Dating the Cowboy

by Ann B. Harrison

  Sadie took her hand. “Honey, there’s more to come. Crease, show Alice what you were watching.”

  He put the magazine down and turned his monitor around to face her and hit the play button. “He reedited the video and put back all the personal stuff.”

  When the video finished, Alice looked at how many people had watched it and shuddered.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “What do you mean?” Crease flicked through the magazine, pausing at the interview to read it.

  Alice held up her hands. “When it all goes crazier than it is now. Bound to happen with all these magazines running the story.” She rubbed her temples. “What are we going to do, Crease? There’s only two of us, and signups are already higher than they were the week we opened. For a small town, there sure are a lot of people needing help finding love.” She took off her glasses. “And did you notice that a lot of these signups are from out of town? How the heck are we going to deal with those? That’s a whole new side to the business we didn’t even think about.”

  He’d never seen her so frazzled before. Even the night before exams she was calmer than this. “Yes.” It was easier to pretend they could cope than to work out how they were going to fit it all in. This by far exceeded even Alice’s calculations.

  “I’ll never be able to walk out in public again. I’ve lost my privacy, Crease. Lost it!”

  “It’s not all bad, babe. We can cope.”

  She closed her eyes. “I doubt it. You might want to take another look. I don’t think we’re ever going to sleep again.”

  Sadie laughed. “Oh, you two will work it out. Maybe employ someone to help. Certainly looks like it’s time for extra staff. Listen, Alice. The family wants to throw you two a party on Saturday afternoon. To celebrate how well things are going.” She squatted down in front of Alice’s chair and took her hands. “It’d be nice to get you out of the office and we really haven’t had a chance to catch up with you two since you’ve been here. Saturday, four o’clock, and don’t bring a thing. Okay?”

  Alice nodded and continued to stare straight ahead.

  “I’ll leave you to it, Crease. And congratulations on the interview.”

  “Um, thanks. I think.” He kissed Sadie on the cheek and wondered what he was going to do to bolster Alice’s mood.

  *

  “You didn’t have to do this, Crease. It’s not like we have the time to be silly like this.”

  He pushed her into the bathroom, ignoring her protests. “We have time for self-care, Alice, and you’ve been glued to your computer screen for far too long. Too many late nights and early mornings. How many times this week have I found you asleep with your computer on your lap? Besides, you know what’s coming up. You need a mental health break now before it becomes a priority.”

  Candles lit the small bathroom, their scent making her want to weep at the thoughtfulness of it all. He spoiled her more than she deserved. He always had. At college it was Crease who played the motherly type and pulled her into line when she overdid it – her biggest failing. If it weren’t for him, she doubted she would’ve lasted the last couple of semesters when the workload was at its peak. He’d managed to talk her through the stress of graduating.

  The bath was filled to the brim with sweet-smelling bubbles she’d picked up at a local store, fluffy towels hung on the heated towel rail, and a small radio played quiet love songs in one corner. She wanted to cry at the thoughtfulness of it all.

  “Strip, get under the bubbles, and give me a shout when you’re ready.” He closed the door and left her alone. Tears threatened at the thought of all the work she had to do downstairs, but Crease would be disappointed in her if she didn’t take care of herself. How was she going to survive without him in the hungry world of data mining and management? How was he going to cope without her in the office?

  She removed her clothes and dipped a foot in the water, sighed, and then climbed in the tub. A moan of pleasure escaped her lips as she slid down in the water until her head was the only thing above the bubbles. She really needed this. Bless you, Crease.

  “You in?” his voice came through the door.

  “Yes. Come in.” He peeked around the door and smiled when he saw her relaxing. “One more thing madam needs to unwind.” He handed her a glass of champagne.

  Alice lifted a hand out of the tub and took it. Now she really felt spoiled. “You’re too good to me.”

  “You’re worth it, Alice. If it weren’t for you, I never would’ve made it through college either. You kept me on the straight and narrow more times than I can count. I’ll do anything I can for you. Just wait until you see what I’m making for dinner tonight.”

  “Whoever gets you is a very lucky lady indeed.” Sadly, that wouldn’t be her. She sat up enough to sip her wine.

  He laughed, his pearly white teeth bright against his tanned skin. “As it just so happens, that would be you, according to the magazine article.”

  “But only until the business is doing well. Actually, we may need to reevaluate that. The business is doing too well. We should say until the business can sustain another employee and I can get my own career on track.”

  “That’s between you and me though, right?”

  She glanced at the frown between his eyes. Where did this sudden doubt spring from? “Yeah, between you and me.” The sooner she got the job she wanted, the better. Things were getting awkward between them, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

  “Excellent.” He grimaced. “No rest for the wicked. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me and your PJs are on the toilet seat. Slippers outside the door.” He blew her a kiss and left her alone.

  “Crease!”

  He ducked his head back in. “Yeah?”

  “Thank you.”

  His answering grin made her heart flutter. Then he was gone.

  Chapter Twelve

  Crease and Alice had a frantic morning catching up with paperwork before heading out to Jethro and Sadie’s ranch for the party they apparently needed. “I have a bad feeling about this.” Alice chewed on her bottom lip, hating that she didn’t want to go to his family ranch for a celebration.

