He sure had been chatty last night on the way back from the bonfire about his father, though. What was that about? Why had he said so much? All those deeply personal details about Bo Dawson’s issues. Maybe Sadie was easy to talk to. They’d shared a very intense...something on Badger Mountain when Danny had been lost, when he’d promised her he’d find her son. There was a connection there. That was all. So he’d opened up. Not something he ever did, though, so the fact that he had meant something. He just didn’t know what.
He grabbed socks and shut the drawer, then headed downstairs with Dude for much-needed coffee. He’d let the dog out in the yard and had barely had a sip before he heard his sister’s singsong voice out on the porch.
“So I hear congratulations are in order and that I must be so overjoyed to be gaining a sister-in-law,” Daisy said.
Axel glanced through the kitchen window. Daisy, her face full of what Axel could call only about-to-burst-out-laughing merriment, peered at him through the screen.
What she’d said hadn’t quite registered. Congratulations? A sister-in-law? What?
“Now, I know you, Axel, and there’s no way you’re engaged, so what the peacock is going on?”
Wait. If Daisy was being congratulated about the “engagement,” that meant it had gotten around. But how was that possible?
“A great-gram, that’s what,” Axel said on a long sigh. He’d been sure the whole thing would have blown over by now, that someone would have explained to Izzy that he and Sadie weren’t the engaged ones. If not last night, then this morning.
Daisy, dressed as he was in the Dawson Family Guest Ranch green polo but with khaki shorts, her long light brown hair in a braid, was in his kitchen like a shot, pouring herself a mug of coffee and taking a slice of banana bread while she was at it. “Okay, spill it.”
He explained.
“Ooh, boy,” she said. “Well, at least ten Winstons congratulated me this morning on becoming part of the family, Axel, and it wasn’t even six a.m. You can thank sunrise yoga for so many guests being out and about that early.”
He stared at her, horror building in his gut. “I don’t get it. Sadie was going to tell her grandmother that Izzy had misunderstood her and they’d tell the great-grandmother—she’s ninety-nine, by the way—together.”
“Well, it doesn’t look like anyone spoke up. So you’re engaged.” Daisy let out a hearty chuckle. “In fact, a Winston kid who couldn’t be older than six came up to me and said she heard that my brother was marrying her big cousin Sadie and now we’re all going to be one big family.”
Axel gulped.
Daisy laughed. “I’m happy for you, Axel. It’s almost like a dream come true, if it were real.”
Axel groaned and slugged the rest of his coffee. “Keyword if, and it’s not. We’ll get it straightened out this morning.” He stole a piece of banana bread.
“Speak of the bride,” Daisy said, tipping her chin toward the window.
Axel looked out. A ranch hand was driving a golf cart toward his cabin, Sadie in the passenger seat.
“My cue to scram,” Daisy said. “I’ll do a lot of smiling and nodding and hasty retreating around the Winstons until you say otherwise.”
He groaned. “What a mess.”
“An interesting mess, though,” Daisy said with a grin, then left.
Axel let Dude in, then stood on the porch, watching Sadie hop out of the buggy and thank the ranch hand, who turned and drove off, following Daisy toward the ranch.
Sadie held up a hand in something of a wave, and he did, too. She looked kind of...stressed. Damn, she was pretty. Her long blond hair was loose and swaying a bit as she walked, catching the early sun. She wore a pale yellow tank top, white shorts and sneakers. A delicate gold necklace with a tiny letter D dangling glinted on her breastbone. D for Danny, he figured.
“I hear we’re still engaged,” he said as she approached the steps. “Little relatives of yours are congratulating my sister.”
She closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands for a moment, then shook her head and looked at him. “I have made one heck of a mess of this.”
“Come on in for coffee. I have bagels, or I could make you scrambled eggs.”
Her face brightened—likely because he wasn’t furious and screeching his head off about the whole thing. He had a feeling that was what she expected. Normally the idea of anyone thinking he was engaged would bring about that feeling he’d described to her last night: a lack of air in his lungs. But he was oddly calm about it. Maybe because he’d been there when the misunderstanding had occurred.
