“Go ahead then, doesn’t bother me, when you’re done, I’ll still have to do what I have to do.” Sage kept fighting even though she knew her struggles were futile.
“Keep it up.”
“That’s it?” Every smack was thudding heavily but she couldn’t really say it was hurting her very much, except for the irreparable damage that was being done to her assaulted pride. “That’s all you got?” Maybe if he realised this was pointless, he would stop.
“No, clearly if you’re still smarting off you need more; or maybe your pants are just too thick.”
Seriously? Did the man read minds? “No they’re not.” Sage let go of the cushions she’d been clutching and tried to hang onto the waistband of her jeans but she was too late, he’d already unbuttoned and unzipped them and they were going south. All she could do was try and keep her panties up but it seemed he had no intention of removing those anyway. His hand was once again clapping off her now burning bottom and the thin layer of her underwear was no protection at all. “Please, Cliff, please, it hurts.” It really did, she hated though that she was such a baby with pain. Why couldn’t she just stick it out without giving in?
“Are you going to talk to me?” He smacked her hard.
“Yes, I will, I promise.”
“And you won’t be pointing any weapons at me?” Several more smacks for good measure.
“No, no, I won’t, I promise.” The words got caught in her throat and she realised she was crying, hard. Big thick salty tears rolled down her cheeks and into her mouth. Her nose ran and she sobbed steadily as if she would never again take a normal breath. It wasn’t even just the spanking that was making her cry, it was everything; it was the worry, the stress, holding it all together when one thing after another had gone wrong. She found her self sliding off the sofa and suddenly she was enveloped in strong warm arms. The fact that her pants were around her ankles and her bottom was throbbing didn’t matter. For the first time since that night they’d shared, she felt cared for; even if she knew deep down that the feeling would be short lived, for now, she was safe.
They must have stood like that for fifteen minutes. When her sobs finally subsided, she felt Cliff loosen his hold. He pulled up her jeans and put her back together, gently smoothing her hair from her eyes. He leaned over and grabbed a couple of tissues from a box on the end table and handed them to her. “Thank you,” she said in a husky voice. He pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead and she almost wanted to cry again, she had to pull herself together.
“Come on, let’s go sit in the swing and talk.”
“Why don’t you sit in the swing and I’ll stand.”
“Oh don’t be a baby, that was just a few taps.”
“Uh huh, sure it was. I am sorry I pointed the gun at you Cliff, I was just so full of anger and not just at you. Things have been building up.”
“If that gun is for protection though, against real danger, we need to get you practiced on how to use it properly. You know, that stuff I said about you looking for a rich husband, it wasn’t what I meant, it came out wrong. I was just trying to make sense of all this.”
Sage sighed. “I know. Why don’t you go and sit outside and I’ll be there in a minute?”
“You sure you’re not going to lock me out?”
Sage giggled, strangely feeling more light hearted. “I won’t, scout’s honour.”
“Okay then.”
Her dad’s study door was closed and she had to steal herself to open it. There were memories throughout the entire house but this room seemed to hold the most ghosts. This was where she’d been delivered the latest bad news and this was where her dad had spent a lot of his time, where he thought up all his ideas for making this place work. He wasn’t really rancher material but he’d wanted to be, he’d wanted to make the place work. Obviously he hadn't so far, but maybe he would have one day. Unfortunately, he’d died too soon. Who knew, he might have had just the right idea and the place would have made them all a fortune, or at least a home that she didn’t have to sell.
Sage opened the door and realised suddenly, why coming into the room was so hard since her parents passed. The lingering odour of cigar smoke still clung to the room. It was just as if her dad might appear from nowhere. If only. Now it was up to her, and if Cliff wasn’t able to help her, at least maybe he might be able to offer her a little advice. He was a good rancher and he’d taken what his grandfather had and built it into even a bigger concern. The man certainly knew more about all of this than she did. Maybe she should have bitten the bullet and gone to him in the first place.
Sage walked across the room and opened the top drawer of her father’s desk and scooped up the paperwork the attorney had given her. She hoped Cliff understood that although she was willing to take his advice about the ranch, she had to find a husband because she couldn’t lose what was left of her family, she just couldn’t.
The screen door swung open with a squeak, clunking shut behind her. “I have to get married,” she said. First she passed the letter her parents had written on to Cliff. She waited while he read but he gave nothing away. When he was finished, he just sat staring at it. “Aunt Jen and Uncle Harry are moving to Florida to be near my cousin in four weeks. If I’m not married by then, they’ll be taking Bailey and Netty with them.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, wow.”
“So the husband is so you can keep the kids but if you sell the property, where are you all going to live, you and this new husband and the kids?”
“Here for now at least. I have priced the house up so it won’t sell fast. That should keep the bank happy for a bit shouldn’t it?”
Cliff rubbed a hand over his face. “Geez, Sage, I don’t want to make things seem even worse but I don’t think it works that way, in fact, I’m sure it doesn’t. If you can’t make your payments, the bank can foreclose. That takes time but, without a plan, the bank taking over your house will be inevitable.”
