Hired Bride

by Jackie Merritt

  “Ramona, you’re forgetting that he paid me to go to that wedding with him. His family still thinks we’re a couple. He told me straight out that he’d like to keep them believing it. Really, that’s all there is to his attention.”

  Ramona cleared her throat. “Has…has he actually tried to take you to bed?”

  “Practically,” Gwen mumbled, recalling the theater incident with sufficient embarrassment to redden her cheeks. She drew a breath to even out her suddenly racing pulse. That memory never failed to unnerve her.

  “Ramona, the bottom line is that I’m not experienced enough to deal with a man of Zane’s caliber and I’d like him to leave me entirely alone. I’ve even considered crossing him off my client list, and you know how I value each and every client. Anyway, when he asked me to the barbecue and mentioned the children that would be there, I decided it was time he met my kids.”

  “And, apparently, mine,” Ramona said quietly.

  “The more the merrier,” Gwen said flatly. “So, is it all right if I take Tommy and Liselle on Saturday?”

  Ramona nodded. “Yes, of course. I know that Tommy, especially, would love to see a real working ranch. He’s crazy about horses.”

  “So is Donnie. Okay, great. Could you bring them over to my house around nine-thirty on Saturday morning? And dress them in jeans or something else comfortable.”

  “Will do.”

  But later Gwen too kept having second thoughts about Saturday. When Zane had mentioned children attending the barbecue, she had responded impulsively, immediately certain that a long day with small kids to care for would cool any foolish romantic ideas Zane had about the two of them.

  But thinking about how her kids might take seeing her with a man had started bothering her something awful. Since their daddy, who Donnie and Ashley remembered, there had been no men for them to see. Gwen wasn’t sure if they were old enough to resent another man with their mommy, or just what their reaction would be to Zane. Maybe there’d be no reaction at all. But if there was, how would she handle it?

  She must prepare them ahead of time, she decided, so after baths that night she sat them down on Donnie’s bed for a talk.

  “I have something to tell you,” she said, looking at each shiny-clean, beautiful little face gazing back at her. She loved them so much, and she knew they loved her. They also loved their grandparents. But she was their mainstay, their mother, and while they were young, they would love her best. She could never hurt them in any way, and she would wear herself out working to support and care for them, if that’s what it took.

  She kept her voice even and gentle. “We’ve been invited to a barbecue at a ranch on Saturday,” she said.

  “Us too?” Donnie asked, instantly excited.

  “Yes, all of us. A man I know invited us. His name is Zane Fortune.”

  “Is it a real ranch?” Donnie asked excitedly.

  “Yes, it’s a real ranch. About Mr. Fortune—”

  “With horses and cowboys, Mom?”

  Ashley piped up. “Could we ride the horses, Mommy?”

  Tiny Mindy echoed, “Ride horsies, Mommy?”

  “I don’t know about riding the horses, kids, but I’m pretty sure you will be able to see them. About Mr. Fortune—”

  “I bet the boys will be able to ride the horses,” Donnie said with a superior look at his sisters. “Hey, Mom, will there be other boys there?”

  “Yes. In fact, I’m taking Tommy and Liselle with us, so Tommy will be there for sure.”

  “Yay!” the three shouted, almost in unison.

  Gwen looked at her three children with no small feeling of dismay. They weren’t one bit interested in hearing anything about Zane. What mere man could compete with a real ranch and the possibility of riding a horse?

  But when they actually met Zane, and saw him as a flesh-and-blood man, and realized that he was Mommy’s friend, how would they feel then?

  Gwen sighed, then made herself smile at her precious children. “So, we’ll go to the barbecue with Mr. Fortune, right?”

  “Yes!” Donnie cried, and bounced up and down on the bed. “Yes!” Ashley said, and took a few bounces herself. Mindy merely bounced and giggled.

  Gwen got up. “Okay, time for prayers.”

  “Mom, how many days till Saturday?” Donnie asked.

  “Two, sweetheart.”

  His little face fell. “Two whole days? Gee whiz.”

