The Billionaire's Fake Marriage: A Single Dad Next Door Romance

by Sarah J. Brooks

  I didn’t respond. I scooped up the last pie of manure and tossed it into the wheelbarrow. I turned to Shane and raised an eyebrow as I rested against the shovel. I sucked in a deep breath, trying not to show it had tired me out a little.

  “I’m not as weak as you seem to think I am.”

  “I can tell.”

  For the first time since I met him, he sounded impressed. Then he turned away. “Okay, let’s get back to work. There is still lots to do in here.”

  “Feed, right?”

  “Yes.”

  I nodded and headed for the door of the stall, wheelbarrow with me.

  “You can just leave that outside the door for now. I’ll get rid of it later.”

  I nodded. I wasn’t going to object. I followed Shane out to a truck parked outside of the barn. I’d passed it on my way over here and I’d seen the feed.

  “I guess I’ll carry them in. Just –”

  I ignored him as I reached the truck, pulled the gate down, and grabbed a bag, slinging it over my shoulder. I turned to him and watched his mouth fall open. “Where do you want this?”

  I couldn’t believe he thought I wouldn’t be able to lift a bag of feed. Honestly, though, I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, he didn’t seem to have much faith in me. I should have assumed he would think I couldn’t do something as simple as pick up a fifty pound bag. I closed my eyes, forcing myself not to roll them. Please. I’d been doing manual work since I was twelve.

  I stood there, waiting with the bag on my shoulder like it was nothing. Because it kinda was for me.

  “Uh … in the barn, the first door on the left, in that room.”

  I nodded and stepped past him.

  ~~~~

  It wasn’t a bad first day. I was even a little tired by the end of it. When he said we were done, I had to admit I was happy.

  “Come on, I’ll show you to your room. Alex said he moved your car to the parking spot for you.”

  “Perfect.” I had told them they could if they wanted.

  I fell into pace with Shane. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about him. I mean, yeah he was cute, but I wasn’t impressed with the way he had acted toward me in the morning. As the day progressed he seemed to ease up and stop acting douchy, but I couldn’t forget the way he looked me over when we first met. It was like he didn’t want me here or something.

  I bit my lip, almost tempted to ask what his issue was with me. Instead, I asked, “Have you been working here long?”

  “Yes. Years.”

  And that was that. I didn’t get the vibe he wanted to talk about it, so I let it go. I wasn’t going to try to make small talk with him if he didn’t want to. I wonder if everyone is going to be like this, I thought as I saw a row of buildings come into view. And my car. My heart skipped a beat.

  This was really happening.

  I was going to stay here while I worked. It was shift work, and I got a week off every few weeks right now. My schedule was subject to change as the time of year changed. I had said in the interview if they needed me to stay longer during the summer months, I’d consider it.

  “Your room is that one.” He pointed toward one of the doors. “It’s unlocked. The key is in the dresser.”

  “Okie dokie.” I nodded without another word and walked away from him, my speed increasing as I got closer to my car.

  By the time I got to my car, I might have been running. I popped the trunk and grabbed all three of my suitcases, two large ones and a small one. I pulled them out, set them down, and closed the trunk before grabbing one. Before I could get the other two – or figure out how I was going to carry all three at once – someone grabbed them for me. I glanced up.

  Shane stood there. He didn’t meet my eyes. “After you.”

  I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t need his damn help, but instead I closed it and smiled. I made my way toward the door he had pointed at. “Thank you.”

  He made a noise I took as ‘you’re welcome’ and that was it. I opened the door and stepped into my room. It wasn’t much, but it was cute. The small living area held a TV and a couch, and at the other end the room had a small countertop with bar fridge, sink, and microwave.

  “We keep most of the food in the rec building, but if you want to keep anything in here for yourself there’s a fridge,” Shane said as he took my suitcases over to the couch. “There’s a bathroom with a small washing machine, but if you need the dryer, it’s in the rec building, too.”

  “It’s perfect,” I said as I turned and gave him a smile. He looked taken aback. What, did he expect me to make a fuss or something? This man confused me. It’s almost like he didn’t think I was fit for the job. Or that I had come into it not knowing what it was going to be like.

  “Anyway,” he cleared his throat. “I’m going to go shower. Dinner’s in an hour.”

  “Sounds great.”

  I watched as he left, not saying another word to me. Once he was gone, I looked around the living room. It was simple, but it was enough. I’ll have to send daddy a picture, I thought, not bothering to pull out my cell phone just yet. Instead, I wheeled the suitcase I was still holding into the bedroom. It was small, and there was nothing but a bed, a dresser, and a huge window. I let go of my suitcase and walked over to the window.

  I could see out to the tree line. There were a couple of horses in the distance eating grass, and there was one guy. I couldn’t see him very well, so I wasn’t sure if he was one of the men who interviewed me or not.

  I stared out the window for a while, just letting my mind wander. It’s going to be amazing. It’s going to take a lot of getting used to, but that’s okay. It will be worth it. And the pay was good. It was the only reason I had sent in a resume. I thought back to the phone interview. It had been simple and straight forward. Hell, they’d offered to pay for my flight to come out here.

  “We’re looking for someone who can pull their weight around the ranch.”

  “I grew up on one; I think I can still do it.”

  “You have to understand, most of the clients we have here are women who have an idea of what our ranch offers …” I’d thought there was a hint in there, but I had been too scared to ask. I think I’m right, though.

  Yesterday, when we’d had the in-person interview, Alex said mingling with the guests was encouraged, to help them feel welcome. He had also said there wasn’t anything against relationships with guests, just that workers were supposed to understand how they could easily get out of hand. I wonder if he’s ever dated someone who stayed here.

  I frowned.

  The whole place wasn’t what I was expecting. I mean, what kind of ranch was okay with someone working there hooking up with guests?

  I shook my head. “I should shower,” I muttered to myself.

  I didn’t want to miss dinner, but I wanted to make sure I washed off all the sweat before I went. I’d unpack later. For now, I just wanted to get clean.

