The Broke Billionaire's Cowgirl Bride: Love is the only sure bet (Las Vegas Brides of Convenience Book 4)

by Anne Martin

  “There you go, running off again.” Deb frowned down at the white rabbit.

  “No, I’m not. I have a lunch appointment with Jackson’s uncle. We’ll be back tomorrow with a guest list and things like that. I’ll call you.” Jessie pushed me into the driver’s seat and climbed over me into the passenger’s side. She waved at Deb while I humored her and peeled out. I didn’t go back to the house, instead, I took the Interstate six-thirty-five. I drove fast, passing cars like they were standing still. This car was next on the chopping block, and who knew if I’d ever be motivated to pursue a car like that again.

  “Sorry about that,” she said in a low voice.

  “About what? Your friend seemed very nice, and I’m almost sure I don’t have any lice anymore.”

  She started drawing invisible pictures on the glass. “Deb is crazy. Thanks for not acting all hoity-toity with her.”

  “Didn’t I? I gave her money.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t point out the car we’d arrived in. She should notice that kind of thing, but she’s always been kind of near-sighted.”

  “She sounds like the perfect person to hire for a multi-million dollar wedding.”

  “Multi-million?” Jessie’s eyes were huge. “What?”

  “The cars are worth that. You think we can’t get a good value, flooding the market so quickly?”

  She grabbed my hand, her fingers calloused and strong, but still small, sweet. “I don’t want to do this. I shouldn’t have called Deb. She knows the kind of wedding I really want. We’ve been planning since we were kids. There will be balloon rides, alligator pits, and fire jugglers. And kittens and puppies in baskets from the local shelters, because what’s a better setting for finding homes for orphans than a wedding? This is supposed to be a vindictive thing that shows how normal I am, how desirable, not completely cracked up and how lucky you are to have escaped my clutches.” She shook her head.

  I didn’t let go of her hand when she tried to pull away. “Your grandma lives in Dallas?”

  She hesitated. “She’s in Fort Worth at the Stockyards. She’s not in Dallas. She won’t hear about the wedding.”

  “You don’t talk to her about the men you date?”

  She snorted. “Men I date? Do you know what Vegas men are like?”

  “Do you date men? I thought you were terrified of commitment. You should probably talk about the men you get engaged to. That reminds me.”

  I pulled the ring out of my jeans pocket and tossed it at her. She caught it and then stared at it for a really long time.

  “Put it on. Does it fit?”

  She shook her head and wordlessly put on the ring. She stared at it like it was an alien and didn’t notice the exit that I took towards Fort Worth. We were a good twenty minutes West before she looked up from the ring. “This is an insane diamond. Tell me that it’s cubic zirconia.”

  “It’s fake. Sure. It’s one point two million in fake diamonds.”

  She gasped and started shaking her hand like a bee had stung it. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “You wanted a big fancy wedding. Didn’t you say alligator pit? Nothing says big fancy wedding like alligator pit. Do we have to dig a hole? I think we should do it on the bocce court. I always hated that game. Real aristocrats should play croquet.”

  “Where are we? That was a sign for Abilene. No. We are not going to Fort Worth.”

  “On the contrary, we are. This whole thing is about therapy. If I can handle uncomfortable feelings, you can too. I’ll play go fish with you until you can handle it, but we’re going to go see her. So, it’s normal for you to take off without a by-your-leave. I’m not sure if I like that. I felt kind of special, the one you left without a word, but if it’s a regular habit, I see that I’m not special after all.”

  “Turn the car around, Jackson. We aren’t going to go see my grandma. You don’t know what she’s like.”

  I tightened my hands on the wheel and gave her a hard look. “No, I don’t. You’ve never introduced me to anyone in your family.”

  She put her head in her hands. “Please, Jackson, don’t make me do this. I’m going to throw up.”

  “Aim for the center of the floor mat. I’m not pulling over, or you’ll run. Wrestling you down in the sagebrush sounds a little itchy.”

  “Jackson…” She gazed at me, those blue eyes panicked before darting at the door. Would she throw herself out of a moving vehicle? I put on the child safety locks. She noticed. “Jackson, she’ll be mean to you.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “She’ll tie me up and whip me.”

