Her Rodeo Rancher

by M. K. Stelmack

  Unless it’s to get a fake girlfriend. Krista found herself ever so fascinated by beads. Best to stay mum about anything to do with the rodeo. Laura’s silence on the subject led Krista to believe that Will hadn’t told his family about their arrangement yet. He’d better get on with it because she hated keeping secrets from Laura, especially one that had to do with her own brother.

  Alyssa tapped her phone on her lips. “You think I should make the first move?”

  Do that and he’ll reject you like he did me. Krista had no idea how to save Alyssa pain without betraying what Will had told her in absolute confidence. But what kind of friend would she be to let Alyssa walk into this blind?

  She set down the thread of beads. “I just realized I should text Mara. She—we’re out of milk.”

  Krista opened a text conversation with Will. Good thing they’d exchanged phone numbers a week ago. Krista here. Thought you should know Alyssa wants to ask you out over coffee. She was about to hit Send, when she added, When will Laura know about our arrangement?

  There. She’d let Will do the heavy lifting. The less she was involved, the better for all. She returned to the far simpler job of making Laura beautiful. Her phone buzzed. Will had sent a thumbs-up sign. Whatever that meant.

  Alyssa got a message next. She sighed. “Will can’t come for coffee. A cow’s got bloat.”

  Krista wasn’t even sure if that was possible. “Bloat?”

  “It’s like gas,” Laura said. “But if they lie down, it’s almost impossible to get them up and they die. He has to deal with it.”

  Will, hero to cows everywhere. And master dodger of awkward human interaction.

  “Krista?” Alyssa said. “I was going to send you the picture of Laura’s hair but I can’t find you on Instagram.”

  “I’m not on it.”

  “Why not? Didn’t you used to be?”

  “Yeah but I closed my account a few months ago.” Please Alyssa, let it go. From the way Laura bit her lip, she seemed to be thinking the same.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Alyssa pressed on. “You need a presence there if you want to grow your business.”

  “I might later,” Krista said and snapped in another row of beads. Yeah, the half-do got her vote.

  Alyssa was a dog with a bone. “Why aren’t you on it? You were there before even I was.”

  “Let’s just say it went sideways. Friends were no longer friendly.”

  “You mean that thing with your Toronto ex?” Alyssa shrugged. “Gotta take the good with the bad, girl.”

  Leave me alone, girl. Krista kept her mouth shut. Laura didn’t. “They were really mean, Alyssa,” she said quietly.

  “I don’t know. I read the comments. I thought some of them were funny.”

  Laura spun her head to Alyssa with enough force to dislodge a clip of beads and send them skittering across the floor. “No. They weren’t.”

  “The ones with the blow-up doll in Krista’s nightie? The doll posed at Starbucks? At that hair salon? Laying tile? C’mon. It was priceless.”

  Laura gripped the leather arms of her chair. “It wasn’t. It was horrific. Don’t you remember?”

  “Yes,” Alyssa said peevishly. “I remember Krista crying to you about how mean her ex was. But she was the one who broke up with him.”

  “Then you might also remember,” Laura said, “that while she was here for her aunt’s funeral, he threw her stuff into the garbage.” Laura with her hair now lopsided and jammed with metal hairpins looked a little unhinged.

  Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Maybe next time she’ll have learned her lesson about how to break up properly.”

  Right here, Krista thought. I’m right here.

  Laura’s knuckles were white on the chair. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

  “She can’t keep picking people up and leaving them behind when it suits her.”

  “Is this about her boyfriends or you?”

  Alyssa bit her lip and Laura spun away from the mirror to face her. “Thought so. What this is actually about, Alyssa, is that people like being around Krista more than you, more than me for that matter, and we should be glad she counts us as friends.”

  “If she’s such a friend, why did you pick me as your maid of honor?”

  “Because she wasn’t around for me to pick.”

  “Exactly! She wasn’t around for you.”

  The two were practically nose to nose, both breathing heavily. “Well,” Laura said, “she is now.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I don’t want you as my maid of honor anymore. I want Krista.”

  Alyssa snapped straight as hurt and anger swept across her face. “Fine, then. If that’s what you want. Or if that’s what Krista has persuaded you to want.” She held up her phone with her texts to Will. “You’re not the Claverley I want to be with, anyway.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  LAURA SAGGED IN her chair the second Alyssa banged out the door. “What have I done?”

  Krista expelled her own shaky breath. “Give it a couple of days and then talk to her. You know Alyssa. It’ll blow over and she’ll be your maid of honor again.”

  Laura shook her head, further fragmenting Krista’s creation. “It’s not possible to take back those words. And I don’t want to.” She met Krista’s eyes. “This has been building for a while.”

  “Oh?”

  “Alyssa’s a good friend unless you’re here. Then she becomes some dark witch.”

  “Maybe she’s jealous of our friendship?”

  “Possibly. But she couldn’t wait to crow about what happened to you. She’s even told me the details before you did. And then when I avoided social media because I couldn’t bear to see you being humiliated, she’d update me via text with every especially awful comment or post. She’d say it was awful, too, but then she’d add stuff like ‘Krista has met her match’ or ‘Not surprised.’”

