The Rancher's Surprise Marriage

by Susan Crosby

  “What’s your schedule like?” he asked. “How much longer will you be working on this film? And what comes after it?”

  “We started off in L.A. on a soundstage. We’re supposed to finish up here a week before the wedding. After that I have a month off, then I’m off to New York. I signed on to do a little independent film for a friend. It’ll be a pretty good departure for me, except I hope the fact I’ve been playing a certain kind of role forever doesn’t hurt his film.”

  “Why would it?”

  “If the audience doesn’t believe me in this different role, they might not buy into the movie.”

  He guessed he could understand that, but it sure showed how narrow-minded folks could be. “After that?”

  “I’ve signed on for another feature, but I’ve got a lot of downtime in between projects. I’ve been working since I was five, you know. I made a conscious decision to slow down a little, separate myself some.”

  “Why?”

  “Preparing for the future. I’d like to do something different—hence the indie film. But I’d been planning on marriage and babies, too.”

  Babies?

  “Don’t panic,” she said, meeting his gaze. “I don’t mean with you. It was a dream, that’s all. I’m on the pill. I’ll stay on the pill. No surprises, I promise.”

  “Okay. Where do you live?”

  “I have a home on the coast in California, near Malibu, and a co-op in New York City.” She settled into her pillow, pulling the sheet to her shoulders.

  “Which do you like most?”

  “Neither. Both.”

  He could hear her smile.

  “Two different houses, two entirely different ways of life,” she said. “Your home is beautiful, by the way. I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier. It’s everything I imagined a house of yours would be.”

  “How’d you turn out so normal?”

  “Am I?” She laughed. “First, my parents, I guess, who made sure I lived as normal a life as possible, for a child actor. Then when they and my little brother died in a car accident when I was ten, my grandparents took over. My grandmother could’ve led an army. There was no disobeying her, ever. And yet I always felt loved.” She went quiet for a moment. “She instilled in me the importance of being real, of not buying into all of the hype about myself. I could’ve easily gone the way of a lot of other child stars, but she wouldn’t have let me.”

  “I think you probably had something to do with that yourself. You made your own choices, good ones, apparently,” he said, his admiration of her notching even higher. He picked up a strand of her hair, moving it back from her face, letting him see her better. “Most kids rebel. It’s the nature of the beast. You didn’t seem to. You’ve never done a nude scene, according to my research.”

  “You researched me?”

  “Well, Margaret, I’m going to marry you, aren’t I? Figured I should know a little about what I’m getting into.”

  “And you believe everything you read about me online?”

  “Course not. But it puts questions to ask in my head. So, how come you’ve always kept your clothes on?”

  “I always pictured my grandparents seeing me. It was a horrifying image. Anyway, I had my rebellious moments. I just never got caught—and they weren’t huge. Frankly I’ve been too busy working to have much of a life outside it.” She smiled. “I’m tired.”

  I’m tired. The words were an age-old, universal signal of disinterest. And since she believed he’d agreed to no sex, she had faith she could just lie in bed with him and sleep.

  Okay. Maybe this first night, he could do that. He needed to seduce her, and seduction should start outside the bedroom.

  He almost laughed out loud at the idea. Hell, they’d already made love. Twice. It probably wouldn’t take much to change her mind…

  Then he saw she’d closed her eyes.

  Dilemma solved. For tonight, anyway.

  Maggie knew how to fake being asleep. It was an important skill for an actor. She could keep her eyes from moving, and her breaths measured. After a while, Tony’s body relaxed. He was asleep.

  She’d pretended to fall asleep midconversation because she had a sense things were going to get tense between them. He hadn’t done anything but move her hair from her face, but it was the tender way he’d done it.

  She didn’t understand. She thought he believed as she did, that sex would only complicate things. And no birth control except abstinence was a hundred percent. If she ended up pregnant, he wouldn’t let her go. She wouldn’t want to go.