  “Me too.”

  “Are you sure we need to go? I mean, isn’t there any way we can get out of it?”

  “You probably could, but I’ll never live it down and I do owe them my loyalty if nothing else because they’re family. If it weren’t for Sadie buying me out of the ranch, college wouldn’t have been possible. It meant I didn’t have to work two jobs while I was studying or stay here and go to community college. And I never would’ve met you.” He pulled into the street. “This is us. I grew up just down there.” He pointed to a mailbox where a large tree marked the driveway. Red heart-shaped balloons flapped in the wind like angry snakes trying to break free.

  “This is looking a little bit more than a celebration for work, don’t you think?” Alice hated that she was feeling so uncharitable but lack of sleep was getting to her.

  “Yeah. I had a feeling this wasn’t only going to be about the business.” He gave her a quick glance before he pulled into the driveway. “Sorry to drag you into this.”

  “It’ll be okay. We don’t have to stay too long. It’s not like we don’t have the excuse that we’re snowed under at work.”

  “True. I don’t know how we’re going to fit it all in.”

  Crease pulled in and parked the car in the only gap he could find. It looked as though most of the town folks were here. A huge pink-and-silver congratulations banner hung from the front of the house, taking Alice’s breath away.

  “Crap.” Crease took the keys out of the ignition and sat as stunned as Alice felt looking at it.

  “You need to tell them. Look at this place. It’s like the engagement party from hell and we aren’t even thinking about it.” She held her hand on the door handle. The beef burrito she’d scarfed for lunch sat like a stone in her gut.

  “I swear I didn’t know they were
planning this kind of party.” He slammed his hand on the steering wheel. “We can leave and call them to say you’re sick or something.”

  Two women came barreling down the steps. “Too late. They’ve seen us and here they come.” Sadie and Joy ran toward the car, their smiles adding to Alice’s pain. “Oh, my goodness. Crease, what do we do?”

  “I don’t know. Pretend you don’t know it’s a preengagement party or whatever it is they’re trying to pull off. They said it was for the business so let’s go with that and ignore the less-than-stellar hints.”

  “Can’t we tell them the truth?”

  “I don’t think it would work. They’re so focused on us being a couple, I doubt they’d listen. Please just follow my lead on this one, and I’ll sort it out later, okay?”

  “Right.”

  “I’m so sorry for this, Alice. Really I am, if you could walk in there and pretend it’s not happening, that would be awesome.”

  Like that was a possibility. “And you promise to sort it out later? You’ll come clean and tell them it was all for the business from the beginning? I don’t want to be left holding the blame for leaving you when the time comes, Crease. They need to know the truth.” Alice released her death grip on the door handle as Sadie pulled it open. There was no point trying to evade the woman as she leaned in and pulled Alice from the car. “Come inside, you two lovebirds. Everyone’s waiting for you.” She hugged Alice while Joy pulled Crease out and gave him the same treatment. He shared a panicked look with Alice over the car’s roof. There was nothing they could do but go along with it.

  Red and white heart-shaped balloons hung from the trees, too, and the eaves of the old ranch house, flapping in the soft afternoon breeze. The porch had been decorated with more hearts in varying shades of pink and red hanging from every available object, leaving Alice in no doubt as to the girls’ idea. They probably thought that faced with the inevitable, Crease and Alice would play along and announce their engagement. After all, their love was all over the internet and in the international magazines. She could see how everyone made the assumption they would marry soon. Heck, they were pretending to be in a relationship, they’d had the magazine shoot that’d gone crazy. As far as everyone was concerned, all they had to do was make an official announcement.

  Not going to happen!

  “Wow, these decorations are, um, bright.” What a dumb thing to say, but it was obvious the girls were waiting for some kind of reaction and there wasn’t much she could say after giving Crease her word she’d let him deal with it later.

  “Pretty, aren’t they?” Sadie gushed. “I got them from a wedding shop online.” She gave Alice a wink and a nudge. Alice smiled back, held back the dread rising in her chest, and skipped up the steps. She was anxious to get this party over and done with. She ran into a large, potted fake tree with pink hearts as leaves. There was nothing subtle about this party at all! How much worse was this going to get?

  “You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.” Crease paused but was pushed to stand alongside Alice. The vibe coming from him was exactly how Alice felt.

  Trapped. She almost felt sorry for him but stopped herself. This was going to be a long afternoon.

  Sadie guided her in the door and the crowd milling inside the house cheered and started clapping. Pink and red streamers hung from the ceiling and glitter hearts rained down on them as they stood, stunned. Alice reached for Crease, needing his protection from the swath of ridiculously excited people waiting to greet them and the over-the-top decorations. She flicked her curls to shake off the glitter and blew up on her glasses to dislodge the pink heart stuck on her lens.

  “Save me, please. This is worse than it looked from outside.” She wrapped her arm around his waist and leaned into him. He dropped his arm around her shoulders, picked a heart from her hair, and whispered in her ear, “Stick with me, kiddo. We’ve survived college and exams, we can survive my family.”

