Rhett's Make-Believe Marriage

by Liz Isaacson

  Sadness moved through him that she wasn’t getting the wedding she wanted. He could’ve given it to her. Sure, it might have taken longer to plan, but maybe then they would’ve fallen in love along the way.

  The door opened, and his reality set in. This was what she wanted. Evelyn wasn’t a weakling. She’d tell him what she wanted, and he’d do his best to give it to her.

  “Hey,” he said as she joined him, smiling at her softly. Wow, he was already in deep with her, which probably wasn’t a bad thing considering where they stood.

  “Sorry I’m late,” she said, facing the judge. “I’m ready.”

  Rhett honestly had no idea what the judge said after Evelyn laced her arm through his. Her touch was enough. The rosy scent of her skin was enough. She was enough.

  “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the man behind the counter said, and Rhett faced his new wife.

  “I can kiss you, right?” he whispered while she smiled at him.

  “No,” she murmured. “I’m going to kiss you.” And she did. Rhett’s head swam with heat and desire, but he kept the kiss chaste. After all, he’d married this woman, but no one needed to know how much he liked her.

  At least not yet.

  Tripp and Callie clapped, and they came forward and hugged Rhett and Evelyn. For a few precious seconds, Rhett felt the energy of the whole world coursing through him.

  “Well,” Callie said, blowing out her breath. “What are you guys going to do now?”

  By the time Rhett pulled into Evelyn’s driveway, the sun had gone to bed hours ago. “Thanks for indulging me on a honeymoon,” he said, smiling at her.

  “It was fun.” She grinned and got out of the truck. He joined her under the light of the moon, the air finally starting to cool a little bit. “I’ve never seen so many windmills in one place.”

  They’d gone to the American Windmill Museum in Lubbock, and Rhett had enjoyed himself immensely. “Neither have I,” he said. “I love learning about stuff like that.”

  “We’ll have to go back to the Museum of Ranching,” she said, reaching up to take a pin out of her hair. He stood transfixed, watching her as she let her hair out.

  She shook her head with a sigh. “I should’ve done that hours ago.”

  He brushed his hand along her shoulder and up her neck, finally moving his fingers through the curls she’s released. Time froze, and Rhett simply let it.

  Evelyn looked right back at him, and while she’d been exceptionally good at hiding her feelings for him, he could clearly see them all now. He leaned down and kissed her, maybe a little too hungrily at first.

  She kissed him back, slowing the movement of his mouth and pulling away long before he was satisfied. She tucked herself in his arms and said, “Thank you so much for today, Rhett.”

  “Of course,” he said, wondering how he was going to let her walk up the steps and into the house without him. “So I’ll come help you move your things over tomorrow. I’m going to talk to Jeremiah too.”

  “All right,” she said. “I can come help with that, if you’d like.”

  They’d already talked about it on the drive to Lubbock, and he shook his head. “No, I need to do it. Although, if I don’t show up for church, you might want to come see where he’s buried my body.”

  She giggled, though Jeremiah’s anger was no laughing matter. Rhett liked the sound of it floating into the night air, and he decided he better get out of there before he said or did something he couldn’t take back.

  He stepped away from her and said, “See you tomorrow.” She stayed right where she was while he got in the truck and backed out of her driveway. Only when he was finally going to drive away did she lift her hand in farewell and hurry up the steps.

  The door closed, the house swallowing her, stealing her from him. Rhett sighed and faced the dark half-mile back to Seven Sons Ranch.

  He’d only taken two steps into the house when Jeremiah said, “There you are. Where in the world have you been all day? I was just about to call the blasted police.”

  Chapter Nine

  Evelyn didn’t need a bed. Or her dresser. Or even hangers. She’d been steadily texting with Rhett all day, and he was due to arrive any moment to help take her things over to his ranch.

  Her things.

  Clothes, mostly. Toiletries—she’d been assured more than once that she’d have her own bathroom. The cleaning service the brothers used would come upstairs now to dust her room, vacuum her carpet, and clean her bathroom.