  So, it was better to leave it like this. It was hard to share a bed with him, knowing he was less than a foot away, and he offered comfort and excitement and pleasure. But it would be harder still to end a marriage after even more intimacy. She already knew how great that intimacy could be.

  All in all, it was proving to be the biggest test of fortitude she’d ever endured.

  She hoped she passed.

  Chapter Eight

  Nerves had Maggie rubbing her hands along her thighs and staring out the window of Tony’s pickup a few days later, headed to a command performance. Time to meet the family.

  “You got lucky,” she said, eyeing the landscape, hard but incredibly beautiful. She could pick out the mesquites now, at least, if not the other varieties of flora.

  “How’s that?”

  “I have no family for you to meet.”

  “Right,” he said dryly. “Just a legion of fans, fellow celebrities and every kind of journalist there is. That’s so equitable.”

  She laughed. “You’re handling it great.” Admirably, in fact. “I could use a quick brushup on your family.”

  “Sure. Father, Hoyt, seventy-four, still working the ranch and training horses. Mother, Sue-Ellen, seventy-two, still running the house and a good part of the ranch. We had a big fiftieth-anniversary bash for them two years ago, even the governor came. I’m the baby of the family. Oldest brother, Cal, has three kids. Next is Grady, who has four. Then my sister, Mary Beth, who has two. She’s four years older than me, so there’s quite an age difference between us all. They’re all married, I think happily.”

  “You think?”

  “Everyone has some rocky times, don’t they? I figure they’ll all be on their best behavior today, meeting you.”

  “I know it’s intimidating, but I hope I can put them at ease quickly.”

  “You’ll know when they start insulting you that you’ve been accepted.”

  Great. She had to wait for that to know? She wished he hadn’t told her. “Did they like your ex?”

  “Nope.”

  She waited. “That’s all you’re going to say?”

  “The marriage lasted less than one rodeo circuit. Not a lot to say.”

  “Why’d you marry her?”

  “Because I was young and horny.”

  She laughed. “Why’d she marry you?”

  “Same, I expect. I was an up-and-comer, too. She didn’t have dreams of her own, so she tagged along on mine. That never works. She found herself someone with a bigger dream, and off she went.”

  “You’re very matter-of-fact about it.”

  “Darlin’, as I said before, it was a long time ago. I was just a kid.”

  “And since then you haven’t been tempted to marry?” She’d been wondering about his past. He hadn’t been forthcoming.

  “Not even close.”

  “Haven’t lived with anyone?”

  “I’ve had overnighters, Margaret. I haven’t been in love, if that’s what you’re circling around.”

  He’d seen through her. He was a great catch, so she really didn’t understand why he was still single. “Can’t I be curious about you?”

  “Course you can. I’m answering your questions, aren’t I?”

  “Short and to the point.”

  “Is there another way?” He gave her a probing look.

  “Yes, long and expansive.”

  “Isn’t my style.” />
  She sighed. “I know. Tell me about the family ranch.”

  “My grandfather started it, but my dad took it places, made it successful. Cal and Grady were happy to stay on and work it with him, so they built houses on the property. My sister lives in Scottsdale with her stockbroker husband. She never cared much about ranching.”

  “Why did you go off on your own?”

  “’Cause my dad and I butt heads all the time. He didn’t want me to go rodeoing. I couldn’t wait to go. I loved the land, I loved the work, but I couldn’t live with him one more minute, especially once my brothers and sister weren’t living in the house anymore and there wasn’t a buffer between me and Dad, except Mom. Nothing I did pleased him. And I wanted to see something of the world before I settled down.”

  “Is he proud of you for what you’ve done?”

  “He’s never said so.”

  Since all she’d ever known from her parents and grandparents was pride and love, she couldn’t imagine how Tony felt.

  “Here we are.”