  “I shouldn’t have been,” Krista said. “And I did meet my match. Listen, I didn’t realize you were dealing with this. It’s not me you should be lucky to have as a friend. I should be on my knees to you.”

  To cheer Laura up and because it was true, Krista dropped to her knees on the hard floor. “I love you and pledge my loyalty to you, Laura Claverley, even if your hair looks as if my nieces styled it.”

  Laura cracked a small smile. “You will be my maid of honor, then?”

  Krista sat back on her haunches. “Won’t that prove Alyssa’s theory that I get what I want?”

  “It’s what I want.”

  How could she refuse Laura who had just defended her?

  “What about the dress ’n’ things? Alyssa is really well organized, you have to give her that. And the wedding’s only two weeks away.”

  “Let me figure all that out. Please, Krista, it’ll be so much fun. And this way, Alyssa is away from Will. He’s not into her, you know.You’ll be opposite him in the wedding party instead.”

  Oh. That made the arrangement between her and Will a little sticky. Thrown together at Laura’s wedding and then not a month later, acting the part of a couple. Laura—all the Claverleys for that matter—might conclude Will and Krista really were dating. She better set the record straight right now.

  “Laura, there’s something I should tell you about Will and me.”

  Laura gasped, squealed. “You two are dating.”

  Krista blinked. Wow. “Not exactly. You know how Dana is usually his fake girlfriend at the rodeo? Well, Dana can’t do it this year, so he asked me.”

  Laura shook her head, beads rattling. “Why you?”

  “Because I’m not Alyssa.”

  “That makes sense.” She smiled slyly at Krista. “You’re so going to hate it.”

  Krista grinned. “Big scary horses, poop everywhere, country music. What�
��s not to like?”

  “So why did you accept?”

  “A way to get my name out there. If I’m not on social media, I need to do something. Maybe get a hat made up or a pretty shirt or something.”

  Laura clapped her hands. “We always have food vendors. You could have your own spot, too.”

  “Uh, that might clash with my official fake-girlfriend duties.”

  “Maybe Will Claverley’s special girl is giving out pedicures.”

  Krista caught Laura’s excitement. “Speed pedicures by donation. All proceeds to the children’s hospital. It’ll promote me and the ride.” She’d take a loss in supplies and set-up but would gain future clients and build her name in Spirit Lake and beyond.

  “Alyssa will have to come crawling back to you,” Laura said, a witchy tone to her voice. The peacemaker was on the warpath.

  Krista hated that she was the source of rancor between the longtime friends. “Laura, you don’t have to pick sides.”

  “It’s not about picking sides. It’s about making a stand for what’s right. And—” she fluffed her curls “—what’s right is this half-do.” The hairstyle Krista could deliver. But being Laura’s right-hand man for the most important day of her life? Alyssa was right. Krista had been a flight risk, time after time. Opening her spa had put a screeching halt to all that. She’d worked hard to keep her dream business afloat. She’d have to work every bit as hard to keep Laura’s faith in her.

  * * *

  “MAUDE STILL HASN’T CALVED,” Will unloaded on Keith as they rode their mares across the pasture to check on the Claverleys’ orneriest cow. Every year it was the same. The Black Angus ate grain and hay and grass, swelled out until she looked as if she was about to birth half a herd and then didn’t drop her single calf until after all the others were turned out to pasture.

  Keith had his eyes on the rest of the herd. “She’ll sort herself out. C’mon, we should head back. Mom needs me to take over with Austin.”

  “Why? What’s happening?”

  “Dad got last-minute tickets to Alan Jackson in Calgary. She has to get ready.”

  Another date. They’d always made time for each other, but since their mother’s spa session, the two were like newlyweds. It should be he and Keith acting that way, not their parents.

  A warm day, Goldie and Blackberry didn’t care to hurry. Neither did Clover, who padded about, shoving her canine snout into every gopher hole. Even Keith, who was always on the move, let Goldie pick the pace. It was his day off and Keith was where he wanted to be.

  Their dad seemed willing to let them take over the ranch, but Keith had always resisted. Will wondered if it was because his younger brother disagreed with Will’s intent to expand the horse operation.

  “What do you think of Laura’s new maid of honor?” Keith said.

  Laura and her mother had had a back-and-forth about it a couple of days back during which he and his dad had hid out with the horses. “Not my concern,” he said.

  “She also told me that Krista’s playing the part of your rodeo girlfriend this year.”

  “Yep.”

  Keith pulled down on the front of his hat. “You and Dana have a falling-out?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. She didn’t want to do it this year, is all, and I’m okay with that.”

  “Why doesn’t she?”

  Will shifted in his saddle to take a good look at Keith. Was his too-busy-to-think brother sparing a moment for Dana? The two wouldn’t do all that badly as a couple. They both loved farming; they both had the same ideas about it; she was good with Austin; they’d known each other since they were kids. Maybe all that was needed was for Will as his big brother to prod him in the right direction.

  “Apparently she’s interested in someone who’s coming to the rodeo, and she doesn’t want to give the impression she’s with me.”

  “Who?”

  “She wouldn’t say.” At first, anyway.