  Evelyn thought it must be nice to be able to afford a cleaning service. With her decline in business, she and her sisters had tightened their belts. They’d cut back on groceries, never ate out, and were making ends meet any way they could.

  She didn’t need the recliner in the corner of her bedroom, where she read when she couldn’t sleep. Sometimes she studied profiles in that chair. Sometimes she simply looked out the window which overlooked the pasture where the horses roamed.

  She’d miss that chair, and she picked up her phone to ask Rhett if the room where she’d be living had enough space for it.

  Sure, he said. We can bring over anything you like, sugar.

  She smiled at his endearment, and she suddenly wanted him there with her. Neither of them had gone to church today, both of them thinking it would probably be easier to keep their union a secret just a little bit longer—until they had a chance to tell everyone in their families.

  Rhett had talked to Jeremiah last night, and boy, was his brother mad. Ultra-mad. Furious. Evelyn wasn’t even sure there was a word strong enough to describe how upset Jeremiah was. Rhett said he’d stormed out in the middle of the night and hadn’t come back.

  He’d gone out in the morning, and Jeremiah was doing the farm chores, so he was still alive. He’d promptly disappeared again, and Rhett had texted to say they might be eating cold cereal for dinner that night.

  Evelyn sighed as she tucked another pair of shoes into her suitcase. She hadn’t wanted to cause a rift in the Walker family. The brothers had always seemed particularly loyal to one another, and their strict no-women pact had definitely solidified them. It was the Walkers against Three Rivers—at least until Rhett had broken ranks.

  Callie had promised to keep Simone out of the way while Rhett helped Evelyn move, and they were out on the ranch somewhere. Evelyn began taking her bags downstairs to the entryway, so Rhett could load them easily.

  She couldn’t carry the chair very far, so she left it, turning away from it as knocking sounded on the door. “Hello?” Rhett called, and Evelyn’s blood ran a little hotter in her veins. She practically skipped out of her room and down the hall, peeking around the corner to see him lift a couple of bags and turn to take them outside.

  When he returned, she stood in the doorway, watching him. “Hey there,” he said, mounting the steps. “Is today a good day?”

  “So far,” she said, though a skiff of unease moved through her. “Do you think Jeremiah will be there?”

  “Yeah,” Rhett said. “He came back two seconds before I left. He’s not talking to me at the moment.” He adjusted his cowboy hat. “But he’ll come around. He’s just had a rough go of things lately.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Oh, his last girlfriend really did a number on him,” Rhett said. “And she wasn’t just his girlfriend. She left him standing at the altar.” Rhett met her eye. “He has a right to be upset, but he’s got a forgiving heart.” He smiled and cupped her face in one hand. “You’re beautiful, did you know that?”

  She burst out laughing. “It’s a good thing we’re already married, Mister,” she said. “Because that was a terrible pick-up line.” Still chuckling, she let him kiss her until they were both laughing too hard to continue.

  “Come on,” she said. “You still need to get my chair.”

  The move took ten minutes, and Rhett led her upstairs, carrying the recliner all by himself. He certainly had muscles and knew how to use them. “You’re rig
ht here,” he said, opening the door to the last room on the right. “It’s the biggest room, and it’s connected to the bathroom.”

  Evelyn followed him inside, taking a few moments to look around her new living space. It certainly didn’t feel like the farmhouse where she’d grown up and lived for so long. But it was clean, and it smelled like lilacs thanks to a candle burning on the dresser.

  A queen-sized bed sat against one wall, and Rhett put the recliner next to the windows that looked out over his ranch. She moved over to them and pushed the curtains to the side so she could get a sense for the view. “I can see my ranch from here,” she said, a measure of delight and comfort filling her.

  “It’s a great view,” he agreed. “Do you need a minute?”

  “A minute would be nice,” she said.

  He nodded, turned, and left the room, closing the door behind him as he went. Evelyn collapsed into the recliner, her heart heavy and full at the same time. She felt like she was on a roller coaster, and she couldn’t get off. Up one moment. Happy. Peaceful. And then the doubt and the fear would creep in again, stealthily pulling her down, down, down.