  Maggie saw a house not as new as Tony’s, but not as ancient as the old homestead where they were filming. Scattered around the property were structures similar to the ones on Tony’s property—a barn, large open storage shed, different kinds of animal pens, small and large.

  “Looks like we’re the first ones to arrive. Mom must’ve told the others to come a little later, give her some time to drill you.”

  She caught the twinkle in his eyes. “So, it’s your mom I need to worry about, not your dad?”

  “If Dad asks you more than one question, I’ll be shocked. It’s not his way. He’ll listen to what you say, though. Don’t think otherwise. He’s paying attention even when he’s not paying attention.”

  She blew out a long breath. “Okay.” At least she was wearing her armor of boots, jeans and a new yellow shirt. Being dressed right for the occasion always helped.

  Tony set his hand over hers, clenched in her lap. “Mom’ll be nervous, too.”

  “Really?”

  “Course. And if you’re ever feeling uncomfortable, just give me a sign. I’ll make an excuse to get you outside—or home, if you need that instead.”

  “What kind of sign?”

  He stopped the truck beside the house and turned off the engine. “You choose.”

  “I’ll tug on my right ear.”

  He slid an arm along the seat behind her, then tucked her hair behind her left ear. “And if you tug on this one instead? I wouldn’t want to leave you stranded.”

  She shivered from his touch as he traced her ear with his fingertip. He hadn’t touched her a lot the past few days, mostly only around other people to keep up the show, but he was good at it when he did. Knew exactly what places to caress and how soft to do it. She’d been aroused several times each day just looking at him, then the slightest touch had her yearning.

  “Okay, then. If I tug on either ear,” she said.

  He nuzzled her, his lips brushing the tender skin below her ear. “Works for me. And how about if you want to have your way with me, you just swivel your hips some. My old bedroom’s still available.”

  Stunned, she laughed, but turned her head, was close enough to kiss him. What was going on with him? It wasn’t like him at all. “You’re crazy.”

  “But in a good way.”

  “The jury’s still out on that.”

  He raised his brows. “Well, okay, then. I’ve been fed to your wolves. Let’s go feed you to mine.”

  “You’re not helping.”

  He laughed. The sound was so unexpected, she just stared.

  “Sit still for a second,” he said, “and I’ll come around and open your door.”

  “You don’t have to—”

  “My mother’s been watching us from the kitchen window. She tried to drill manners into me. I want her to know it worked.”

  So that was why he’d been seducing her. They were being observed.

  “Except this is the first time you’ve done so,” she said, disappointed that it had all been for show.

  “Only because you’ve always just hopped out.” He planted a kiss on her lips, short and sweet, like punctuation at the end of a sentence. Conversation over. Period.

  She watched him amble around the truck and open her door. She wished she could take him up on the offer to use his bedroom. “Something smells incredible,” she said instead.

  “That would be my father’s barbecued ribs, slow cooking out back.”

  “It’s making my stomach growl.”

  “Wait’ll you taste the fixin’s. Mom makes the world’s best cowboy beans and biscuits. There’ll be cobbler of some kind, too. Probably peach.”

  “Do you think she’d get a bad impression of me if I just ask where the grub is when I meet her?”

  “I think she’d get a kick out of it.”

  Maggie wouldn’t do it, of course. She wanted to make a good impression, and getting overly casual at the beginning probably wasn’t a good idea.

  It struck her then that she’d never been taken to meet parents before. She’d never dated anyone long enough for that to happen. The thought shot her nerves into the stratosphere.

  Fortunately Tony kept her hand in his as they went into the house. The living room was both similar to and different from Tony’s—similar in its Western style but different in that a woman’s touch was evident in the decorating—some nice touches, like flowers and candles. The art on the walls wasn’t all Western in nature, either, but portraits, too, something lacking at Tony’s place. But here there was family, and lots of it. Generations. Before she could ask Tony about them, his parents came into the room.

