Her Last Make-Believe Marriage

by Liz Isaacson

  Chapter 10

  Sawyer couldn’t find the right words to explain, at least about his decision to marry her. “I came to Last Chance Ranch several years ago,” he said, wishing she’d take the challenge out of her expression. “Gramps was here, of course. His wife hadn’t died yet either.” Sawyer grew a little somber, and Jeri relaxed slightly.

  He took her other hand in his so he was holding both. “They were so cute together. She was so sick, and yet she’d go out to take care of the cats every day.” He smiled and shook his head at the memories flowing through him.

  “I didn’t have a plan to come here, not at first. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be working for my father anymore, and I knew I loved animals. I actually thought I’d be able to buy a ranch of my own, but that didn’t pan out.” He thought back to that time, realizing now that those trying months had changed him.

  “There were a few very hard months,” he said quietly, the wide sky above them almost stealing his words away from him. “But eventually, I came north, and I met Gramps at the grocery store where he was hanging a sign for help on this ranch. I followed him up, and I’ve been here ever since.”

  Jeri gave him a small smile, one without showing her pretty teeth. “That’s a nice story.”

  He heard the undercurrent in her voice. But it doesn’t tell me why you decided to marry me.

  “I prayed about it,” he said. “Everything felt right. So I just…leapt.”

  “And that’s what you did with me,” she filled in, still an acidic bite to her words.

  “I suppose,” he said, the need to defend himself boiling up inside his chest. “And I’m not playing with you, Jeri. I might remind you that you kissed me first.” He grinned at her. “I know we don’t know each other real well yet, but you’ll find that I don’t do or say much that I don’t absolutely mean.”

  She studied his face for a moment, and then she nodded. “All right. I can accept that.”

  “Good,” Sawyer said, glancing around. “So, what else can we do while we wait for Cache to show up with that concrete?”

  The following week, Sawyer didn’t sit on his front steps sipping coffee like he usually did. Today, Carson was leaving Last Chance Rnach to try his hand at dairy farming in Colorado. Adele, his girlfriend, had left for New York City already, and he couldn’t stand to stay in California without her.

  Sawyer took Blue over to say good-bye to Carson’s dogs while he helped the cowboy load up everything he’d brought from his ranch in Montana.

  “I sure hate to see you go,” Sawyer said, wondering if he’d be able to stay in his cabin once Jeri moved out of hers.

  “I know,” Carson said, and nothing else. Sawyer had never been in love. Not the kind of love that drove a man to pack up everything he owned and drive away because the memories were too hard to deal with.

  Sawyer picked up two more boxes and went outside. He wanted to tell someone about him and Jeri, and Carson was leaving the ranch. He was an outgoing guy and had fit in with everyone on the ranch almost immediately—except Adele. They’d fought like cats and dogs at first, and then they’d fallen in love.

  So Sawyer’s relationship with Jeri was less volatile. Calmer. Secret.

  He liked secret, and he decided to keep his marriage to the curvy brunette to himself. When they were almost finished packing, Hudson and Scarlett showed up. Scarlett had obviously been crying already, and she hugged Carson tightly.

  “You can stay,” she said. “We need you here.”

  “I can’t stay,” Carson said, stepping back.

  She wiped her eyes and nodded. “When Adele gets back, you should be here.”

  “She’s not coming back,” Carson said quietly. He glanced at Hudson, who put his arm around Scarlett.

  “Let the man go,” he said, shaking Carson’s hand.

  “Okay.” Scarlett sniffed. “But I just know she’s going to realize what a big mistake she made and come back to you.”

  “Well, she can find me at Shiloh Ridge in Colorado,” Carson said, lifting his chin. Sawyer admired him. He’d lost his ranch in Montana, and now his girlfriend had chosen her culinary career over him.

  The trials other people went through reminded Sawyer that he could do hard things too. Weather any storm. He shook Carson’s hand too, and said, “We’re going to miss you around here.”