  Will let Keith mull on that up and down one short hill. “Must be one of the contestants. Didn’t think they were her type.”

  Keith was definitely bothered by the notion of Dana with someone. “Could be. Could be one of the food truck operators. Or the clown.”

  “Shut up,” Keith said easily. “I guess so long as it’s her idea, that’s fine. Otherwise considering how long Dana and you have been friends, it wouldn’t be right to pass her over for somebody like Krista.”

  Will understood what his brother was getting at, but his hackles rose even so. “What are you implying?”

  “I like her well enough, but she’s not suited for life with you.”

  Pretty much the conclusion he and Krista had settled on, but that others saw it too...well, it was kind of disappointing. “I get that. We’re dating for a few days, pretending to anyway, and then it’s over.”

  “Don’t forget Laura’s wedding. You two are going to be together most of the day, and then we have the rehearsal coming up, too.”

  And just like that, Will felt better. “I forgot. There’s that whole dance thing we’ll have to figure out.”

  “Which Alyssa had down pat.”

  Only because of a couple of private sessions in which Will had spent as much time dancing around her advances as doing the dance itself. He should have come right out then and there, and told her plainly he wasn’t interested. He’d tried to hint at it. He’d asked her if she was seeing anyone, and she’d perked up and said no and why was he asking? Too late he realized his question implied interest. But he wasn’t sure how to let her down without hurting her. Krista had warned him about the coffee date but he’d sidestepped it until he could figure out what to say. Coward. Krista probably agreed.

  “I’m sure Krista will catch on to the dance quick enough,” Will said.

  “But why even ask Krista to replace Dana? Why do you need a fake girlfriend, anyway? Why not use a real one?”

  “Because I don’t have a real one.”

  “You could with Alyssa. You’d have to be blind not to see she wants to go out with you.”

  “Maybe Laura and I feel the same way about her.”

  “Better choice than Krista. Take it from me.”

  Will bristled. “What? There some history between the two of you?”

  “No. But you’ve got to recognize the similarity between Krista and Macey.”

  “Other than the two are both blondes, no, I don’t.”

  “How about the fact that they both hate farming—no, the entire outdoors, and they always want everything their way.”

  He thought of Krista’s insistence on not missing any part of the pedicure. It wasn’t so much her way, but the right way. “Seems to me,” Will said, “you’re being a little excessive.”

  “Am I? You warned me about Macey, and I didn’t listen. All I’m doing is handing your own advice back to you.”

  They were at the corrals now and Will leaned down to open the gate. “First of all, we’re not dating.”

  Goldie carried Keith through the opening. “That’s what you keep saying. But how come you asked her to be your fake girlfriend in the first place? You go off to get a gift certificate for Mom and you come back two hours later with a fake girlfriend. Which you don’t even mention until Laura finds out from Krista herself.”

  Blackberry, practiced for years on farm work, held tight as Will pulled the gate closed. That kind of teamwork was why he trained horses.

  “Because I’d half forgotten about it.” Except every night and morning when he rubbed his bare feet together.

  “But why her?”

  “She mentioned she wanted more clients, and I figured this way we could kill two birds with one stone.” He didn’t mention their discussion was over a pedicure. If Keith needed any proof that Will had lost his mind over Krista, permitting her to rub lotion on his bare feet would blow his cover w
ide open.

  Keith shook his head as he dismounted. “She sweet-talked you into it.”

  Will followed suit. “No, it was my idea. I had to talk her into it. Can’t you give me some credit? I’m not as stupid as you were.”

  “I was stupid,” Keith said, uncinching the straps, “but I’m not anymore. It’ll be a cold day before I ever marry again.”

  Dana sure had her work cut out for her. “Not every woman’s like Macey,” Will said.

  Keith swung his saddle off. “Question is, how can we ever be sure?”

  Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? Not that it mattered with Krista. They were both clear that they didn’t care about each other, not like a real couple.

  * * *

  “YOU READY?” Will said from behind Krista.

  “Not a clue. I hope your boots have steel toes.”

  “You wouldn’t step all over your good work, would you?”

  Before Krista could answer, Janet called the wedding party to attention. They were gathered in the Claverley rodeo dance hall to rehearse the wedding dance. “We’ll do it without the music first,” she said, “then with it, and finally we’ll review any part that needs extra work.”

  Which would be every part in her case.

  The five girls were strung out with the guys matched up behind before a low stage where the DJ would be, tonight represented by Janet’s ancient boombox. It was early evening, the perfect time for a walk along the lake, or to sit on her deck unwinding with Mara. Not to be untangling her feet among this choreographed ensemble.

  “And one...”

  “Do what I say,” Will whispered in her ear. Calm. Playful. Her breath steadied. Her nerves reacted well to that combo.

  “...two, three, four. Vine to the right. Vine to the left,” Janet Claverley called to the wedding party. “Remember, girls, you will be wearing your skirts. For those of you—Krista and Laura—not wearing them tonight, pretend you’re lifting them. Let’s start at the top.”

  “I swear,” Keith muttered as they shuffled back to their starting positions, “this prancing around is enough to turn every man off marriage.”