  Hoyt Young was shorter than Tony by several inches, but still a tall, imposing man with a full head of salt-and-pepper hair. Tony had inherited his straight nose, strong jaw and broad shoulders, but his eyes were all Sue-Ellen, who came forward to embrace, and made Maggie feel like she was hugging her mother again.

  Her throat burned; her eyes welled. She tried to blink the threatening tears back before the hug ended and she had to look the woman in the eye.

  “Welcome to our home and our family,” Sue-Ellen said as she released Maggie. Tall and slender like her husband, Sue-Ellen wore her gray hair short and casual, framing her delicate, lined face. Maggie could only wish for a complexion as beautiful at that age.

  “Thank you so much,” Maggie said, hoping her smile masked her bubbling emotions. “Your home is beautiful. Hello, Mr. Young,” she said, looking at Tony’s father.

  He reached across to shake her hand. “You can call us by our given names, Hoyt and Sue-Ellen. Good to meet you.”

  Maggie felt Tony’s hand come to rest on her shoulder. She leaned against him a little as his mother gestured toward a couple of large sofas. A tray of appetizers sat on a nearby coffee table. She took requests for drinks. Maggie offered to help and followed her into the kitchen. The room had been updated, obviously, since the appliances and countertop looked relatively new, but there was an old scarred kitchen table with six chairs around it. She ran her hand over the surface.

  “Hoyt made me that table shortly after we were married,” Sue-Ellen said, getting glasses from the cupboard for iced tea. “The kids did homework there. Played games. Put together puzzles on rainy days. Did all the craft stuff that kids do. It was a lot of fun when it was full every day. I miss the noise.”

  Maggie tried to picture it. She had few clear memories of her life with her parents and brother, just bits and pieces, much of it reconstructed from pictures and videos. Life with her grandparents had been quiet. “I never had that. I can see how fun it would be.”

  “Yes. Then one day you notice there’s no one there anymore. It’s hard. Then you get grandchildren, and it’s better again. Would you mind grabbing a couple of beers for the men? They’re in the fridge.”

  Grateful for something to do, Maggie went to the refrigerator.

  “I know a lot about you because of the Internet, but not h
ow much of it is real,” Sue-Ellen said, as if testing the waters. “You’re just as pretty in person, though. You and Tony fit well together.”

  Maggie understood what she meant. After watching the press coverage of their news conference, Maggie had thought that they looked like a couple. Sweet on each other, as Tony put it, and physically well matched.

  “He’s a very good man,” Maggie said. “He gives a lot of credit to you for who he is.”

  “Does he? Well, isn’t that sweet. I suppose he’s told you he was cut from a different cloth from his siblings.”

  “He didn’t put it that way,” Maggie said carefully. She didn’t want to offend anyone. “It sounds to me like he was just determined to choose his own path and didn’t want help getting there. I admire him immensely.”

  Sue-Ellen nodded. She picked up the glasses of tea. “Let’s get ourselves back in the living room so there’ll be conversation in the house.” She gave Maggie a quick smile.

  The yearning that filled Maggie for family and home and stability skyrocketed. She wanted that more than anything. Then came the guilt that his parents were making an emotional investment in her as their son’s wife-to-be. When she and Tony split up, how would he explain it to his family? She didn’t want them to think poorly of her, but she guessed she couldn’t change that. Even if she tried not to get too close, it was going to hurt.

  And knowing Tony as she was beginning to already, she knew he would be the one to take the public blame for the marriage ending. It wasn’t fair. Maggie knew it wasn’t fair. She’d have to figure out something so that he didn’t come out the bad guy in the deal.

  That thought stayed with Maggie all afternoon as more and more family came and filled up all the space. Several of Tony’s nieces and nephews were in college and couldn’t make it to the party. Most were high schoolers and so accustomed to each other, they took off after eating to go riding or hang out together in the barn. The initial awe that everyone displayed settled down soon enough as Maggie engaged them in conversation. Couldn’t they see she was just as much in awe of all of them for what they had?