  “That’s just because you’ll have to pick up my chores until Scarlett hires someone,” he joked, and Sawyer laughed with him.

  “I’ve already got someone,” Scarlett said. “His name is Lance Longcomb, and he’ll be here next week.”

  “Still have double chores for a week,” Sawyer said, a smile on his face. “It’s fine, Scarlett,” he added when her face crumpled again. “Boy, that’s not what I meant.” He looked at Hudson for help, and he nodded at Sawyer.

  “She’s fine. She’s just feeling like part of the family is leaving. And with Adele….” He trailed off, turned Scarlett away from Sawyer and Carson, and took her back to his cabin.

  “She’s great,” Carson said as they watched her go.

  “She is,” Sawyer said, catching sight of Jeri as she emerged from her back yard. She glanced to his porch and paused. It felt real nice to know she was looking for him, and heat warmed his feet, moving up through his entire body.

  “Well, I suppose I better get started on your chores,” Sawyer said, and he shook Carson’s hand again.

  “Thanks for everything,” he said, and Sawyer nodded.

  “Let me know how Shiloh Ridge is,” he said. “Maybe I’ll follow you out there.”

  Carson cocked his head and looked at Sawyer with curiosity in his eyes. In the end, he said nothing. Just nodded and got behind the wheel of his truck. Sawyer watched him rumble down the road, off on a new adventure in a new place.

  For a while there, after he’d quit training horses, Sawyer had thought he wanted an adventure too. But he hadn’t. He’d met Gramps and come to this ranch, and it had been his home ever since.

  He started down the road to his house, calling, “Jeri,” after her as she proceeded down the lane.

  She turned, and Sawyer’s heart did backflips. “Hey,” he said, jogging up to her.

  “You weren’t on the porch.”

  “I was helping Carson get packed up. He left today.”

  “Oh, that’s right.” She looked to her left as if she’d still be able to see his truck. The dust still hung in the morning air, but the truck and the man were gone. “It was weird, not seeing you there. You’re so routined.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He took her hand and they started walking together toward the road that led further into the ranch.

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said. “I was worried. For as long as I’ve been here, you sip your coffee on the front steps.” She flinched, nearly jumping into his arms. Then her laughter filled the air. “Oh, hey, Blue. You scared me.” She paused to crouch down and scrub his dog behind the ears. “Your nose is wet. Did you know that? Did you?”

  Sawyer’s soul felt alive as he watched them interact. Blue would take a good rub-down from anyone; he wasn’t picky. Jeri clearly loved him, and the feeling was mutual. She straightened and asked, “What’s on your schedule for today?”

  He exhaled heavily. “Well, with Carson gone, I think I’m in the stables all morning. I’ll take care of your chickens.” He beamed at her. “And then I have to go help Cache with the cattle. And I’m sure the pigs will need something.”

  “They always do,” she said with a giggle.

  He dropped his gaze to her lips. He hadn’t kissed her in a week, though they were still sharing dinner together every night. He did like his routines, and they had fallen into an easy one. He showered after a long day on the ranch, and she came over whenever she happened to finish her work for the day.

  He had dinner waiting in the oven for them, and they ate together, talked about their day, the ranch, their previous lives, and she left to sleep in her own cabi
n. Sometimes they sat at the table to eat and talk. Sometimes on the couch. He liked that best, as she let him hold her hand afterward, and she cuddled into him like she needed him.

  “You’re staring at my mouth,” Jeri said, and when he drew his attention back to her eyes, she had that one eyebrow cocked at him.

  “Maybe I’m thinking about kissing you,” he said, feeling bold and brave as every cell buzzed in his body. She made him feel things he’d never felt before. Made him realize he hadn’t really been living before she showed up on the ranch.

  “Maybe you should just do it,” she said. “The staring is a little creepy.”

  He laughed, drawing her into an embrace that felt playful and fun, yet serious at the same time. “I sure like you, Jeri,” he said, just before touching his lips to hers. It was a light kiss, a seeking permission kiss.

