Brenna gave a shrug. “Hey. Welcome to The Great Roundup. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Brenna led the way down to the creek. They sat on the bank. “How are Jamie and the babies?”
“Perfect.” Fallon stared out over the rushing water. “Katie tried to eat a spider yesterday.”
“Yikes. Toddlers. Into everything.”
“And Jamie’s still looking for...” Fallon’s voice trailed off. “Oops.” She pointed at the microphone tucked into her red curls. She didn’t need to finish. Brenna understood. No need to share the Stockton family history with the world.
It was a sad story. Jamie and his siblings had been separated after the death of their parents almost twelve years ago. He and his sister Bella had been taken in by their grandparents. But Jamie’s other sisters had been adopted out of state. Their older brothers, both over 18 at the time, went off on their own and hadn’t come back. Jamie and Bella had found one of their sisters, Dana, in December. They were still searching for Luke, Daniel, Bailey and Liza. Brenna couldn’t imagine how awful that must be, to lose the ones you loved and not know where to find them. But Jamie, Bella and Dana were doing all they could to reunite their family.
“Tell Jamie I’m...rooting for him,” Brenna said lamely.
“You know I will.” Fallon wrapped her arms around her knees and gave Brenna a long, slow once-over. “So. You’re looking really good. And very happy.”
“Love will do that to a girl.” It was so easy to say now, because it was one hundred percent true. And ironically, she could say it in front of the cameras even though she’d never said it when it was just her and Travis alone.
Fallon’s blue eyes were full of questions. “Bren, I can’t help worrying.”
“Don’t.”
“But are you sure?” She whispered the words, as though that would keep her body mic from picking them up.
“Positive. Certain beyond the last shadow of a fading doubt.”
“But we both know Travis. What if he—”
“Fallon.” Brenna shook her head. Whatever happened, she had a goal for her future and a job to do to make that future real. She was sticking with her plan, and her plan was to deal with any emotional fallout after the show wrapped. “I promise you, I love Travis and he makes me very happy.”
“And I see that. You’ve got that special glow, but I still—”
“Please, Fallon. Let it be.”
Fallon respected her request and didn’t ask again.
* * *
Travis had taken his cousin Eli on a quick tour of the High Lonesome stables, with a camera crew trailing along behind. Back outside, they sat on the horse pasture fence to talk.
“Gotta admit,” Travis said, “I was surprised to see you here.” The oldest of his aunt Rita’s boys, Eli was as steady and stalwart as they came, not the kind of guy to spend a day on location with a reality show.
Eli shrugged his big shoulders. “One of those producers and that casting director woman came out to the ranch to talk to me. They said they liked my look, whatever that means, and they asked me if I wanted to spend a day representing the family, visiting my cousin on The Great Roundup.”
“And you agreed?” Travis shook his head.
“Don’t look so amused. I can stand a little adventure. It’s only one day.”
“Maybe you need to consider getting on a show yourself.”
Eli grunted. “This here, today, is it for me. I’ve got stock to move and hay to cut.”
Overhead a hawk soared. The sky was powder blue dotted with fluffy white clouds. Travis stared off toward the mountains, thinking of Brenna, wondering what she and Fallon were up to.
“You’re looking good,” said Eli. “Kind of easy. Relaxed. Not so wild and crazy as before. It’s working, huh?”
“Working?”
“With you and Brenna.”
Travis wrapped both hands around the fence rail and looked his cousin steady in the eyes. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m a very lucky man.”
“Yeah,” said Eli, nodding. “That’s real love for you. I keep hoping that someday it’ll happen for me.”
Real love.
The hawk was only a black spot far in the distance now. Trav watched it vanish into the blue.
Real love.
Whatever this thing was with him and Bren, he was in it and in it deep.
No, he’d never been a forever type of guy. But Bren, she was different than any woman he’d ever known. She was special to him in a thousand different ways.
And sometimes lately he couldn’t help dreaming of what it might be like if this thing they shared never had to end.
* * *
After the holiday break in the action, Jasper laid out a new challenge—with a twist. He announced that the immunity bracelets were being retired. From then on, everyone would be vulnerable to elimination at every challenge.
Two days later, on Friday, Summer got eliminated. The rodeo star had been quiet, subdued even, since Brenna had fought her and won the week before. Brenna almost felt sorry to see her go. The following Tuesday, Rob Franklin was let go.
The cast was shrinking fast. Only she and Trav, and Roberta and Steve were left.
That evening, Steve brought out the last bottle of Jack Daniel’s left from the night of the chili challenge. After toasting all their fallen contestants, they lingered by the fire until almost midnight, reminiscing about what they’d been through to get this far.
And later, in their tent in the dark, Travis made love to Brenna slowly.
She whispered, “Make it last forever.”
As he rose up above her she watched his eyes through the shadows, memorizing every whisper, every touch, every lingering kiss, so that no matter how it all ended up, she would have every moment she’d shared with him to keep in her heart forever.