“I’d love a bagel,” she said. “And about ten cups of coffee.”
Yeah, me, too, he thought, offering her a smile. “Follow me. Dude’s hungry, too.”
He led the way into the cabin and she stopped to pet the appreciative yellow Lab and look around, slowly swiveling. “This is some cabin. Not what I expected,” she added.
“What did you expect? More rustic?”
“Yes. This place is gorgeous. Such craftsmanship. And so cozy.”
He felt a bit of pride as she slowly turned and took it all in, the woodwork and moldings, the furnishings. “I knew I needed to make this place my sanctuary to be really comfortable here. So I did.”
She glanced at him, then settled her gaze on a watercolor of abstract sheep. “Makes sense, based on what you said last night. About your dad.”
He swallowed. Yup, he’d said all that. He sighed inwardly and headed to the kitchen, so aware of her behind him. Dude followed for his own breakfast.
He fed his dog, then poured Sadie a cup of coffee and gestured for her to sit at the table. “Cream, sugar right here,” he added, pointing. “So for bagels I have plain, sesame, cinnamon raisin and everything.”
“Sesame with cream cheese would be great.”
“I’d almost prefer to keep talking about anything other than the fact that your entire family thinks we’re engaged,” he said, cutting two sesame bagels and putting the halves in the toaster oven.
“Me, too,” she said.
He smiled and sat, drinking the rest of his coffee. “Okay, I’m a bit more fortified now. Fill me in.”
She took in a breath and blew it out. “Well, last night, I helped Izzy to bed, and she conked out right away. I’d planned to tell Vanessa what happened, that Izzy thought she’d been referring to us when she’d said, ‘They’re engaged,’ but every time I went to talk to Vanessa, she was still on the phone. I guess I fell asleep because when I woke up at the crack of dawn, everyone was awake and talking about the possibility of a double wedding—my sister, mother, gram and great-gram. My sister was jumping up and down about my sudden whirlwind engagement. My mother was crying—seriously, tears streaming down her cheeks to the point she couldn’t even speak. My grandmother was on the phone to let everyone know both her granddaughters had gotten engaged last night, and I was in total shock. Meanwhile, Danny started screaming his head off, so I took care of him, and when I came back, everyone was knee-deep in making lists of caterers and bridal boutiques and possible venues.”
Axel smiled and shook his head. “Having met all these people, I can easily see how that all unfolded.”
“I appreciate that. My family can definitely be overwhelming.” She took a long sip of her coffee. “And then, I was about to tell them it was all a big misunderstanding when my aunt Tabby burst in and wrapped me in big hug, then my sister, and said she was overjoyed and that for the sake of the two brides-to-be, she hoped she and my mother could put aside their differences for the time being at least. My mother agreed to the truce, and I was so flabbergasted that I still didn’t pipe up. It’s been three months since their big fight, and two engaged nieces are simply bigger than their fight. I watched them talk—smiling and happy—for the first time since that day on the mountain, Axel. About wedding stuff, not themselves
or actually making up, but talking.”
He nodded and got up to take the bagels from the toaster oven and slather them with cream cheese. “Well, hopefully, they’ll return to being sisters and put whatever happened between them behind them.” She looked so eager that he realized her mother and aunt’s cold war had been really tough on her, especially because he knew she thought it had something to do with Danny going missing that day. He added a small bunch of grapes to the plates, then brought breakfast over to the table and sat across from her.
She smiled and popped a grape into her mouth. “Thank you,” she said, then bit into the bagel, sitting back and relaxing. He felt like jumping up and massaging the tension out of her shoulders. The urge to touch her was way too strong. “So then the lot of them were all excitedly talking again,” Sadie went on, “and relatives burst in the cabin to congratulate me and Evie as they heard the news, and now I’m expected to go preliminary gown shopping this afternoon.” She dropped her head into her palm, then looked up at him.
“They must have asked where your diamond ring is?” he said, eyeing her empty left hand.
