Falling for Her Fiance

by Cindi Madsen

  She whipped her head toward him. “Wes, tell me you followed the directions on the GPS.”

  “There was road construction and we got a little off, but we’re back on track now. This will save us time, anyway. There was only one lane and they were stopping traffic for miles.”

  Her eyes moved to the tiny gravel road and then to the blank screen of the GPS. “You turned it off?” He flinched at her high-pitched shriek. “I have to be there for my presentation, Wes. This isn’t roam the backwoods of Arkansas adventure time.”

  “But if you were going to roam the backwoods, what better way to do it than with yours truly?” He flashed her a big, goofy smile.

  She clenched her jaw and he could practically see the steam coming out of her ears. Okay, so joking hadn’t worked, which meant she was really pissed. “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have turned it off, but I’m trying to fix it. Just a few more turns and we’re there. We’ll still be on time.” Close to it, anyway. He reached over to pat her knee and she jerked away.

  “Do you even know where we are?” Before he could answer that, she was punching on the GPS. “This is just like when we went up that trail in the mountains on four wheelers and ran out of gas. I told you over and over that we should turn back, but nooo, you knew a shorter path.”

  “Well, we’ve got plenty of gas,” he said, and she shot him a dirty look that, honestly, was pretty scary, though he’d never admit it out loud. If he thought he could say anything right, he’d try it, but he figured the best thing he could do was get them there as fast as possible.

  She shook her head and pulled out her cell phone. “I don’t understand how it’s so hard to just leave on the GPS so you know where to turn. And I think construction is preferable to being in the middle of nowhere”—she held up her phone—“with no freaking service.”

  The GPS started repeating, “You have veered off course,” over and over. “See,” he said. “It’s obnoxious. And bossy. And it’s not even working.”

  “It works when you first turn off the road.” She punched a few buttons and it started recalibrating the route. “Why can’t you just go the way you’re supposed to?”

  “Why can’t you just relax and enjoy the adventure?” he shot back before he remembered he was supposed to be in apology mode. Shit, he was screwing everything up. Being lost was frustrating for him, too, though. Once she cooled off, he’d apologize again and get things back on track. He just needed to get her to her presentation first.

  A loud pop sounded and the car swerved. Wes had to fight the wheel for control. The car skidded to the side of the road, spitting out dirt and rocks behind them. He depressed the brake, easing them to a stop the best he could with a definitely flat tire.

  “This adventure?” She flung off her seat belt and pushed out of the car.

  With a sigh, he followed her. He rounded the trunk and looked at the shredded black rubber that remained where a full tire should have been. Dani had her arms crossed and was muttering something in Spanish.

  Well, this wasn’t going to win him many points. Right now, he wasn’t feeling all warm and cuddly about her anyway.

  After changing the tire to the dinky donut spare, one he couldn’t drive very fast on, they took off again, the mood in the car arctic. By the time they pulled up to the Masterpiece Lodge, they’d spent forty-five minutes in tense silence.

  “Great,” Dani said. “Everyone’s already gathered outside, staring at us, and we’ve got to pretend to be an engaged couple who just can’t wait to get married.”

  Usually she went along with whatever—she was his go-to for an adventure, after all—but now she was acting like being late was practically the apocalypse. This was the kind of thing Sophie would be pissed about.

  “They’ll understand that we got a flat tire,” he tried, doing his best to keep calm, hoping it’d rub off on her.

  “No, they’ll see that I wasn’t there when I needed to be. No one gives a shit why. It’ll end up listed as the reason I didn’t get the promotion—like I’m the one who can’t be counted on.” She shot him a searing glare, her implication that he was the one who couldn’t be counted on clear.

  “You need to relax.”

  The fire in her eyes made it obvious that was the wrong thing to say. “Relax? You know, we can’t all be like you, Wes. So carefree about everything. Getting a company dropped in your lap. One that basically lets you fly around and go on adventures, like you’d be doing even if they didn’t pay you. So don’t even act like you understand.”

  “It’s not my fault you don’t like your job—”

  “You don’t get it.” She shook her head and the exasperation in her voice made her words come out clipped. “You’ve never had to try to support your family on top of everything else. You don’t know what it’s like to need a job so badly it keeps you up at night. You’re just a spoiled boy who’s never had to grow up.” She charged out of the car, slamming the door loudly enough for it to hurt his ears.

  In all their years as friends, they’d never fought—argued or disagreed, sure, but not like this. Anger burned through him. Spoiled? Never grew up? That was what she thought of him? Well, she was a tight-ass who freaked out over stupid things.

  Her co-workers were staring, and now he was supposed to go out and pretend he was happy to be around Dani. He never would’ve guessed it’d be hard to play her fiancé, even before he’d thought there was more to their relationship. He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, then got out of the car, fake smile plastered on his face.

  He grabbed Dani’s hand, squeezing hard enough that the diamond on the ring jabbed into his palm.

  “Danielle,” one of the smarmy-looking dudes said. “So nice of you to finally join us. I was starting to wonder if I’d have to do the presentation myself.”

