Book 2: Wes (Christmas at Whiskey Mountain Lodge in Coral Canyon™)

Wesley Hammond refused to be a former CEO who walked out of his corner office, with two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows, carrying a brown box with his belongings in it. He’d already carted out the sad plants, the family pictures, the toiletries he kept in his desk drawers, his clothes, and all the menus of the downtown Denver establishments that delivered until midnight.

He’d done that by taking a few things every day over the course of the past few weeks, after the board had approved the transfer of power from Wes to Laura. She’d been in his office every day too, six days a week, and Wes found himself getting along well with her. Better than he ever had before.

Laura had the passion for HMC that Wes had started with, and he knew in his heart that this transition was good for him, and good for the company. It didn’t make leaving for the last time any easier, though.

His heart beat down two paths, and he could hardly determine which one to go with. Excitement that tomorrow, he didn’t have to get up, shower, shave, and put on a suit. He didn’t have a schedule to stick to. He didn’t have a call at six a.m. to accommodate the branch manager in London. He’d have to be in charge of his own schedule now, and he’d sorely miss Myra, who kept him looking knowledgeable, and Matthew, who always made sure Wes arrived in the appropriate place on time.

Or trepidation that he had no schedule to stick to. No phone calls to make. No one in charge of him, except for him.

“Are you ready?” 

He turned at the voice he’d worked with for so long to find Myra standing in his office doorway. “Yes,” he said, picking up his briefcase. “Is Matthew done?” His secretary had been on the phone with a regional manager out of Pittsburgh fifteen minutes ago, talking fast and trying to get something taken care of before the weekend started.

“He just hung up,” Myra said. She entered the office fully now, walking toward him with a smile on her face. “What are you going to do tomorrow?”

Wes took a deep breath, smiled, and blew it out. “Well, tomorrow’s Saturday, and I’d love to sleep in and then find somewhere to play golf.”

Myra gestured to the windows behind him. “You’ve looked outside, right?”

Wes turned and looked, though he’d seen the snow falling earlier. It hadn’t stopped all day, and it had a certain magic about it. “Yeah,” he said. “No golf. Maybe I’ll go skiing.” 

“I didn’t know you skied.”

“I don’t.” He faced her again. “Never had the time, but I will now.”

Myra laughed lightly with him, and she turned to go back out the door. “I’m going to miss you, Wes. You’re the best boss I’ve ever had.”

“That’s because I’m not your boss,” he said. 

“You always acted that way,” she said, nodding. “And I appreciated that.”

“Laura’s good,” Wes said. He’d told Myra this many times. “You can leave anytime too. It’s only her that can’t fire you for the first twelve months.”

“No, Laura is great,” Myra said. “I’m hoping things will just continue on as they are, and that if we work well together, that I can stay. I’ve loved working for a family company.”

“Our benefits are excellent,” Wes joked as they left the office. He didn’t stop and look back. He’d never go inside again, loosening his tie after a stressful meeting and asking Matthew to screen all his calls.

“Even if I left now,” Myra said. “I have an excellent retirement, because you allow employees to invest in the company too.”

“What do you own?” Wes asked.

“I’m almost to two percent,” she said. 

“That’s amazing,” Wes said, truly surprised. “You cash those out, that’s what? Two million?”

“Three and a half,” she said. “At the employee rate.”

“Good for you, Myra,” he said, stopping at Matthew’s desk while the man scurried around, putting files away. He never left for the day until his desk sat clean and pristine. He claimed that then, when he got in the next day, he knew right where everything was. 

Wes looked at Myra, with her honey-colored hair and dark brown eyes. She’d been an excellent assistant—and a good friend. “How’s Janey doing?” he asked.

A smile lit Myra’s face at the mention of her daughter. “Great,” she said. “She sent me a picture of the palm trees this morning, just to rub it in.”

Wes chuckled, wishing he were in Florida, on the beach along the Gulf of Mexico. He’d even go back to school to do it, as Janey was. The fact was, Wes could go to the beach now. Any beach. Anywhere. Any time. He had plenty of money. The truth was, the cold had never bothered Wes, and sometimes he actually craved it. So he wouldn’t go to the beach. 

