Rhett's Make-Believe Marriage

by Liz Isaacson

  “Family meeting,” he said later that night. His thumb throbbed from where he’d sliced it on a piece of fencing. It had bled like a stuck pig, and he had gone into the farmhouse to get some help. He wasn’t squeamish when it came to blood, but Seven Sons had been too far for him to reasonably go.

  Callie had been in the kitchen, and she’d taken one look at him and scampered off to get salve and band-aids. She’d fixed him right up, and it sure had been nice to have a female presence in his life again.

  She’d asked about Evelyn too, and Rhett had simply shaken his head. He didn’t want to talk about her with anyone, least of all one of her sisters.

  “What’s this about?” Jeremiah asked, finally sitting down on the couch. He looked exhausted, and Rhett reminded himself to tell Jeremiah what a good job he did around the ranch.

  “It’s about the ranch,” Rhett said. “We all work here—you the most, Jeremiah. And just because I bought it doesn’t make it mine.”

  Tripp looked at Liam and back at Rhett. “Uh, that’s exactly what it means.”

  “Well, I don’t want it to be mine.” He exhaled, not sure how to explain his feelings to his brothers. It was the same feeling he had about the white house on Quail Creek Road. “This is our ranch,” he said. “We live here and work it together. Everyone has their part. In fact, I do the least around this ranch.”

  “Yeah,” Liam said. “If we went on how much work someone does, you’d own Shining Star.”

  Rhett sucked in a breath, his heart suddenly racing. Something must’ve shown on his face, because Jeremiah leaned over and smacked Liam’s chest. “Shut up, bro.” He looked back at Rhett. “So what do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t think Wyatt should have to ask for my permission to come live here after he retires. It’s Seven Sons Ranch. It’s for all of us.” He wanted it to be a safe place for him, for his brothers.

  “What happens when one of us gets married for real?” Tripp asked.

  “Are you going to do that?” Jeremiah’s eyebrows shot sky-high. “You and Ivory? Already?”

  “He broke up with Ivory,” Liam said.

  “Already?” Rhett asked at the same time Tripp said, “Hey, we lasted longer than you and whoever you were with last time. That was so short, I can’t even remember her name.”

  “Lori,” Liam said coolly as Jeremiah started laughing.

  The family meeting had degraded quickly, but Rhett couldn’t help smiling. He sat down on the hearth and listened to his brothers bicker, feeling like maybe he did belong here with them.

  “Guys,” he finally said, and they quieted down. “Since none of us are even close to being married for real, I think that question can be tabled for now. It’s something we can discuss when and if the time comes.”

  “There’s plenty of land here,” Tripp said. “Whoever it is can just build another house if that’s what he wants.”

  “Or he can live in the one on Quail Creek Road,” Jeremiah said, cocking one eyebrow at Rhett.

  “I might live there,” Rhett said. “When I feel….” He didn’t know how to finish the sentence. Each brother across from him wore a look of sympathy on his face, and Rhett actually appreciated it.

  “You’ll go back,” Jeremiah said. “You love that house, and you and Evelyn will raise your family there.”

  Rhett shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

  “You don’t think you’ll get back together?” Jeremiah seemed genuinely surprised.

  “No,” Rhett said. “I don’t think so.” He took a deep breath and surveyed his brothers again. “Okay, let’s talk about Thanksgiving. We’ve celebrated in the past with the Foster sisters, but I think it’s obvious I don’t want to do that this year. Thoughts? Ideas? Will they be hurt if we don’t invite them?”

  “I talked to Callie about it already,” Jeremiah said. “They’re going into Three Rivers to their grandmother’s house.”

  “So we’re in the clear.” Relief spread through Rhett at the same time disappointment fluttered in his heart. “You’re making a turkey?”

  “Sure thing,” Jeremiah said.

  “We should order those mashed potatoes from Big Ray’s,” Tripp said. “They’re so good.”

  “And the mac and cheese,” Liam said.

