The Cowboy's Marriage Mistake

by Jessie Gussman

  Since he was her best friend, he’d know if she had any other experience, and she didn’t. So, she couldn’t be writing romances. Mysteries, maybe? Political thrillers? Nah.

  ’Course, she just said she wasn’t writing at all. Strange. ’Cause she acted guilty as all get-out.

  The man on the snowmobile stood up, brushing snow off his insulated pants. “Howdy. Looks like your ride’s a little quieter than mine.”

  “Slower, too,” Cord said with a grin and a hand out. “Name’s Cord. This is Rosie.” He didn’t introduce Joseph who snored softly beside him.

  The stranger gripped his glove with a firm shake. “Max. Rem’s brother. Up from Texas.”

  “Long ways from home, Max,” Rosie said. “But it’s nice to meet you.” She held her own hand out.

  Cord gave her a slightly baffled look. Rosie was typically a little shy, but she was practically climbing over him to shake the stranger’s hand.

  “Nice to meet you too. You’re the prettiest thing I’ve seen since I left Texas.”

  “Aw, hush now.” Rosie waved her hand.

  “Hush now?” Really?

  “You don’t look old enough to be his mother,” Max said with a wink and a grin at Rosie, and a nod at Joseph, completely ignoring Cord. Not that Cord cared, exactly.

  “Oh, I’m not. He’s...” She shrugged, looking a little helplessly at Cord. “Not ours. We’re...” She seemed to struggle for just a moment, then said, much softer, “just friends.”

  “Well, hey. Couldn’t be coincidence that we met out here in the middle of nowhere, then, could it? Go out with me Saturday night after New Year’s.”

  Rosie’s eyes rounded. Probably mirroring Cord’s own. This guy had brass. Well, nice try, but Rosie would turn him down cold. She didn’t date. Never had. He kind of liked it that way. It suited her, too, since she wasn’t really the kind of girl a guy dated. Just the kind he was best friends with.

  “Okay.” Rosie’s voice passed by his ear, but it took a full three seconds before he realized what she’d said.

  “Okay?” he couldn’t help but echo, looking at the girl beside him. No. Not girl. Woman. Rosie was a woman. And she’d just accepted a date from a guy that, as far as Cord knew, she’d never even met before.

  “You don’t know this guy,” he said, trying not to sound like he was upset or, God forbid, jealous. Because he wasn’t, of course. He didn’t have those kinds of feelings for Rosie. He was just being protective.

  “I’ve spoken with Elaine when she brought her children into the library.” Her voice was soft but firm. Then she turned her head to Max. “You are Elaine’s brother-in-law, correct?”

  The guy held his hands up. “Guilty.” His teeth flashed white in his dark face. Cord didn’t typically pay attention, but he supposed the guy had the kind of face girls swooned over.

  Thing was, Rosie didn’t swoon. Not over real-life men. The guys she swooned over were confined to her romance novels.

  “I’ll pick you up at seven on the first Saturday in January.”

  “Okay.” Her fingers twisted in her lap.

  “You gonna tell me where you live?”

  “I have an apartment behind the library in Sweet Water. I’ll be watching for you.”

  “It’ll be seven sharp. Because I wouldn’t think about being late. Not for someone like you.”

  It sounded like a line the guy had uttered a hundred times. But a little smile hovered over Rosie’s lips, and she seemed to believe the guy thought she was something special, because she nodded.

  “I won’t be late for you, either,” she said sweetly.

  Surely, she wasn’t looking at this dude and thinking “hero from romance book.” But why else would she be acting this weird way he’d never seen her act before? Not even in high school. Rosie could spot a player from a mile away. This dude said “player” in all caps.

  Cord straightened in the seat. It shouldn’t matter to him what Rosie wanted to do. Although as her best friend, it was his job to look after her. But the dude wasn’t trying to fight her, he was trying to date her, and that crossed a line where Cord wasn’t sure he was welcome to follow. They’d never had to deal with anything like this in their history before.