  ~~~~

  For the second time that day Shane headed toward my room with me. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, but didn’t say a word. Is he following me? I wondered. But I didn’t say anything; I just kept an eye on him, waiting to see if he would turn at some point.

  “I’m right beside you,” he said after a few minutes.

  “W – what?” I stammered, trying to figure out what the hell he meant.

  “My room is right beside yours.”

  “Oh.”

  Now it made sense. He wasn’t walking me back to my room, he was going to his. I didn’t say anything else as we walked. I’d gotten used to walking in silence with him during the course of the day. It was pretty easy to pretend he wasn’t there.

  Dinner had been good, and everyone had been nice to me. Not creepy nice, though, which was better. There had even been another girl there. By the sounds of it, one of the other guy’s girlfriends was going to be working here soon. It will be nice for there to be other girls, I thought.

  I hadn’t b
othered to lock my door, so as soon as I came to my little room I turned the handle.

  “Gabby.”

  His voice made me stop as I was about to step into my room.

  I turned to face him. “Yes?”

  “You did good today. I was hard on you, and I shouldn’t have been. I didn’t think you’d be able to pull your weight.”

  At least he admitted it. “You didn’t look at my resume, did you?”

  “No.”

  Figures. He probably should have. I mean, I said I’d been raised on a farm. I gave him a smile and nodded. “I figured as much.” Without waiting for his answer, I stepped into my room and closed the door behind me.

  Sure, it was nice he said he was sorry and admitted he had judged me before getting to know me, but that didn’t mean I was any less annoyed by the way he had treated me. He did say I did good. And as annoying as he was, it meant a lot to me. I liked being complimented.

  He was still kind of a jerk, though. There was no way around it. And I was willing to bet I’d never change my mind on that one. I made my way into the bedroom and looked at the suitcase I’d left standing there, waiting to be unpacked. No time like now. Walking over to it, I opened it and pulled out a pile of clothes.

