One Week with the Best Man: Reclaimed by the Rancher

by Andrea Laurence

  Parking his rental out of the path of the big trucks, he followed a man with a giant vase of deep red, orange and yellow flowers through the back door and over to the ballroom.

  The room was bustling with people. There were men on lifts adjusting the lighting in the rafters, at least half a dozen people handling flowers, an orchestra setting up on stage, and a few people setting out glassware and other table decor. In the middle of all the chaos was Gretchen. Despite everything going on around them, his eyes went to her in an instant.

  Her hair was curly today. He’d gotten used to her straightening it while the cameras were around, but now that their farce of a relationship was over, she’d let it just be curly again. Julian liked it curly. The other style was chic and fashionable, but the wild curls were more suited to the free artist he saw in Gretchen.

  She had on a pair of dark denim skinny jeans with ballet flats and a sweater in a rusty color that seemed to go with the fall decor of the day’s event. Her back was to him when he came in. She was busily directing some activity in the corner where Murray and Kelly had placed their wedding cake.

  With determination pumping through his veins and pushing him forward, he meandered through the maze of tables and chairs to the far corner of the room. No one paid any attention to him. He was only ten or so feet away when Gretchen finally turned around. As her eyes met his, she froze in place, clutching her tablet to her chest as though it was the only thing holding her on the Earth.

  Julian smiled, hoping that would help soften the shock, but it didn’t. She did recover, but it only resulted in a frown lining her brow and tightening her jaw. He wouldn’t let that deter him, though. She was angry. She had a right to be angry after he turned on her like that. He’d expected this response when he got on the plane. But he would convince her that he was sorry and things would be okay. He was certain of it.

  “What are you doing here, Julian?” Her voice was flat and disinterested, matching the expression on her face. The only thing that gave her away was the slight twinkle in her dark eyes. Was it interest? Irritation? Attraction? Perhaps it was just an overhead pin light giving him hope where there was none to be had.

  “I came back to talk to you,” he said, taking a step toward her and hoping for the best.

  Gretchen didn’t retreat, but her posture didn’t welcome him closer, either. “I think we’ve done plenty of talking, don’t you agree?”

  “Not about this.” He took another step forward. “Gretchen, I’m so sorry about Monday. The whole situation with Ross, the news article... I know now that none of that had to do with you, and I’m sorry for blaming you for it. You were right when you said you would never do anything like that to me. And I knew it. But I’ve had so many people betray my trust in the past. Someone had to be to blame, and I didn’t know who else could possibly be involved.”

  She nodded, setting down her tablet so she could cross her arms over her chest. “Jumping to unfounded conclusions tends to cause problems. I’m glad you found the real culprit. I hope you made them suffer the way you made me suffer the last few days. It seems only fair.”

  Julian watched a flicker of pain dance across her face, and he hated that he was the one to cause it. He had to fix this. “It was Bridgette,” he admitted. “She had a detective following me around Nashville and up to Louisville. He dug up the whole story, and then she leaked it because she was jealous of you and wanted to break us up.”

  Gretchen snorted at his words. “Bridgette Martin...is jealous...of me? How is that even possible? She’s one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.”

  “Like I told you before, Gretchen, it’s all an illusion. I work in a business where everyone tries to tear you down. Even someone like Bridgette isn’t immune to scathing critique, and their ego can be fragile because of it. You were a threat to her. She’s a woman used to getting what she wants, and she was going to get me back by any means necessary.”

  “Those silicone implants must have leached chemicals into her brain.”

  Julian smiled. “Perhaps. But I wanted you to know that it didn’t work. Even before I knew the truth about what she’d done, I didn’t want her. I still wanted you.”

  Her dark gaze narrowed at him. “No, you don’t,” she said with certainty in her voice.

  “I do,” he insisted. “I did then and I still do. Even when I was angry at you, I only pushed you away because I knew I had to or risk another story in the papers. I didn’t want to let you go, though. These days without you have felt so empty, like I’ve just been going through the motions. I miss having you in my life.”

  He expected Gretchen to echo his words, to say that she missed him, too, but she stayed silent.

  “And then, just when I didn’t think I could feel like a bigger jerk, I got the letter from the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. When I saw it, I knew the donation had come from you.”

  “How do you know it was from me? It was anonymous.”

  Julian shook his head. “It was, but it had you written all over it. I made you take the money when you didn’t want it, so you returned it in a way that even I couldn’t argue with. It was brilliant, really, but it just confirmed in my mind that I had been right about you all along.”

  Her brow went up slightly. “Right about what?”

  “Right when I thought that you were one of the sweetest, most giving creatures I’d ever met. That you didn’t want anything from me but my love, unlike so many others in my life. You could’ve taken that money and blown it and forgotten all about me. But you didn’t. You couldn’t return it, so you used it in the best possible way. A way that could help my brother.”

  “I hope it does,” she said. “Something good should come of the last week’s chaos.”

  Julian’s chest clenched at her words. Did she really think what they had was nothing more than a muddled mess? “It might have been chaotic, but I loved every minute of it.” Julian hesitated and took a deep breath before he said the words he’d been waiting to say. “And I love you, Gretchen.”

