Gemma Dutton was determined to give her daughter the wedding she deserved. She had not been happy about her daughter and Travis getting married at the courthouse. She had told Travis that his days would be numbered if he did not keep his promise to give her daughter the wedding she deserved. To her surprise, he proved as good as his word and told Gemma to prepare for a May fifteenth wedding. Her opinion of her daughter's husband improved.

Coralee and Katie falling out was a problem for her mother. She loved both her daughters but understood how badly Katie had hurt her sister. She wanted to see Katie invited to the wedding but knew she could not force the situation. All she could do was wait, and hope.

Coralee was heartbroken over her falling out with Katie but she was determined not to let it put a damper on her special day. She was face-timing her mother every day, discussing flowers, cake, and what Gator should prepare for the wedding dinner.

She'd found her dress, an "invisible dress" covered with strategically placed white flowers. It was slim, modern, and had a fullness in the back that made a modest train. Her mother had wanted her to get a ballgown, or maybe a mermaid dress, but Coralee wanted simple, and simple was what she got. She would wear a white straw Stetson and white cowboy boots, her mother would hate it, but it would be perfect.

Her mother had wanted her to choose her sister as a maid of honor, but Coralee insisted on having Monica who had answered with an enthusiastic "yes" when Coralee asked her. She told her to pick her dress and choose whatever style and color she liked. She liked Monica and although she loved the one sister she still spoke to, she felt Monica was part of Yellowstone. They'd always gotten along and enjoyed each other's company. She couldn't see anyone else but Monica to stand up for her. Once it would have been Katie.

By a stroke of luck, the weather in Montana would be in the sixties the week of her wedding. She wanted to get married on the lawn in front of her uncle's house. Tables would be set up for dinner, but guests would stand for the ceremony itself. Gator would barbeque brisket, ribs, and chicken, and would fix his famous cornbread, biscuits, and potato salad. He insisted that he could not have a barbeque without baked beans, so Coralee had to relent.

Travis was happy to see her plunge herself into wedding planning. He would listen to her talk to her mother: should there be corsages for the women and boutonnieres for the men? What color should the bride and the maid of honor's bouquets be? She was insisting on having roses and baby's breath, only the color of the roses was in question.

Every night she went to bed happy and tired. In the morning she could not wait to begin her reining sessions and in the afternoon, Travis had to tell her it was time for her to stop practicing cutting and come in the house for dinner. Her appetite returned and she began to gain back the weight she lost. Her cheeks lost their sharp contours, and her body regained its soft curves.

Travis had planned to pay for the wedding, but John and Ben Dutton told him they would take care of it. The only thing he would pay for was the trip to Cozumel she had her heart set on. She told him which hotel they should stay at, and what they would do when they got there. She also insisted on flying economy, the flight would be long, but she thought the cost for first-class seats exorbitant.

All was going well in their lives, and although life on a ranch could be uncertain, things seemed quiet and uneventful. Life was not so easy for John Dutton, the state of Montana was trying to seize land for a huge recreational development. The fate of both development and ranch was up in the air. Ben informed his son-in-law that the wedding was coming at a good time, his brother needed a diversion, and the wedding could not be timelier.

Travis asked Coralee if she knew, and she replied that she did not know much about the ranch's legal troubles. Sometimes she wished she had pursued a law degree so she could be of help to her uncle. The matter was out of her hands, all she could do was wait and see. She opposed the development, it was the right thing in the wrong place, and their ranch should be left alone. Seven generations of Duttons had lived on the Yellowstone, she thought the concept of "eminent domain" should be illegal and the state should not be allowed to condemn land to seize it.

The wedding would be a way for everyone to forget their problems for a while. She was more concerned with Travis. He was a workaholic, and it would be hard on him to leave the ranch in Matt's hands. It was only his desire to make up for their rushed wedding that enabled him to step away. He would be on the phone every day, checking with Matt, but she was willing to live with it.

They were allowing themselves one week for their honeymoon. Travis would have spent it going to horse shows and sales, but he had promised her the honeymoon she wanted and she chose Cozumel. She intended to keep him busy. She'd arrange for two marlin fishing trips for him. She wanted to visit Mayan ruins and hoped he could appreciate their magnificence and the fact that they'd been built with stone tools. There was snorkeling off the beach of the hotel, and they'd take advantage of what the island had to offer.

She knew that he would never again consent to a vacation like this, so she was taking advantage. It would be good for him, maybe he'd be convinced that getting away from work once in a while would be a good thing.

Her mother called one morning, earlier than usual. "Katie's missing," Gemma told her, "No one knows where she is."

