Luke stomped through the mudroom door of his not-yet-finished house as another long day came to a conclusion. He was starving, and he ached from head to toe after getting bucked a half-dozen times from the new ride he was training, which meant he was also filthy.

Food, then a shower. Then he’d figure out something to pass the rest of the evening. Something he could do alone considering two of his brothers were happily wrapped up with family and wife and/or fiancée, and Dustin was off with his friends.

Luke plugged in his battery-dead phone then opened the laptop on the kitchen counter. He kicked away the bits and pieces underfoot from the packaging that had held the overhead cupboards he’d finally put in place that morning before heading to work. He grabbed a plate of leftovers from the fridge, pulled a stool over with a foot, and dropped onto it, checking his emails as he ate one piece of pizza cold while the rest heated in the microwave.

Junk, junk, emails from his sisters, more junk…

Triple Crown Gala.

He paused, snorting around a mouthful of pizza. “Yeah, me at a gala. Good one.”

But the email was from Bertram Cooper, someone Luke trusted a great deal. Silver Stone had done a ton of their top value sales through the man, so he clicked the message open. Bert was probably setting him up for an all-you-can-eat chicken wing night and pulling his leg with the subject title.

Five minutes later, the microwave beeped another reminder which Luke continued to ignore, astonished at what he’d just read.

It was a gala, a buyers-and-sellers gala. An invitation-only gathering of the elite horse breeders of North America. It wasn’t a buying event, but a meet-and-greet with spouses and families, and Bert had wrangled him and Penny an invitation to the event.

Holy freaking shit.

The rough weather they were having with Silver Stone was put off for a short while because of Walker’s gift, but they weren’t nearly out of the woods. They had to take that next step with the horses if they were going to make it, and this was like a golden ticket had fallen into his lap.

Luke shuddered at the cost of the event. Thank God it was being held just hours away in Kananaskis country, which meant they’d be able to drive and not have to fly to Texas or Alabama. But the oversized price tag would vanish if they got one new sale, and these kind of events built relationships that were kingmakers.

Years ago, Penny’s dad was one of the ones who’d been in the right place at the right time, and they’d never looked back.

There was a message from Bert.

Luke didn’t think about it too hard. The invitation truly wasn’t something he needed to consider—the gala could save the ranch. He absolutely had to be there. It wasn’t his fault Bert wasn’t up to date on the fact he and Penny had called off their engagement.

He filled in the application.

Name of the ranch, their top horses and studs to date.

Personal history.

Name of spouse/significant other—Luke paused.

Contact Penny and ask her to do him a favour? Possible, but risky. She was unpredictable, and he didn’t trust her. Plus, he didn’t think he could stand to be all cozied up to her again after calling things off, and a family event would mean they’d have to at least pretend to like each other.

Nope, there was a far simpler solution right at his fingertips. He filled in the blank with a firm stroke on the keys.

Kelli James.

He hit send.

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