“Hundred bucks says that come Labor Day, you’re still single,” Rob said. “Safest bet I ever made.”
Cab, joining them, laughed out loud. “Got that right.”
“He’s got to think it over for another twelve years,” Ethan chimed in. “Doesn’t do to rush these things.”
Jamie bristled at this group attack on his cautious personality. “Hundred bucks says I’m married to Claire by the end of the summer.”
“Deal.” Rob grabbed his hand and shook it before Jamie had a chance to reconsider. He pointed across the lawn. “There she is, tiger. Go on and ask her. Just keep your distance from her right hook. You know how cranky she gets.”
Already regretting the bet, Jamie turned and spotted Claire. In shorts and a t-shirt, her dark, glossy hair reflecting the morning sun, she made quite a picture as she stood counting tables on the far side of the yard. He wouldn’t propose to her, as much as the ring was burning a hole in his pocket.
But he figured he might as well start planting those seeds.
CLAIRE CRUZ WAS counting the circular tables set up on the lawn of the Cruz ranch Big House, but there was only one number that stuck in her mind. Six hundred thousand dollars. She could finally start fresh and no one—no one—had to know she’d let a bastard like Daniel Ledstrom take her to the cleaners. Her relief made her weak in the knees, and just about made up for the stupid practical joke Rob had played on her this morning.
She refused to be angry at anybody today—her brother Ethan’s wedding day—now that her bank account was out of danger. To have the whole weekend stretching in front of her here at the ranch was a gift she planned to thoroughly enjoy. It had been too long since she’d spent any real time here—too many years since it had been her home—and she was ready to let its beauty heal her soul. Soon she’d leave it behind again—if not for good, at least for a good long while—so she needed to make the most of this opportunity.
As Ethan’s only living relative, it was up to her to take charge of the festivities—with help from Autumn’s mother and sister and a few other family friends, of course. Later in the morning she’d cover the tables with the freshly pressed white tablecloths the event rental outfit had dropped off, and decorate each one with an arrangement of candles and flowers. For now, she intended to savor this moment of peace before the chaos of the wedding celebration set in.
She raised a hand and touched her face, which still felt warm from the scrubbing she’d had to give it. Rob had replaced her moisturizer with some sort of goop that stained her skin a violent orange. It’d taken her half an hour to get it all off and now her skin stung under the heavy layer of foundation she’d applied. Pressing her lips together she remembered the note he’d left pinned to her wash cloth. Once she’d seen the horror of her orange face in the mirror, shrieked and reached for the cloth to clean it off, she’d felt the paper, unpinned it and read his message.
Claire—you are the beautifullest girl ever. Marry me? Your secret crush—Jamie
Idiot. She’d recognize Rob’s handwriting anywhere. And Jamie wasn’t going to propose to her, as much as she’d once hoped he would, because he was too busy sleeping with everything in a skirt.
No. She wasn’t going to let Rob’s jokes ruin her morning, and she wasn’t going to waste any time thinking about what might have been with Jamie. She’d been hurt too many times to be interested in marriage to any man—at least not one from Montana. When she took off on her round-the-world cruise, however…well, some handsome European might just be the ticket.
Better get these tables counted.
One, two, three…
“Forty-five, eight, one hundred and nine,” Jamie Lassiter said, coming across the lawn toward her.
Speak of the devil. Dressed in the cowboy uniform of jeans, a t-shirt, and a pair of battered boots, he looked far too handsome to be the same scrawny, wiry little kid whom she used to tower over. Now he filled out his clothes nicely and the top of her head barely reached his shoulder.
“Damn it, you made me lose count,” she said, plucking at her collar. It was already hot at nine in the morning. Six hundred thousand dollars. Plenty of money for whatever she wanted to do. She planned to close down Ledstrom Designs as soon as possible. Then she’d forget Daniel Ledstrom. Forget Jamie. Forget Mack Mackenzie and all the other men who’d ever given her grief. Take her round-the-world trip. After that—who knew? Make a home where people didn’t lie or cheat or steal or walk out on her.
