The Rancher's Second Chance by Victoria James

here; Melanie looked about as white as the snow still falling outside and standing nowhere near the sleigh.
    He locked the door and walked over to her and leaned down to look at her when she didn’t turn to look at him. “All right, we ready to go?”
    Melanie nodded, eyes fixed on the sleigh. “Right. Inside the sleigh.”
    Cole waited for her to move and then after a minute, when she showed no sign of motion, took her hand. “You all right? Want help?”
    “No thanks, I’m fine. Hello, horses,” she called out before awkwardly climbing in.
    Cole was frowning. Something was very off. “Everything okay?” he said as quietly as possible when he settled in beside her. Gage was busy turning the sleigh and for a moment too occupied with turning it around in the direction of the ranch.
    Melanie nodded. “Of course. Just tired,” she said taking a long sip from the stainless steel travel mug. He wasn’t buying it. “Amazing how quickly things cleared up out here.”
    She nodded. “Any word from Cori or Adam?” Melanie asked Gage, leaning forward.
    “Nothing. Mrs. H has been calling nonstop,” he said, shaking his head.
    Cole frowned. Adam was beginning to increasingly bother him. “I’m going to give that guy a piece of my mind when he gets home.”
    “You should,” Gage called out over his shoulder.
    Melanie looked back and forth between him and Cole. “Hey, are you guys holding something back?”
    “Well, no. I guess I might be slightly overprotective. Gage, too. And I do feel better after my little talk with Adam.”
    She inhaled sharply. “ Yo u spoke to Adam?”
    He nodded.
    “And what did you say?”
    “I told him that if he ever hurt Cori, he’d better run so I could have the pleasure of hunting him down and making him pay.”
    She choked on her hot chocolate. “When was this?”
    “The day after they announced their engagement. It was my welcome-to-the-family speech.”
    Melanie closed her eyes. “And what did he say?”
    “He gave an acceptable answer.”
    “I take it you didn’t tell Cori about this little chat?”
    “I thought it might be best to keep it to myself.”
    “That was wise,” she whispered. It occurred to him she had craftily guided the conversation away from them, and that he’d actually fallen for it.
    He leaned closer to her, wondering how the hell she still managed to smell so good. “Listen, if something happened or if I did—”
    She was shaking her head. “Not at all. Just too much whiskey.”
    Cole nodded, knowing he was going to have to take that answer for what it was. They couldn’t really get into anything else with Gage sitting right in front of them.
    “So we can just pretend that nothing ever happened. I will see you the day before the wedding,” she whispered.
    “Whoa, wait a second, Melanie. I don’t want to pretend nothing ever happened. Why would we do that?”
    She turned to look at him, her mouth dropped open. He was tempted to lean down and taste her again. If Gage hadn’t been sitting with them, he would have pulled her into him and illustrated why there was no way he could pretend nothing happened. What was she thinking?
    Her eyes widened. “Um, because our little interlude was merely the result of you comforting me.”
    “Wrong.”
    “Right.”
    “Speaking of, did you know that you yelled out something about tyranny and a dictatorship?”
    She inhaled sharply and sank lower in the seat. “You must not have heard correctly.”
    He turned so that he was facing her, his arm around the back of the bench. “I know what I heard. You also said that cinnamon was only for specialty coffee beverages.” He couldn’t hold back his grin when her face turned red. He never knew she was this much fun to bait. “You talk a lot in your sleep.”
    “You’re mistaken.”
    “And you said you hated my horse.”
    “I think you need to get your hearing checked.”
    He burst out laughing.
    “What’s that noise back there? Sounds like some wild,