  Wes’s bitterness toward Dani shifted to the prick who was calling her out in front of everyone. “It’s my fault we’re late. Apparently I’m one of those people who gets lost even with GPS. And is also unlucky enough to have a flat tire.”

  “You must be Wes,” a woman said, stepping forward and extending a hand. “We’ve heard so much about you.”

  “Yes, this is my fiancé,” Dani said. She introduced him to the group. The prick’s name was Bill, and all their past phone calls about the guy she worked with clicked into place. If Wes had anything to say about it, this guy was going down.

  Dani glanced around. “Did Wayne already go over the schedule?”

  Bill grinned, a cocky smile that Wes wanted to smack off his face. “He did the welcome and said he was looking forward to the presentations.” He glanced at his watch. “You might want to have your fiancé check you into your room so we can go set up. We’re the first presentation, and that gives us about ten.”

  Dani glanced at Wes.

  “I’m on it,” he said.

  “It’ll be under my name.” She ran a hand through her hair and he noticed the tension in her shoulders. It’d been so many years since they were in college, he’d forgotten how stressed she used to get before their class presentations. She always accused him of relying on his “charming personality” while she busted her ass.

  He leaned in close. “Hey, you got this. Don’t let the jerk throw you off.”

  She stared up at him, and as much as the words she’d said to him earlier stung, he wanted nothing more than for her to go nail her presentation. She opened her mouth, but Bill broke in.

  “Time’s a wasting,” he said.

  She hiked her laptop bag up on her shoulder and took off with him. Wes headed to the front desk, second-guessing what exactly he wanted with Dani. If she’d never see him as anything more than a slacker who didn’t care about his job, then she must not believe in him the way he believed in her.

  …

  As she stood in front of the room filled with her boss and colleagues, Dani’s stomach churned, her palms got clammy, and heat rose to her face and stayed there. That wasn’t unusual for her, but the hollowness
in her chest over the fight with Wes was.

  She couldn’t believe she’d said such awful things. She was still thinking about it when Wayne Bridges told her and Bill to “Go ahead and get started.”

  Maybe it was the boots, giant belt buckle, and cowboy hat, but her boss’s appearance made her feel like she had eight seconds to ride to success or get trampled by bulls.

  But the thought of bull riding made her think of how she and Wes had rode the mechanical one at Whiskey River. She pictured him tipping his imaginary hat at her with that grin and some of the tension filling her body eased.

  Okay, I can do this. Focus on the facts, the way Wes had me do in the helicopter.

  It cleared her head, but unfortunately, it didn’t stop Bill from constantly stepping in front of her during the presentation, talking over her when she started to make a point. Blocking every move she made. If he were a defender in a basketball game, she’d plow right over him. She should. But every time she’d glance at Wayne, her confidence would waver. As a result, Bill looked like he was the one who’d done most of the work.

  She should care more—a distant part of her did. But she kept glancing out the window at the stupid tiny tire on her car, wondering if she’d just destroyed her friendship with Wes because of it.

  I can’t lose Wes. He’s one of the best things in my life.

  “Very impressive,” Wayne said when Bill wrapped it up, showing off their high success rate on new accounts. “You work this as a team?”

  “I take point, of course,” Bill said.

  Bastard. What she wanted to say was, And I do all the work, but she knew it’d just come across as bitchy, and she’d been that plenty today already. She couldn’t stand there and let it look like she didn’t do anything, though—not when her happiness and bank account were relying on not working under Bill.

  Finally, she found her voice, even if it did come out shaky. “I work with the customers and the ad design team. Bill and I started integrating the method two months ago and already we’ve seen an increase in sales on every project we’ve attacked with it.”

  Wayne nodded. She thought he was going to ask her some questions. She braced herself, remembering that she knew her work backward and forward and could answer anything he threw her way.

  But he simply called up the design team for their presentation.

  The meeting was only an hour, but it dragged. All she’d wanted to do the entire time was find Wes and apologize. But once it ended and she was finally free, she couldn’t seem to force her feet to move over to him. He was surrounded by company wives and was already hamming it up.

  Wes broke away from them and walked up to her. “How’d the presentation go?”

  “Not sure. I don’t think I made a very good impact. I’m just not that good at being in front of a room full of people, especially when one of them is my boss.”

  “I’m sure you did fine. And you’ve still got time to impress everyone.”

  “I guess,” she said. All she had to do now was apologize. Maybe she should ask him to duck inside the room.

  But then all her female co-workers were closing in, wanting to be introduced to Wes and talk wedding details. At least she and Wes had already made up their story so they didn’t have to do it on the spot.

  Dani felt like a fraud the whole time, but she was already too deep into the lie to do anything about it. Wes played his part like a champ, too, even though he probably regretted his decision to come to Arkansas.

  Finally, the crowd cleared. Dani glanced at Wes. He tensed, no longer keeping up the happy, in-love front. Standing right next to him, thick silence hanging in the air, she felt further away from him than she did when two states stood between them.

  Her heart gave a painful squeeze. “Do you hate me?”

  Wes dropped his head, the longer wavy pieces of hair falling over his eyes. “I just didn’t realize that’s how you see me.”