  Jeri gave her permission, and kissed him back in a needful, passionate way that had him baking under the morning sun.

  A horn sounded—a long, drawn-out blaring noise—that caused him to jump apart from Jeri. Across the grassy expanse, on the parallel road, the other side of the U-shaped Cabin Community, Hudson sat in his truck, the window rolled down.

  He wore a huge smile on his face and he waved as if he were a five-year-old seeing their grandmother for the first time in a while.

  “Oh, boy,” Sawyer said, watching the truck move forward and turn toward the homestead.

  “Yeah,” Jeri said, her phone chiming. She pulled it out of her back pocket and looked at it. “Scarlett wants me to come to the homestead for lunch.” She sighed, the sound full of resignation. “She wants you to come too.”

  Chapter 11

  Jeri just wanted to get to the homestead and confess everything to Scarlett right then. “Confess” wasn’t the right word either. She didn’t have to justify her relationship with Sawyer. As he’d said, they were both consenting adults. He’d signed his name; she’d signed hers. They’d both said I do.

  Sawyer peered over her shoulder at the device still in her hand. “I don’t care,” he said, falling back a couple of steps. “You decide when you want to go and text me.” He started walking back toward his house.

  “Where are you going?” she called after him.

  “Gotta do my morning ritual.” He turned around and walked backward for a few steps, the smile on his face as bright as the sun. Okay, maybe not that bright. It was sweltering today, and September was supposed to bring cooler temperatures.

  Jeri waved to him and returned her attention to her phone. She frowned and then tapped out, I don’t have time to come to the homestead at lunchtime.

  Not only did she not take a lunch, she really didn’t have time for a conversation. She’d been behind since spending an entire day building a chicken coop last week. Dave had gone to town to buy some shower board to put under the roosts, and she was glad she didn’t have the job of cleaning those off.

  She started for the Canine Club, determined to do a day and a half’s worth of work in a single day. If Scarlett wanted to talk to her, she knew where to find her—with a hammer in her hand and her tool belt around her waist.

  Are you dating Sawyer? Scarlett’s next text read.

  “Something like that,” she muttered, silencing her phone and shoving it in her pocket. She was extraordinarily skilled at doing multiple things at once, but walking and texting had never brought her anything but trouble. So she’d get to the building she was working on, and then she’d respond to her boss.

  But she didn’t know what to say once she got there. Was she dating Sawyer? She’d already married the man, and that step usually came after dating.

  She figured a one-word answer would let Scarlett know that Jeri didn’t really have time for texting either. Tapping out yes, she decided against it. After deleting it, she typed, Did it look like we were dating? and sent that instead.

  She really couldn’t leave her phone on silent while she worked. She had suppliers calling her all the time, and she was expecting at least two phone calls that day—one from the electrician she’d contracted with and one from the HVAC company.

  With the phone turned back up, she set it in her toolbox, its usual spot while she worked, and grabbed the sunscreen from the workbench. She may be a Californian born and bred, but even she’d burn if she didn’t take some precautions.

  She slicked clear chapstick over her lips, smacked them together, and said, “All right, boys. Let’s build something.” Dust flew into the air when she clapped her hands, and she imagined the other fifteen pairs that used to clap with her.

  They didn’t sound today, just like they hadn’t for the past six months.

  Jeri allowed herself the single moment of reflection, her face tipped toward heaven, and then she said, “Thank you for bringing me here.” A deep breath later, she added, “Thank you for Sawyer Smith.”

  She didn’t quite know how else to articulate how she felt about Sawyer. He’d asked her for a few hours with his family. She’d done something much more life-altering.

  With a sense of calm and peace draping her, she picked up her plans and looked for the mark that indicated where she’d left off yesterday. “Gates,” she said. She’d cut them all. Now all she needed to do was install them, put on the locks, and put up the square-holed fencing that allowed humans to see in and stay safe from the dogs. This enclosure was six-sided, with a space for three dogs to live in on each side.

  So six gates. Six fencing installations. Then onto drywall.