  “Is mac and cheese a Thanksgiving food?” Jeremiah asked, and the conversation was off the rails again as the brothers argued about what was appropriate to serve for Thanksgiving dinner.

  Rhett didn’t care. The meeting was over, and he dove into the discussion too, saying, “Maybe I’ll get some of that sweet and sour pork I like,” to which Jeremiah actually booed.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Evelyn sat in the back row at church, Pastor Daniels behind the mic way down in front of her. The congregation seemed unusually large that day, but she supposed the Christmas season was almost upon them, and a lot of people came to church during the holidays.

  Thursday would be Thanksgiving, and it had been six weeks since Rhett had stood in their kitchen, asking her if she loved him or not.

  Her chest shook as she breathed in, because she did love Rhett Walker, at least on a base level. He’d been her best friend before she’d ruined everything with her insane proposal.

  The hearing for their divorce had been last week, and she hadn’t gone. As the filer, he’d had to attend, but she didn’t. So she didn’t. She couldn’t contest the marriage, because if she was going to make things right with Rhett, she’d want to marry him the way she’d been dreaming about since she was a little girl.

  With flowers everywhere, and all of their family there, and her father walking her down the aisle.

  She’d been spending more and more time with her father and grandmother. It got her out of the farmhouse, which gave Rhett clearance to come work on the ranch the way Callie needed him to.

  She had two clients left, but everyone else had either moved on or given up on her. She didn’t blame them, and once she was finished with Fiona and Eliza, Evelyn was going to get a regular job.

  One where she didn’t have to make phone calls to the pancake house or get texts from the butcher as to which cowboy was where. She wouldn’t have to make one-sheets and match women to the cowboy they wanted.

  She could sell shoes or help people deposit their paychecks or restock the oranges when they got low at the grocery store. Something.

  Their ranch had been operating better than ever since Rhett had been working for them, and Simone’s sales at the Fall Festival would keep the sisters afloat for several more months. If she’d known improving things around the Shining Star would help, she might have done that instead of her matchmaking.

  But she certainly wasn’t going to now, not with Rhett’s presence everywhere outside the walls of the farmhouse.

  You need to talk to him. It wasn’t the first time she’d had the thought, and Evelyn knew she needed to follow the prompting. She wasn’t really broken. She just didn’t like contention, and she certainly didn’t like talking about her feelings.

  Instead of doing that, she’d kept Rhett at arm’s length when he wanted to be closer.

  “There’s nothing wrong with you that the Lord can’t fix.”

  She looked up at Pastor Daniels’s words. “In fact, there’s nothing wrong with you at all. God made us all the way we are. Does that mean we can’t or shouldn’t change? Of course not.” He smiled out at the worshippers, and Evelyn felt a keen sense of love for him in that moment. He’d always been good at saying the right things, but this felt like a particular message just for her, straight from the Lord.

  “This is the perfect time of year to look inward,” he continued. “If you find something you don’t like, make a change. Now, some of you will say, ‘But Pastor. Change is hard!’ And it is. But as someone who’s done exactly what I’m telling you to do, it’s usually worth it. Changing can help you become the person God wants you to be. The type of person He intended you to be.”

  The typ
e of person He intended you to be.

  Evelyn didn’t believe that God wanted her to be unhappy, and she’d been absolutely miserable without Rhett.

  Go talk to him.

  That thought plagued her, and she flipped her phone over on her leg. Could she just text him?

  No, came instantly to her mind. He’d been brave enough to come down to the kitchen and talk to her. Look into her eyes while he said the things of his heart.

  She’d have to do the same.

  Fear trembled through her, and she glanced to her right, where Rhett sat with his brothers. She’d been arriving later and later to church so she could sit somewhere behind him. She didn’t want him to see her, so she bolted out the back door as the choir sang the last number, and she’d been driving around town for a while before returning to the ranch. Then she didn’t accidentally run into him or his brothers on their way home from church.

  Basically, she’d been avoiding him as much physically as she’d been doing emotionally and mentally for months.

