by Seton, Cora
Thank God you got in touch. All my relatives are playing a trivia game and I’m dying of boredom.
You don’t like trivia games?
I hate them. I’ve been sitting here in a crowd of people and I’ve never felt lonelier. Hold on, I’m going to move where I can have some privacy.
He gave her a minute, then typed, That’s too bad. Wish I could be there. It was true. He wanted to be with Heather and not just because he was horny. He was also feeling sentimental. He thought he’d like to kick back and watch the countdown with her. They could share a beer and catch up on the years they’d been apart.
I feel like time is getting away from me, she wrote. My life isn’t turning out like I’d planned.
What’s missing?
She didn’t answer right away. I guess I thought I’d be married by now—for real.
Do you want a family? He wasn’t sure what made him ask, except every time he pictured him and Heather together, the scene came complete with a house and a dog and a kid or two.
Very much. I guess it’s clear I don’t really want to be a fake wife at all. I guess that’s not really my style.
Maybe I don’t actually want to be a fake husband, either. Maybe I want more than that. He pressed send before he could stop himself.
There was a long pause before she answered. I thought you wanted something temporary.
It took him a while to formulate his answer because that’s exactly what he’d told himself he wanted—or needed, at least.
It was always my dream to be like my dad. I wanted to be a rancher just like him. I loved my home.
So why not go home and become that rancher?
I’m beginning to think that might be possible, but first I’ll have to repair the damage I did when I was younger. You’re right; what I did didn’t kill my father, but it might as well have—it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I have to mend fences with my brothers and see if they even want me to stay. If not, I’ll have to make another plan.
What about you? she wrote back. Do you want a family?
Yes, he typed, only realizing at that moment it was true. I want that more than anything.
When Helena didn’t text back, Colt grew anxious. What’s going on over there?
I’m here. I’m just surprised. You’re a complicated man, Colt.
Back in the guest room at her grandparents’ condo, Heather could barely see the screen on her phone for the tears that filled her eyes. Colt wanted children. He wanted a family. She’d been terrified all these years of the day he discovered what she’d done, and now she knew how he really felt. She wouldn’t fool herself; he might still be furious that she’d hidden Richard from him, but at least he’d embrace the boy as his own. As frightened as she’d been of his reaction to her, it was fear of his reaction to Richard that had kept her awake at night since Mason arrived in Chance Creek last spring to herald the Hall boys’ homecoming.
She never wanted her son to be hurt. It had been bad enough when Austin got home and thought Richard was his. Both of them had been angry at her, and angry again when she told them the truth. She’d been so terrified that Colt would deny he was Richard’s father and refuse to have a relationship with him.
She’d been wrong.
You have a child, she typed, then erased it just as fast. She couldn’t possibly tell Colt that news like this. She needed to do it face to face.
Did you go home for the holidays or are you still deployed somewhere? she wrote instead.
I almost went home. Didn’t quite make it.
Heather frowned. Where are you?
Billings. Where are you?
Heather breathed a sigh of relief that she could truthfully tell him she was in Colorado.
Colorado? Damn, Heather, I wish you were closer.
Heather stared at the words on her phone, so shocked she couldn’t breathe. That was her name, not Helena’s. Had Colt known who she was all this time?
I’m sorry, Helena. Wish I could blame auto-correct. You remind me of her sometimes. Heather was my first real girlfriend.
That’s okay, she swiftly keyed in, disappointment crashing over her. She told herself it was a good sign he was thinking of the past, but it was a bitter pill to swallow to realize he’d simply made a mistake.
Gotta go. Talk soon, he wrote.
Bye.
Colt didn’t answer. Heather turned off her phone, but she didn’t get up and rejoin her family. She was still shaken by what he’d written and kept replaying their conversation in her mind. Something wasn’t right here. Why had he called her Heather in the middle of a discussion about Colorado? Was he telling the truth? Had she just crossed his mind?
Or was Colt lying?
She turned her phone over and over again in her fingers. What if he actually did know who she was? Could he have figured it out somehow?
He was a member of an elite military team. So were all his brothers. He probably had access to all kinds of methods to get at the truth. With the name she’d picked and the stock photo that looked a lot like her, she’d given him some pretty generous clues—why wouldn’t he be able to track her down?
After all, it wasn’t like she was some kind of computer genius—her fake e-mail was linked directly to her real one. Maybe that was easy to trace. Heather had no idea.
But if Colt knew she was pretending to be Helena, why hadn’t he said something? Was he waiting to see how far she’d take the pretense?
Did he like baiting her?
She clutched at her bedspread. Maybe everything he’d said was a joke. Maybe he’d been making fun of her the whole time.
She turned her phone back on and sent a quick text to Camila. Colt knows who I am, but he’s pretending he doesn’t! What do I do now?
That rat-bastard! Camila swiftly replied. You’ve got to get him back. Call his bluff!
How? Heather typed.
She laughed when Camila told her the plan.
Chapter Eight
‡
Damn it, how could he have screwed up so badly when the last thing he wanted Heather to know was that he knew her real identity? Colt dropped his head in his hands and wondered if she’d believed his explanation. She had to, or he was in trouble.