“But I have a plan! My plan is not to sell and to stay here as long as I can and hopefully come up with a way to make this place make money enough to pay the mortgage. It doesn’t seem very fair that they won’t give me any time at all, none of this does, I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Fair or not that’s the way it works. What did you have in mind as far as the ranch goes?”
“I don’t know, maybe board horses again, Dad used to do that.”
“That would mean hiring at least one person to help you take care of them. You can’t do it all yourself and as great a help as he is, Bailey is just a boy. Then you’re back to spending the money you make before you pay the bank. You might come out a little in front but I can’t see you making enough to pay off the bank and feed the kids. Not to mention their education. Of course you can draw a little on the trust funds for expenses but it won’t be enough.”
“Well, I guess you have me there. I don’t know how I’m going to fix everything but I can at least fix the problem of keeping the kids with me.”
There was a stony silence for a minute, Sage guessed there was nothing more to say, no magic answers to her problems.
“Marry me,” Cliff said seriously. “I’m not a stranger and I care for all three of you, in fact, you’re my favourite but don’t tell the others.”
Sage sat down next to Cliff and ignored the thumping of her heart and her backside. “I don’t think that will work.” She was telling herself as well as him. Even though her brain was telling her to think about this, to not get too excited at the prospect of something that couldn’t possibly work, her heart was saying differently. If only he knew how much she wanted to say yes and throw herself into his arms.
“Why not? I know it’s too soon to say we’re in love, but we have definite chemistry.”
“I agree, and that’s one of the reasons that I don’t think it would work. I can’t risk the kids getting hurt if we can’t make it work out.” What if, though, was on repeat in her head.
“For the recor
d, I think two people can make a marriage work if they want to, if they’re prepared to work at it. I’m an old fashioned guy.”
“Yes, I got that.” She pushed away the urge to rub her bottom. That might not be enough.” Why was he making this so hard?
“I wasn’t finished. I think that you’re young, only twenty-four, and you have to be very sure before you make a life time commitment, which to me is what marriage is.”
“Now you’re confusing me.” Was he making an offer that she couldn’t take up and then taking it back?
“I think we should get married,”
“But?” There was definitely a but, she could hear it in his voice.
Cliff held his hand up to stop her. “Let me finish,” he said. “Although it goes against everything I believe, we could keep it as a marriage in name only, to a degree.”
“What’s that mean, the degree part?”
“That means that I will live here with you but I won’t force myself on you; I will sleep in another room. It will be to an extent the business arrangement that you were looking for with a slight difference.”
Sage could not believe the pang of disappointment she felt at those words. That is what she wanted wasn’t it? “Oh. What will the difference be?”
“The difference will be that this is like a rent-to-own arrangement.”
Sage giggled, despite the seriousness of the conversation. “If I break you, can I trade you in a new model?”
“Cute. I will help you with the chores and I will also have one of my hands help if we need to. Short term, I can afford to take over your mortgage payments while we think of a way to make this place make money.”
The young girl blinked rapidly, trying to process all that had just been said. “Cliff, this is a very generous offer but what would you get out of all this?”
“A chance to court you.”
“Court me?” Sage giggled. “Really?”
“Yes really, I want you to want to be my girl, my wife and when I finally ask you if you’re ready to make a lifetime commitment, we will renew our vows and I will be your husband, in every way.”
“Why are you doing this?” Sage asked. “I mean I know you say you want to court me, but why do you want to be with a girl who has so much baggage?”
“I think this is worth a shot. There must be something between us because when I think of you getting married to some other guy, any other guy besides me, it makes me fit to be tied.”
“Okay.” If she were honest, Sage knew exactly what he meant. Being married to this man would be a little like coming home.
Cliff leaned against the chain that was holding the swing to the porch roof. “What do you think, Sage Worthington, will you rent me?
“Yes,” Sage said. “What do we do now?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth the phone rang. She smirked at the look on Cliff’s face.
“I’ll get it,” Cliff said striding through the house to the phone and snatching it up. “There’s been a mistake, just a prank gone wrong.”
* * *
Sage sat on the bed naked, her head in her hands. What the hell does a person wear to a pretend wedding anyway? Most of her wardrobe contained outdoor work clothes or clothes from her life in the city. She pulled out her best dress and smirked. Cliff would just love that dress, she thought sarcastically. On the hanger it looked more like a scarf than a dress, it did stretch when you inched it over your body but it left very little to the imagination and it was super short. Nope that wouldn’t do, she just knew innately that Cliff would not approve. Not that she needed his approval but this stuff was complicated enough without her adding an argument over too much leg into the mix. She had to come up with something, she was getting married the next morning. Great, she thought; someone was knocking on the door. She quickly threw on some underwear, jeans and a shirt and ran down the stairs.
“Mrs. Welsh, Mr. Welsh,” Sage said, opening the door to find Cliff’s grandparents standing there with enormous smiles. She crossed her arms over her chest; she couldn’t have taken another minute to put on a bra.
“I hope we’re not intruding, Sage,” Mrs. Welsh said. She stepped past the shocked young woman, a garment bag slung over her arm. “We need to talk.”
