Chapter Five

The day of Scars’ and Zoe’s wedding dawned bright-gold and violet and pink. The late-November chill was refreshing and crisp as opposed to freezing, and the sky was a clear blue that went on as far as the eye could see.

Zoe stood on the cabin front porch at Open Skies Ranch, clutching a cup of coffee and staring up at the Rockies. As always, they both humbled and inspired her. She’d left Denver for years, and she had missed exactly two things when she’d done so: her childhood friend, confidant and champion Wolf Connor, and the mountains. As far as she’d been concerned, the rest of the city and its inhabitants could just get flattened in a damned avalanche.

Coming back almost four years ago to work for Wolf had been, hands-down, the best decision that she’d made in ages. Giving Scars Innis a chance had been yet another smart move… and asking him to marry her was her personal watershed Einstein moment. She’d made her fair share of mistakes with Scars, mostly because she’d stubbornly refused to see him as a good man– but she’d learned her lesson at long last.

And thank God she had, because now here she was, on her wedding day.

“Mommy!”

Zoe glanced down at her beautiful, shining daughter, standing there in her unicorn pyjamas and thick purple socks. They’d spent the night together at Open Skies so that they could get ready right on-site and save some travel time, and Keira was utterly beside herself at all the adventure going on. Bonus points for her adorable flower girl dress and little tiara, both of which made her look and feel like a princess.

“Hey, little flower,” Zoe said, scooping her up off the wooden porch. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Nope.” Keira wriggled in her mother’s arms, turning to look at the horses in the field far below. “Willa gave me hot chocolate.”

“Did she now?”

“I sure did.” Willa Moore appeared in the open doorway, her gorgeous auburn hair spilling over her oversized pink hoodie, her gorgeous blue eyes sparkling. “In this weather, up here in the mountains, hot chocolate is the only way to go. I’m having some myself, actually.”

Zoe smiled at her friend, feeling the usual rush of gratitude that she was such a huge part of Zoe’s life. Back in Fargo, when she’d been barely scraping by as a sudden mother to her murdered sister’s child, Zoe had depended on Willa to provide childcare, and to cover a few bills when Zoe’s hours at the tattoo parlour had been cut. Willa had taken Keira to doctor’s appointments, filled the fridge unasked, handed over money to keep the heat on. She’d been a true, real friend, and when Zoe had decided to return to Denver to pursue a better life, both for herself and Keira, she’d been devastated about leaving the woman who was like a sister to her.

But her gratitude wasn’t just about Willa’s unwavering love and support. It was also about the fact that Willa was here at all.

It still gave Zoe chills to think about Willa being taken by Gil Purdie, Keira’s father and Zoe’s sister’s murderer. He’d grabbed Willa up, sent text messages from her phone to everyone to make them think that all was OK – and then she’d been tortured and questioned over and over for information about Zoe’s new life in Denver. Gil had even cut off the middle finger on Willa’s right hand and then dropped it off at The Road Devils bar, as a warning. Nobody knew then that it was Willa’s finger in that box – but they’d been put on high alert anyway.

Well. Not high enough, as it turned out, because Gil managed to get into the tattoo parlour and blow it to hell, in an attempt to kidnap his daughter. Thank Christ something had gone wrong – maybe the timer on the bomb had malfunctioned, or maybe Gil had accidentally set it off early – but the end result was that the fucking idiot had killed himself in the blast. And good riddance, to be honest.

With zero hesitation, Scars had bolted straight into the fire and rescued Keira, at great cost to himself. Zoe had stood by him through his physical recovery, and his emotional roller coaster, and soon after, she’d proposed. It was nothing but stupid luck that he’d seen beyond all her bullshit, and he loved her and Keira with every bit of his good heart.

As for Willa, she’d managed to get herself to a cabin after Gil had beaten and abandoned her, and then she’d called for help. Zoe still remembered the shock of seeing her best friend in that hospital bed. Pale, bruised, thin… and missing a finger.

God, the guilt that she’d felt. For Willa being permanently maimed, for Scars being badly burned again, for Keira being in the ICU for smoke inhalation. For everything and everyone who’d been dragged into the whole sad and sordid mess.

So the fact that Willa had flown in for Zoe’s wedding was a small mercy; the fact that she was standing here on this porch and sipping hot chocolate was nothing but a fucking miracle. She was going to be Zoe’s maid-of-honor, and if Zoe was being honest here, the honor was actually all hers.

“So!” Willa said brightly, and Zoe’s green eyes moved from her friend’s disfigured hand to her beautiful face. “What do you say that we start getting ready, Keira? We can get your bath done for sure before the hair stylist gets here.”

“Yes!” Keira squealed and Zoe laughed at her daughter’s eagerness for something that was normally a Battle Royale. “Bath and then pancakes!”

“Oh, well,” Zoe said, walking into the cabin still holding Keira. “In that case… maybe pancakes with maple syrup first, then the bath, huh?”

“Yes!” Keira chirped, clearly ready to agree to anything at all on this magical day. “Food and then bath!”