He looked back over their last few messages. Would she think he’d made an honest mistake and cut the conversation because he’d gotten embarrassed? Or would she see through his lie?
If she did see through his lie, what would she do next?
Colt groaned. One thing was for sure—staying cooped up in this motel room was driving him certifiably insane. He couldn’t believe Heather had gotten him to admit he was thinking about life after the military—about settling down and having a family.
He didn’t know what to do about Melanie, either. His heart told him to give her the heave-ho and see if things could work out with him and Heather. There were several problems with that, though. For one thing, he’d be taking a risk. His deal with Melanie was cut and dried: she’d already committed to pretending to be his wife until he and his brothers got the deed to the ranch. If he tried for a relationship with Heather it would be far more complicated. Their wedding would be real, which meant that everything had to go right between them in the meantime. What if he got to Chance Creek, met Heather in person and found out they’d grown too different over the years to have a relationship that could go the distance? If Heloise knew they were dating but things didn’t work out, she’d never believe it if he pretended to meet and fall in love with a new woman directly afterward—even if he could find a suitable fake wife at such a late date.
And what about his brothers? This wasn’t just his own future he was playing with. If he screwed up and they lost the ranch, too many people would be hurt. Not to mention the awkwardness of having a relationship with Heather while living at the Hall with Austin. While common sense told Colt it wouldn’t matter to Austin anymore if he and Heather paired up, he figured common sense had little to do with love. If he chose to be with Heather, wouldn’t tha
t widen the divide between him and his brothers?
He pulled up Melanie’s e-mails, read them over again and decided it was too early for him to call things off with her; he didn’t know how things would progress with Heather. Better to wait a day or two—until he returned to Chance Creek and saw the lay of the land. Plenty of time for him to make up his mind then.
His laptop chimed. He bent to look at it. Another e-mail from Helena.
He clicked on the message.
Pretend I’m Heather.
He blinked.
I’m serious, Heather typed. Look. We’re not going to be together long term. You already said you’re practically engaged. It’s been great to pretend that maybe we had a shot, but apparently we don’t. So why don’t we have some fun instead?
Colt ran a hand over his short hair. What kind of game was she playing now? Was this some sort of brinksmanship to force him to admit he knew who she was? Or did she still think she was fooling him?
After another moment’s thought he wrote, What do you have in mind?
She answered swiftly. Let’s meet in person. I’ll come to your hotel in Billings for one night. You’ll have all the lights off and the windows covered. You’ll leave the door unlocked and I’ll let myself in.
Colt snorted. Why? So you can murder me?
Maybe that had been her goal all along.
Heather typed back. No. So I can slide into your bed and make love to you. No strings attached. No heartfelt talks. Nothing but us—together.
Colt’s body thrummed with a need that took him off guard, but he didn’t trust Heather’s motivations. What do you get out of this?
It’s been a long time since I’ve been with a man, she said. I’d like to be held for just one night. Then I’ll go back to patiently waiting for Mr. Right.
The idea of her with another man made his fingers clench. Maybe she did think she’d fooled him. Maybe she thought this was her last chance to be with him if he planned to marry someone else.
Did Heather have the kind of regrets he had? Did she wonder what would have happened if he’d stayed in Chance Creek? The idea that she might be alone somewhere, ready to go to extremes to share a single night with him, changed the whole equation of his thoughts.
Why the darkness? Two could play at brinksmanship.
There was a longer pause this time. Because I’ve seen your photo, Colt. I’m pretty sure if I looked into your eyes while you made love to me, I wouldn’t be able to walk out your door the next day.
Colt swallowed hard in a suddenly dry throat. It hadn’t occurred to him she’d been looking at his current photograph the way he’d been looking at hers. Maybe she’d traced the lines of his face and taken in all the differences in his body since she’d seen him last, just like he had when he looked at her photo.
I won’t leave my door unlocked, he wrote back when he’d thought it through. I’ll open it for you and frisk you before I let you into my room.
That ought to break the ice, Heather wrote.
Colt chuckled. She was right. When can you get here?
Tomorrow night around eleven o’clock. I looked at a map and the airline schedules and should be able to make it by then. I’ll message you when I’m near. Tell me the name of your hotel and your room number.
Colt rolled his eyes. Heather hadn’t had to look at any map to know where Billings was, but he wouldn’t end their game now before he knew what she meant to do next. Tomorrow night. He wasn’t sure he could wait that long. He swiftly keyed in the information she asked for.
Can’t wait.
Me, either.
Heather’s heart pounded when she pulled into a parking spot down the street from the Four Spruces motel in Billings the following evening. She, Richard and her mother had flown home from Colorado that afternoon and her mother had been happy to keep Richard overnight.
“Going to make a start on having that adventure?” she had asked and Heather was sure she’d blushed.
“Maybe. I could use a night alone,” was all she said. Her store was closed for New Year’s Day, but she’d have to get up early tomorrow morning to drive back to Chance Creek to work. She’d asked Susan to open the store just in case she got held up, but after being in Colorado these past few days she couldn’t take any more time off.
