Sweet-Talkin' Maverick
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Christy Jeffries
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The Last Single Sanchez in Bronco Businessman turned landowner Dylan Sanchez is a dealmaker…and a heartbreaker. The rookie rancher insists he will never amble down the bridal path — even though everyone in town seems determined to see him put a ring on, well, someone! So when he asks Robin Abernathy for her help with the Broken Road Ranch, she knows better than to pin any hopes on him, no matter how long she's been hiding her crush on the wannabe cowboy. But the two opposites soon find a surprising connection that has the whole town talking…
Prologue
Nearly everyone in our small Montana town had attended some sort of event in the newly renovated Bronco Convention Center. But only one other couple had thrown an actual party inside of it. Of course, the last weekend in January wasn’t exactly the time of year for a large outdoor gathering, and the crowd tonight was definitely a large one.
Everyone knows that when the beloved mayor invites the whole town to celebrate his thirtieth wedding anniversary, it’s not a question of if you’ll go. It’s a question of what you should wear and who else is going to be sitting at your table. Sure, you could miss the annual Christmas tree lighting or a rodeo on occasion. Those types of events brought in enough tourists that your absence might go unnoticed. However, tonight’s party celebrating Rafferty and Penny Smith was strictly for the locals. And anyone who was anyone in Bronco, Montana, had RSVP’d yes before the invitations were even printed.
“Thank you all for coming out to join me and Penny on this momentous occasion,” Mayor Rafferty Smith began his speech welcoming everyone. The man was a great speaker and an even better storyteller. It was no wonder he kept getting reelected. “You know, when I first asked Penny to marry me, I wasn’t sure she’d say yes. In fact, I don’t think she even knew she was going to say yes. But we were just a couple of young kids in love back then, flying by the seats of our pants. We had no big plans other than making it through each day and having as much fun as we could. Nobody tells you how much work a marriage takes... I mean, nobody except all the boring adults who know better than you. But you ignore them because you’ve got too many stars in your eyes. Then, as time goes by and you begin to look back on all the ups and downs, all the good times and the bad, you begin to realize what you’ve actually accomplished. Personally, my biggest achievement is sharing the past thirty years with the woman I love.”
Everyone oohed and aww’d as the mayor pulled his wife onto the stage beside him. “Penny, you’ve stuck by my side all this time and there is nothing I could give you that would even come close to everything you’ve given me these past years. But I couldn’t show up here completely empty-handed.” The crowd chuckled politely, then applauded as Rafferty presented his wife with a black velvet jewelry case. “They say pearls are traditional for the thirtieth anniversary, but if you ask me, there is nothing traditional about you, Penny Smith. Like this necklace, you are one of a kind and I can’t wait to see what the next thirty years have in store for us.”
Rafferty made a big show of fastening the stunning heirloom pearl necklace around Penny’s neck, causing the guests to cheer uproariously when he hauled his wife into his arms for an over-the-top kiss.
Everyone in the crowd agreed—the party was already off to a fabulous start.
