For this year’s Christmas Ball, Conner vowed, he’d be prepared. He would have his fun dancing with all the ladies, even some of the married ones; but he would make sure that when the entertainment came on, he was front and center alone, ready to catch his dream woman’s eye and hopefully meet her when she walked offstage.

But what if she didn’t show up? What if she came and he found out she was married or attached to a boyfriend in the band?

He would have to cross that bridge when he came to it. But cross it, he would. As a national bull-riding champion, he’d dated rodeo queens, movie stars, and supermodels. As an injured partner in a small-town ranch, he’d romanced every attractive, eligible woman in Branding Iron. But none of them had made his heart slam on sight—until a dark-haired beauty in high-heeled boots and a fringed, beaded buckskin jacket fit for a rock star had walked onstage at last year’s Cowboy Christmas Ball.

“Hey, let’s get moving, man! No daydreaming allowed!” Travis gave him a playful punch. In the past, Conner had teased his partners unmercifully about their love lives. Now that Rush was married and Travis was planning a holiday wedding, they were repaying him in kind.

“Give me that tree. You can be lovesick on your own time.”

Travis grabbed the pine Conner was holding, gave it an extra shake, and carried it to the display rack. Bucket, the ranch’s black-and-white Border Collie mix, followed Travis to the front yard, sniffed at the tree, and lifted his leg on the trunk.

“You old rascal,” Travis scolded. “What are you going to do when you and Conner are the only bachelor holdouts left around here? Maybe you’ll go off and find that little lady coyote you met last winter. Too bad you’re fixed, huh? But Conner, here, isn’t. What’s he going to do about that? Where’s his little lady coyote?”

If there’d been snow on the ground, Conner would have lobbed a snowball at his partner. As it was, all he could do was ignore the jab and keep working.

As he hoisted a heavy tree off the trailer, he couldn’t help thinking how much things had changed in the past year.

Last holiday season, with the tree business just getting off the ground, all the partners had been single men. Then, last summer, Rush, a veterinarian, had married Judge Tracy Emerson and moved to her house in town. But Rush was still very much a partner. He’d even built a small clinic on ranch property to supplement his mobile vet service. For the month of December, he had cut his practice back to emergencies only, so he could help with the trees and sleigh rides.