His mind moved automatically to Wyoming, and the woman he hadn’t spoken to in five weeks now. His last conversation with Bree Richards hadn’t ended well for him, and every time he tried to hear her voice again, he couldn’t. 

That particular aspect of Bree had fled his memory, and he hated that. He hated that she’d broken up with him too, though he could admit that they hadn’t actually been dating. A better way to say it was that she’d cut off their conversation. He’d asked her if she was sure she didn’t even want to talk to him anymore.

She’d said she’d met someone else—up there in Coral Canyon. Up where Wes didn’t live. He couldn’t tell her then that he’d been planning to come meet her in person come February seventh—which was tomorrow. He’d erased her voicemail, and she’d apologized a bunch of times.

Wes had too, because he was sorry things between them hadn’t really been able to take off. He felt completely stalled, stuck on the ground, reaching for the stars that seemed so far above him that he’d never touch them.

He stifled the sigh threatening to come out of his mouth and looked at Matthew when he said, “Ready. And I’m buying tonight, so pick your poison.” He grinned, and Wes had the sudden urge to grab the man in a hug. 

So he did, ignoring the grunt of surprise that came from Matthew. Wes clapped him on the back a couple of times, stepped back, and gave Myra a quick hug too. “You guys have been amazing,” he said, his emotion stuck way down deep in his stomach. That was one thing this job had taught him—how to contain emotions until he was alone and could deal with them.

“Thanks for putting up with my moods, and my wild changes, and well, my everything.” He nodded, glad to have that out of the way. “And I want to go to Rothburg’s, so you better bring the platinum card.”

Matthew grinned and held it up. “Right here, Wes.” He glanced at Myra. “And you’ve literally been the best boss—and friend—I’ve ever had.”

“Same,” Myra said.

Wes looked at them, the bond between them fourteen years in the making. “All right, then. I wish you guys could come with me.”

“Where are you going?” Matthew asked, picking up his own briefcase. The three of them started toward the elevator.

“I’m going to take a little cross-country trip,” Wes said, deciding on the spot. “I think I’m going to fly to Maine, rent a truck, and visit every state in the country.” And if he started back east, he wouldn’t get to Wyoming any time soon.

He couldn’t believe he even wanted to go to Wyoming. He wouldn’t even recognize Bree if he saw her, as he’d never seen a picture of her. Colton had gone back to Coral Canyon several times over the past five weeks, as his girlfriend lived there. His brother was preparing to make the move permanent in the next couple of days, and Wes would’ve volunteered to help had Colton not hired a moving company.

“Sounds amazing,” Myra said. “I can’t wait to see your pictures.”

“Yeah,” Wes said, stepping onto the elevator. “Because I only post on social media when I travel.” The three of them laughed, because that was true, and Wes knew it. He wished he knew what to do with his life now, and all he could do was trust that God would lead him where he was supposed to be, when he was supposed to be there. 

Maybe something would come up in Vermont. Or Georgia. Or South Dakota. The possibilities were wide open, and Wes’s excitement finally outweighed his fear of the unknown.

* * *

The months passed, and Wes decided he’d need to go back to New England when it wasn’t wintertime. That had been a mistake. He’d hit Florida during baseball season’s spring training, and that had been fun. He’d watched the cherry orchards bloom in Michigan, and he’d dug his toes into the white sand along those beaches bordering the Gulf of Mexico.

He experienced the spring thunderstorms in Texas, where the thunder could roll through the sky for a full minute before it clapped. Where the rain could douse a man in under ten seconds. Where he finally found all those cowboy roots he’d come from.

His great-great-grandfather had owned a ranch in Texas, and Wes had visited it and met the people who ran it now. The Stokes were great people—a big family like the Hammonds. Lots of boys, all of whom still worked the ranch where they lived. 

He’d experienced summer arriving in the Rocky Mountains, and as he crossed the border from his home state of Colorado to Wyoming, his throat only hitched a little bit.

The past six months had taken him to thirty-nine states, and Wyoming was number forty. He only had ten to go, and plenty of time and money to get to them. He’d heard Alaska was beautiful in August, and his plans included hiking in the Tetons in Wyoming, visiting Yellowstone National Park in Montana, hitting something in the Idaho panhandle—maybe the quaint town of Coeur d’Alene—as he headed toward Seattle. 