Wherever that might be.
Too bad it wasn’t right here on this ranch.
Jamie stuffed his hands in his pockets, leaned against a table, and looked at her, his cowboy hat cocked back the better to see. With a deep breath, she forced herself to focus on the task at hand. One, two, three…
“You figure out yet what you’re going to do with all that money?”
She should have known he’d bring up the cash. When Jamie bought into the ranch, he and Ethan were able to re-mortgage it. That, in turn, allowed them to buy her out. Hence the six-hundred-thousand dollars soon to be deposited in her bank account.
“Yep.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Really? What?”
Surprised you there, didn’t I, cowboy? “I’m closing down Ledstrom Designs and taking off.”
“Taking off? Where are you going?”
He sounded angry, which confused Claire. It wasn’t like he gave a damn where she went. Sure, he flirted with her now and then, and he’d even invited her to celebrate with the rest of the crowd the night he and Ethan became partners. She’d gone along with it, but made sure they were never alone. And she’d made sure to leave in plenty of time to drive back to Billings. She wasn’t going to be another one-night-stand notch on Jamie’s bedpost. “Wherever I choose.” She moved away from him, beginning her count again.
“For how long?”
“A year. Maybe two.” At this rate she’d never figure out if she had enough tables set up for all the wedding guests.
“Damn it! You can’t do that!” Jamie’s fist hit the table and made her jump. When he took her arm and pulled her around to face him she could only stare.
“Why the hell not?” Once she was over her shock, anger flooded her. What was he playing at, scaring her like that? She tried to shrug him off, but he tightened his grip around her bicep. He looked furious, too.
“Because…because you’re marrying me on Labor Day,” he blurted out. He fished around in his jeans pocket and pulled out small, velvet box. Letting go of her arm, he opened it, yanked out a ring, grabbed her hand and shoved it halfway onto her finger before she could react. She tried to pull her hand away as the ring’s setting dug into her skin, but he gripped her wrist with iron fingers and pushed it farther over her knuckle.
“What are you doing? Stop it!” Claire struck out, batting at his arms and chest. She’d had enough of Ethan’s friends’ stupidity today. It was one thing to switch the contents of her moisturizer and leave her a dorky note—she expected that kind of crap from Rob—but for Jamie to play along with the gag and take it to this level? She wouldn’t stand for it.
“No, I won’t stop it,” Jamie growled. “I’ve got everything planned out and you’re not going to screw it up again! You’re not going on any god-damned trip around the world, because you’re going to stay here and become my wife.” He rammed the ring the rest of the way onto her finger, then pulled her close, slid one hand around her waist and kissed her, hard.
When he released her, she rocked back on her heels, too stunned to speak. Clapping from across the lawn alerted her that Ethan, Rob and Cab had witnessed this whole debacle—hell, they were in on it, too, weren’t they? Heat surging into her cheeks, she shoved Jamie as hard as she could, and when that didn’t work, she went to peel the ring off and throw it in his face.
It didn’t budge.
“Shit.” She pulled and tugged, but the ring refused to slide back over her heat-swollen knuckle. “Jamie, I’m going to kill you!”
“You can do anything you want to me after we’re married. Until then you’ll shut up and act happy.”
What had come over him? Normally Jamie was laid back. He might laugh at Rob’s antics, but he didn’t participate in them. He’d picked a hell of a time to start. Outrage filled her until she thought she would burst with it. Of all the tricks he could think of to play on her, this was the cruelest one he could ever dream up. He’d already broken her heart once, but she’d gotten over it. Now he was going to pretend to care for her? Pretend to propose?
“I’ll bet I’ll kick your ass before sundown.” Trust Jamie to make her sound like she was seventeen again. If only she was. Things were simple back then. He crushed on her and she ignored him. She was too close to him then to see him for the catch he was. It took her years to realize Jamie was the one for her.
By then it was too late.