  This summer when he’d decided to pursue Rosalin, Rosie had stayed out of it. He’d worried, just a little, that it might upset their three-way friendship. But he’d always been better friends with Rosie than Rosalin. Rosalin being the kind of girl a man admired and pursued, while Rosie, although she looked exactly the same, was quieter and more studious. The kind of girl a man got to do his Calculus homework or help him train his draft team.

  Anyway, like he’d thought, Rosie had been fine with his romantic interest in Rosalin.

  So, he’d better back off and be okay with whatever she wanted to do in the romance department.

  Whatever odd thing was going on in his chest had nothing whatsoever to do with any kind of romantic feelings. He didn’t have any of those for Rosie. Even if he liked to talk to her better, and she was more fun to work with, too.

  He might have tried to see if Rosie would have been interested in settling down with him, but he didn’t want to ruin their easy camaraderie. And when he’d broached the subject with Rosalin, she’d said sure and kissed him in a way he’d never been kissed before. Not that he’d had that much experience, really. So it’d been settled.

  Except Rosalin hadn’t made much time for him.

  She assured him it wasn’t personal. He believed it. She just loved her job and found it hard to give up.

  He could understand that.

  A silence had fallen. Cord considered it a little awkward, but he had a feeling he was the only one. Rosie’s cheeks were red, possibly from the cold, and she looked demurely down at her hands. Max’s grin was more predatory. Satisfied, maybe. The way Cord could picture a mountain lion looking at a hapless rabbit, just before he killed it and ate it.

  “If you want to get home a little faster, you can hop on behind me,” Max finally said, a daring glint in his eye.

  Cord didn’t see Rosie jerk, but he felt the seat of the sleigh move. That had to have shocked her as much as it did him. She’d turn him down flat, though. She’d never ditch Cord for some stranger in the night.

  “That sounds like fun,” Rosie said, shifting on the seat.

  Was she really going to get off?

  She had one foot out before she stopped. “You don’t mind, do you, Cord?”

  “Uh.” What was he supposed to say? “No. I’ll take care of Joseph.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “I was going to make sure that Joseph had something warm in his belly before he went home.”

  “Since you’re gonna beat me home, I’ll stop at your place and you can feed him while I unhitch Bill and Sadie.”

  There. That way, he could make sure the pretty-face dude took her home and that she was fine, without actually saying he was checking on her.

  “Well, if she’s not there, don’t wait up. We might take the long way home.” Max started his machine and motored around the sleigh, standing as it moved slowly. He stopped beside Rosie and held a hand out, helping her on behind him without dismounting himself.

  They’d barely sat down before they sped off, Rosie a small bump behind the larger Max.

  Cord couldn’t explain why it all sat so badly with him. Maybe because Rosie wasn’t the kind of girl to do what she’d just done. That was Rosalin.

  Or maybe because the differences between Rosie, with her nose-in-a-book innocence, and Max, with his million-dollar smile and the worldly experience he seemed to convey, were an odd couple if he’d ever seen one.

  Opposites attracted.

  And Rosie was more than old enough to make her own decisions.

  He clicked to his horses, and they started to move. No longer interested in the beautiful starry night or contemplating the wonder of the season, he turned them in a tight U-turn and headed back to Sweet Water, knowing that he’d be waiting at Rosie’s house u
ntil he was sure she was safely back.

  And he’d be talking to Mr. Remington Martinez in the morning about what kind of man his brother, Max, actually was.

  WHAT HAD SHE BEEN THINKING?

  Rosie gripped the sides of Max’s coat in her hands and held on, keeping her eyes shut. He was going a lot faster than she was comfortable with, but she didn’t want to complain. Not because she didn’t want to upset him, but more because she didn’t want to start a conversation with him. Plus, in her experience, which, she had to admit, was limited to the boys who came into the library, guys like Max might hear her “slow down please” as “go faster!” Not what she was going for.