  “Hey, none of that. Two days are hardly anything. They’ll go by so fast that Saturday will be here before you know it.”

  Only after prayers, kisses and good-nights, did Gwen lay in her own bed and realize how true that was.

  Nine

  Gwen had all five children lined up on the couch before ten on Saturday morning. They were adorable, dressed in jeans and colorful tops, and too excited to sit completely still, though they tried because of Gwen’s watchful eye.

  “We don’t want anyone getting dirty or mussed, so we’re all going to just sit and wait for Mr. Fortune,” she told them, taking a chair herself. She too wore jeans—her best pair—and a favorite red-and-white checked shirt. Her long hair was drawn back from her face in a French braid, and she had put on a little makeup. Everything was ready to go.

  Everything but her nerves, that is. Try as she might, she could not settle them—they were jumping around like popping corn. Why on earth was she putting herself through this? she thought rather frantically, even while smiling lovingly at the children on the couch. Juggling five small kids, Zane and the rest of the Fortune family all day was probably going to turn her into a basket case.

  Well, no, of course it wouldn’t do that. She would cope, as she always did. But couldn’t she have come up with an easier way to discourage Zane’s purely sexual interest?

  But she’d told him more than once that she wasn’t interested, so he was obviously one of those people who didn’t understand the word no. On the other hand, would any man believe a woman who said no and then kissed back as though starved for affection? Gwen frowned. Maybe she was starved for affection. If not, why would she have let Zane go so far in the theater?

  But that had not been ordinary affection, that had been…it had been…

  Flushing hotly, she smiled at the kids again. “Mr. Fortune should be here any minute. You are all being very good. I’m proud of you. Now remember, you are to also sit still in his car, and please don’t yell or tease each other during the drive to the ranch. I’m sure that once we’re there, you’ll be able to run and play and have lots of fun.”

  “And ride the horses,” Donnie said.

  “I made no promises about that, son,” Gwen said.

  “But if they have horses, Mom, why wouldn’t they let people ride ’em?”

  “Maybe they will. But there’s also a chance that they don’t want strangers riding their horses. We’re just going to have to wait and see, Donnie.”

  The doorbell rang, and Gwen nearly jumped out of her skin. “That’s probably Mr. Fortune,” she said to the children as she got up from her chair. “Now, I’d like you all to sit very still while I let him in. Then I will introduce you, and I’d like each of you to say hello when I say your name, all right?”

  The kids agreed in varying ways, and Gwen sucked in a nervous breath and hurried to the door. When she opened it, Zane was smiling. “Good morning,” he said cheerfully. “Ready to go?”

  “Good morning,” she replied. “We’re ready, but please come in and meet the children first.”

  “Yes, that’s probably a good idea.” Zane had told himself all the way from his house that Gwen was Gwen, and that worrying about seeing her with her children was ridiculous. She looked beautiful this morning, bright-eyed and young and so desirable. He couldn’t help wishing that they were going off by themselves to be alone somewhere, but…she had kids, and he’d better get along with them if he wanted to get anywhere with their mother. He strongly suspected that if her kids didn’t like him, then neither would Gwen.

&n
bsp; Still, when she opened the door for him, and he saw five small children seated on the sofa, he nearly swallowed his tongue.

  “You have…five children?” he said weakly.

  Gwen saw his suddenly ashen color and knew that she’d done what she’d planned to do. Zane was shocked and looked ready to run. But her heart skipped a beat as she suddenly realized that she didn’t want him to run.

  She cleared her clogged throat. “Three are mine—the towheads. Let me introduce you. Kids, this is Mr. Zane Fortune. Zane, this is Tommy, Donnie, Liselle, Mindy and Ashley. Tommy and Liselle belong to a friend of mind.”

  Each child said a shy hello. Zane said hello, and he tried to put on a face that would appeal to children. They merely stared up at him, as only young children can do, with total innocence and no embarrassment. And they were beautiful children, all five of them, even the two who weren’t Gwen’s.