Oh shit, Sage thought. They’ve found out and they are going to kill me for trying to take advantage of their grandson. “Come in,” she said stupidly. The woman was already in the living room.
“Sorry, dear,” Mr. Welsh said, we should have called first but my wife was insistent that we just come right on over.
Sage smiled, she should have probably told him it was fine but she was too rattled to know what she was saying. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Thank you, but I’m fine. I think we better cut to the chase.”
“I’d love an iced tea or some lemonade if you have some,” Cliff’s grandpa said.
Sage was grateful for a minute to get herself together in the kitchen. Thoughts of the ways she was going to kill Cliff swirled around her head as she poured the cool drink into the glass.
After getting herself together, Sage placed the drink in front of Mr. Welsh and sat carefully across from where the older woman had already taken a seat. “Is there something I can help you with, Mrs. Welsh?”
“Well, first off you can call me Grandma.”
“Okay, Grandma,” she repeated. So it was a painful way she was going to kill Cliff then—he’d told.
“And you better call my husband Grandpa, after all we’re family now. I can’t tell you how happy I am that the two of you are getting married. I’d almost given up hope.”
“Right, but Cliff is only thirty,” Sage said carefully, wondering how these people knew about what was supposed to be a very private arrangement.
“He should already be a daddy by now, but this way, I don’t mean to be insensitive, dear, I loved your poor parents, but this way, he’ll be getting a head start, you with your little ones and all.”
“How much did Cliff tell you?” Sage asked, trying not to drop Cliff in it, even though he deserved to be dropped, from a high place into a barbecue pit. He could have told her that he’d told his grandparents. Who knows who else he’d told? He could have asked her if she minded, not to mention that he could have told her to expect a visit.
“Cliff didn’t tell me anything. I just so happened to be cleaning,” Grandma said.
“Snooping,” Grandpa added.
“Cleaning and I found a marriage licence and some of your documents.”
“In a locked drawer.” Grandpa shook his head.
“I’m sure he didn’t mean to keep it locked from me, otherwise, how did I know where to go to find the key?”
“Sarah, you have an answer for everything. Anyway, Sage, the bottom line is, we know you’re getting married tomorrow and we wanted to come and give you our blessing.”
“And we wanted to see if you had anything special to wear. I know this is kind of sudden and you must have had a lot to do lately so I thought you might like to borrow something to wear. This is my favourite. I wore this to my junior prom, saved it just perfect all these years. I didn’t have daughters, or granddaughters, so I’d just love it if you’d wear it. Unless of course you already have something picked out.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Sage said. Wasn’t that the truth? She had no idea if she was supposed to tell them the truth about this marriage. She didn’t have anything to wear so the grandma was dead on the money with that but did she want to wear an old dress from the 50s? What if this lovely woman was a bit batty and the dress turned out to be some ugly rag that smelled like mothballs and old shoes?
“Well, why don’t you take a look.” Grandma slid down the zipper and pulled the dress carefully from it’s protective bag. “Isn’t it pretty?”
Sage was speechless. The dress was absolutely divine. It was the palest shade of shell pink she had ever seen. Satin with a fine layer of lace over the top. It was cinched in at the waist and had a full circ
le skirt. “It’s beautiful.” Tears sprung to her eyes. If this were going to be a real wedding, this dress would be perfect.
“I’m so glad you like it. We better try it on, I can make a few alterations if we need to, there’s still time.”
Before she knew it, Sage was being bustled up the stairs by a tiny lady that was shorter than even her and she was tiny herself. It occurred to her that it was actually nice to have someone who cared involved in her fake wedding day. She did feel a pang of guilt about Aunt Jenny but there was nothing she could do about that this time round. One day she would have a real wedding; Uncle Harry could give her away and Aunt Jenny would be right there beside her.
* * *
“I had some visitors today,” Sage said without giving anything away with her face.
Cliff was milking Bessy. “Oh? Who?”
“Your grandparents, they came to give me their blessing.” She jumped back as milk squirted Cliff in the face and he kicked the bucket, spilling milk all over the place.
“How did they know? I didn’t tell them, I swear.”
“Long story, apparently your grandmother was cleaning.”
“Of course she was. I should have known. She’s been doing that staring me straight in the eyes thing she always does. I swear she’s psychic or something.”
Sage giggled. “You’re scared of her.”
“Damn right I am. She’s four foot ten and weighs about ninety pounds wringing wet. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t wield a mean wooden spoon. Broke several on me when I was a kid. I was convinced she had eyes in the back of her head until I was eighteen years old. In fact, I’m still not entirely sure she doesn’t.”
“But she means the world to you.”
“Yes, she does. She’s the only mother I’ve ever known and she’s always done what was best for me.”
“Good, because I’ve asked them to be our witnesses tomorrow.”
“You have?” Cliff looked genuinely surprised. “That’s sweet.”
“Maybe, well it started off as a sweet thought but she is a little scary. I don’t want anyone chasing me down with a wooden spoon.”
An Unexpected Wife Page 5