“They sure did. I told them I decided I didn’t want a ring this time around, that what mattered to me was our marriage and the wedding ring.”
He nodded, not wanting to delve into that. “So where did you tell them you were going this morning?” he asked.
“To see my fiancé before his work starts,” she said sheepishly, her cheeks bright red.
He smiled, but then the word fiancé reverberated in his head and that airless feeling started in his chest. “They’re watching Danny?”
She nodded. “I’m so sorry about all this, Axel. Look, I’ll text my sister right now and explain what happened, and she’ll set everyone straight. It’s embarrassing as heck, but by the time I get back to the cabin, they’ll have forgotten it. There’s still an engaged Winston sister. My mom and aunt can still find joy and common ground in that, and it’ll help bring them together.”
He was about to nod until he noticed how sad her eyes looked, how stressed she seemed.
He heard ninety-nine-year-old Izzy’s voice from last night. When that louse of a husband up and left you pregnant and alone...
He’d always known Sadie was a single mother; he’d known that up on Badger Mountain when the team had questioned her and her family about the possibility of an unhappy ex snatching Danny when no one was looking. She’d said her ex-husband hadn’t showed a lick of interest in the fact that he had a child, and she highly doubted he’d been following them and hiding behind trees, waiting for a moment to suddenly kidnap Danny and raise a son on his own. The louse had left her when she’d been seven weeks pregnant and hadn’t been heard from since. She’d sent the divorce papers to his parents, and they’d sent the signed set back. Her ex had apparently said Danny wasn’t his, and they believed him. A single mother completely on her own—that couldn’t be easy, big family around her or not.
“I’ll text Evie right now,” she added, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “She announced that she and Marshall decided to have the wedding right here at the ranch at the lodge on the last night of the reunion, so everyone will be all excited about that. Evie also said she thought each of us should have her own big day, so that stopped the double-wedding talk.” Her eyes misted, and she looked away, clearly embarrassed.
She wanted to be engaged, he realized, both superficially and deep down. Even faux-engaged—he understood that with sudden crystal clarity. All that happy attention, all that affirmation, her relatives stopping with the “poor Sadie, all alone” crud. His scruffy, scuffed-up heart went out to her.
Axel put his hand on hers to stop her from texting her sister. “I have an idea.”
She peered up at him with those beautiful pale brown eyes.
He slugged his coffee, then looked at her. “I totally get what happened, Sadie. I’ve been in the middle of that kind of family melee where you’re so overwhelmed by everyone’s voices that you’re speechless even if they’re talking about you.”
She stared at him with what seemed like utter relief that he understood. “But now we’re engaged. What are we going to do? We have to tell them the truth. I mean, it’s not like I can let them think I’m getting married when I’m not.”
He took another bite of his bagel. “Here’s the idea part... Your sister is getting married the last night of the reunion. Let’s get through that, everyone focused on Evie and on her wedding, and once you’re all home, you can tell them it didn’t work out and you didn’t want to say anything because you didn’t want to take away from Evie’s special day.”
She stared at him again, her mouth slightly open. “You’re serious.”
He shrugged. “Why not? That way, a ninety-nine-year-old remains happy. Your mother and aunt will mend their issues.”
“Wait. You’re willing to be fake-engaged for a week for the greater good?” She gaped at him, head tilted.
And because something is telling me you need this, Sadie. Something is poking and pushing at me deep down, making that very clear. A flash of her face on Badger Mountain, when she’d been terrified, over an hour into her then twenty-four-month-old son missing settled in his mind. In his chest. In his gut. All the questions the police had subjected her and her family to. Was she a good mother? Was she neglectful? Did Danny often run off unattended? There were questions that had to be asked in that kind of situation, a complete picture drawn. But hell, she’d been terrified about her son. Now, she was on vacation with thirty-eight of her relatives, which couldn’t be all sunshine and roses even in the closest of families. Yeah, he’d cut her a big break. Why not?
“I’m speechless, Axel Dawson. Well, actually, no, I’m not. You really are a hero.”
