to greet Bennett.

Beau glanced past the man he’d lived with and worked with for just about twenty years now. Of course he was happy for Bennett and his soon-to-be-bride. He absolutely was. He’d show up on the day and play the part—and heaven knew Beau had been a best man or a groomsman enough to do his duties in his sleep.

The seventeen bowties hanging from the long two-by-four in the hallway spoke of that. Bennett had made the display for him one day last year; he’d made one for himself too. Before he’d met Ellie. Before they’d started dating. Before things got serious.

Beau had no idea where his best friend’s bowties had gone. His still hung in the hallway of the foreman’s cabin, where he’d moved six months ago when he’d become the foreman of Three Rivers Ranch.

Bennett threw a box on the counter. “Look what I got for you.” He bent down to scratch Pepper’s ears, cooing at the dog like he was a baby instead of a seven-year-old black lab with gray starting to grow around his mouth.

Beau took another taste of his coffee instead of looking at anything. Neither of them wore their cowboy hats inside, so Beau’s raised eyebrows landed squarely on Bennett as he poured himself a cup of coffee as if they still lived together.

Beau could admit that it had been hard living alone. He’d never really done it, and his momma had told him for the entirety of his life that he wasn’t meant to be alone. He did have the two dogs, and he had a small herd of donkeys who brayed and brayed whenever he found time to go visit them. If three could be considered a herd. To Beau, it was, and he was the only one calling them that anyway.

Too bad he’d never been able to find anyone to get serious with, the way Bennett had. And Squire. Pete. Brett. Tom. Garth. Reese. Ethan.

The list went on and on. Times seventeen.

Seventeen weddings he’d attended. Seventeen wedding parties. Seventeen bow ties.

Dear Lord, he thought. Will it ever be my turn?

God did not answer, and Beau hadn’t really been trying to find anyone anyway. Not since his new job appointment, that was. Running a ranch the size of Three Rivers was the job of at least six men, and Beau was still learning the ropes despite having lived and worked on this ranch for a couple decades now.

“Are you going to look?” Bennett asked, drawing Beau back to the kitchen. Back to the present. Back to his current loneliness.

He reached over and picked up the box, knowing exactly what it was. Only one thing came in a frilly blue box with silver engraving on the top.

Sure enough, a purple bowtie sat inside, and Beau forced a smile to his face. “For the wedding,” he said needlessly.

Bennett must’ve heard something in Beau’s voice, because he swept the bowtie away. Before he could even blink, Bennett had his fingers curled around the back of his neck. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“It’s fine,” Beau said back. No questions needed. He knew exactly what Bennett was apologizing for, and they both knew it wasn’t fine. Sure, they’d been flirtatious and maybe even considered playboys back in the day.

Both of them had gone out with any number of women. Beau couldn’t even pinpoint exactly when he’d decided he’d had enough of the fun-loving dating life. When he’d wanted to find a single woman he could fall deeply in love with and build a life with. It felt like it had been eight or nine years now, but time had warped in a lot of ways.

For example, Beau couldn’t believe that shortly following Ben’s wedding, he’d turn forty.

Him.

Forty.

Still single.

Texting his momma that he was still alive, still liked West Texas more than New Mexico, still missed his daddy like crazy, and no, still hadn’t found anyone to call his.

Bennett pulled his hand back and cleared his throat. “Where we at today?”

“Well, I have some paperwork to go over in the admin trailer,” Beau said, the words accompanied with a big sigh. “Then I’m gonna help with the loft tear-out in the hay barn, and then I have interviews this afternoon for the new Stable Master.”

---