He then planned to get on a ship that would take him to Alaska, where he wanted to see as much wildlife as he could, hike any trails he was fit for, and simply be outside, where he felt closer to God than he did anywhere else.

The trip had been good for Wes’s soul, that was for certain. He spoke to his parents often, as well as all of his brothers. The family party at New Year’s had been good for them, bringing them closer as a family unit. Ames and Cy had started to stray, and if Wes were being honest, so had he. 

He sent them pictures of his day and told them the random museums he’d visited. Cy had told everyone that he’d met a woman in Oceanside, and he wanted to bring her home to meet everyone. The plans for that were still being made, and Wes figured he could fly to Denver from almost any city in the world. If his quest to visit all fifty states got interrupted for a few days, he wouldn’t die.

He hadn’t had any revelations about what he should do once he’d visited the last ten states on his list. He didn’t have to do anything, he’d told himself a thousand times. He could go out to the family farm and help his parents with it. Ames had been doing that more and more, and it was actually good for him to have that purpose in his life. 

Wes simply wanted a purpose too.

He didn’t set his GPS specifically for Coral Canyon, though he certainly knew the town’s name. He drove into the beautiful mountain town just before the Fourth of July, and he admired their Main Street that had red, white, and blue flags, banners, and streamers on all available surfaces. 

People seemed to be everywhere, and he decided to find somewhere to park and then something to eat. It wasn’t nearly as hot here as it had been in Denver, and he sure did like the higher elevations. The magnificent Teton Mountain Range sat in the distance, towering up and piercing the cloudless blue sky.

A measure of joy and peace filtered through him, and Wes had the distinct impression that he’d like to live in a town like this. He pushed the thought away because it sounded crazy. He couldn’t live here, though his brain immediately started questioning him. Why not?

Colton lived in Coral Canyon, and Wes had always been close to his brother. He pulled out his phone and called Colton, always preferring to call over text. He supposed he was old-school that way.

“Hey,” Colton said. “Are you in town?”

“Just finding somewhere to park,” he said.

“Downtown?”

“Yep.”

“It’s crazy downtown right now,” Colton said. “You should’ve come here. We can take the ATV’s over.”

“You ride an ATV around town?”

“Everyone does,” Colton said, and Wes reminded himself he wasn’t in the big city anymore. He hadn’t been for a while. He did love a big city, but he’d also fallen in love with all the remote towns that existed along the highways in this country, and he loved the ones where the roads had no lines on them, no sidewalks bordering them, and kids riding bicycles down the middle of them.

He’d grown up in Ivory Peaks, which was exactly like that, and Wes suddenly wanted a town like that where he could settle and stay. Maybe meet a woman and have a family. He was nearing fifty, though, and in order to have a family, he’d need to find a woman several years younger than him.

People do it, he told himself. He had to, because he didn’t want his legacy to be the fourteen years he’d spent running HMC, or the fourteen before that going to school, learning the ropes of the manufacturing business, and investigating politics.

Thankfully, his cross-country trip had put the idea of him running for governor to rest, and his father hadn’t brought it up again. 

“We’ll meet you at Stagg’s,” Colton said. “It’s a great place, and you can’t miss it. Has tons of big antlers on the outside.”

“Fifteen minutes?” Wes asked.

“Fifteen minutes,” Colton said. “Just me and Annie.”

“Great. See you then.” Wes hung up as he spotted a parking lot up ahead with a troop of Boy Scouts standing at the entrance. “And it’s just me,” he muttered to himself. Always just him.

He pulled up to the boys in uniform and handed them a ten-dollar bill so he could park. With his wallet in his back pocket and his phone in his hand, he got out, taking a nice, deep breath of the mountain air he loved so much.

Oh, yes, Wes needed to find a town like this to live in. He loved the busyness of it, knowing that all of these people would soon retreat back to their lives, homes, and jobs, and then Coral Canyon would go back to being the small town with big charm.

He smiled at the hanging flower pots outside of the bakery, and the window display in the pet palace. If he’d owned a dog, he’d definitely have gone inside to see what clothes or toys he could get for his barker.