  “I’d like to see that.”

  “I’m sure you would. Why are you doing this? Is it just to torture me?”

  “Jessie Calhoun, or whatever your name is, I’d like to say that’s true, but I already told you. We’re doing this whole thing for therapy. You clearly need help facing your fears. If she’s abusive, I promise that I’ll take my share. We should have brought the rifle. I have the knife back at the house. I knew I should have brought it.”

  She laughed breathlessly. “It’s like the time the gas gauge didn’t work but you were determined to get to that seafood place before it closed, and we ended up stuck in a pile of sand in the middle of nowhere.”

  I glanced at her then away. That was one of my favorite memories. We’d ended up having dinner with a family who had a house nearby. They’d caught the fish fresh and given dinner to us free along with a ride to the gas station afterwards in the back of their truck. Jessie and I had sung songs at the top of our lungs with the wind whistling around us.

  “Don’t talk about my dad,” she said after a few minutes of silence.

  “What about your mom?”

  She flinched and I felt bad, but now was the time to press forward and not retreat.

  “I take it that she’s not around.”

  “No. She died when I was eleven. That’s why I did girl scouts. We had a house in one place for a whole year so she could do treatments. Grandma was there, and she did nothing but complain that my dad wasn’t. Of course not. He was praying to his gambling gods. He donated sixty percent of his winnings to charity once I was born. After she got sick, ninety percent. Then she died and he gave up on his making promises to give good for the luck he had. He kept his luck whether he gave to charity or not. He didn’t even make it for the funeral, but when he came, he took me and my grandma never forgave me for going.”

  That explained things. It also made me feel absolutely terrible. “I’m sorry about your mother.”

  She gave me a small smile and covered my hand with hers. “I’m sorry about yours. To be honest, it was nice when she got sick and she couldn’t travel with my dad because then I got to know her. She was really kind and she spoke in a soft voice instead of hollering like my grandma.”

  “Like you. Your voice is soft.”

  “When I’m not in a corral. Are you seriously going to do this? It’s a bad idea, Jackson. I haven’t seen her since the time she came up to Vegas, was that six years ago? She yelled at me for a half hour then got back into her truck and drove away. I told my dad to tell her I was fine.”

  I shot her a look. “You told your dad to tell her you were fine? Why didn’t you tell her?”

  “She would have asked questions.”

  “Your dad didn’t ask questions?”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t expect him to answer the phone. It was prime gambling hours in Singapore when I called.”

  “Did he answer?”

  She traced her finger around the edges of the window. “That’s right. I told him to tell grandma I was fine. He promised that he would, but I should have realized that he’d forget. He didn’t have anyone to remind him about the little things that didn’t matter.”

  “Jessie, is this the time that you left me without a word? Did you leave your grandma too?”

  She shot me a guilty look. “I didn’t think she’d notice.”

  “Remarkable. This is the w
oman who raised you when her daughter ran off with a gambler? You don’t think she’d notice when you vanished without a word?”

  “She didn’t raise me on her own, it was everyone in the circuit. The clowns and cowboys, anyone who wasn’t on.”

  “So, you didn’t let any of them know when you disappeared? I should spank you!”

  She blinked at me and then leaned forward, giving me a look of so much sensual appeal while her top gapped enough to show me a flash of cleavage. “Yes. Take me somewhere else and spank me.”

  “Jessie Calhoun Strait, or whatever your name is, I’m shocked! You won’t sell your body for money, but you’ll use it to escape your grandmother’s just wrath? This is going to be really good.”

  I grinned at her and gunned it. The Bugatti drove beautifully, and we didn’t see any highway patrolman. In fifteen more minutes, we were at the stockyard. I pulled up in front of an enormous barn. She fiddled with the seatbelt. I clicked it off and grabbed her wrist then tugged on her until she came after me through the driver’s door.