  Zane felt something release inside himself, undoubtedly the tension he’d been suffering over seeing Gwen with her kids. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her standing very still and watching. Had she been worrying also, wondering how he would react to this moment? Wondering how the kids would react? Inviting her friend’s two children to increase the number of childish eyes giving him the once-over had to be some kind of test, he decided. Was he passing it?

  Then he realized that he felt amazingly good, and he wanted Gwen to know that his initial surprise had vanished. He looked at her and smiled. “You have beautiful children.”

  She looked startled, but only for a moment. “Thank you.”

  Zane’s gaze returned to the kids. “Well, is everyone ready to go?” The kids all nodded. “This is going to be a fun day,” Zane said. “There’ll be other kids to play with at the ranch, and lots of good food, and pony rides.”

  Donnie’s eyes got big with excitement. “Told you so, Mom!”

  “Yes, you did, son. All right, everyone up.” Before she had finished her sentence, the kids were off the sofa and racing for the door, with Mindy trying to keep up with the others. “Slow down,” Gwen said sternly. “Ashley, please take Mindy’s hand.”

  “Yes, Mommy.” Ashley took her baby sister’s hand, and the group filed outside in a more orderly fashion.

  Zane grinned at Gwen. “They’re great, Gwen, just great.”

  “If you can still say that at the end of the day, then I’ll believe you mean it.”

  Gwen kept the kids occupied during the drive with stories and songs. It amazed her when Zane sang along, loudly and sometimes off-key, but he seemed to be perfectly at ease with a sports utility vehicle full of youngsters, and that too surprised her. Apparently he was much more adaptable than she’d given him credit for. In fact, before they reached the ranch she started wondering if Ramona had been more right than wrong when she’d said that Gwen could be misjudging Zane’s intentions.

  On the other hand, his good humor could merely be a darn good act. Dare she forget how capable he was of deluding people? Even his own family?

  Either way, Zane was a Fortune, a man of incredible wealth from a family of billionaires. He was highly educated and had lived with opulence since the day of his birth. Why would he even look twice at her? She hadn’t finished college, and she certainly wasn’t a ravishing beauty. On top of that she had three kids to raise.

  And so she deduced again that he could want only one thing from her, which made her eyes and nose sting, warning her that tears were much too close. To keep them at bay she started another song, and the kids and Zane joined in. Hearing him singing, “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” caused her to laugh, and he sent her a grin that tore at her heartstrings.

  Sighing to herself, Gwen worried about what she was getting herself into. Obviously she’d made a bad mistake by agreeing to today’s event. Truth be told, she’d done little else but make mistakes since meeting Zane.

  And all for two thousand dollars she couldn’t even spend.

  When the song was over, she didn’t immediately start another. Instead she quietly asked Zane, “Have you had your car repaired yet?”

  Her question took him by surprise, and he hemmed and hawed for a second, then perpetuated his lie by saying, “Not yet.”

  She could not keep still on this matter any longer. She needed that money and resented his procrastination. The look she laid on him wasn’t very kind. “You probably don’t understand,” she said sharply, “but until I pay for those repairs I won’t know if there’ll be anything left of the two thousand I banked after your friends’ wedding.”

  Zane sent her a startled look. It hadn’t occurred to him that she would save that money to pay for the repairs to his car. He felt rather foolish for ever thinking that she would never find out that he’d taken care of the whole thing himself.

  Looking out the windshield again, he heaved a sigh. “Guess it’s truth time.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Gwen asked suspiciously. What lie had he told her that was now catching up with him? Was he constantly hiding something from someone? She’d never liked lies or liars, and it hurt her heart to think that Zane might have lied her. True, she’d gone along with his lie at the wedding, which really had been a lousy trick to pull on his family. But it hadn’t entered her mind that the wedding scam might be something more than an isolated incident. A prank of sorts. By heavens, she thought, suddenly passionate about her role in Zane’s deception, she was not going to tell one single lie to one single person today. Zane could like it or lump it.