Colton was right; Wes couldn’t miss Stagg’s. And not just because of the antlers, but because it was very popular, and several people milled around outside on the sidewalk. He stepped through them to the hostess station, and asked, “How long for a party of three?”

The woman standing there scanned her list. “Twenty minutes.”

“My name’s Wes,” he said.

“Three?”

“Yes, ma’am.” 

She looked up at him, and Wes grinned at her as he tipped his cowboy hat in her direction. A warm smile spread across her face too, and Wes’s spirits lifted. Perhaps if he found somewhere permanent to stay, he could meet a woman and make a real life for himself.

He turned away from the hostess station and found a patch of empty cement to wait for Colton and Annie. He listened to the others around him talking, barely paying attention to what they were saying.

Wes had been trying to focus on how he felt, and he absolutely felt comfortable here in Coral Canyon.

Maybe this is your final destination, he thought. He automatically resisted the idea, but it wouldn’t go far.

Then he heard a voice that flipped a switch inside him, and he instinctively turned toward it. “All I’m saying is I’m not doing that dating app again,” the woman said.

Wes searched for her in the people waiting beside him, his heart banging against his ribcage now. Bang, bang, bang. His pulse moved into his ears, and he couldn’t hear whoever Bree was with. He couldn’t see her either.

Somehow, Bree’s voice cut through the other noise, the hammering of his heartbeat, all of it. “And I’m not calling him,” she said. “So don’t even suggest it.”

He found her sitting at one of the tables-for-two on the other side of a black railing. She shook her hair, dark curls falling over her shoulders and down her back. She looked at the woman across from her, who held up both hands as if surrendering. Wes had to get a better look, and he wasn’t sure who he touched or pressed through to get closer. He just knew that he now stood a couple of feet behind Bree’s friend, his view of her clear and focused.

She was absolutely gorgeous, and Wes felt like someone had stunned him. He gripped the railing with one hand as her friend said, “So, what are you going to do, Bree? Stop trying?”

“Yes,” Bree said, the word almost a shout. “I’m going to stop trying. I don’t need a man in my life. All they do is break my heart.”

Wes wanted to shout that he wouldn’t. That he hadn’t. That she’d been the one to cool things between them, before they’d even had a chance to see if they’d get hot.

She looked at her friend with dark, soulful eyes, and Wes knew he could get lost in them. She wore makeup, but not too much, and when she reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear, he caught sight of dark purple fingernails. 

He’d once told her that he’d dated a woman with bright red nails, and that he’d hated them. What color would you choose? she’d asked.

Purple, he’d said. A nice, dark, deep purple.

Just like what she had on her fingers.

It means nothing, he told himself. She hadn’t remembered that conversation. Even if she did, she’d just told her friend she wasn’t going to call him. At least he hoped he was the him she’d referenced.

His phone rang, startling him away from the railing. The last thing he wanted was for Bree to see him. But she did look over to him, as he literally stood maybe eight feet from her. Her eyes swept over him, past him, maybe not even seeing him.

He ducked his head anyway, never more grateful for a cowboy hat than he was in that moment. Colton’s name sat on the screen, and Wes swiped on the call, his heart beating at him to get out of there. Now.

“Hey,” he said. “Stagg’s is super busy.” He walked away from Bree, part of him begging him to stay. Telling him to go back and pull up a chair and say, Hey Bree. You might not remember me, but I haven’t stopped thinking about you in six months. I’m Wes Hammond.

Stick out his hand. See if she’d shake it.

“Can we go somewhere else?” Wes asked, desperate now. If Colton didn’t agree, Wes would simply march back to his truck and find something else to eat in the next town he came to. 

And I’m not calling him.

“Sure,” Colton said. “Oh, I see you. We’ll make a plan.”

“Great.” Wes hung up, still striding away from Stagg’s—and the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This story made me laugh and cry. Well written, you were right there mentally and emotionally with Bree and Wes the whole way thru. The characters learn how important trust is and how to love again, not only someone else but most importantly themselves.” ~Paula M.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I have loved this whole series of the Hammond Brothers. They have all been super fantastic to read. Her Cowboy Billionaire Butler has been extra fantastic to read. I cried reading some parts of the book because I knew exactly what Bree was going through. You will want to read this book and the others in the series.” ~Debbie C.