  I locked the car and headed for the barn, Jessie holding back with a look of panic on her face. When we got to the doors, I opened it and she broke out of my grip and tried to run back the way we’d come. I caught her before she’d gotten more than a step. She was quick, but I had a longer reach. She was so small. She used a move on me that would have unmanned me if I hadn’t expected it. I twisted and held her tighter until the warmth of her body filled my arms, shifting against me.

  “Jessie, this is going to happen whether you like it or not.”

  “Hold on there! What’s going on?” A cowboy stood silhouetted in a doorway.

  “Cora Calhoun’s granddaughter’s trying to run. A little help?”

  A rope came flying out of the shadows, slipping over us and tightening, pulling us even closer together. I stared down into Jessie’s eyes as another rope came from the opposite direction.

  She struggled again, but it only moved her body along mine. She felt so good. I wanted to bury my face in her hair and breathe her in until she replaced my oxygen completely.

  “What’s this caterwauling?” A loud woman’s voice came from the shadows.

  Jessie went stiff as a board. This was her grandma.

  “He said that Jessie’s back,” the cowboy said, pulling the rope so we had to move in his direction.

  “Jessie who?” The woman’s voice broke on a rough patch.

  Jessie cleared her throat. “Good evening, ma’am. Howdy?”

  “That really is Jessie!” “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” and then the old woman’s voice screeching over the other two, “He had to drag you here? Are you pregnant? Do you think I need to raise your baby too?”

  Jessie’s eyes met mine. Her lips twitched even as her eyes filled with moisture. “Shall I tell her yes? You’d deserve it when she took the cattails to you.”

  “I don’t think she’d approve of your lies, Miss Jessie. I have an idea that we have a lot more in common than I’d thought.”

  “And she wouldn’t approve of your gambling.”

  “I promise you that if I ever did have a child with you, I’d take it and you with me.”

  Chapter 9

  The tiny trailer parked in the lot behind the stockyard was the same one I’d grown up in.

  “Set down. What brings you here? You pregnant?”

  Jackson jumped in. “She wanted you to meet me before we got married. We’re having a shotgun wedding before she shows.” He patted my stomach.

  I stared at him. “We are?”

  He nodded. “Of course. We’re going to be a respectable family, and we’d love you to be part of it. Would you like to move into the manor? There’s plenty of room and the stables have a horse-master suite that you might enjoy.”

  She stared at him like he’d gone off his rocker. She leaned towards me and whispered out of the side of her mouth, “Is he insane or just brain damaged?”

  “There’s nothing crazy about wanting to take care of family. You do have a nice place here, a family with your fellow hands, but if it gets to be tiresome, we’d love to have you, wouldn’t we, darlin’” He kissed my nose.

  “What?”

  She snatched my ring and started a litany of curses that would make a sailor blush. She turned my hand over and smashed it down on the table. Ow. When she turned my hand back we both looked to see if anything was cracked, other than my knuckles.

  “It’s real diamond?”

  “Can cut steel,” I said with pride, like I’d asked for that kind of huge diamond surrounded by a good dozen of the normal sized ones. “I’m not pregnant. Jackson is being funny. We haven’t ever slept together.”

  “That’s right,” he said nodding soberly. “There wasn’t any sleeping to speak of.” He winked at my grandma and out of all the irritating things, she snorted in laughter, shaking her finger at him.

  “Boy, you’ve got nerve. You really a gambler?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I come from wealth but am currently broke. Mostly. I have a few fine cars to sell off still. The house is good and our invitation stands if you’re looking for a new locale.”

  She punched him in the stomach. I gasped but he didn’t fold over like I’d expected. Had he seen it coming?

  “Grandma, back off!” I said, slipping in front of Jackson with my arms outspread to protect him. “You want to hit someone, at least I can take it.”

  “She hit you?” Jackson asked, concern in his voice.

  I shot him a look and shook my head with a frown. “Don’t interrupt. You deserved getting hit for dragging me here. I told you that she’d hurt you.”

  “Didja?” my grandma asked, cocking her head and looking me up and down. “Are you afraid of a little pain, Jessie? You yella?”