A few years back, she’d made a New Year’s resolution to stop fighting with her mother and spend more time at the ranch. As soon as she came home to visit, though, it was Jamie who caught her attention. She hadn’t been able to stop watching him. She loved the way he moved, the way he did his chores. The way he lavished attention on the Cruz ranch horses even though he was only a hired hand back then. The way he was always present, how he offered his two cents when her father asked him for it, and kept quiet when he didn’t. How he attended to the day to day problems of running a ranch even when they weren’t his job to solve.
His words to her on those weekends were kind and teasing, and more than that. They started a fire within her she’d never felt before. When he wasn’t flirting, he was fun, warm, intelligent, a man who thought things through before he allowed them past his lips. She wanted to work with him, ride with him, build a life with him based on their shared love of the ranch. She wanted to be with him, too. Watching his hands when he worked made her buzz with longing to feel them on her skin. She fantasized about his arms around her—his mouth on hers.
Then one Friday night in early February, after another long, lonely week in Billings, she couldn’t stand it anymore. She’d packed a weekend bag, driven the two hours from the city to Chance Creek, parked down the drive and crept past her parents’ house to the path that led to Jamie’s cabin. Swallowing all her pride, she knocked on his cabin door and prepared to confess her feelings for him—confess that she was finally ready to be his girl.
But he didn’t answer. And when she walked around to the cabin’s back door, she saw why. He was too busy undressing Hannah O’Dell to hear her knock. Too occupied to even close the drapes on his bedroom window. She remembered all the other women she’d seen him flirt with over the years and finally understood.
His attentions meant nothing—they never had. They were just the ramblings of a man who couldn’t help but act interested in every woman in easy range. How had she fooled herself into thinking she was special? Now she knew she wasn’t—not to him, anyway.
The shock yanked her budding desire for Jamie and for ranch life up by the roots and tossed it to the wind, and she’d never allowed herself to consider it again. She’d redoubled her efforts at her job, and soon was promoted to lead designer at Ledstrom Designs. Then she began to date Daniel.
“I’d like to see you try to kick my ass.” Jamie leaned in, and for a moment she thought he might kiss her again.
Wanted him to despite everything.
“Don’t think I can’t.” Seriously. Were they ten? If memory served, she’d scuffled with Jamie right about here one day when he’d squirted her with a watergun and she’d wrestled it away and beaned him over the head with it.
“I’ll be happy to prove you wrong after you agree to be my wife,” Jamie said.
“Ha ha hardy har har.” She turned to Ethan and the rest of them lined up on the far side of the lawn. Raising her voice she called, “Very funny, guys. Now you’ve had your practical joke, can we get on with getting ready for the wedding? I don’t need this shit today.” She tugged at the ring again and winced when the diamond’s setting pricked her.
“Hey—did she say yes?” Ethan hollered from across the yard. Claire was going to kill him.
“I’m not joking, Claire. I’m part-owner of the ranch now. I intend to breed horses and help Ethan and Autumn with their business. I want you here with me.”
Something inside Claire snapped. She didn’t need this kind of baloney on a day that already had her emotionally wrung dry. Her mother and father should be here at Ethan’s wedding, but they were gone, killed in an accident last August. She hadn’t had the chance to set things all the way right. Hadn’t seen either of her parents for months before they died, and it was all Jamie’s fault.
“Quit fooling around,” she said, trying to brush past him. He wouldn’t let her go.
“Jamie—what’d she say?” Ethan hollered again.
Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked them back. She was not going to cry. She couldn’t. Not in front of all of them.
Jamie’s tone softened. “I’m sorry, honey—I meant to do this right. Just…stop, Claire and listen to me. I’m as serious as I’ve ever been. You know I’ve wanted this all along. I worked and saved so I could become a man worthy of you. I’m building a house, I’m going into business. I have everything I need, except you. Claire, will you be my wife?”
He actually dropped to his knees as if he was going to propose for real, except if he was serious, he would have mentioned the word love somewhere in the last ten minutes. She blinked harder, her throat aching with the injustice of it all, until she thought she would scream. Maybe Jamie was a god-damned flirt who couldn’t even take marriage seriously, but that didn’t mean everyone was that way. Some other man might actually want to marry her. She was hanged if she was going to let her first proposal be a damned joke.