  Her eyes widened at his declaration, but the response stopped there. No smile, no blush, no rushing into his arms. She certainly didn’t respond in kind, as he’d hoped. She just stood there, watching him in her suspicious way.

  “I mean it,” he continued in a desperate need to fill the silence. “You’ve changed me in such a profound way that even if you throw me out of here and never speak to me again, there’s no way I can go back to living life the way I had before. I’ve told Ross that I want to take the role in that independent film we discussed. They’re going to be filming in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the summer. I’ve got some re-shoots between now and Christmas, and then another shoot-’em-up movie to film this spring, but after that I’ll be out this way for months.”

  Gretchen swallowed hard, her throat working before she spoke. “You’ll like Knoxville,” she replied casually.

  “What I’ll like is being closer to you.”

  “For a few months. And then what?” she pressed.

  “And then I move to Nashville.”

  That got her attention. This time it was Gretchen who took a step forward, stopping herself before she got too close. “What are you going to do here?”

  Julian shrugged. He didn’t have all that worked out yet, but he knew that he wanted his home base to be here with Gretchen, even if he had to travel to the occasional movie set or publicity event. “Whatever I want to do. Theater. Television. Smaller-budget films. I could even teach. You were right when you said I was using my brother as an excuse. I have plenty of money to care for him. Even if I just invested the income from Bombs of Fury and never acted again, I could probably keep him comfortable for the rest of his life. The truth is that I was scared to try something new. Afraid to fail.”

  Gretchen’s expression softened as she looked at him. “You’re not going to fail, Julian.”


  “Thank you. You believe in me even when I have a hard time believing in myself. You give me the strength I didn’t know I was missing. Having you there by my side when we visited James...you have no idea how much that meant to me. I need you in my life, Gretchen. I love you.”

  He reached into his pocket and grasped the ring he’d hidden there. As he pulled it out, he closed his eyes and sank to one knee, praying that his words had been sincere enough to quell her doubts so she could accept his proposal.

  He opened the lid on its hinge, exposing the ring he’d selected specially for her. The large oval diamond was set in delicate rose gold with a halo of micro-diamonds encircling it and wrapping around the band. The moment he saw it, he knew the ring was perfect for her. “Gretchen, will you—?”

  “No!” she interrupted, stealing the proposal from his lips.

  * * *

  Julian looked startled at her sudden declaration, but Gretchen was even more surprised. The word had leaped from her mouth before she could stop it.

  His mouth hung agape for a moment, and then he recovered. “The jeweler recommended this cut for a woman who was artistic and daring. I thought that suited you perfectly. Do you not like it? We can get a different one. You can pick whatever you want.”

  Of course she liked it. She loved it. It was beautiful and sparkly and perfect and she wanted to say yes. But how could she? “It isn’t about the ring, Julian.”

  “Wow. Okay.” He snapped the ring box shut and stood up. He glanced around the room nervously, as though he hoped none of the suppliers had witnessed his rebuff. Thankfully everyone was too busy to notice them in the corner.

  “Julian.” She reached out to touch his arm. “We need to talk about this.”

  His jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth. “It sounds like you’ve said all you needed to say. You don’t want to marry me. That’s fine.”

  “I never said that.”

  His blue eyes searched her face in confusion. “I proposed and you said no. Quite forcefully, actually.”

  Gretchen sighed. She’d botched this. “I wasn’t saying no to the proposal. I wanted you to stop for a minute so I could say something first.”

  The lines in his forehead faded, but he didn’t seem convinced that she wasn’t about to drop him like a rock. “What do you want to say?”

  “I care about you, Julian. I’m in love with you. But I’m not sure if that’s enough to sustain a marriage. How can I know that you love me? Truly? How does either of us know that you don’t just like the way I make you feel? Yes, I support you. I care about you and make you feel ten feet tall when everyone else is trying to tear you down or get something from you. Are you proposing to that feeling you get when you’re with me, or are you actually proposing to me?”

  “I’m proposing to you. Of course I am.” He seemed insulted by her question, but it couldn’t be helped. She needed to know before she fully invested not only her heart, but her life in this relationship.

  “That all sounds wonderful. This whole speech of yours has been riveting. Award-caliber material. I think you’ll do great in that independent film. But standing here, right now, how can I know that you mean what you say and that it’s not some over-rehearsed script? You said that I wasn’t the kind of woman Julian Cooper should be with. I heard you agree with Ross when you thought I wasn’t listening. For you to turn around and propose not long after...it doesn’t leave me feeling very confident about us. Are you going to drop me when the next hot young thing hits the scene and Ross pushes her at you?”

  Julian closed his eyes a moment and nodded. “I did say that to Ross. You’re not the kind of woman international action star Julian Cooper should be with. But if you’d stayed one moment longer, you would’ve heard me say that you’re the perfect woman for Julian Curtis. And that Julian Curtis wasn’t interested in his manager’s opinion of his personal life.”