  She kind of thought he was a man who enjoyed a challenge. Who loved to show off. And maybe who even thought that scaring other people gave him a position of power. Some people called it bullying, which she supposed it was. But in her experience, it was also human nature in a certain personality.

  It was the opposite type of personality that she had, and sometimes opposites attracted. But not her. She wasn’t the slightest bit attracted to Max.

  Too smooth.

  Too handsome.

  Too...not Cord.

  Which was why she’d agreed to go out with him. After that near miss where she thought Cord had figured out that she had a secret crush on him, she was ready to jump on the first boat leaving that harbor, even if it was with Max.

  A date with him wouldn’t be horrible.

  And North Dakota was only a little bit cold in the winter.

  Lies. All lies.

  So, yeah. She’d just made herself even more miserable than she’d been thirty minutes earlier. In the first week of the new year, she had to help Cord plan his wedding with her twin sister, then she had to pretend to be her twin sister as they went out that Friday night, then she had to go out with Max that Saturday.

  Could she get out of the date with Max?

  Maybe she could try.

  The air rushed around her face and seeped into her jacket. Thankful for the beanie hat Cord had given her, she hunched down behind Max. Normally, she loved the winter nights and the expansive North Dakota flatlands, but the slower pace of Cord’s draft team suited her much better than the loud, noisy speed of Max’s snowmobile.

  Or maybe it was the company.

  “Cold?” Max shouted, his voice sounding harsh over the roar of his machine.

  “No,” she shouted back, wishing almost immediately that she’d lied and said yes. Maybe she’d get home faster if he thought she was going to freeze to death.

  He turned the snowmobile in a slow left-hand arc. Rosie cracked her eyes. No town lights were in sight. Figures. If the snowmobile broke down, she really didn’t even have any idea of where they were.

  If she recalled correctly, Max was from Texas. He might not know where they were, either. It was easy to get lost on the monotonous North Dakota landscape. Easy. And dangerous.

  If Cord were driving, she wouldn’t have the sliver of fear wrapping around the back of her neck and gripping her backbone with its icy fingers.

  If Cord were driving, they wouldn’t be going so fast.

  If Cord were driving, she would have her arms wrapped around him rather than gripping his coat in her hands.

  But it wasn’t Cord, and she was here because of her own stupidity. Her foolish desire to hide what she felt in order to...to what? Protect the relationship she wanted to have with her sister and her future brother-in-law.

  That was reasonable.

  So, she was here because she needed to step out a bit. Get away from a triangle she didn’t want to be a part of. Form her own attachments. Max was a decent guy. Or at least his relatives were decent people.

  Right. Everything would be fine, and she could make the best of it.

  She pulled her hat off. It took a few seconds before she could speak the truth.

  “I’m cold,” she shouted into the wind.

  Max’s smile flashed over his shoulder. “You’re not holding on tight enough.”

  Ugh. That was a fail. She shoved the hat back down over her head. Her ears really were cold. The rest of her was too annoyed to be anything but heated.

  At least she knew now there was no point in actually telling him if she were cold, as she’d suspected in the first place.

  It felt like a very long time later before the snowmobile slowed down, and Rosie opened her eyes, hoping to see the lights of town.

  No such luck.

  If she didn’t know Rem and Elaine, she might have been worried. Max might be arrogant and inconsiderate, but he wasn’t dangerous.

  She hoped.

  The snowmobile stopped, and the motor sputtered, then died.

  Max swore. One word, loud in the cold, quiet night.

  Rosie wasn’t sure what the swearing meant, but she was pretty sure what that sputtering meant.

  Her hands dropped from gripping Max’s coat, and she shoved them under her legs, conscious of her phone zipped in her vest pocket. She probably wasn’t going to need it, but she still felt like she should get it out anyway. North Dakota might be sparsely populated, but it was pretty flat and had, for the most part, passable service almost everywhere.

  She’d never needed to use her phone GPS to find herself, but she’d never been in a situation quite like this before either.