She glanced at the rest of the pranksters standing across the yard. Was Rob Matheson filming this mock proposal with his phone to use against her later? Was Ethan in on this, too? A tear spilled over.
Damn it!
She kicked Jamie square in the chest, her rage lending her strength. Over he went, landing flat on the ground. “Get off your knees and get the hell out of my sight. I don’t deserve this, Jamie.”
“Hey!” Jamie lurched unevenly to his feet and swayed, one hand raised to the dirty footprint on his white shirt. “What are you doing?”
“Telling you exactly what I think of your little joke.”
“It’s not a…”
“Stow it!” She was shouting now. She didn’t care who saw them or if Rob got it on film. “I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth.”
He stiffened, glared at her, all trace of softness gone. A chill ran down her spine at the intensity of his gaze—she couldn’t remember ever seeing Jamie this angry before. When he spoke his voice was calm. Implacable.
“Wanna bet?”
Chapter Two
‡
FIVE HOURS LATER, Jamie stood next to Ethan under a latticed trellis watching Autumn process along the aisle between the rows of guests, as radiant as a movie star in her striking wedding gown. He knew Ethan could barely breathe for love of her, and he was happy for his friend, but try as he might he couldn’t keep his eyes on Ethan’s bride.
Instead, his gaze kept sliding over to a certain sister-of-the-groom who sat in the first row, her flowered sundress and cowboy boots a whimsical combination that was a far cry from the dark, severe suits she normally wore these days. She sat ramrod stiff on the plastic seat, her black bob shaking with every move of her head. She was still furious, but he could tell she was trying to put on a good show for Ethan and Autumn’s guests. It wasn’t working. That fake smile could cut someone if she wasn’t careful.
He’d blown it. All his careful plotting and planning were smoke up a chimney now. Forget about planting the seeds of friendship in her mind. Forget about getting her involved in the guest ranch operation, and soliciting her help designing the interior of the log house he was building on his plot of land. Forget
inviting her to ride the horse he’d hand-picked for her and taking her all over the land and reminding her just how much she loved this place.
He had intended to walk her step by step through a process of falling back in love with the ranch, with horses, and with him.
Instead he’d demanded she marry him and shoved the ring on her finger with all the suaveness of a caveman bludgeoning his woman.
He was an idiot. But Rob was a bigger one for not telling him what he’d done: leaving that note in Claire’s bathroom, making sure she was furious before he ever had a chance to open his mouth. He knew now that she interpreted every word he said this morning as a personal attack rather than a proposal. He had a lot of ground to cover if he wanted to get things back on the right track.
But he was determined to marry her, and now that he’d broached the topic he wasn’t stepping back. Claire would bolt for Billings the second the wedding was over and who knew how quickly she’d shut down her business and leave for her tour around the world.
He needed more time with her—time to do all the things he’d meant to do before popping the question.
How could he keep Claire on the ranch for a few weeks—maybe even a month—so he could convince her this was where she wanted to stay? How did you get a stubborn, unreasonable, competitive terrier of a woman to admit she’s wrong and you’re right?
He glanced at Rob, standing next to him in the line of groomsmen. Rob rubbed his thumb and first two fingers together—a not-so-subtle reminder that he thought he was going to win their bet.
That stupid bet.
He stiffened, a crazy idea forming in his mind.
Jamie began to smile.
ETHAN AND AUTUMN took turns repeating their vows. They exchanged rings. The ceremony wound down.
Claire did her best not to look at Jamie, but she couldn’t help it—he was standing right up there with Ethan, Rob and Cab. As Ethan’s best man, he stood beside the groom. Rob came next, his blond hair glinting in the sunshine. Cab was last, having walked Autumn up the aisle, standing in for the father she hadn’t seen in years. With the backdrop of ranchland sloping down toward the creek, and mountains in the far distance, the wedding looked straight out of a fairytale. Claire’s heart ached at the thought of leaving all of this behind again.
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