  The preacher finished his sermon, and the choir got up. That was usually her cue to leave too, but Evelyn stayed in her seat. Her fingers started to shake, and her teeth chattered, though it wasn’t cold in the chapel at all. She was just horribly scared of talking to Rhett. Of having a difficult conversation. Of any confrontation at all.

  He did it, she told herself again and then again. He’d fought for them. It had been her who’d ruined everything. Who’d been unable to say what needed to be said. Who’d asked him for so much and not provided anything in return.

  The song ended, and the closing prayer did too, and still Evelyn sat in the back row. Rhett would walk right past her to leave, and she stood up. She didn’t move into the aisle though, and people began to move past her as they went out into the lobby.

  The weight of their eyes landed on her, almost crushing the air from her lungs. She held her head high, because in that moment, she realized she didn’t care what anyone thought of her—except for two people.

  God, and Rhett.

  He came into view, and Tripp’s eyes met hers. Surprise filled his whole face, and he elbowed Rhett, who had his head ducked. He looked at Tripp, who nodded toward her.

  Rhett looked in her direction, his eyes locking onto hers as if they were opposite ends of a magnet.

  Fear competed with love as they rose through her, and Evelyn had another Earth-shattering realization.

  She was in love with Rhett Walker. Full-blown love.

  She wished it could calm the trembling in every muscle in her body or make her voice work, but all that blasted love did was cause tears to prick her eyes.

  Rhett paused and let her step into the aisle in front of him, and Evelyn took that as a very good sign. She couldn’t breathe inside the church, with all those people, and she made her way to the door, hoping Rhett was still behind her.

  She burst into the sunshine, glad the air was a little cooler now that it was almost December. She pulled in a big breath through her nose and turned around. Rhett hung back several steps, and their eyes met again.

  Stepping out of the stream of people, she lifted her hand in a wave and took a couple of steps closer to him. “Hey,” she said.

  “Evelyn,” he said, his voice professional and guarded. Everything about him, from the way he stood with his hands in his jacket pockets to the way he kept his head partially down, screamed of the defenses he’d put between them. That she’d caused him to put between them.

  “Can we have breakfast on Tuesday?” she asked, hoping with everything in her that he would forgive her, the way her father said married couples did.

  “I’m busy this week,” Rhett said.

  Her heart wailed, but she nodded so he couldn’t see how much those four words had hurt her. Maybe it was just too late for them.

  “Well, the invitation is open,” she said. “Every Tuesday at the house.” She shrugged, assuming he’d know which house. He just looked at her, and Evelyn took one last moment to memorize the handsome lines of his face, those deep brown eyes, that strong jaw. Then she turned and walked away.

  She couldn’t make him come back to her. But she had talked to him, and though her feet wobbled in her heels, she felt like she was walking more confidently than she had in a while.

  Lunchtime on Tuesday found Evelyn cleaning up the breakfast she’d made for her and Rhett. He had not come, true to his excuse of being too busy. She hadn’t been back to the white house on Quail Creek Road in a while either, and she’d missed the most beautiful part of autumn.

  Sighing so she wouldn’t break down into sobs, she stepped out the sliding glass door and onto the deck, hugging her arms around herself. “I’m sorry,” she said to the yard. “I’m sure you were spectacular.”

  In the distance, a dog barked, and she thought of Penny and how much she missed that silly dog. This country lane was so peaceful and so beautiful, and Evelyn moved over to the outdoor couch where she’d worked several times when she’d lived here.

  She didn’t mean to begin crying, but the tears tracked down her face anyway. “What else can I do?” she asked the landscape before her.

  She’d invited Rhett to breakfast, and he’d once boasted that he’d never missed a single Tuesday breakfast. Maybe he hadn’t planned to start a relationship with her through those breakfasts, but he had. He was the only person she wanted to be with, and everything radiated with pain now that she was alone.