  Max moved. The motor turned over but didn’t catch. Rosie wasn’t expecting it to. She’d almost bet money the machine was out of gas. Not that she knew anything about that type of thing.

  She wasn’t exactly dressed like she would have been if she’d been expecting to trek through the snow, but what she was wearing was serviceable. Good enough to find a road and a neighbor, wherever they were.

  Unzipping her coat pocket, she pulled her phone out. She wasn’t going to wait for Max to decide what to do. Maybe if they were in Texas, she’d expect him to have some good ideas. But as far as she knew, he didn’t know squat about North Dakota.

  Almost like he was confirming her first impression, he said, “I don’t think it’s going to start.”

  “No.” She didn’t bother to voice her diagnosis—empty gas tank.

  “Good thing there’s a bright moon. We’ll just walk toward that, and it’ll take us south to Sweet Water. Just a mile or two.”

  Rosie didn’t snort. Even in her romances, they never used the moon as a directional guide.

  Plus, they were south of Sweet Water, so they had to go north anyway, but she suspected they would find a road quicker if they walked east. But she had no intention of walking the whole way back to Sweet Water, which was more than just a mile or two.

  If Max hadn’t ignored her the first time she tried to talk to him, she might have felt guilty for not talking to him now. But the jerk just laughed when she said she was cold. She couldn’t imagine he’d have a different reaction now if she said following the moon was a colossally stupid idea.

  Maybe she could be slightly more diplomatic in her word choices.

  Nah.

  She pulled her phone out, shot off a quick text to Cord, found a compass app, and started walking east, stomping her feet hard enough to satisfy her anger and keep her warm at the same time.

  Chapter 3

  I’M SOUTH OF SW, WALKING east. Have time to pick up a friend?

  Cord stared at the text from Rosie. His heart clawed at the lining of his esophagus.

  It didn’t sound like she was in distress. It could be worse. She could have sent him a text with the word “help” cut off after three letters or something.

  “Save me” with a line of exclamation points after it would have been a red flag as well.

  “CREA” carved into a tree trunk...

  So, as emergency texts went, this one was pretty tame.

  Except the wind had kicked up and the temperature had dropped and it was killer cold out.

  And the girl he’d grown up beside was somewhere out in that vast, empty darkness, on foot. Had Max tried something?

  Cord’s stomach
knotted into a hard fist. He took a quick glance at Joseph who lay on the daybed in Rosie’s small, one-room apartment behind the library. He’d been warming up some of the vegetable soup in her fridge, since the Sweet Water festival was long since shut down for the night. And he wanted to be here when Max brought Rosie back. He should never have allowed her to go in the first place.

  Not that she asked permission.

  Funny, because he figured Rosalin could handle herself with a guy like Max.

  Rosie, on the other hand... He felt like he needed to protect her.

  On my way.

  He’d blanketed his horses but not put them on the trailer to take them home. Still, his trailer was hooked to his pickup, so he grabbed Rosie’s keys from where she kept them on the hook beside her stove and rushed out the door.

  He’d take a pass down Highway 10 which ran north-south on the east side of Sweet Water. If he didn’t see her, he’d try to figure out if he could find her by using her map app. There had to be a way. He’d just never needed to do anything like this before.

  His heart pounded in his chest. He wanted to ask about Max.

  Okay.

  But his first concern was finding her and getting her out of the cold. The snowmobile had room under the seat for a blizzard kit, but she said she was walking, so she probably wasn’t using it. Would Max have kicked her off?

  Surely not.

  The car console said 1:43 a.m. He couldn’t call Rem at this time of night, although he dearly wanted to, just to find out what kind of man his brother actually was. Rem was a good, honest man, but that didn’t mean his brother was the same.

  Next time, he’d be a little more forceful in not allowing Rosie to just take off with anyone.

  Although, of course, he knew, short of holding her down, he hadn’t had a choice. She’d never given him the right to tell her what to do. She probably never would. Of course not.

  He could have asked her to stay. Should have. She might have done it out of respect for their years of friendship.