  Somehow Alice doubted that. Never before had she been subject to such overbearing people so quick to believe anything and act on it with no regard to her feelings. Her family would never treat her like this. They’d give her privacy until she made the announcement herself. Crease’s family was obviously very different.

  It was their fault, she got that. Pretending to be a couple for the business had seemed like a good idea at the time and now they had to pay for that deceit. To break up this fake relationship, they were going to have to make it something major that everyone would believe and not try to fix. The thought of that was even scarier than what she was facing now.

  “Everyone, in case you haven’t guessed yet, this is Alice. Crease’s, um, best friend.” Sadie stepped away and left them to say something. Alice stared up at Crease. It was his family, so he could be the one to get them out of it.

  Bless his heart, he got the message.

  “It’s wonderful that the girls set up this party to celebrate how well the business is going, and I want to thank you all for coming to help celebrate with us.” He paused for applause. “It’s great to be home in Marietta, and for those of you who didn’t make it to the launch of the business, let me tell you a little bit about it.”

  He paused, and his usual good charm rose to the surface. Thank goodness he isn’t as easily swayed by opinion as I am. There was no way she could breeze in and change the tide of the party like he was doing now. It was what made Crease such a great coach in this business.

  “I’m lucky I have such a supportive family but the business wouldn’t be where it was today without the help of this wonderful woman, Alice Winter.”

  A round of applause thundered around the room.

  “Our success rate has been phenomenal, as I’m sure you’ve already heard.” The crowd cheered again and Crease held Alice close as she trembled. How on earth was she going to get through this party without making a run for the car and the safety of their apartment?

  “The articles in the magazines will keep us in business for years to come. It’s the kind of advertising you couldn’t buy. And heaven help me if I don’t manage to coach Ryan Chandler to his own happy date. He’ll never forgive me after being so upfront and public about it.”

  Crease took a breath and looked around the room.

  “So, I’d like to raise a glass and celebrate the success of Strings Attached and the wonderful woman by my side who helped make that all possible.” Sadie pushed a glass into their hands and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, “Isn’t there something else you want to announce, Crease? You’re among friends and family, you know.”

  “Not right now, Sadie.” He turned from her and raised his glass. “Cheers, everyone and thanks for coming today. Alice and I both appreciate it very much.”

  Alice wanted the floor to swallow her up. How embarrassing! Thank goodness Crease wasn’t going to give them what they wanted. He was good at deflecting his sisters-in-law, which was good, but an engagement would’ve been taking things one step too far. Alice had been floored when she figured out what they were up to and was already plotting her escape from Marietta.

  She leaned into him and his arm folded around her. It was getting harder pretending to be in love when she wanted it to be for real. Obviously, she was the only one thinking like that. At least, the only one who mattered. If it was so easy for Crease to dodge his family about the two of them, what reaction would Alice get if she told him the truth?

  *

  After the initial excitement cooled down, Crease managed to get a word with his brother. “Jethro, what the heck was Sadie thinking? Talk about putting us on the spot.”

  “Sorry, Bro. I told her to take it easy, but she and Joy got it into their heads that since you guys were doing so well with the business and all, it would be the right time to announce your engagement. I kind of figured that it’d be a good move for you anyway. Don’t leave it too long, okay?”

  “Why not?” He wasn’t prepared to tell even his brothers why he was holding off.

  Na
te eased himself over and stood with them. “Because we want to see you happy and settled. All the talk about how much you were impacted by Mom and Dad’s divorce rattled us. We want to see you as happy as we are.” He gave his wife a smile as she hovered over Alice, with Sadie talking up a storm.

  Alice would never forgive Crease for this. He could see the terror in her eyes still, but he couldn’t get away from his brothers just yet to save her. First the interview, then the photo shoot, and now this. Talk about dragging her kicking and screaming out of her comfort zone. He needed to address this before it became a bone of contention between them.

  “Look, what Dad did was horrific. He hurt Mom and that in turn hurt us. You can’t tell me we had a great childhood.” Jethro shrugged. “Sure, Grandpa did his best, but it was never enough, you know? We never got to do the same things other kids did because he was too busy running the ranch and money was short.”

  Jethro held up his hand. “He did his best. Give him credit for giving us a roof over our heads. Plus, if it weren’t for him, you never would’ve gone to college.”

  “I know all that and I’ll always be eternally grateful for what he did, but you started this conversation, Jethro. I don’t want to have to go over this every time we meet. Let’s sort this out here and now.”

  “So why’d you say that in the interview then?” Nate sighed. “It was almost as if you were blaming someone.”

  “No. That’s not how I meant it at all. Ryan asked me why I do what I do, and that’s the truth of it. I hate to see families break down. If our father had been faithful and kind, life would’ve been far different and I wouldn’t have felt as much need to match up couples. I wasn’t meaning to come across as accusing. Grandpa was great, he really was. But wouldn’t it have been nice if he got to retire when he was still fit enough to go traveling, to have a life of his own after working his butt off for years? Instead, he got saddled with us kids. It wasn’t right. Not once did he complain, but still, it wasn’t fair on him or us. We gave him a hard time, and I’d do anything to take that back, but I can’t. All I can do is try to make things right in the world for other people.”