  I tugged on my hair painfully. “Nope. I’m a glorious brunette these days. Grandma, can we sit down and pretend to be civilized for a good five minutes? I know that you’re all kinds of ornery, and I admit I caused you some unwarranted heartache, but I’m here now.”

  “Because he dragged ya. You don’t know enough to come in out of the rain. All those years flaunting yourself like a showgirl, like I didn’t teach you better than that.”

  I sighed deeply. “Sorry that I was pretty and used it to make money instead of roping horses my whole life. You know that I don’t have your stature. Do you know how hard it is for me to wrestle things down? Maybe I just don’t have your grit, but I’m not you. I can’t live your life any more than I can live mama’s.”

  “At least your mama got married.”

  “Well, now I’m getting married. You’re invited to the wedding. Can we sit down now and talk niceties, or should we just go? I’m all set on going.”

  Jackson sat down on a chair covered in rifle magazines, pulling me over on his lap. “We’ll set a bit, honey. You know how tired driving makes me. How’s your health, Cora? You don’t mind if I call you that, do you? We haven’t been introduced properly.” He nudged my shoulder with his chin.

  I squirmed, but he wasn’t letting me go. “Jackson Dewitt, fiancé former Billionaire and gambler, meet Cora Calhoun, my grandmother, steady hand if there ever was one.”

  My grandma pulled a pack of cigs out of her chest pocket and lit up. My mouth tightened, but I didn’t say anything while she gave me a thin smile. She’d given up smoking when my mama was sick. That’s why she’d taken up whittling. I wanted to snatch the cigarette out of her mouth and stick it down the sink. She didn’t need to smoke when cancer ran in our family.

  She inhaled slowly then blew out a cloud of yellowish smoke that hung in the air. I should have noticed the scent right away. She hadn’t used to smoke inside the trailer. “When’s the wedding?”

  “Two and a half weeks. Deb’s doing it.”

  “She really became a party planner? Did she get married?”

  I exhaled. Were we actually talking like two grown-ups? “I don’t think so. We haven’t chatted much. I just got in town last night
. This morning we stopped to see Deb and then came out here.”

  Her eyes narrowed along with her lips. “You mean your man dragged you here. Has some antiquated notions about family obligation, does he? Probably doesn’t go years without telling people where he runned off to. You go to college?” she asked him.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “What did you get your degree in? I imagine you graduated.”

  “Yes ma’am. Biomedical Engineering along with the usual MBA.”

  “Bio what? And what’s the usual MBA?”

  He cleared his throat and glanced at me with his chin on my shoulder like he wasn’t keeping me from bolting. “How nice of you to ask. Some people aren’t interested in the nitty gritty details of my coursework. MBA is the business administration degree. It’s all dull legal stuff. Biomedical Engineering is where we take what we know about science and the physical laws of our natural world and apply it to organisms in medicine and prosthetics.”

  She held up a hand. “You make peg legs?”

  His body did this thing where it laughed without his permission. I could feel his chest vibrating against my back, but he didn’t breath as much as a snicker. “No, ma’am. I don’t do prosthetics, that’s just what I got a degree in. I’m a gambler.”

  She sighed and leaned back against the wall with its faded golden and cream striped wallpaper, tiny flowers between the stripes. “You know what? I have a friend, lost his leg to gout. Does that Biomech engineering have anything that cure diseases?”

  “It can certainly analyze how disease spreads and how to mitigate viral propagation. I have a friend who does that. Jessie thinks I should invite her to the wedding. I’m sure she’d love to chat, if she’s in town. She spends a lot of time in India and Beirut.”

  I went limp and slid out of his arms onto the floor. I scrambled away from him, pressing my back against the wall as I tried to understand how I’d gone from being almost okay to feeling like my heart had been sucked out of my chest through my nose. What was I thinking, having a wedding to show off my acquisition of Jackson in front of all his ex girlfriends? I would just feel like a fool. Yeah, the Vegas showgirl caught the big fish they wanted, but he didn’t want me, and they all had more substance than me and my silicone breasts. I wouldn’t be fooling myself or him. I closed my eyes tightly and tried to breathe, curled up on the floor of the old trailer, trying to not feel trapped.