  “The car was repaired right away,” he said quietly, without looking at her. “I didn’t tell you about it because I didn’t want you insisting on paying the bill.”

  Gwen stared at him, momentarily speechless, and was just about to make some sort of objection when she heard Tommy and Donnie squabbling in the back. Each boy was certain that he would be the first to take a pony ride.

  Angry at Zane, Gwen turned around with a fierce expression. “If I hear one more word of argument out of you boys, neither if you will be taking a pony ride. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Mom,” Donnie said meekly.

  “Yes, Gwen,” Tommy said quietly.

  Gwen turned her gaze back to Zane. “Now, you and I are not going to do any debating in front of the kids, but the subject we were discussing is far from closed.”

  “It’s closed as far as I’m concerned,” Zane said flatly. “The car is fixed, and I paid for it. That’s the end of it.”

  “It’s not the end of it,” she retorted furiously, but quietly so the kids wouldn’t hear them. “I pay my own bills, and I don’t appreciate—”

  “Gwen, just drop it,” Zane snapped. “We were all having fun. Don’t ruin the day with a ridiculous argument over something so trivial.”

  “It’s not trivial to me,” she fumed.

  “Fine, you got the last word. Now can we drop it? Hey, kids,” he called. “We’re almost to the ranch. And boys, there’s more than one pony. You both can ride at the same time, I promise.”

  Gwen drew a breath and did her best to force her body to relax. The kids were eagerly looking forward to the day, and she truly wanted them to enjoy themselves. Her problems with Zane could be put aside until a later time. Just when that would be, Gwen didn’t know, but maybe she shouldn’t be worrying about it now.

  But his insistence on paying for the car repairs rubbed her wrong. She paid her own way in this world, and she didn’t like being treated like a charity case. It was something she was going to have to tell him. In fact, she probably wouldn’t even completely be at ease until she told him that—and possibly a few other things.

  She would, however, make the best of the barbecue. Maybe an opportunity for a frank discussion would present itself when he brought them home after the event was over. All she could do was to wait and see.

  The Fortune family at play was a sight to behold. Gwen was amazed at how different this gathering was from the formal wedding. Everyone was in comfortable clothing and totally relaxed, sitting around on
lawn furniture, sipping soft drinks or beer, telling jokes, wisecracking, teasing each other and doing a lot of laughing.

  She’d been greeted warmly and made to feel at home. She’d noticed a few surprised faces over her having children, but that passed quickly, especially after she’d explained that only three of the five were hers.

  The kids were having a ball. The mothers in the group—and several nannies, Gwen realized—kept an eye on the children while they romped on the grass, but then the men took over and began overseeing the pony rides.

  Vanessa moved her chair next to Gwen’s. “Zane didn’t mention your children, Gwen,” she said. “I’m so glad you brought them. They’re sweet, beautiful kids.”

  Gwen smiled. “Thank you. They’re having a lot of fun here today.”

  “I hope so. Gwen, please don’t think of me as nosy, but I can’t help being curious. The children’s father…”

  “I’m a widow,” Gwen said quietly.

  With a sympathetic expression Vanessa laid her hand on Gwen’s arm. “I’m so sorry,” she said gently.

  Gwen looked at Zane’s sister and smiled softly. “Thank you, you’re very kind.”

  “I’m also very pleased that Zane seems to be settling down. Zane knows how I feel about this, so I’m not saying anything to you that I wouldn’t say to his face. And this change in him is all because of you, Gwen.”

  Remembering her vow not to lie to these people today, Gwen frowned. “You mustn’t misunderstand Zane’s and my relationship, Vanessa. We’re really just friends.”

  Vanessa laughed gaily. “Gwen, my dear, Zane does not have female friends. At least, to my knowledge he never has before. No, I can’t help believing that he cares a great deal for you. At the risk of being blunt, I doubt that you’d be here today if he didn’t. Over the years he’s rarely brought a woman to a family function, and within a very short time he’s brought you to two affairs. That’s really quite revealing, Gwen.”