  She’d completed one dog enclosure identical to this, and it had taken her three-quarters of a day to get the gates and fencing done. She’d moved right onto drywall then, and she would again today.

  “Today,” she said, breathing out with the word. “We’re going to get the gates and fencing done by lunch.” She stretched her back and got to work, thinking it sure was easier to put on hinged doors when she had a pair of strong Sawyer-shaped hands to help her.

  Maybe now that she had a real general contractor’s license coming, she could start to build her business again. She knew what to do. How to file for business status. How to recruit the best carpenters. How to find the cheapest sub-contractors.

  Her thoughts moved through the list of tasks she’d done before, and she determined to start that night. Almost everything could be done online these days, and she’d file for a small business in the state of California, and she’d start looking on the job boards to see what the going rate was for handymen this month.

  Even if it wasn’t Sawyer—and she certainly couldn’t steal him away from ranch duties now that Carson was gone—Jeri did need some help. She’d talk to Scarlett about the funding from Forever Friends. They were paying for all the construction and her salary, she knew that.

  “If you hire someone,” she said to herself. “It’ll come out of your money.” Which was fine, honestly. Scarlett didn’t make her pay rent, and living mortgage-free for the last couple of months had allowed her to put some of her lost savings back in the bank.

  Her phone rang while she had the door braced with one hand and the electric screwdriver in the other. No way she could answer it. So she let it ring, driving the screws into the wood to keep the door hanging.

  Finished, she grunted as she got up. Re-ponytailing her hair, she stepped over to the tool box to see who’d called. Turner’s.

  She dialed Philo back, and he picked up on the first ring. “I’ve got everything, and I’m on my way up,” he said. “But I’ve somehow missed the turnoff to the ranch. Which road is it again?”

  “Axel Bluff,” she said. “Turn right off of Whitetail, and go straight up.”

  “That’s right. Be there in a few.”

  Jeri hung up and turned back to the hexagonal shape, sighing. She’d done three gates, and it was eleven o’clock. She could take a break until Philo arrived, then she’d maybe be able to use him in a pinch while he worked on the HVAC system in the enclosure.

  Philo never worked without a radio, and Scarlett looke
d forward to an afternoon of music and conversation she rarely got now that she worked alone. She wrestled with the fencing, getting it tacked and in position just as Philo pulled up, a steady bass beat coming from hs van outside.

  She usually went out to greet her subs, but if she stepped away from this fencing, she’d have to get it back in place all over again. The bass turned off, and a door slammed, and she called, “Philo, come help.”

  He entered the enclosure a few seconds later, jumping over with the words, “Hey, let me help.”

  “Thanks,” she said, and she made quick work of nailing everything in place after that. “I definitely need a second pair of hands sometimes.”

  “You’re doing this one alone too?” he asked, glancing around.

  “Well, I’ve been busy,” she said with a smile. “How the heck are you?”

  “Great.” He smiled at her the way she imagined her father would, though Philo wasn’t nearly as old as her dad. In fact, he was probably only ten or fifteen years older than her.

  “And Zelda?”

  “Oh, she’s puttering around in the garden almost all the time.” Philo sighed. “Well, let’s get this building some heat and AC, shall we?” He glanced around and moved over to the workbench in the middle of the space. “I can set up here?”

  “Set on up there,” she said. “And I want something from the eighties or later. None of your seventies crap.”

  He laughed and stepped out of the building. Jeri wiped her hand across her face and forehead, ready for the air conditioning Philo had promised. He whistled outside, but then suddenly stopped. He spoke to someone, but Jeri couldn’t hear the words as she struggled with another piece of heavy fencing.

  It was pretty clear though. Someone had come to visit her at the enclosure. She hoped it would be Sawyer, but even since they’d gotten married, he didn’t just stop by to chat.

  Scarlett then.

  Sure enough, the auburn-haired owner walked through the door a moment later. “Next time I come to visit, we’ll have air conditioning.” She looked absolutely gleeful about this, but she wasn’t the one sweating buckets.