* * *
The following morning at the canteen, Jasper announced that the next two days would be challenge-free. Steve and Roberta got time to themselves at the campsite, while Travis and Brenna were taken, along with a camera crew, to the lodge.
The van let them off in front of the lobby, where more cameras were waiting, along with a brunette in a short skirt and cowboy boots who introduced herself as “Lori Luckly, the world’s premier cowboy wedding planner.”
Brenna grabbed Travis’s hand and held on tight. All of a sudden, her heart was beating way too fast. Her cheeks burned, and her stomach felt like she’d swallowed a vat of acid. No one had mentioned the marriage clause for weeks. Brenna had begun to let herself believe that the wedding wasn’t going to happen.
But the appearance of Lori Luckly proved otherwise.
It was happening. They were getting married on the show, pulling the ultimate fake-out in a world where everything real between people seemed to happen in whispers in the dark, where the cameras couldn’t see and the microphones couldn’t hear.
“This way, you two.” Lori led them to a conference room inside the lodge.
Roger DelRay and a couple of the other production people were already there. As Brenna sat next to Travis, she didn’t let go of his hand. No way. She clutched it like a lifeline.
The first order of business was whether or not to invite the families for the big day.
Lori said, “Of course, you’ll both want your parents there. And your brothers and sisters.”
Roger templed his fingers. “Definitely. We want that family feel, and that means we absolutely need the families there.”
Brenna cleared her throat and croaked, “No.”
Every head at that table swung her way.
She drew herself up. “Forget it. We don’t want the families to come.” Her mom and dad and Fallon and Fiona and her brothers did not need to be there
to witness a marriage that was destined from the first “I do” to end in divorce. Neither did Trav’s family, for that matter.
Roger had on his this-does-not-compute frown. “But why not? Every woman wants Mom and Dad at her wedding.”
Trav jumped to her rescue. “Roger, it’s just not practical. We both have big families, and if you invite one family member, they’re all going to want to come. That means a raft of confidentiality agreements from a bunch of people who have no skin in this game.”
“Hmm,” said Roger, rubbing his chin. “How many family members are we talking about, exactly?”
“Only counting parents, siblings and cousins?” Trav pretended to run numbers on his fingers. “Fifty, maybe? Sixty? Probably more.”
“Hmm,” Roger said again. Then he and the other producer put their heads together and conferred in whispers.
Trav kept after them. “Why don’t we just bring back the rest of the cast for our big day? We’re all like family now, anyway.”
“Yeah!” Brenna piped up desperately. “That’s what I want. I want Roberta for my maid of honor.”
Trav chimed in with, “And Steve will be my best man.”
The producers whispered to each other some more.
And finally, Roger nodded. “I like it. It’ll be a family affair, after all. A family affair with your Great Roundup family.”
Brenna almost felt like she could breathe again. She pasted on a giant smile. “Sounds perfect to me.”
But it wasn’t perfect.
Because it was actually happening. The only perfect thing about it was that at least her family wouldn’t be there.
* * *
For the next three days, they had no challenges. The Great Roundup had gone wedding crazy. And Brenna and Travis were the stars of the show.
The professionals dressed them. They were filmed consulting with wardrobe people, trying on any number of possible wedding outfits, making their choices and then being fitted.
Brenna decided on a strapless marvel of satin and white lace—to be worn with her favorite purple boots. Trav chose a blue jacket and matching vest over a snowy-white shirt and a string tie. To keep it totally cowboy, he would wear jeans and boots. Roberta went for a short dress, chiffon and lace, in sunny yellow. Her boots were tan, tooled in white. And Steve got a vest and shirt like Trav’s, but without the jacket. All the flowers would be daisies, yellow and white.
They scouted outdoor locations, riding around on horseback with a camera crew to film it all, checking out open fields and picturesque pastures.
In the end, they chose a spot not too far from the canteen, a wide, rolling field with the mountains in the distance. Jasper Ridge, it turned out, was an ordained minister. He would perform the ceremony.
The reception would be held outdoors, country-style, by the canteen. They would have barbecue for dinner, iced tea and champagne punch in mason jars—and a big white cake decked with frosting daisies.
After dinner, there would be dancing. Real Deal was bringing in a famous six-piece country band to provide music for the ceremony and the after-dinner dancing, too.
Bren and Trav worked with a choreographer on their first dance, to “Wanted” by Hunter Hayes. Trav had picked the song, and Real Deal was trying to get permission to use the song on the show. If it didn’t work out, she and Travis would have to redo the dance later to something Real Deal could get the rights to.
Brenna had tried to talk Trav into just dancing to something else. But he wouldn’t budge.
“That song,” he said, “reminds me of you.” And that made her want to run away bawling. She was glad that he wanted her; she just wasn’t ready to marry him.
Yet.
The whole process just felt so strange and disorienting. She prepared for her wedding in a daze. Somehow, through it all, she managed to keep her game face on.
They had to get a marriage license. Gerry and Lori Luckly took them to the county clerk’s office. Nobody there seemed to recognize them, and they were in and out in no time. Still, to Brenna, getting that license was the worst.