  Gretchen gasped. She didn’t even know what to say to that. Could he really mean it?

  “Gretchen,” Julian said, moving close to her and placing his reassuring palms on her upper arms. “This isn’t a rehearsed script. This isn’t Julian Cooper standing in front of you right now reciting lines. This is Julian Curtis, a guy from Kentucky,” he said with his accent suddenly coming through, “telling you how he truly feels and asking you to marry him. Do you believe me?”

  Her head was spinning. With Julian so close, the warm scent of him was filling her lungs and his touch was heating her skin through her sweater. She could resist him from a distance, but when he stood there, saying all the right words the way he was now, she had no defenses. All she could do was nod.

  Julian smiled and slipped back onto one knee. “Now, I’m going to try this again and I want you to let me finish before you answer, okay?”

  Gretchen nodded again as Julian pulled out the ring box and opened it a second time. He took her hand in his and looked up at her with his soulful blue eyes.

  “I love you, Gretchen, with all my heart. I know there are going to be people out there that think you’re so lucky—a regular woman from Tennessee landing a big movie star—but they’re wrong. If you accept my proposal and agree to marry me, I can assure you that I’m the lucky one. Every morning I wake up with you beside me is a day I count my lucky stars that you’re in my life and have chosen me as the man you love. Gretchen McAlister, would you do me the great honor of being Mrs. Julian Curtis?”

  Gretchen waited half a heartbeat to answer. Not because she didn’t want to say yes, but because she wanted to make sure she didn’t interrupt him this time. When she was certain he was finished, she said “Yes!” with a broad smile spreading across her face.

  Julian slipped the ring onto her finger, the tears in her eyes blurring her view of the sparkly jewelry. It didn’t matter. She had a lifetime to look at it. Once he stood up, Gretchen launched herself into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. There, with her nose buried in the hollow of his throat, she finally got to return to a place she thought she might never visit again.

  Julian hugged her fiercely and then tipped her head up so that he could press his lips to hers. The kiss was gentler, sweeter, more wonderful than she could’ve expected.

  What an emotional roller coaster the past week had been. She’d gone from the top of the world to the pits of despair and back in only a few days’ time. Gretchen was no expert on this love business, but she hoped that it would level out. Her heart couldn’t take the drama. But she could take fifty or sixty more years in his strong arms.

  “We need to go to Italy,” Julian proclaimed, drawing Gretchen from her spinning thoughts.

  “Right now?”

  Julian smiled and shook his head. “No, not right now. Unless you want to hop on a plane and elope... It might be the only way we can manage to get married without the press finding out.”

  Elope? She wasn’t so sure about that. Amelia had not recommended her quickie Vegas wedding to others. “I’d rather not elope,” she said, “but if you want to get married in Italy, that sounds amazing.”

  “That’s what we’ll do, then. You gave away your chance to go to Italy when you donated all that money, so it only seems right that we go there to get married, or at the very least, for the honeymoon.”

  Gretchen could just envision it in her mind. “A tiny rustic chapel in Tuscany. Or maybe a winery on a hill overlooking the poppies and sunflowers.”

  Julian tightened his grip on her waist. “Anything you want. You’re marrying a movie star, after all. There’s no cutting corners for an event like this. I can even call George to see if we can have it at his place on Lake Como if you want.”

  George? She blinked and shook her head. She would be perfectly comfortable as Mrs. Julian Curtis, but it would take a while for her to get used to the idea of their public lives as Mr. and Mrs. Julian Cooper, frie
nds of movie stars, musicians and other famous people.

  “That’s probably a little more over-the-top than I was thinking,” she admitted. Marrying Julian was enough of a fantasy come true. Having the wedding in Italy was more than she could ever ask for. She wanted to keep it simple, though. She didn’t want to burn through a fortune on the first day of their marriage. They had a long life together ahead of them, and she wanted to celebrate every day, not just the first. “I just want something small with all our family, some amazing food and wine and scenery that can’t be beat by any decoration you could buy.”

  “I think I can handle that. I’ll add that I want to see you in a beautiful gown that showcases all those luscious curves. I want flickering candles all over to make your skin glow like flawless ivory. And after we eat all that amazing food, I want to dance with you under the stars. This spring, I’ll have a month off between filming. How does May sound to you? We can get married and then spend a few weeks exploring every nook and cranny Italy has to offer.”

  “Perfect,” she said, and she meant it. She couldn’t imagine a wedding or a husband any more wonderful.

  A sound caught her attention. Looking around Julian’s broad shoulders, Gretchen noticed three women hovering in the doorway of the ballroom, not working like the others. A blonde, a redhead and a brunette. Even from this distance she could hear the high twitter of their fevered discussion of Julian’s return. He’d probably slipped in the back door, but it didn’t matter. You couldn’t get anything past those three. She also knew that they wouldn’t go away until she told them what they wanted to know.

  Raising her left hand in the air, she flashed the sparkling diamond at them and wiggled her fingers. It was a large enough setting that even from across the ballroom, the gesture was easily decipherable. A whoop and a few squeals sounded from the entrance.