  Life wasn’t easy, and she didn’t want to live it alone anymore. She’d always had her sisters, and she did now too. But she also now knew that while sisters were important and amazing, they could not replace the tender touch of a man. They couldn’t replicate the way Rhett had looked at her just before kissing her. They didn’t possess his strength or laugh with her the way he did.

  She wasn’t sure if Rhett ever came to this house, but she didn’t think he did. It has an unused feeling to it, and she hated that. He’d said she could live in it, and she wanted it to vibrate with life again.

  Of course, she didn’t have much to offer the house, but as she quieted and her tears subsided, she decided she could at least decorate it for Christmas.

  Over the course of the next week, she spent money she didn’t really have and several hours browsing the shops and stores in Three Rivers for the perfect holiday decorations. A star for the front door, of course. A tree that would stand in the window in her office, shining it’s light out to the street and anyone who would pass by.

  Stockings over the fireplace—one for her, one for Rhett, one for Penny. She kept everything in the boxes and bags in her car, wanting to have everything ready before she began.

  Another Tuesday came, and Evelyn sat in her car in the driveway at the house, waiting for Rhett. She didn’t go inside, and she hadn’t cooked anything at home. If he showed up, she’d take him to the pancake house and buy him breakfast.

  Her heart skipped a beat and it felt like the Lord Himself had flipped on a light switch.

  “The pancake house….”

  Hadn’t she gotten a text about Rhett eating breakfast at the pancake house? Weeks ago, from one of her former clients. Gillian or maybe Trixie. She couldn’t remember who, because she hadn’t answered the group text. But she’d definitely read that her soon-to-be-ex-husband now ate breakfast every morning at the pancake house. She’d been disgusted to see the women of this town making groups to go on certain days so they could see him, maybe catch his eye.

  They really did need her help, and she was sure they’d included her on the text by accident.

  It still burned, and she couldn’t stomach the thought of Rhett eating breakfast with anyone but her. Ever.

  So go eat with him.

  She flipped the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway. She didn’t want to cause a scene, but she’d spoken to him at church. She could try again.

  In fact, she’d keep trying until he forgave her. He loved her, and hadn’t her father said a person didn’t fall out of love?
Once you fall in love with someone, there’s no going back. You’ll always love them, at least on some level.

  The parking lot didn’t seem terribly full by the time Evelyn pulled into the pancake house. She scanned for Rhett’s giant truck, but she didn’t see it.

  But she was going to see this through, so she marched over to the front door and went inside. Sandy Jorgenson stood at the hostess stand, but her hand stilled in reaching for a menu when she met Evelyn’s eyes.

  “Evelyn,” she said.

  “Hey.” Evelyn tried to smile, but it felt a little stretched and didn’t last long. She scanned the part of the pancake house she could see. “Have you seen Rhett this morning?”

  “Of course,” Sandy said, blinking rapidly. “He left about twenty minutes ago, muttering to himself.”

  “Muttering?” Evelyn focused on Sandy again. She was a nice woman, and she’d made all of her dreams come true by marrying a handsome helicopter pilot and buying the pancake house, pretty much simultaneously.

  “I have to say, that was a new development. He usually just sits in his booth for a couple of hours, reading on his phone and sipping his coffee.” Sandy hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Do you want to sit in his booth?”

  Evelyn’s heart bumped harder, and she nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I would like that.” She had no idea what sitting in a booth in a noisy pancake house would do for her, but she followed Sandy anyway, praying for God to send her an idea for what she could do next to get Rhett back into her life.

  Talking to him hadn’t worked as well as she’d hoped. What else could she try?

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Rhett swiped on the call from Barry, ready for a new case. “Go for Rhett,” he said.

  Barry burst out laughing, and Rhett smiled too. He currently stood near a fence on the Shining Star Ranch, watching the horses graze. He loved everything about horses, and he’d been thinking of making the drive out to Three Rivers and Courage Reins and going riding again. Problem was, he couldn’t imagine doing that without Evelyn, and he’d stood her up for two Tuesdays in a row now.