  She had dozens of things to think about, but what weighed on her mind was her father and grandmother. She’d take them a jar of Simone’s raspberry apricot jam in the morning and tell them. She actually stood as if she’d go get the preserves from the storage room off the kitchen.

  Then she remembered she wasn’t in her own house anymore. Sitting again, she dialed her father.

  “Hey, baby,” he drawled. “I didn’t see you at church today.”

  “Yeah, I know,” she said, smiling at the sound of his weathered voice. He’d done his best to raise his three girls, and he’d never gotten remarried after Mama had died. “I need to come see you and Gran tomorrow. What are you guys doing?”

  “I think we’re going to the wildflower festival,” he said. “Supposed to be a big bloom right now.”

  She’d heard about that, and she also knew the wildflower farm didn’t open until ten. “I’ll bring honey and jam,” she said. “Does Gran have any of that homemade bread in the freezer?”

  “I’m sure she does.” Her dad sounded happy. “Is everything okay, Evelyn?’

  “Yes,” she said, finally feeling it way down in her toes. “Everything is fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “All right, baby,” he said before hanging up. Evelyn stood and shoved her phone in her back pocket. Her sisters were due to arrive in fifteen minutes, and she supposed there was no better time to go downstairs and face her new brothers-in-law than right now.

  She opened her bedroom door to find Rhett sitting on the floor several paces down the hall. He glanced up when he heard her, and she looked down at him. “You’re waiting for me?”

  “I couldn’t go down there without you.” He reached up, and she grabbed onto his hand to help him stand. Not that she could really do much. The man was probably twice her size. “I figured we could be a united front.”

  “Probably a good idea,” she said, flashing him a smile. “I’m taking my dad and Gran jam and honey in the morning to tell them.”

  “I’ll call my parents tonight,” he said. “If we survive this.”

  She nudged him, glad she could be strong when he felt weak. Heaven knew he’d been a rock for her these past few days. “We’re going to survive. And hey, it smells like brisket.”

  Sure enough, downstairs in the kitchen, Jeremiah stood in front of the stove, stirring something. He looked up when Evelyn walked in, and they both froze.

  “Hey, Jeremiah,” she said, her voice a pitch she’d never heard before.

  He simply turned back to the stove and said, “The potatoes are almost done.”

  Rhett squeezed her hand and whispered, “Hey, you got five words. That’s more than he’s said to me today.”

  Evelyn tried to smile, but the gesture sort of wobbled around on her face. “What can I do to help?”

  “I won’t get in someone’s way if they wanted to set the table,” Jeremiah said gruffly, mostly to the boiling pot of potatoes.

  “We can do that,” Evelyn said. “Come on, Rhett.” She set to work laying out the plates while Rhett followed her with the silverware. Napkins went on next, and Rhett placed glasses on the table too.

  Liam and Tripp spilled into the house from the back porch, their voices loud and vibrant, the way Evelyn had heard them many times in the past. She smiled at both of them, glad doing so was getting easier. “My sisters should be here any minute.”

  “We saw ‘em coming,” Liam said. “That red truck really sticks out.”

  “My pops wanted it to,” Evelyn said, fondness coming over her. “He said he painted it the brightest red he could find, so when Gran took the truck to town, she’d always be able to find it.” She grinned at all four men currently staring at her. She chuckled and shook her head. “You need to meet my gran, and then you’d get it. She was a bit blind, and she shouldn’t have been driving at all. The red helped, trust me.”

  Tripp smiled at her and did a most surprising thing: he stepped right over to her and hugged her. She patted his back awkwardly, realizing everything in the kitchen had frozen. Liam stared openly, and even Rhett wore a look of surprise.

  Thankfully, the doorbell rang, and Liam blinked his way out of the stupor that had claimed him. “I’ll get it.”

  “It’s just us,” Callie said in the next moment, her voice coming down the hall from the front door and piercing Evelyn’s heart. She’d never lived away from her sisters for more than a few nights, and she had no idea how she thought she could live here, with four men instead of her two sisters.