  All in all, it hadn’t been a bad first day.

  Shane

  I promised I’d give her more of a chance, and I was glad I did. I grinned as we came to our midafternoon break. “Are you up for a little farming?”

  She raised her eyebrow at me before grabbing her water bottle and draining it. “Well, it’s probably a good idea to cut the grass on the south side. I had goats growing up; those buggers kept our grass looking damn neat.” She wiped a little bit of water away from her chin.

  I had to admit I was beginning to like her more and more. Of course, Ken had teased the shit out of me for not firing her, but I didn’t care. She was a good worker, and I’d never confess how wrong I’d been.

  “They eat fucking everything, though,” she added as an afterthought.

  I raised an eyebrow. I couldn’t believe the way she talked. Most girls who came to the ranch never talked like that. But she’s not most girls. She’d come here to work, not to get away and find a cowboy. I had a hard time remembering that, which meant she continued to surprise me.

  “And they climb like crazy. We had one; he was just a little baby and his momma couldn’t feed him so we had to. They have to be fed so often that we ended up keeping him in the house. Well, that meant he got attached to us and sleeping on the couch.” She grinned and laughed. “He ended up acting like one of the dogs. So, he’d come on hikes with us all the time.”

  “Wa-wa-wait.” I had to stop her here. “He slept in the house?”

  “Sleeps.”

  My jaw dropped.

  She laughed softly. “He’s still alive, and he sleeps in the house. Of course, we managed to potty train him … kinda. We set up those little pee pads they use for dogs and he goes there. He’s very well behaved, considering he’s a goat.”

  I let out something between a snort and a laugh. This girl amazed me. Just over twenty-four hours ago I thought she was nothing but a silly city girl who thought working on a ranch was going to be like a dream; that she was going to meet nice cowboys and pick flowers and bake apple pie. Okay, I wasn’t that dumb, but I ran into girls all the time who thought it would be ‘cute’ to work on a ranch. Sadly, that just turned me off when it came to the women who stayed here. I wasn’t like Alex, Jeff, or Ken. I didn’t like sleeping around as much. Sure, I slept with some of the girls, but not all the time. It got old after a couple years. And honestly, tiresome.

  “I have to admit,” I said, locking eyes on the girl in front of me and looking her up and down a little, “you’ve surprised me.”

  I watched her cheeks go pink. “Yeah? Well, it’s not like you had that much faith in me to begin with.”

  I felt bad. I knew I hadn’t really tried to hide it. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”

  She shrugged, but she didn’t say it was okay, so I knew where she stood. At least she’s honest, I thought.

  “Anyway, we should get back to work. We still have a lot to do. Alex said yesterday there were some fence repairs that needed to be done on the west side before we could let the horses over there. I checked them out last night; we should be able to finish before dinner.”

  She nodded and we hopped into the ATV, headed over to the shop where we kept all our tools. It didn’t take long to find what we needed, and soon we arrived at the fence that needed repairs. When the ATV came to a stop, she was out and unloading it. The girl had a good work ethic, and it impressed me.

  “I looked at your resume,” I said as I circled around to the back of the ATV and helped her with a load of lumber.

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s impressive. It is, by far, the best one that’s come in.” I didn’t look at them much anymore, but when we’d first opened up, I had helped the guys as much as I could.

  “I thought you didn’t look at them?”

  “I used to.” I shrugged. We dropped the planks of wood on the ground and headed over to the ATV to grab the bag of tools. “When the ranch was first up and going, we all did whatever we could to help out.”

  “So … you’ve been here from the get-go?”

  “Yeah. I was with them when they bought it.” I stopped talking to look over the fence repairs. I glanced over to her. “You done this before?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay, you know what to do.” Again, she nodded.

  We fell into work together and I was happy to have her working with me. For a while we worked in silence, but it didn’t feel as tense as it had yesterday. Today it actually felt okay, not stressful or awkward.