It was Camila who’d come up with this outrageous idea. “Colt’s a man,” she’d said when Heather protested there was no way he would agree to it. “He’ll definitely agree to it.”
She’d been right. Colt apparently thought he’d covered his tracks when he apologized to Helena. Now that she knew he knew who she was, this whole enterprise had taken on another dimension. Colt didn’t want to sleep with Helena; he wanted to sleep with her. He hadn’t asked her to be his fake wife, though, which left her uneasy. He’d mentioned another woman when they’d first started to communicate and she wondered if he’d contracted her to play the part already or if he was biding his time.
Camila had suggested she get Colt naked, tie him to the bedposts and leave him there as payback for playing games. Heather told her that was far too predictable. Besides, she didn’t want payback. She wanted Colt to fall in love with her. She planned to use this night to make him remember how good it was when they were together. She wouldn’t let him go without a fight.
She was taking a big risk. If it turned out Colt only wanted a one-night stand to slake some kind of curiosity about her, she would have bared herself to the worst kind of rejection. It would be hard to continue to live in Chance Creek and watch Colt marry someone else after renewing their intimacy that way.
The alternative was even worse, though. She’d spend the rest of her life wondering if she could have had Colt if she’d just fought a little harder. She thought she knew why Colt was holding back. He felt guilty about being with her when Austin had still wanted her, and about his father’s death, as well. She needed time to convince him neither of those things made it wrong for them to be together now.
Could she do that in just one night?
She hoped so.
Heather pulled up the hood of her wool winter coat and tucked all her hair inside of it, refusing to dwell on the future. Since the coat’s hemline fell well below her knees and it was big enough to wear over her bulkiest winter sweater, it made it seem like she was doing her best to hide her identity. She hoped that Colt would keep to his promise to cover his window and keep the lights off. At the end of their tryst, if he didn’t want to marry her, she needed to be able to pretend that he didn’t know who she was if they were going to live in the same town. Bad enough she’d have to watch him carry out his married life in front of her while Richard shuttled back and forth between them. She needed him to be full of guilt and longing for her each time they met, and she needed to be able to play the innocent, too—even if it was clear to both of them she wasn’t.
Her throat was tight and her hands shaking by the time she found Colt’s room and knocked on the door. She tugged her hood further forward and angled her back to the door when she heard someone turn the handle.
A man’s voice sounded behind her, so familiar and yet so different. “Helena?”
She nodded. Good, he meant to keep to the pretense.
“Come on in. The lights are out, just like you wanted.” He chuckled. “I improvised with duct tape and a sleeping bag. It’s dark as hell in here.”
“Thank you,” she whispered and hurried past him, aware of the trace of perfume she left in her wake. That had been Camila’s idea too. She’d told Heather to dab it on a little heavier than usual to be sure Colt noticed. Then when they met in Chance Creek, her scent would trigger the memory of their night of passionate lovemaking, even if they never discussed it again.
As soon as the door shut behind him she found he was right—it was inky black inside. The unzipped sleeping bag covering the motel room’s single wide window was far more substantial than normal drapes.
“I took you at your word,” he said behind her. “I figure if you’re wil
ling to come here to be with me, the least I can do is make you comfortable.”
“Thanks,” she muttered again. She turned to face him, unable to see more than his outline in the darkened room. She hadn’t realized how easy it would be to recognize his voice—and that he’d be able to recognize hers just as easily. She jumped when he took her hand.
“The bed’s over here. We can sit and talk or we can…”
She couldn’t talk. If she did, it would take all of thirty seconds for this farce to become unsustainable. Heather moved forward, using her hands to find his shoulders and then his neck and then his jaw as she reached up on tiptoes to press a kiss to his mouth.
“Or we could do that,” Colt said when she pulled away, his voice low and husky with interest.
She reached up and kissed him again, willing him to know that was all she had to offer him. She’d love nothing more than to sit and catch up and learn everything about him, but since that was out of the question she’d take what she could get. Would he go along with her plan? Or would he call her bluff right now?
After a moment, Colt returned her kiss, gently at first and then with a hunger she recognized. It must have been a long time for him, too. She moved her hands to his shoulders and braced herself against him as he deepened the kiss and let his need for her show. As he pulled her closer, raw desire bubbled through her veins. It had been so long since she’d done this with anyone and even longer—far longer—since she’d been with Colt.
“This was a good idea,” Colt murmured against her mouth.
“I’m full of them,” she said in a breathy voice, doing her best not to sound like herself.
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Heather knew now Colt would play her game. They had all night together and she wanted to make it last, so she kissed him again and kept on kissing him, making out with Colt like they were teenagers. Colt followed her cues, kissing her back for a long time before he slid his hands up between them to undo the zipper of her coat. Heather opened her eyes to make sure he still couldn’t see her and was satisfied when she was unable to discern more than the shape of his face even this close. She let him pull the jacket off her shoulders and toss it aside, then braced herself in anticipation of the feel of his hands on her body. He didn’t disappoint her, sliding his hands down her back and sighing with what sounded like contentment.