  “Hey, Callie,” Liam said, swiping his hat off his head as if she were the President of the United States. Evelyn couldn’t believe the sight before her. How had she missed Liam’s giant crush on her sister?

  Maybe because her own crush on Rhett had prevented her from seeing it. Seeing anything around her.

  “Hiya, Liam.” Callie gave him a smile, clearly oblivious to what it probably did to his pulse. Evelyn knew, because hers started rioting as Rhett came to her side. Before he could say anything, Jeremiah turned on the electric mixer and shouted over the noise of it. “We’ll be ready in five minutes.”

  But she and Rhett wouldn’t be making any announcements over the final dinner preparations, and pure tension filled the air by the time Jeremiah said, “All right, men.” He cleared his throat and looked around at Evelyn and her sisters as if he’d just realized they were there. “And ladies. Wash up. It’s time to eat.”

  Chapter Ten

  The tension in the house pounded in the back of Rhett’s neck. Jeremiah hadn’t given an inch, but at least he’d spoken to Evelyn. Okay, maybe talking about potatoes and setting the table didn’t count as talking.

  Everyone in the room was an adult, but they shuffled their feet and looked at the table as if they’d never eaten together before.

  But they had, and Rhett couldn’t believe a simple wedding had caused so much unrest. “Okay,” he said, taking charge as he often had as kids. Being the oldest of seven boys was no laughing matter, and Rhett was lucky to have survived childhood without more than four scars.

  “I’m going to sit here,” he said, stepping over to the end of the table and putting his hands on the back of the chair. “Evvy’s going to sit by me.”

  “I’ll sit by Evvy,” Callie said.

  “I’ll sit by Callie,” Liam said, and Rhett glanced at him.

  No one else said anything, but Simone looked at Evelyn. “What’s going on? This feels weird.”

  Jeremiah muscled his way past Tripp and Liam and plunked a plate of softened butter on the table. “She doesn’t know?” He glared at Rhett, and everything inside him tensed.

  “He’s going to tell,” Rhett muttered, hoping Evelyn was prepared for what was about to happen.

  “Who else doesn’t know?” Jeremiah scanned the crowd, pure fire leaping from his eyes.

  “I know,”
Callie said, reaching out to touch Jeremiah’s arm. “It’s okay, Miah.”

  “Miah?” Rhett asked at the same time Liam practically yelled it.

  “I know, too,” Tripp said, and Liam spun toward him. He looked at Rhett, then Jeremiah, and then Callie.

  “What’s going on?” he asked. “Do you know, Rhett?”

  “Oh-ho,” Jeremiah chortled. “He knows. He’s the problem.”

  “It’s not a problem,” Rhett said, wishing Jeremiah wasn’t quite so hot-headed.

  “Oh, it’s a problem,” Jeremiah said.

  “Miah,” Callie said while Tripp said, “You’re being unreasonable.”

  “Stop it,” Simone yelled above everyone.

  Evelyn stepped next to Rhett and slipped her hand into his. “I’m so sorry,” she said as everyone quieted.

  Simone focused on her. “Someone better start talking.”

  “They got married,” Jeremiah said, pointing at Rhett and Evelyn at the head of the table. “Like, legit, married. They’re married.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Liam practically shrieked, but Rhett still heard Simone’s shocked gasp.

  Jeremiah drew in a deep breath, but it didn’t lessen the heaving in his chest.

  Callie grabbed his hand and said, “Come with me.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, trying to pull away. But Callie worked a ranch, and she held fast to his fingers.

  “Dinner can wait.” She towed him toward the back door.

  “I’m starving,” Tripp said, pulling out a chair and sitting down, clearly enjoying himself.

  “Do you even have a prenuptial agreement?” Jeremiah called over his shoulder. “You’re so naïve, Rhett. You have to protect yourself.” Callie finally got him out of the house, the glass door slamming behind them after she muscled him onto the deck.

  Rhett exhaled. “Okay, so let’s just sit down. Callie’ll calm him down, and then we can eat.”