  “Is that a house over there?”

  I glanced up as she said it. “Oh, yeah. That’s Sarah’s.”

  I watched her as her brow furrowed. “Sarah, the one who was here for dinner last night?”

  “Yup. She’s dating Ken. He bought her the place right after they started dating.” I watched her eyes get wide and, for a second, she stopped working.

  “She seems nice,” she finally said.

  “She is. It’s been good for him. I think it’s been tough watching his brothers fall in love.”

  I caught her looking at me, but I didn’t say anything else. I couldn’t tell what the look on her face meant. We went back to working for a while without saying anything.

  “So, they are all dating?”

  Was she disappointed? “Yes.” It just furthered my theory that one of them had wanted to bang her, so they hired her.

  She nodded. “They all look really happy. Will I get a chance to meet the other girlfriends?”

  I shrugged. “Depends on how long you’re here. The other two are in long distance relationships.” I paused. This would be a good time to gauge her reaction to things “With girls they met who were staying here.”

  I watched as she dropped the nail she had been about to put in. Her jaw clenched, and she turned toward me.

  “So, the line about being able to date people who come to the ranch wasn’t some sort of test?”

  “Nope, it is totally okay.”

  She nodded. “I see.”

  Gabby

  Was it considered professional? Probably not, but if that was how they did things, who was I to complain? I’ll never do it, I thought. They had also said dating among co-workers was okay. I glanced over at Shane out of the corner of my eye as I picked up the nail.

  He is damn cute, I thought. But it was stupid. First of all, he was my boss and that was unprofessional, plus he was an asshole. I’ve never had good taste when it comes to men. I always went for jerks; it was something I couldn’t seem to avoid.

  We fell back into work without saying a word to each other. I didn’t have anything else to say and clearly he didn’t, either.

  Half an hour passed and we worked hard during it. Finally, I stood, heading over to the ATV to grab a
bottle of water.

  Shane followed. As I passed him a bottle he took it, his eyes on me. “Are you dating anyone?”

  His words shocked me. “I … er … no,” I stammered. Why had it surprised me so much? “Are you?”

  Shane barked out a laugh. “No.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Why not?” I mean, he was cute, he was successful, and there was something else about him I couldn’t quite peg.

  “Because girls tend to not like me very much once I open my mouth.”

  “Well, maybe if you gave them the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming they don’t know what they’re doing,” I teased. Thankfully, he grinned.

  “I did say I was sorry. That’s not something very many women hear from me.”

  “So, you’re saying I’m special?” Again, I’d meant it teasingly.

  “Very.” The way he said that single word didn’t sound like he was joking.

  My heart did a backflip. For the first time since we’d met, I gave Shane a good up and down. He was cute. No, he was hot. Cute wasn’t the right word for him. And right now, he was covered in dirt. He’d been working hard all day, and I liked that. I liked a man who worked outside – it was just a matter of how I’d been raised.

  His eyes sparkled as he took a sip of water.

  My heart rate increased.

  I forced myself to look away from him as something warm twisted inside me. I mentally shook myself. Get back to work. I took a long sip of water to try and cool myself down. It helped a little, but more than anything it gave me time to clear my head.

  I put the water back and headed over to the fence, not daring to look at Shane again before getting to work again.

  ~~~~

  The whole day I tried to ignore him. It was easier if I didn’t look at him. Since I’d realized how hot he was, and since he’d started being nice to me, I couldn’t stop looking at him differently. I couldn’t stop seeing him as … no. I wouldn’t even admit it to myself. If I ignored it, then it would go away eventually. Right? Of course.

  It was probably just a stupid crush because I was lonely and wanted someone to make me feel less alone. He’d be good at that, I bet, I thought as the hot water from the shower washed over me. I worked the shampoo into a lather and massaged it into my scalp. The hot water was helping. I closed my eyes, my fingers tangling in my hair.