All the rest of it—the dress, the dancing, the choice of location—just seemed like some weird, otherworldly fantasy. But the license brought it all home. Her fake engagement would culminate in a marriage that was all too real.
Through it all, Travis was wonderful. He stuck close to her, his hand wrapped around hers much of the time. She was so grateful for his strength and support, though she knew he wasn’t any happier about it than she was. Yes, they were the bold ones in their families. But neither an O’Reilly nor a Dalton would ever get married unless they were deeply in love and planning on staying that way.
She tried to tell herself that what they were doing wasn’t that bad. Because she did love him, for real and true and probably forever. But her love couldn’t really console her. They needed the time they weren’t going to get, time for a real engagement, time to come to the choice of forever together.
Or not.
This wasn’t about forever. This was about a million bucks, about winning the game.
And that made it cheap and wrong.
The night before the big event, in the privacy of their tent, Trav tried to get her to talk about it.
“Bren, come on. Look on the bright side.”
“I’m trying. I am.”
“We’re so close. I’m betting that one of us will win the grand prize. Think about it. Look how far we’ve come.”
“I know. Trav, you’re right. We’ve done well.”
“Damn straight. And you can’t go checking out on me. We need to focus on making it all the way to the final challenge.”
She reached up and pressed her palm to the side of his dear face. “I’m fine.”
“You’re lying.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him down nose to nose with her. “I’m with you,” she whispered. “You can count on me. I’m up for every challenge. Ready to give my all for the win.”
“Bren.” His warm breath brushed her lips. “It guts me to see you so freaked.”
“I’m not freaked.”
“You are. And beautiful, and so damn brave, trying so hard not to cave.”
“Cave? Uh-uh. I’m not gonna cave, Trav.”
“I know.” His lips brushed hers. He tasted so good. Like everything precious and real and true. Like every great mystery she would never unravel.
She pulled him closer, needing him right then more than she ever had. Their lovemaking that night was so good, better than ever.
It didn’t solve anything. But at least for a little while, she could forget everything but the feel of him within her, the strength in his arms around her. She focused on that, on the tender way he held her close to him. He swept her away to a place where there was only the two of them and she could pretend that what they had would never end.
* * *
Their wedding day dawned sunny and clear.
Brenna spent the morning at the lodge with Roberta. They were bathed, waxed and buffed within an inch of their lives, after which came the mani-pedis, and the professional hair and makeup, too.
While a pair of clever stylists did their hair side by side, Roberta suddenly reached out and clutched her arm. “I love him, Bren. I love Steve.”
Brenna shifted a glance toward the ever-present camera crew. “Roberta,” she warned softly.
Roberta threw up both hands. “So what? I love him, and I don’t give a damn if the whole wide world knows it. I swear to God I never thought I would say that again. I swore I was through with love, that I would never in this lifetime trust my heart to another man. Wrong. Steve is it for me. The real thing. When the show’s over, he’s going back to his family’s ranch in West Texas. He’s sure I won’t like it there. I don’t know how to convi
nce him to take me with him, that he’s the one for me and I know it will work out for us.”
Brenna leaned close to her friend. “Stop talking, start doing.”
Roberta laughed. “What does that mean?”
“Follow him home.”
“I don’t—What if his family resents some woman more than ten years older than him moving in on him? What if he hates that I came?”
“What if you hate it? Either way, you need to find out, and the only way to find out is to go there.”
“I know I won’t hate it. I was raised on a ranch. If Steve’s there, I’ll be happy there.”
“Well, then go there. It’s all going to work out.”
“You sound so sure.”
“Roberta, I’ve seen you together. If that isn’t love, I’ll eat Jasper Ridge’s ten-gallon black hat.”
* * *
It was such a beautiful setting—the open field with a pretty, rustic fence off in the background and the thick evergreen forest beyond that, and the mountains, shrouded in wisps of clouds, looming off in the distance.
The wedding guests in their Sunday best filled a set of bleachers. The whole cast was there, including Leah and Seth Stone. Leah looked beautiful in a sea-blue dress and Seth was already getting around on one crutch.
Brenna, sitting with Roberta in one of the white vans as they waited for the Wedding March to start, could see the Stones clearly through her side window. Leah glowed with happiness. Seth had his arm around her. As Brenna watched, Seth whispered in his wife’s ear. Leah tipped her head back and laughed.
“Look at Seth and Leah,” Roberta marveled. “I’ve never seen them so happy.”
Brenna’s throat felt tight, and her eyes burned. No doubt about it. Leah had found what she’d been longing for.
Across from the bleachers, the six-piece band played country favorites. The judges sang along in harmony.
Travis, heartbreaker handsome in his blue jacket and vest, waited next to Steve and Jasper Ridge at the head of the dirt aisle between the bleachers and the band. Cameras were everywhere. Anthony and the crew moved around the periphery, assessing all the angles, getting all the best shots.
The Maverick Fakes a Bride! Page 17