He smiled. “Wait till you get to know your fiancé,” he said. “You’ll see I’m not.”
She tilted her head again, her expression shifting, and he could have slugged himself. Why did he blurt things out with this woman? Why did he say what was in his head? Why couldn’t he stay hard to talk to the way he usually was? Hadn’t that been the complaint of 75 percent of the women he’d dated the past few years?
“All I know is that you’ve saved my life twice now,” Sadie said. “And made me breakfast.” Her smile lit up her face, and the sun glinted on her D necklace.
There was that urge to touch her again, to run his hand along her bare shoulders, to feel her silky blond ponytail. A realization slammed into him. He most certainly could not touch her. Not when they were fake-engaged. Because there was one thing Axel knew always got him into trouble, and that was a blurred line.
Chapter Five
This was nuts. Sadie had gotten through breakfast (Cowboy Joe’s chocolate chip pancakes really were something spectacular) and a family walk on the wooded trails by the river, but now she, her sister, mom and aunt were about to leave for Your Special Day, a bridal boutique in Prairie City, which was a half hour away. Gram would be watching Danny and taking him to the petting zoo and then to the lodge for the “kid fun zone,” where an indoor obstacle course, games and arts-and-crafts station, broken into age groups and run by the ranch staff would let tired grown-ups take a breather for a couple of hours.
Sadie sat on her bed in the cabin, her stomach churning. Her sister was standing before the dresser mirror, putting her hair in a ponytail and dabbing on lip balm that smelled like vanilla. Sadie stared at Evie, her best friend, someone she’d always been able to talk to about anything. Suddenly Sadie was lying to her about something so vital? No—Sadie wouldn’t do this. She had to come clean. The sooner, the better. The longer she kept up this lie, the harder it would be to explain.
“I wasn’t going to say this,” Evie said, turning to face Sadie. “Because it sounds kind of ‘poor Sadie,’ which I know you hate. Which I hate. But one of the reasons why I waited so long to tell Marshall to fish or cut bait was because I hated the idea
of getting engaged while you were...still single.”
Sadie felt her cheeks flame, and she coughed. Oh, God. This was awful.
Evie sat beside her. “I love you to death, Sadie. You’ve been my best friend since the day I was born. I have no idea what I’d do without you—for advice, for sharing my every thought and secret, for analyzing Mom and Dad over the years... everything. But when that jerk left when you were pregnant... For the past two years, you’ve gone from my amazing older sister to more—you’re my hero, Sadie. You’ve handled single motherhood like an absolute champ. You’re so strong, so independent and such a great mom. But I know how badly that rat bastard hurt you. And there was no way I wanted to get engaged and celebrate all things love and forever when my favorite person in the world was on her own with a baby. Am I making sense?”
Tears streamed down Sadie’s face. She had no idea if part of her was crying for the mess she’d made of this lie or all her sister had just said, how moved Sadie was by how much Evie cared about her.
Evie’s eyes filled with tears, too. “Something in me came to a head with Marshall on my birthday, though. I realized that his not proposing after three years when we had something so special and good and right was like a slap in the face. Like, my sister didn’t go through everything she went through so that you, Marshall Jay Ackerman, could be so lackadaisical about making a real commitment to me.”
“I think I know what you mean,” Sadie said, swiping a hand under her eyes. “You wanted him to put up or shut up because commitment matters, and you saw how little it meant to Danny’s father even when a pregnancy came into the picture.”
“That’s it, exactly. And now, I’m engaged, and so are you! I can’t tell you what that means to me. That you’re happy, that you found your guy—and such a great guy—and that we get to do this together. All the fun bridal stuff.”
Sadie wrapped her sister in a hug. So much for setting the record straight. Oh, um, er, Evie? It turns out I’m not engaged and this was all a misunderstanding. Great-Gram mistook me for the bride-to-be and it snowballed and now you poured out your heart and soul to me, but oopsies—I’m still “Single Sadie” and my supposed fiancé and I haven’t so much as held hands, let alone kissed.
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