"Is she with Ryan? I thought she was living in the bunkhouse with him." This was something Coralee didn't need, was Katie deliberately causing trouble?

"She came back here; she and Ryan had a falling out although they were still talking to each other. I thought they would patch things up and she would go back to the Yellowstone."

"Have you talked to Ryan, Ma? Does he know where she is?" What was Katie up to, Coralee wondered.

"No, he hasn't seen her. They had a fight, and she took off, she took her trailer and her horse, but her truck must have broken down because they found it alongside the road. Her horse was still in the trailer, but she'd raised the hood of her truck, she must have gone looking for help."

"How long has she been gone, Ma?"

"Three days."

"Three days? After forty-eight hours she's a missing person, have you called the cops?"

"We thought she'd show up at home, Coralee, Ryan's been out looking for her." Gemma Dutton was wondering if they should have called the police.

"Call the police and fill out a missing person's report, for crying out loud. I'd fly up there to help but I can't get away, Travis needs me." Coralee couldn't believe what she was saying. Once she would have been on her way to the airport but now she wasn't sure what to do. Her wedding was in a month, what kind of trouble was Katie in?

She waited to tell Travis until they went to bed. She couldn't find a way to talk about it, but finally had to blurt it out: Katie was missing.

"What?" There was disbelief in Travis's voice, "You're kidding, how long has she been missing?"

"Three days, she had a fight with Ryan and loaded up her horse and took off. She took her clothes, her tack, everything. They found her rig with Best Boy in it abandoned along the road with the hood raised. She probably tried to go into town to look for help. Now, nothing."

"I know that road, and I know the type of person who drives on it. Something bad could have happened, Coralee, but it would have to be someone from out of town. It's used by ranchers and people from the reservation. I'm sorry she's missing, sweetheart, but I can't help but suspect she's up to some kind of mischief." Travis kissed the top of her shiny hair.

"You know, I feel guilty saying this, but I wonder if she's trying to stop the wedding. I know that's an awful thing to say, let alone think, but she's been so vicious lately. I don't know what's wrong with her, we've been tight all our lives, that is, until you and I got married. It's like it made her angry and she hasn't forgiven me for it."

"Well, did they report her missing? Three days is long enough for the cops to take a report."

"Mom called me after they did. I guess Ryan is pretty torn up, he feels responsible, but it's not his fault. He's been looking for her, I bet Rip and Uncle John are pretty pissed at both of them."

"Let's stop talking about Katie and Ryan. I want to make love to my wife and I don't want you to be distracted in case this is just some of Katie's antics. If it's not, I hope nothing bad has happened to her." Travis pulled her next to him and began to kiss her.

No one knew or heard anything about Katie for a week. Ryan returned to the ranch, he'd been unable to find out anything. He was worried, but there was nothing he could do. Her disappearance had been reported, she was now officially a missing person.

It had put a damper on Coralee's wedding plans, but she was not going to let it spoil things. She had waited to have her wedding and she was going through with it. Maybe it was heartless, but she would not let Katie's disappearance deprive her of something she was looking forward to.

Then, out of the blue, her mother received a phone call. Katie was with Bob, the cowboy she and Coralee had met in Albuquerque. Bob was in Montana on business. He had found Katie stranded along the side of the road and picked her up and they spent the night in Bozeman. He did not have his trailer with him, so they left her horse, intending to call the ranch and have them pick it up. Business was taking him to Las Vegas, and they decided to get married. She'd waited so long to call because she was afraid everyone was mad at her, and it took her that long to work up the courage.

"Balls!" Coralee threw her phone after talking to her mother. "What the hell was she thinking? I know one thing for sure, I'm taking my horse back, there's room for him in the barn. Matt can drive him back after we leave for our honeymoon. I could kill that bitch."

"Well," said Travis, "Are you going to invite her and her new husband to the wedding?"

"I'd like to invite him, but I don't want her. Mom knows how mad I am, but she wants me to invite her anyway. She hinted that I should make her my maid of honor, but no way. Katie must think she can draw attention to herself and show off her new husband. I hope Bob knows what he's getting into. If he wanted to fuck her that's what he should have done. I predict that marriage isn't going to last very long."

"Isn't that kind of mean?" Travis asked, "She's your sister and you love her, don't you? So she got married, so what? It's your day and you're going to be the one in the white dress. She can try and steal your thunder, but she can't. Everyone will have their eyes on you."

Coralee set her teeth, "If she shows up in a white dress, I am going to personally throw her out."

"In that case, Katie had better watch her ass," Travis laughed as Coralee gave him a dirty look, "Gotta go, sweetheart, I've got work to do."