  “I don’t, though. Your spontaneity and carefree attitude are the things I love most about you.” There was a weird beat after she realized she’d used the word love, but she powered through. “Sometimes I wish I could be like that, but then reality hits. I know what it’s like to grow up without money for clothes or food. It’s why I worked my butt off to get basketball scholarships—I knew that was the only way I’d get to go to college, and even then my family had to sacrifice a lot to help me out. And now I worry I got the wrong degree, so it was all just a waste, and I’m…” She ran a hand through her hair. “I’m just so stressed trying to get this promotion.”

  “I’ll admit that I don’t know about having to take care of my family, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t ever struggled with money or other things. One of the reasons my family has that house is because my father passed away and left it to my parents, and trust me, we’d rather have him around still. And it’s not like they bail me out or pay my bills. I pay for my stuff with money I earn.”

  She flinched at his harsh tone and how underneath it, she could still sense the hurt her words had caused him. “I know. That was unfair of me to say, and I’m really sorry.”

  He gave one sharp nod. “I’m sorry you’re so stressed about the promotion.”

  “It’s not just that.” She twisted to him, her chest achy and raw. “My abuela’s health is slipping, and my mom can’t afford the medical bills that keep piling up. I’ve been trying to help, but with my own expenses… It’s not enough.”

  Wes’s expression softened. “Why didn’t you tell me? If you need money—”

  “I don’t want money from you.”

  He frowned. “Why won’t you let me help? You take care of everyone else, but you never let anyone take care of you.”

  She crossed her arms. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me.”

  He grabbed her wrist, pulling it loose. “I know. But I want to.” He looked down at her and then drew her to him, wrapping his arms around her. “Just please let me know if there’s a way I can help.”

  She swallowed the lump in her throat, nodded, and then hugged him back.

  “We cool now?”

  “Super cool,” she said with a smile, stealing one of the phrases he always used to say in college. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bill talking with Wayne and sighed. “If I can get the promotion, I’ll be able to take care of myself. But of course Bill’s over there chatting it up with the boss, probably convincing him I should be under him forever.”

  Wes looked over at them, then back at her. “It’s okay. I have a secret weapon.” He slid his hand down her arm and clasped her fingers, tugging her toward her car. He took the keys out of his pocket, opened the trunk, and lifted out the basketball she kept inside.

  Dani stared at the orange ball. “I’m starting to doubt you know what a secret weapon is.”

  “Well, technically, you’re the secret weapon.”

  She shook her head. “And it keeps getting worse and worse.”

  Wes tossed the ball in the air and caught it. “Hey, it’s either this or singing. Need me to find a microphone?” He tossed the ball again, and she swiped it out of the air.

  “What did you have in mind?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Five minutes later, Wes and Dani stood across from Bill and some guy named Joe, who was apparently one of the design guys. Buzzing energy zipped through Wes’s limbs, the way it always did before he and Dani worked their magic on the court. Her boss was seated at a nearby table in the shade, talking to a few of her co-workers. Other people were milling around, not paying much attention to the basketball court.

  Hopefully that would change soon.

  “Care to make the game a little more interesting?” Wes dribbled the ball a couple of times, then threw it at Dani.

  She let it smack her palms and then frowned as she watched it bounce away. “My bad. I’ll get it.”

  Man, he loved this part.

  “I was thinking,” he continued loudly, making it seem like he was trying to get their attention
on him so they didn’t notice his partner struggling to get her hands on the ball. After years, they could usually gauge just how “crappy” she needed to be. “We should make a friendly bet. What do you say? Twenty bucks?”

  Dani picked up the ball and came over, dribbling high and sloppy.

  “Twenty’s fine,” Bill said, condescension and smugness dripping from the words. “I’d go higher, but that’s hardly fair, what with…” He glanced at Dani.

  “Are we making bets?” Dani said. “The usual fifty?”

  Wes bit back a smile. “I wasn’t sure if Bill and Joe would be up for fifty.” Reeling them in, and…

  Joe and Bill exchanged a quick glance and a nod. “Fifty’s fine for us,” Bill said.

  Aaaand they’d bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

  He tossed them the ball. “Game on, then.”

  As they played, Wes would glance at Dani’s boss now and then. He, along with everyone else in the area, was now honed in on the game, watching as she sunk shot after shot. Bill was pretty good, but out of shape, and Joe was obviously not a baller. Bill’s face got redder and redder the longer the game went on, the veins sticking out.

  “I’ll get her,” Bill yelled, pushing Joe toward Wes.

  Wes dribbled down the court. He pulled back for a second and then drove right, faked a shot, and passed underneath the hoop, where Dani now was, nice and open.

  She shot.

  Nothing but net.

  And that was game. Dani flashed him a wide smile. Whether or not her boss was impressed, at least she’d enjoyed showing up the prick she worked with.

  As they were getting water and toweling off, her boss came up to them. “Wow, that was some game. I didn’t know you played.”

  “She was on her college team,” Wes said, knowing Dani wouldn’t brag herself up enough. “I’m just lucky I get to play with her instead of against her.”

  “It was quite impressive,” Dani’s boss said to her, and then introduced himself to Wes before returning his attention to her. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about the new marketing strategy. How much of that is your doing?”